🤖 OpenAI’s new voice mode makes it to the ChatGPT desktop app

OpenAI has updated its ChatGPT desktop app to add support for ChatGPT Voice, allowing users to talk to the app to control AI agents and perform tasks on their computer. ChatGPT Voice works with both ChatGPT Work and Codex, and can also tap computer use skills to look up websites and apps. On macOS, with Appshots, users can let the app access what’s on their screen, including alt-text.

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🧠 Neuralink clinical trial participants can control powered wheelchairs with their minds

The Neuralink implant has over 1,000 electrodes sitting across over 100 threads, each thinner than a human hair and inserted into the motor cortex by our surgical robot. The electrodes record the activity of neurons that fire as a participant intends to move.

A machine learning model maps that neural activity to a computer cursor moving up, down, left, and right. The result is a decoding algorithm that enables the participant to control the cursor with their thoughts. As they move the cursor with their thoughts, they can drive forward, reverse, steer, and even adjust seating positions.

“There’s more to do, but this provides a glimpse into how Neuralink can help restore independent mobility for people with paralysis,” — Neuralink wrote.

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🇧🇷👨🏻‍🌾 Brazilian farmers tokenized dairy cows to get loans, bypassing bank lending limits

Farmers in Parana, Brazil, struggling to get banks to loan them cash, became the first to tokenize livestock and place 10 dairy milk cows’ tokens for trade on the country’s B3 national stock exchange. They generated nearly $20,000 in credit backed by their cattle, signaling the potential of tokenizing RWAs as a financing tool. Brazil's dairy cow tokenization is a world first, testing the technology as small farmers face tighter bank lending limits.

"We take the cow, which is a real and tangible asset, and transform it into a digital asset backed by a unique code monitored in real time,” — Thiago Martins of Cowmed, a Brazilian Agtec company, said. “This digitization allows for formal registration with B3 as a movable asset.”

To turn cattle into trusted financial guarantees or collateral without requiring inspectors to visit the property, Cowmed equips cows with an AI-powered Smarty Collar. These collars constantly monitor health, behavior, and location. The raw data is then converted into an encrypted digital identity tied directly to the B3 credit agreement.

#BRICS

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⚡️🇺🇸 Trump says US will investigate EU trade practices, claiming the bloc unfairly fined tech giants

The United States will open a formal investigation into the European Union’s trade practices, President Donald Trump said, claiming the bloc has unfairly levied billions of dollars of fines against Google, Apple and other U.S. tech giants.

The EU hit Google with a fine of 890 million euros, or $1 billion, after it said the technology behemoth broke digital antitrust regulations by setting up Google Play and its ubiquitous search engine to corral consumers toward its own services and apps to the detriment of competitors.

In the post, Trump asserted that the penalties against the companies “will be entirely reversed” and predicted “a substantial TARIFF” would be placed on the EU “at the earliest possible moment.”

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🤖 Elon Musk: AI Will Exceed the Sum of Human Intelligence in Around 5 Years

I think AI may exceed the sum of human intelligence in around five years. In five years — roughly five years — is my guess.

So there really won't be anything that AI can't do better than humans, apart from being human, perhaps.

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🧑‍⚖️🇰🇿 Kazakhstan uses digital mining to replenish its National Cryptocurrency Reserve

The Government of Kazakhstan has approved the "Rules for Implementing Strategic Digital Mining," granting companies electricity quotas at ceiling tariffs from energy-producing organizations for 10 years.

In exchange for receiving these quotas, companies should transfer a portion of their mined cryptocurrency to the autonomous cluster fund Astana Hub. The assets will then be transferred into the trust management of the National Investment Corporation under the National Bank to replenish the National Strategic Crypto Reserve.

To engage in strategic digital mining, operators must submit an application through the E-licensing database. A dedicated commission will review approval requests. In the event of a positive decision, the digital miner must execute an agreement with the Astana Hub autonomous cluster fund within five working days, as well as conclude an electricity purchase and sale contract with an energy-producing organization.

The rules will take effect on August 1, 2026. 🚀

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🇻🇳 Vietnam proposes banning under-16s from posting on social media

Vietnam is planning to force social media platforms to ban users under 16 from posting content, commenting or reacting to posts, according to a draft decree. The proposed rules would require social media accounts belonging to children under 16 to be registered using the information of a parent or legal guardian, who would ​be responsible for supervising the content viewed and the amount of time ​spent on the platforms.

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⚡️🚀 SpaceX launches the 13th test flight of its Starship rocket from the Starbase launch site in Boca Chica, Texas

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🔥 Bitcoin Policy Institute, Palantir and Anduril join US State Department's Freedom Tech Excellence Program

The U.S. Department of State has launched a new initiative called the Freedom Tech Excellence Program (FTEP), naming the Bitcoin Policy Institute as a founding partner alongside companies including Palantir Technologies and Anduril Industries, and the Victims of Communism Memorial Foundation. FTEP is structured as a talent-exchange program at the State Department.

"FTEP brings private sector experts like BPI into the State Department to advance diplomatic efforts on key issues including online freedom of expression, privacy-enhancing technologies, countering digital surveillance, and responsible AI governance," — the Bitcoin Policy Institute said.

These assignments could include efforts aimed at protecting First Amendment principles online, countering digital surveillance and online scams, advancing privacy-enhancing technologies and working on responsible AI governance, among other goals.

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🇺🇸 Oregon for first time considers charging use fees for undersea cables

The Oregon Department of State Lands is proposing for the first time to charge multinational telecommunications and tech companies for using the seafloor off the state’s Pacific Coast for fiber-optic cables used to transmit internet data and international calls. Oregon is now considering joining California and Washington by also requiring compensation fees.

The Oregon lands department is proposing tripling new application fees from $5,000 to $15,000, increasing application renewals from $5,000 to $7,500 while extending the renewal period from 20 years to 25 years and charging a one-time compensation fee of $3 per foot of fiber optic cable laid within the 3 miles of coastal, “territorial seas” that the state has jurisdiction over.

That could bring in more than $1 million per new cable laid, according to Dana Hicks, a planning and policy manager at the department.

The application fees would help the agency cover the costs of technical reviews, surveys, inspections, public outreach and other coordination and administrative work while the compensation fees would flow to the Common School Fund and Oregon’s public K-12 schools.

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🤝 South Korea's SK Hynix, Samsung Elec sign $950 bln partnership with US big tech

South Korea's Samsung ​Electronics and SK ‌Hynix will pursue memory chip supply ​partnership with ​U.S. big tech companies ⁠including Nvidia ​worth $950 billion overall. It ​includes the ​long-term supply of $750 billion ‌in ⁠memory chips to U.S. companies by SK Hynix ​and $200 ​billion ⁠in chips by Samsung ​Electronics to ​Broadcom.

President Lee Jae Myung said South ​Korea would lead the way to a new era of AI in partnership with global technology companies, making available its "dynamic AI ecosystem" to expand ⁠the global market for industrial and personal AI use. He unveiled a "San Francisco AI Declaration" that outlined South Korea's AI ambitions for technological cooperation with the U.S.

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🇫🇮 Finland Unveils the World's Largest Sand Battery to Solve Renewable Energy's Biggest Challenge: Intermittency

Commissioned by Finnish district heating company Loviisan Lämpö and developed by Polar Night Energy, the giant sand battery launched last year as part of a push to introduce a flexible heat production technology and reduce carbon emissions generated by the local district heating network. Standing at 13 meters tall and 15 meters wide, the facility uses 2,000 metric tons of crushed soapstone to store clean energy in the form of heat to provide 100 megawatt-hours of thermal energy.

Polar Night Energy said the project is estimated to have slashed greenhouse gas emissions from the heating network by almost 70% and reduced the use of wood chips by about 60%. The town's sand battery can now provide the 5,000 residents of Pornainen with combustion-free heating for most of the year.

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🇮🇳Karnataka to set up working groups with Anthropic to explore AI applications in governance, education

Minister of Home Affairs of Karnataka, Priyank Kharge, announced that the state will form two working groups with the Centre for e-Governance and the Home Department to identify AI use cases across governance, education, and innovation, following discussions with Anthropic in Bengaluru.

We also discussed expanding AI skilling across Karnataka through Claude certifications for students, professionals and enterprises, enabling startups and developers in our ecosystem to leverage Anthropic's AI tools and exchanged ideas on their AI for Science and Claude for Education programmes.

#BRICS

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⚡️🇰🇵 North Korea arrests hackers accused of laundering stolen funds from country's bank via crypto

North Korean authorities arrested former military hackers accused of stealing state funds from two banks and laundering the proceeds through cryptocurrency. The group allegedly breached the internal systems of the Central Bank of the DPRK and Foreign Trade Bank, diverted foreign currency and state trade funds, and moved the money into overseas crypto wallets.

Chinese brokers then converted the assets into U.S. dollars and yuan. Contacts in the border cities of Sinuiju and Hyesan allegedly exchanged the crypto for cash in real time, with the group splitting transfers into small amounts to avoid detection and using encrypted messaging apps, unregistered phones and Chinese wireless equipment.

North Korea’s National Intelligence Agency arrested the suspects at a Pyongyang safe house on July 12 after officials detected discrepancies in foreign-currency payment approvals and suspicious overseas IP activity.

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