Block, the company led by Jack Dorsey, has released Dessa, a new voice model from its research lab that runs locally and produces strikingly human expressions such as laughter, pauses and crying. The company said the model was trained entirely on human speech using a single NVIDIA GPU rack. Dessa is a full-duplex model, able
Antimatter is not known for being easy to get ahold of. That’s part of why these particles remain so cryptic. But recently, a team of physicists at Northwestern University managed to trap a single antimatter particle for months. Cooling it to temperatures near absolute zero, they could control its quantum states with great precision without
Legal scholar Martha Minow delivered this fall’s Compton Lecture at MIT on Thursday, examining the civic foundations of democracy — and describing how artificial intelligence is undermining it, but could be used to help reinforce traditional U.S. governance. “It’s not a good time for democracy or constitutionalism,” said Minow, who is the 300th Anniversary University
2 min read3 hr As Chancellor John Healey gears up for the biggest day of his political career next Wednesday, The Rundown speaks this week to one of the few people who knows what it’s like to prepare to deliver a Budget: Jeremy Hunt. Hunt, who led the Treasury during the Rishi Sunak
Insider Brief Reliable Robotics raised another $115M, bringing its Series D to $275M and lifting the autonomous-aircraft developer’s valuation above $1B. The company is developing the Reliable Autonomy System for gate-to-gate automated flight and is seeking FAA certification on the Cessna 208B Grand Caravan, while also holding contracts with multiple branches of the U.S. military.
The nanotexture finish on the inner screen is the star of the show. The matte surface reduces the crease’s visibility, while also minimizing glare and reflections. It also feels like e-paper, which I imagine will be very welcome when Apple Pencil support is added later this year (via a software update). Writing on a screen
Despite millions of years of evolution, the development of the human fetus remains a complex process that is vulnerable to genetic, environmental, and metabolic disruptions. These disruptions could result in developmental abnormalities, starting with one of the first organs to begin developing in the fetus that continues to develop after birth: the brain. In a
Prime Minister Andy Burnham casts his vote in the Greater Manchester mayoral by-election | (Alamy) 4 min read18 October Electoral reform was one of the headline announcements in Andy Burnham’s party conference speech last month. However, not all Labour MPs are enthusiastic about shifting to a proportional voting system. “In past years, you
Insider Brief AiMOGA Robotics plans to open global pre-orders for Mobo, its first consumer home companion humanoid robot, at the 2026 Chery International User Summit in Wuhu, China. Mobo uses AiMOGA’s MoAgent system and combines spatial perception, object recognition, multimodal interaction, obstacle avoidance and memory, with 22 degrees of freedom for movement and gestures. AiMOGA,
First proposed in 2025, and partially revised due to blistering criticism from tech companies and civil society, Canada’s C-22 bill can broadly place requirements on tech companies, including those outside of Canada, to introduce “technical capabilities” that allow data to be accessed for law enforcement purposes. Like many such bills, C-22 says that companies will