Veteran Windows dev shows off AI running on 47-year-old PDP11 with 6 MHz CPU and 64KB of RAM — ‘gloriously absurd’ project runs transformer model written in PDP-11 assembly language

Ancient 6 MHz ‘PDP11 can train a neural network’ says veteran dev.

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Half of all US employees now use artificial intelligence at work, crossing landmark threshold for first time — Gallup data shows daily and weekly usage hitting all-time high of 28% in Q1 2026, with 65% feeling positive about its impact on productivity

50% of American adults in employment use AI at least once a year, with 28% using it daily or weekly, according to a new Gallup survey. While AI-focused companies are seeing huge disruption, 65% of those employees felt posi…

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China has spent 3.6 times more than the US on chipmaking subsidies over the past decade — $142 billion and counting, easily outweighs CHIPS Act

Semiconductor industrial policy spending in China totaled around $142 billion between 2014 and 2023, roughly 3.6 times higher than the $39 billion committed in the United States over the same period.
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FAA approves military use of drone-killing laser weapons in US airspace — decision comes after it was decided ‘systems do not present an increased risk to the flying public’

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) has decided to give carte blanche approval to the military’s use of laser weaponry to shoot down suspected errant drones in US airspace.
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Nvidia says AI cuts 10-month, eight-engineer GPU design task to overnight job — company is still ‘a long way’ from AI designing chips without human input

Nvidia widely uses AI for different stages of the chip design process, though it admits that AI is a long way from designing chips completely autonomously.
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Small Missouri town ousts half its city council after $6 billion AI data center approval — petition calls for mayor’s removal as frustration (and violence) over AI data centers mounts

Voters in Festus, MO ousted half of the city’s council members following the approval of a $6 billion data center project.
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NZXT to cough up $3.45 million over ‘predatory’ Flex PC rental scheme in RICO class-action settlement — in-debt customers to get up to $5,000 of relief, eligible renters to be granted ownership

The company allegedly engaged in just about every kind of deceptive business practice possible, and even targeted children.
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Approvals for Nvidia and AMD AI chip exports to China stall under government bottleneck — 20% staff turnover hobbles Bureau of Industry and Security

Staffing at the U.S. Commerce Department office that vets exports of Nvidia and AMD AI accelerators has collapsed over the past year.
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Iran’s forced nationwide internet blackout becomes second-longest on record as it passes 1,000 hours offline — possessing Starlink terminals punishable by death, country using ‘military-grade jamming’ against service

Iran’s nationwide Internet blackout has crossed the 1,000-hour mark and is now the second longest nation-scale shutdown ever measured.
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South Korea’s telecom giants surprise 7 million users with unlimited, universal internet — net access declared a ‘basic telecommunications right,’ 400 Kbps data after monthly plans run out

South Korea’s Ministry of Science and ICT said that the country’s three major carriers will provide more than seven million mobile subscribers with unmetered 400 Kbps data.
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