Free Republic

If China invades Taiwan and cuts off its chip exports to American companies, the tech industry and the U.S. economy would be crippled.Federal officials have for years tried to wean Silicon Valley from its dependence on Taiwan, an island democracy roughly the size of Maryland that makes 90 percent of the world’s high-end computer chips. In secret briefings held in Washington and Silicon Valley, national security officials warned executives from companies like Apple, Advanced Micro Devices and Qualcomm that China was making plans to retake Taiwan, which Beijing has long considered a breakaway territory. A Chinese blockade of Taiwan, the...

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth summoned Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei to the Pentagon on Tuesday morning for what senior Defense officials made clear was anything but a courtesy call. The meeting represents a breaking point between the U.S. military and the AI company behind Claude — the only artificial intelligence model currently operating inside the military’s classified systems — over whether a private technology company gets to set the rules for how its tools are used in war. The core dispute is over what conditions Anthropic will place on military use of Claude. The company has sought formal assurances that its...

Candace Gesner I believe that facebook has just now made itself irrelevant. I am finding that AI is mixing and remixing posts so that a person will not notice that their and everyone’s posts have been corrupted. I can no longer believe anything I am reading.

ZDNET's key takeaways - Treat the AI like another developer, not a magic box. - Encode design systems and user profiles in system prompts. - Every fixed bug becomes a permanent lesson learned in the project's DNA. Ever since the days of punched cards, I've self-identified as a programmer and a computer scientist. The programmer side is the practical side of my engineering identity, the person who crafts code line by line. The computer scientist is the theoretician, the scientist, the strategist, and the planner. While I love the theory and science of computers, I've always enjoyed the hands-on feeling...

In a meeting with the British Columbia government, the day after a trans-identifying 18-year-old carried out a mass shooting in Tumbler Ridge, OpenAI did not disclose that it had been aware of concerning conversations the shooter had with its chatbot months prior. The province said in a statement that OpenAI waited until the following day to ask its provincial contact to help connect the company with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. OpenAI handed over evidence that the shooter was banned from using ChatGPT after its automated screening systems flagged his chats last June, according to a company statement. A previous...

Samsung unleashed a new batch of Galaxy Z TriFold units after selling out initial stock of the behemoth foldable that turns into a 10-inch tablet. It took less than ten minutes to sell through today’s supply, which either speaks to the phone’s surprising popularity or, rather, just how few of them the company is making. The device launched on January 30th, and unlike most other Samsung phones, availability of this one was limited to the company’s own site. The TriFold costs $2,899.99 and comes with 512GB of storage (you’d think paying this much would get you at least 1TB, but...

Taiwan has told Washington that its proposal to move 40% of the island’s semiconductor supply chain to the U.S. was “impossible,” Taipei’s top tariff trade negotiator said in an interview. Speaking on a local television broadcast Sunday, Vice Premier Cheng Li-chiun said she had made it clear to Washington that the island’s semiconductor ecosystem, built over decades, could not simply be relocated. Taiwan’s international expansion, including its investments in the U.S., is predicated on the notion that the industry remains’ rooted in Taiwan and continues to expand domestic investments, she said in Mandarin, translated by CNBC.

Elon Musk revealed the future of quantum computing will be on the Moon's permanently shadowed craters Quantum computing need extreme cold and near-perfect isolation to work The Moon’s permanently shadowed craters offer exactly that - Temperatures stay below −200°C, keeping qubits stable without massive Earth-based cooling systems - No atmosphere, no weather, no day–night cycles. Hardware stays in a steady, undisturbed state - No air, no vibrations, no human electromagnetic noise - meaning quantum information survives longer with fewer errors The Moon is not just for exploration It is actually a perfect home for the future of computing

Matt Shumer warns that AI is reshaping industries like law, finance, and customer service, urging professionals to adapt quickly to stay relevant. Artificial intelligence could eliminate up to half of all entry-level white-collar jobs within the next five years, according to tech entrepreneur Matt Shumer, who says the shift is unfolding faster than most people realise. Shumer, founder and CEO of AI firm OthersideAI (HyperWrite), made the remarks in a widely shared essay titled Something Big Is Happening. In it, he compared the current AI moment to early 2020, just before the Covid-19 pandemic disrupted economies and daily life across...

SUPPORTING AMERICA’S SEMICONDUCTOR INDUSTRY: Today, President Donald J. Trump signed a Proclamation invoking Section 232 of the Trade Expansion Act of 1962 (Act) to address national security concerns with respect to imports of semiconductors, semiconductor manufacturing equipment, and their derivative products.The President directed the U.S. Secretary of Commerce and U.S. Trade Representative to jointly negotiate agreements, or continue any current negotiations of agreements, to address the threatened impairment of the national security with respect to imports of semiconductors, semiconductor manufacturing equipment, and their derivative products from any country.The President also imposed a 25% tariff on certain advanced computing chips, such...

President Donald Trump did not exceed his authority when he issued a Sept. 19 proclamation requiring employers to pay an additional $100,000 before new H-1B visas can be processed, a federal district court judge held Dec. 23 in Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America v. U.S. Department of Homeland Security. President Trump legitimately exercised his broad discretion authorized by the Immigration and Nationality Act to restrict the entry of noncitizens into the U.S., the judge found. Trump found the proclamation was necessary to counter abuse of the H-1B program, which the proclamation asserts is harming American workers...

'We need to control the platforms, all the social platforms,' Cato Networks co-founder Shlomo Kramer saidIsraeli billionaire tech entrepreneur and Cato Networks co-founder Shlomo Kramer argued on Monday’s episode of CNBC’s "Money Movers" that governments must restrict freedom of speech in the age of AI.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu met with President Donald Trump Monday at his Mar-a-Lago estate, weeks after a top Israeli defense official warned the world is soon to face its first cyber-based war. This meeting between Trump and Netanyahu comes amid growing debate within some conservative circles over the scope of American backing for Israel and...

Welcome to 2026.....CES, kicks off on Jan. 6 under the bright lights of Las Vegas.Companies big and small will take over the ...Strip and Las Vegas Convention Center, debuting their latest and greatest offerings, and a good helping of fly-by-night products that’ll never see the light of day. While the show officially begins on Jan. 6, the festivities start a few days earlier...events like CES Unveiled and press conferences featuring Nvidia (NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang and AMD (AMD) CEO Lisa Su. ...That means you can expect artificial intelligence to be front and center....That will include everything from AI-focused PCs to...

Downing Street insists the $40bn Tech Prosperity Deal between the US and UK that is on hold is not permanently stalled. The BBC reported on Tuesday evening that the prime minister’s office claimed that the UK remains in “active conversations with US counterparts at all levels of government” about the wide-ranging deal for the technology industries in both countries to cooperate. The agreement, previously billed as historic, was paused after the US accused the UK of failing to lower trade barriers, including a digital services tax on US tech companies and food safety rules that limit the export of some...

When Xpeng unveiled its Next Gen Iron humanoid recently, the robot glided across the stage with movement so fluid that the crowd froze. Many viewers thought they saw an actor in a suit. Clips spread online within hours, and people everywhere claimed the same thing: it looked too human to be a machine. The reaction spread fast, so Xpeng's CEO He Xiaopeng returned to the stage one day later with a plan to settle the argument. He cut into Iron's leg to show its internal machinery. It felt theatrical but also necessary to end the rumor that a human controlled...

A growing number of IT staffing firms are posting help wanted ads that say the quiet part out loud: Americans need not apply. Federal law prohibits this—duh—but in an industry reliant on an H-1B program that provides visas to more than 700,000 immigrants, the Free Beacon’s Aaron Sibarium “identified over two dozen job postings since 2024 that appear to bar applications from U.S. citizens” in favor of visa holders. Many of the companies behind them tout their commitment to DEI. Take LanceSoft, an IT staffing firm committed to “diversity, equality, and inclusivity.” In a post to an IT jobs aggregator...

Bending Spoons to acquire AOL following $2.8B debt financing Oct 30, 2025 Acquisition positions historic brand for its next phase of growth MILAN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Technology company Bending Spoons today announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire AOL, the web portal and email provider, from Yahoo. The acquisition is expected to close by the end of the year, subject to customary closing conditions and regulatory approvals. “AOL is an iconic, beloved business that’s in good health, has stood the test of time, and we believe has unexpressed potential,” said Bending Spoons CEO and co-founder, Luca Ferrari. “By our...

We’ve all been there. Your screen goes black, but you can still hear the audio. You’re trying to move the cursor on your phone, but your thumb’s too big to land in the right spot. Or your Android suddenly turns into a sluggish mess, and you’re ready to throw your $1,000 phone out the window. Pause. Breathe. There’s a secret power-user layer baked into your gadgets that most folks never see. These aren’t your run-of-the-mill tips. These are the hidden handshakes, the ones you can drop to sound like the family tech wizard. 📱 Thumb-believable phone secrets iPhone user? Stop...

This is a deep, physics-based look into the future of the transistor, beyond the current FinFET and the emerging Gate-All-Around (GAA) architectures. The Next Transistor: Inside TSMC's Push for CFETs | 19:52 Behind Asia | 423K subscribers | 20,647 views | November 5, 2025

Just finished a long AI5 design review with the Tesla California and Texas chip engineers. It’s going to be great. And AI6 and AI7 will follow in fast succession. AI8 will be out of this world.