Category: Technology

HONG KONG: After a one-day delay due to weather conditions at the landing site, China’s Shenzhou-19 crewed spacecraft landed in the north of the country on Wednesday, state broadcaster CCTV reported. In October last year, the spacecraft and its three crew were sent into space to work on China’s “Tiangong” permanently inhabited space station. Shenzhou crewed spaceflights have been a regular fixture of the country’s space programme for the past two decades and have increased in frequency in recent years after China officially completed “Tiangong” in November 2022. The fast development of China’s…

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SAN FRANCISCO: Social media giant Meta has unveiled its first standalone AI assistant app, directly challenging OpenAI’s ChatGPT by offering users a dedicated platform to access its generative artificial intelligence models. Announced on Tuesday, the new app is designed to act as a personal AI companion to over billion users of Meta services, primarily accessible through voice interactions tailored to each user. “A billion people are using Meta AI across our apps now, so we made a new standalone Meta AI app for you to check out,” the company’s CEO…

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SYDNEY: Australia’s burrowing echidna evolved from an aquatic ancestor in what scientists have described as an “extremely rare” evolutionary transition, according to a new study released Tuesday. Equipped with strong digging claws, spiny defences, and highly sensitive beaks, echidnas are perfectly adapted for life on land, shuffling through forest floors and undergrowth. However, a team of Australian and international researchers now believe that many of these distinctive features first appeared millions of years ago, when the echidna’s ancestors lived a semi-aquatic existence.”We’re talking about a semiaquatic mammal that gave up…

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WhatsApp is set to introduce a groundbreaking feature that will allow users to make voice and video calls directly from their web browsers, a function that is currently available only through the native desktop applications for Windows and macOS. According to WABetaInfo, this update aims to enhance user experience by enabling seamless communication across different devices without the need to switch platforms. Traditionally, WhatsApp Web has been limited to sending messages and sharing media, leaving voice and video calls exclusive to desktop apps. However, the discovery of this in-development feature within…

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WhatsApp is set to introduce a small but significant change to its voice recording feature in an upcoming update, making the process of sending voice notes smoother and more user-friendly. Users will soon be able to record voice messages with a simple tap, streamlining the two methods currently available for users of Meta’s popular instant messaging app. Currently, users can send a voice message in two ways. The first method requires pressing and holding the microphone button within a chat; the message is sent automatically once it has been recorded…

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BEIJING: China sent three astronauts to its permanently inhabited space station on Thursday, in its 15th crewed spaceflight and the 20th overall in the Shenzhou program that started over three decades ago. The spacecraft Shenzhou-20 and the crew lifted off atop a Long March-2F rocket from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Centre in northwest China at 5:17pm (0917 GMT), according to state broadcaster CCTV. State news agency Xinhua reported soon afterwards that the launch was successful. The launch comes as China’s advances in lunar and space exploration are drawing in more countries. Pakistan…

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SEOUL: South Korea’s data protection authority has alleged Chinese artificial intelligence startup DeepSeek of transferring user information and prompts without permission when the service was still available for download in the country’s app market. The Personal Information Protection Commission, in a statement on Thursday, said that Hangzhou DeepSeek Artificial Intelligence Co Ltd did not obtain user consent while transferring personal information to a number of companies in China and the United States at the time of its South Korean launch in January. In February, South Korea’s data agency suspended new downloads of the…

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Users are raising concerns about Meta’s latest feature rollout on WhatsApp—an AI assistant that cannot be removed or disabled, BBC reported. The assistant, identified by a blue circle in the chat interface, has appeared across many accounts, prompting frustration over the lack of user control. Meta describes the assistant as a helpful, optional tool capable of answering questions and generating content. However, users report that the assistant appears without consent and cannot be switched off, contradicting Meta’s claims of optionality. The feature has sparked broader privacy concerns. Experts argue that integrating AI…

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Archaeologists have confirmed the first physical evidence that a Roman gladiator in Britain died fighting a lion. The discovery involves a skeleton found in 2004 at Driffield Terrace in York, where forensic examination revealed large bite marks consistent with those from a lion. The wounds were located on the man’s pelvis and are believed to have been inflicted while he was still alive. The man was between 26 and 35 years old at the time of his death. Experts believe he was likely a bestiarius, a type of gladiator trained…

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A European Space Agency (ESA) experiment has taken off to investigate the feasibility of producing lab-grown food in space. Aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, scientists sent a bioreactor to test the process of creating meals from basic cellular materials in microgravity conditions, BBC News reports. The goal is to assess whether growing food in orbit can reduce the exorbitant cost of feeding astronauts, which can reach up to £20,000 daily. This effort could support future long-term human presence on the Moon or Mars. Dr Aqeel Shamsul, CEO of Bedford-based Frontier Space,…

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