Chinese Pharma is On the Cusp of Going Global | | China's pharmaceutical industry has quietly evolved from a hub for generics and clinical trials into something more ambitious -- a genuine competitor in drug discovery that Western giants are now courting to fill gaps left by looming patent expirations worth over $300 billion by 2030. In the first half of 2025, nearly a third of global licensing agreements signed by big pharma involved Chinese firms, Economist reports, four times the share from 2021. Pfizer agreed in May to pay $1.25 billion to 3SBio for an experimental cancer drug, and GlaxoSmithKline followed in June with a deal valued at up to $12 billion with Hengrui. Chinese companies now run about a third of the world's clinical trials, up from 5% a decade ago. Read more of this story at Slashdot. |
How 'Stranger Things' Defined the Era of the Algorithm | | As Stranger Things releases the first four episodes of its final season today, nearly a decade after its July 2016 premiere, the Netflix series has come to represent something broader than its own popularity -- the embodiment of streaming television's algorithmic philosophy. When the show first appeared, streaming was still finding its footing. Netflix had been producing original series for only a few years, and services like Disney+, Apple TV and HBO Max did not yet exist.
The question then was what form streaming originals would take: experimental fare like Sense8, nonlinear storytelling like the revived Arrested Development, or prestige dramas like House of Cards. The answer came from a popcorn horror thriller set in 1980s small-town Hawkins, Indiana. Matt and Ross Duffer built Stranger Things from vintage pop-culture parts -- Spielberg's coming-of-age sensibilities from E.T., Stephen King's horror and adolescent bonding, John Hughes' mean jocks and soulful goths, and references ranging from Kate Bush to The NeverEnding Story to casting Winona Ryder of Heathers and Beetlejuice fame.
New York Times critic James Poniewozik calls the series "a human-made equivalent of the algorithm" -- the software engine that drives streaming's "if you liked that, you'll like this" recommendation philosophy. Netflix did not invent the idea of copying television success, but the algorithm automated it and made it part of the creative operating system. The show's structure also fits streaming's mechanics: binge-watching encouragement, irregular release schedules, and episodes that assume audiences have time (the last season finale ran two hours and 22 minutes). The story adds: It's why you see a menu of similar thumbnail recommendations once you finish streaming a favorite series, encouraging you not to discover but to replicate. But the spirit behind it also explains why so much original streaming TV feels like the creative product of an algorithm. Consider the recent Netflix drama "The Beast in Me," which pairs familiar prestige-TV stars (Claire Danes of "Homeland" and Matthew Rhys of "The Americans") in a grim, upscale thriller that vaguely recalls something you might have seen on early 2010s Showtime or FX.
Creating the new by swallowing and regurgitating the old is also the signature move of generative A.I., which may be why that medium is so effective at creating works of burnished nostalgia. On Instagram and TikTok, accounts with names like "Maximal Nostalgia" serve up honeyed, uncanny images and videos that testify to how much better life was in a 1980s and 1990s that never existed. Read more of this story at Slashdot. |
European Lawmakers Seek EU-Wide Minimum Age To Access AI Chatbots, Social Media | | The European Parliament has passed a non-binding resolution urging an EU-wide minimum age of 16 to access social media, video-sharing platforms, and AI chatbots, with parental consent allowed for ages 13-16 and a hard ban for anyone under 13. "It also proposes additional measures, including a ban on addictive design features that keep children hooked to screens and manipulative advertising and gambling-like elements," reports Reuters. Furthermore, the draft "calls for the outright blocking of websites that don't follow EU rules and to address AI tools that can create fake or inappropriate content."
The resolution "carries no legal weight" but reflects the growing concern on the issue of AI companions and algorithm-driven platforms even. "Any binding legislation would require formal proposals from the European Commission, followed by negotiations between EU member states and Parliament in a process that typically takes years to complete," notes the report. Read more of this story at Slashdot. |
More Than Half of New Articles On the Internet Are Being Written By AI | | An anonymous reader quotes a report from the Conversation: The line between human and machine authorship is blurring, particularly as it's become increasingly difficult to tell whether something was written by a person or AI. Now, in what may seem like a tipping point, the digital marketing firm Graphite recently published a study showing that more than 50% of articles on the web are being generated by artificial intelligence. [...]
It's important to clarify what's meant by "online content," the phrase used in the Graphite study, which analyzed over 65,000 randomly selected articles of at least 100 words on the web. These can include anything from peer-reviewed research to promotional copy for miracle supplements. A closer reading of the Graphite study shows that the AI-generated articles consist largely of general-interest writing: news updates, how-to guides, lifestyle posts, reviews and product explainers.
The primary economic purpose of this content is to persuade or inform, not to express originality or creativity. Put differently, AI appears to be most useful when the writing in question is low-stakes and formulaic: the weekend-in-Rome listicle, the standard cover letter, the text produced to market a business. A whole industry of writers -- mostly freelance, including many translators -- has relied on precisely this kind of work, producing blog posts, how-to material, search engine optimization text and social media copy. The rapid adoption of large language models has already displaced many of the gigs that once sustained them.
The dramatic loss of this work points toward another issue raised by the Graphite study: the question of authenticity, not only in identifying who or what produced a text, but also in understanding the value that humans attach to creative activity. How can you distinguish a human-written article from a machine-generated one? And does that ability even matter? Over time, that distinction is likely to grow less significant, particularly as more writing emerges from interactions between humans and AI... "If you set aside the more apocalyptic scenarios and assume that AI will continue to advance -- perhaps at a slower pace than in the recent past -- it's quite possible that thoughtful, original, human-generated writing will become even more valuable," writes author Francesco Agnellini, in closing.
"Put another way: The work of writers, journalists and intellectuals will not become superfluous simply because much of the web is no longer written by humans." Read more of this story at Slashdot. |
SEC Must Not Let Crypto Companies 'Bypass' Rules, Stock Exchanges Say | | The Securities and Exchange Commission's possible plan to grant crypto companies relief from regulation to sell "tokenised" stocks risks harming investors, a group of stock exchanges said in a letter to the U.S. regulator this week. From a report: Several crypto companies plan to sell crypto tokens linked to listed equities to retail investors who want to get exposure to stocks without owning them directly. But to sell the products in the U.S., crypto companies which are not registered as broker-dealers would need the SEC to give them a no-action letter or an exemption.
SEC Chair Paul Atkins has said the agency is working on crafting an "innovation exemption" from securities laws which would enable crypto players to experiment with new business models. The World Federation of Exchanges (WFE), a group whose members include the U.S. Nasdaq and Germany's Deutsche Boerse, said in a letter dated November 21 that an exemption could create market integrity risks and undermine investor protections. "The SEC should avoid granting exemptions to firms attempting to bypass regulatory principles that have safeguarded markets for decades," WFE CEO Nandini Sukumar told Reuters. Read more of this story at Slashdot. |
Pentagon Cited Alibaba on China Military Aid in Oct. 7 Letter | | An anonymous reader shares a report: The Pentagon concluded that Alibaba Group, Baidu and BYD should be added to a list of companies that aid the Chinese military, according to a letter to Congress sent roughly three weeks before Donald Trump and Xi Jinping agreed to a broad trade truce.
Deputy Defense Secretary Stephen Feinberg informed lawmakers of the conclusion in the Oct. 7 letter, a copy of which was seen by Bloomberg News, to the heads of the House and Senate Armed Services Committees. It wasn't clear whether the companies have been formally included in the the Pentagon's so-called 1260H list, which carries no direct legal repercussions but serves as a major warning to US investors. Read more of this story at Slashdot. |
OpenAI Needs At Least $207 Billion By 2030 Just To Keep Losing Money, HSBC Estimates | | OpenAI will need to raise at least $207 billion in new funding by 2030 to sustain operations while continuing to lose money, according to a new analysis from HSBC that models the company's cloud computing commitments against projected revenue. The bank's US software team updated its forecasts after OpenAI announced a $250 billion cloud compute rental deal with Microsoft in late October and a $38 billion deal with Amazon days later, bringing total contracted compute capacity to 36 gigawatts.
HSBC projects cumulative rental costs of $792 billion through 2030. Revenue growth remains strong in the model -- the bank expects OpenAI to reach 3 billion users by decade's end, up from roughly 800 million today -- but costs rise in lockstep, meaning OpenAI will still be subsidizing users well into the next decade. If revenue growth disappoints and investors turn cautious, the company's best option might be walking away from some data center commitments. Read more of this story at Slashdot. |
China's Dual Squeeze on European Industry Intensifies | | European manufacturers are facing a two-front assault from China that has German industry associations warning of deindustrialisation: on one side, artificially cheap Chinese goods are flooding into Europe, and on the other, Beijing has demonstrated its willingness to abruptly cut off access to critical inputs like rare earths and semiconductors.
The alarm intensified in October when China added five rare earths to its export-licensing regime and then banned exports of computer chips made by Nexperia, a Dutch-headquartered but Chinese-owned chipmaker that supplies numerous European carmakers, according to The Economist.
Several European firms warned of production stoppages, and some German companies put workers on leave without pay. Germany's trade deficit with China hit $76.52 billion last year and is expected to surge to around $100.87 billion this year, The Economist reported, driven by collapsing German exports and a rush of imports in categories like cars, chemicals, and machinery that were once German specialties. Chinese brands now account for 20% of Europe's hybrid market and 11% of electric vehicle sales. German cars command just 17% of the Chinese market, down from 27% in 2020.
The rare earth controls were suspended for a year after the US and China struck a trade deal on October 30th, but the EU found itself a bystander to negotiations that directly affected its economy. Writing in the Financial Times, Robin Harding argues that China's explicit goal of self-sufficiency leaves Europe with few options. "There is nothing that China wants to import, nothing it does not believe it can make better and cheaper," he wrote, concluding that large-scale protectionism may be unavoidable if Europe wants to retain any industry at all. Read more of this story at Slashdot. |
NASA Rover Makes a Shocking Discovery: Lightning on Mars | | An anonymous reader shares a report: It is shocking but not surprising. Lightning crackles on Mars, scientists reported on Wednesday. What they observed, however, were not jagged, high-voltage bolts like those on Earth, arcing thousands of feet from cloud to ground. Rather, the phenomenon was more like the shock you feel when you scuff your feet on the carpet on a cold winter morning and then touch a metal doorknob.
"This is like mini-lightning on Mars," Baptiste Chide, a scientist at the Research Institute in Astrophysics and Planetary Science in Toulouse, France, said of the centimeter-scale electrical discharges. Dr. Chide and his colleagues reported the findings in a paper published on Wednesday in the journal Nature. The electrical sparks, although not as dramatically violent as on Earth, could play an important role in chemical reactions in the Martian atmosphere. Read more of this story at Slashdot. |
Dell Says Windows 11 Transition is Far Slower Than Windows 10 Shift as PC Sales Stall | | Dell has predicted PC sales will be flat next year, despite the potential of the AI PC and the slow replacement of Windows 10. From a report: "We have not completed the Windows 11 transition," COO Jeffrey Clarke said during Dell's Q3 earnings call on Tuesday. "In fact, if you were to look at it relative to the previous OS end of support, we are 10-12 points behind at that point with Windows 11 than we were the previous generation." Clarke said that means 500 million PCs can't run Windows 11, while the same number didn't need an upgrade to handle Microsoft's latest desktop OS. The COO therefore predicted the PC market will "flourish," but then defined the word as meaning "roughly flat" sales despite Dell chalking up mid-to high single digits PC sales growth over the last year. Read more of this story at Slashdot. |
Apple Set To Become World's Top Phone Maker, Overtaking Samsung | | Apple will retake its crown as the world's largest smartphone maker for the first time in more than a decade, lifted by the successful debut of a new iPhone series and a rush of consumers upgrading devices, according to Counterpoint Research. From a report: The iPhone 17 models introduced in September have been a hit both domestically in the US and in Apple's other critical market, China. They've enticed more people to upgrade, leading to double-digit year-over-year sales growth in both markets, according to the researchers. The US company also is benefiting from a cooling of US-China trade tensions and a depreciating dollar that has boosted purchases in emerging markets, they added. The growth will propel Apple past longtime rival Samsung this year, according to Counterpoint's figures. Shipments of the iPhone are set to grow at 10% in 2025, compared with 4.6% for Samsung. Read more of this story at Slashdot. |
World's Central Banks Are Wary of AI and Struggling To Quit the Dollar, Survey Shows | | An anonymous reader shares a report: AI is not a core part of operations at most of the world's central banks and digital assets are off the table, according to a survey released on Wednesday by the Official Monetary and Financial Institutions Forum. The working group of 10 central banks from Europe, Africa, Latin America and Asia managing roughly $6.5 trillion in assets also found that the institutions that have delved deepest so far into AI are the most cautious about the risks.
The primary concern is that AI-driven behaviour could "accelerate future crises," the survey showed. "AI helps us see more, but decisions must remain with people," one participant was quoted as saying in the group's report. More than 60% of respondents said that AI tools - which have sparked layoffs already at technology companies and retail and investment banks - are not yet supporting core operations. Read more of this story at Slashdot. |
The Underwater Cables That Carry the Internet Are in Trouble | | The roughly 500 fiber-optic cables lying on the ocean floor carry more than 95% of all internet data -- not satellites, as many might assume -- and they face growing threats from natural disasters, terrorists and nation-states capable of disrupting global communications by dragging anchors or deploying submarines against the infrastructure.
The cables are protected by layers of copper, steel, and plastics, but they remain vulnerable at multiple points: earthquakes can disturb them on the seafloor, and the connections where cables meet land-based infrastructure present targets for bad actors. National actors including Russia, China and the US possess the capability to attack these cables.
A bipartisan Senate bill co-sponsored by Democrat Jeanne Shaheen and Republican John Barrasso is under consideration. The legislation would require a report to Congress within six months on Chinese and Russian sabotage efforts, mandate sanctions against foreign parties responsible for attacks, and direct the US to provide more resources for cable protection and repair. Read more of this story at Slashdot. |
Malaysia's Johor Bans Low-Tier Data Centers Over Water Strain | | Malaysia's Johor, one of Southeast Asia's fastest-growing data center hubs, has announced it will no longer approve applications for Tier 1 and Tier 2 data centers because of their enormous water consumption -- up to 50 million liters daily, or roughly 200 times what higher-tier facilities require.
The Malaysian state has approved 51 data center projects as of November 2025. 17 centers are already operational, 11 are under construction and 23 received approval this year. The announcement follows concerns raised by a local politician who pointed to water supply disruptions in Georgia in the US after a data center began operations and protests in Uruguay over fears that data centers could affect farms. Read more of this story at Slashdot. |
Texas Buys $5 Million In BTC ETF As States Edge Toward First Government Crypto Reserves | | Texas has purchased $5 million worth of BlackRock's bitcoin ETF as an initial step toward creating the first state-level bitcoin reserve in the U.S.
"[O]ther states having previously invested in such funds with public-employee retirement money," notes CoinDesk. "Michigan has been building such an investment, and Wisconsin sold its $350 million pension-fund stake in the BlackRock ETF in May. From the report: A few weeks ago, Texas moved past its deadline to "capture the industry's best practices so it can utilize these practices in the implementation and management" of its bitcoin BTC reserve, according to its formal request for information issued in September. Entities across the industry provided input on how it could set up and manage the stockpile conceived of in the Texas Strategic Bitcoin Reserve and Investment Act.
Last week, the state comptroller's office moved to secure $5 million in BlackRock's iShares Bitcoin Trust (IBIT) as a placeholder, a spokesman for the Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts told CoinDesk on Tuesday. It's an opening move as the state continues to work toward a contract with a custodian, he said, which will take place after it develops its formal request for proposal. Read more of this story at Slashdot. |
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