Amid the sprawling desert in northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region, Chinese scientists are harnessing advanced greenhouse technologies to unleash the agricultural potential of the otherwise infertile land. Within the greenhouses that stretch ten thousand acres in Hotan, southern Xinjiang, scientists from the Institute of Urban Agriculture (IUA) of the Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences have recently harvested the first batch of rice grown in the desert. Read: Pakistan’s basmati rice exports surge as India’s to fall "The rice is cultivated on three-layer frames along with pre ..read more

Humanity is in a race against time to harness the colossal emerging power of artificial intelligence for the good of all, while averting dire risks, a top UN official said Thursday. "We've let the genie out of the bottle," said Doreen Bogdan-Martin, head of the United Nations' International Telecommunications Union (ITU). "We are in a race against time," she told the opening of a two-day AI for Good Global Summit in Geneva. "Recent developments in AI have been nothing short of extraordinary." Read: China opens 1st AI hospital town to treat patients in virtual world The thousands gathered at th ..read more

India's Agnikul Cosmos launched its Agnibaan rocket for the first time on Thursday, powered by the only Indian rocket engine to use both gas and liquid fuel in the country's second flight of a privately built rocket. The Agnibaan's first flight had been called off four times in the last two months because of technical issues. The most recent cancellation was Tuesday, when launch was aborted five seconds before lift-off. On Thursday, the customisable, two-stage launch vehicle designed to carry a payload of up to 300 kg (661 lb) into an orbit of about 700 kilometres' altitude (435 miles) flew fo ..read more

Alphabet's (GOOGL.O) Google and augmented reality startup Magic Leap are forming a strategic technology partnership and working on building immersive experiences that blend the physical and digital worlds. Magic Leap said in a blog post on Thursday that the two companies have agreed to a partnership. A Google spokesperson confirmed the agreement. While short on details, the announcement adds to signals that Google may be plotting a return to the market for augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) technologies that it so far has largely yielded to rivals Meta (META.O) and Apple (AAPL.O). The partn ..read more

China has released a three-year action plan to “strengthen standards” in emerging technologies, including artificial intelligence (AI). According to an official statement, the plan was jointly issued by Central Cyberspace Affair Commission, State Administration for Market Regulation and Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and made public on Wednesday. Under the plan, the Chinese experts and institutions will carry out standardisation process in areas including generative AI, blockchain, cloud computing, quantum information, brain-computer interfaces, next-generation internet and me ..read more

India's Agnikul Cosmos called off a test flight of its first rocket on Tuesday seconds before it was due to launch - the fourth such cancellation in the last three months. Launches of India's second privately built rocket, and the first using a combination of gas and liquid fuel, had been aborted three times before because of technical issues, including one flight that was cancelled about 90 seconds before lift-off. The launch, scheduled for 5:45 a.m. IST (0015 GMT) on Tuesday, was first delayed less than six minutes before lift-off "due to a technical glitch in the countdown activities", and ..read more

A US lobby group representing tech giants Google, Amazon and Apple has asked India to rethink its proposed EU-like competition law, arguing regulations against data use and preferential treatment of partners could raise user costs, a letter shows. Citing the increasing market power of a few big digital companies in India, a government panel in February proposed imposing obligations on them under a new antitrust law which will complement existing regulations whose enforcement the panel said is "time-consuming". India's "Digital Competition Bill" is on the lines of the EU's landmark Digital Mark ..read more

The United States and Europe are taking steps to acquire or manufacture H5N1 bird flu vaccines that could be used to protect at-risk poultry and dairy workers, veterinarians and lab technicians, government officials said, moves influenza experts say could curb the threat of a pandemic. US officials last week said they were moving bulk vaccine from CSL Seqirus that closely matches the current virus into finished shots that could provide 4.8 million doses of vaccine. European health officials told Reuters they were in talks to acquire CSL's prepandemic vaccine. Canadian health officials said the ..read more

OpenAI has formed a Safety and Security Committee that will be led by board members, including CEO Sam Altman, as it begins training its next artificial intelligence model, the AI startup said on Tuesday. Directors Bret Taylor, Adam D'Angelo and Nicole Seligman will also lead the committee, OpenAI said on a company blog. Microsoft-backed OpenAI's chatbots with generative AI capabilities, such as engaging in human-like conversations and creating images based on text prompts, have stirred safety concerns as AI models become powerful. Former Chief Scientist Ilya Sutskever and Jan Leike, who were ..read more

Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund (PIF)on Monday launched the Neo Space Group to work on the kingdom's nascent satellite and space industry, its first investment in the sector. One of the world's largest sovereign wealth funds, the PIF has already invested heavily in sports, gaming and so-called Saudi giga-projects including Neom, a $500-billion futuristic megacity under construction in the desert. The Neo Space Group or NSG is the "PIF's first investment focused on the space industry", the sovereign wealth fund said in a statement. Read: Saudi Arabia to send its first woman into space It ..read more