Author: Jaxon Bennett

In a laboratory outside Cambridge sits a remarkable “biological computer”. Its 200,000 human brain cells, grown in the lab, lie on silicon circuitry that communicates their synchronised electrical activity on a screen to the outside world.The CL1 device, about the size of two shoe boxes, was developed by Australian start-up Cortical Labs with the UK’s bit.bio, in a bid to create “synthetic biological intelligence” — a new form of computing that could offer opportunities beyond conventional electronics and other developing technologies such as quantum.“Like our brains, biological computers will consume many orders of magnitude less energy than conventional electronics as…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Nvidia insiders have sold more than $1bn of the company’s stock over the past 12 months including a recent surge in trading as executives cash in on investors’ enthusiasm for artificial intelligence. More than $500mn of the share sales took place this month as the California-based chips designer’s share price climbed to a record high. Investors have piled back into the stock, making it the world’s most valuable company as they bet on huge demand for chips to power AI applications. The…

Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for freeYour guide to what Trump’s second term means for Washington, business and the worldDonald Trump said the US was “terminating” trade talks with Canada in retaliation against a new digital services tax on tech companies, reopening a trade war between the countries after months of détente. “We have just been informed that Canada, a very difficult Country to TRADE with . . . has just announced that they are putting a Digital Services Tax on our American Technology Companies, which is a direct and blatant attack on our Country,” the US president posted on his Truth Social platform. “Based…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.US health tsar Robert F Kennedy Jr wants all Americans to be sporting medical “wearables” in the next four years, banking on such devices to make the country healthy again. The outspoken vaccine sceptic’s hopes have already got investors’ pulses racing. Shares in glucose-monitoring company Dexcom rose almost 10 per cent on Wednesday.It’s not just Americans who like keeping tabs on their wellbeing. Japanese toilet maker Toto has been testing users’ urine for diabetes and other conditions for decades. Prissier westerners prefer…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son has dropped his biggest hint yet about the future leadership of the technology conglomerate he started more than 40 years ago and through which he has placed massive bets on the future of artificial intelligence.Son, who indicated he had the drive to stay in charge for another 10 years, said his successor was someone already working beside him within SoftBank.“Deciding when to declare these two, three or four people are candidates is a matter of timing, and I…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Brazil’s supreme court has ruled that social media platforms can be held legally responsible for users’ posts, in a decision that tightens regulation on technology giants in the country.Companies such as Facebook, TikTok and X will have to act immediately to remove material such as hate speech, incitement to violence or “anti-democratic acts”, even without a prior judicial takedown order, as a result of the decision in Latin America’s largest nation late on Thursday.The move follows rising concerns in Brazil about harmful…

Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for freeYour guide to what Trump’s second term means for Washington, business and the worldOne of Elon Musk’s top lieutenants has left his job at Tesla amid plunging sales and a pivot to autonomous driving, artificial intelligence and robotics.Omead Afshar, who was promoted to run sales and operations in North America and Europe last year, has left his role, according to two people familiar with the decision. Jenna Ferrua, director of North American human resources, has also departed the company, they said.Tesla, Afshar and Ferrua did not immediately respond to a request for comment.…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.Apple is changing its App Store policies in the EU in a last-minute attempt to avoid a series of escalating fines from Brussels. The $3tn iPhone maker will allow developers in the bloc to offer apps designed for the iOS operating system in places other than Apple’s App Store, the company said. Apple has been negotiating for two months with the European Commission after being fined €500mn for breaching the EU’s Digital Markets Act, the landmark legislation designed to curtail the power of…

Unlock the White House Watch newsletter for freeYour guide to what Trump’s second term means for Washington, business and the worldTrump Mobile has backed away from the claim that its golden smartphone will be “Made in the USA”, just a week after it was announced.The phone network launched by the Trump Organization has changed its website to say that the $499 smartphone will be “brought to life right here in the USA” and “designed with American values in mind”, after last week pledging the product would be manufactured in the US.Statements that the T1 phone would start shipping in August…

Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.A year ago, the generative AI mania sweeping through Silicon Valley and Wall Street faced a serious reality check.In a widely quoted note, Goldman Sachs’ head of equity research, Jim Covello, questioned whether the companies planning to pour $1bn into building generative AI would ever see a return on the money. A partner at venture capital firm Sequoia, meanwhile, estimated that tech companies needed to generate $600bn in extra revenue to justify their extra capital spending in 2024 alone — around six…