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Oracle, OpenAI to add 4.5 gigawatts data center capacity for Stargate venture

Oracle, OpenAI to add 4.5 gigawatts data center capacity for Stargate venture

The Star4 days ago
(Reuters) -Cloud firm Oracle and OpenAI plan to develop 4.5 gigawatts of additional data center capacity, the ChatGPT developer said on Tuesday.
The commitment is part of their Stargate joint venture, which aims to establish the United States as a leader in artificial intelligence amid intensifying global competition.
Including a data center site in Abilene, Texas, the expansion will bring the total data center capacity under construction to more than 5 gigawatts and is expected to operate more than 2 million chips, the company said.
(Reporting by Zaheer Kachwala in Bengaluru; Editing by Tasim Zahid)
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‘It's the most empathetic voice in my life': How AI is transforming the lives of neurodivergent people
‘It's the most empathetic voice in my life': How AI is transforming the lives of neurodivergent people

The Star

timean hour ago

  • The Star

‘It's the most empathetic voice in my life': How AI is transforming the lives of neurodivergent people

-For Cape Town-based filmmaker Kate D'hotman, connecting with movie audiences comes naturally. Far more daunting is speaking with others. 'I've never understood how people [decipher] social cues,' the 40-year-old director of horror films says. D'hotman has autism and attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), which can make relating to others exhausting and a challenge. However, since 2022, D'hotman has been a regular user of ChatGPT, the popular AI-powered chatbot from OpenAI, relying on it to overcome communication barriers at work and in her personal life. 'I know it's a machine,' she says. 'But sometimes, honestly, it's the most empathetic voice in my life.' Neurodivergent people — including those with autism, ADHD, dyslexia and other conditions — can experience the world differently from the neurotypical norm. Talking to a colleague, or even texting a friend, can entail misread signals, a misunderstood tone and unintended impressions. AI-powered chatbots have emerged as an unlikely ally, helping people navigate social encounters with real-time guidance. Although this new technology is not without risks — in particular some worry about over-reliance — many neurodivergent users now see it as a lifeline. How does it work in practice? For D'hotman, ChatGPT acts as an editor, translator and confidant. Before using the technology, she says communicating in neurotypical spaces was difficult. She recalls how she once sent her boss a bulleted list of ways to improve the company, at their request. But what she took to be a straightforward response was received as overly blunt, and even rude. Now, she regularly runs things by ChatGPT, asking the chatbot to consider the tone and context of her conversations. Sometimes she'll instruct it to take on the role of a psychologist or therapist, asking for help to navigate scenarios as sensitive as a misunderstanding with her best friend. She once uploaded months of messages between them, prompting the chatbot to help her see what she might have otherwise missed. Unlike humans, D'hotman says, the chatbot is positive and non-judgmental. That's a feeling other neurodivergent people can relate to. Sarah Rickwood, a senior project manager in the sales training industry, based in Kent, England, has ADHD and autism. Rickwood says she has ideas that run away with her and often loses people in conversations. 'I don't do myself justice,' she says, noting that ChatGPT has 'allowed me to do a lot more with my brain.' With its help, she can put together emails and business cases more clearly. The use of AI-powered tools is surging. A January study conducted by Google and the polling firm Ipsos found that AI usage globally has jumped 48%, with excitement about the technology's practical benefits now exceeding concerns over its potentially adverse February, OpenAI told Reuters that its weekly active users surpassed 400 million, of which at least 2 million are paying business users. But for neurodivergent users, these aren't just tools of convenience and some AI-powered chatbotsare now being created with the neurodivergent community in mind. Michael Daniel, an engineer and entrepreneur based in Newcastle, Australia, told Reuters that it wasn't until his daughter was diagnosed with autism — and he received the same diagnosis himself — that he realised how much he had been masking his own neurodivergent traits. His desire to communicate more clearly with his neurotypical wife and loved ones inspired him to build Neurotranslator, an AI-powered personal assistant, which he credits with helping him fully understand and process interactions, as well as avoid misunderstandings. 'Wow … that's a unique shirt,' he recalls saying about his wife's outfit one day, without realising how his comment might be perceived. She asked him to run the comment through NeuroTranslator, which helped him recognise that, without a positive affirmation, remarks about a person's appearance could come across as criticism. 'The emotional baggage that comes along with those situations would just disappear within minutes,' he says of using the app. Since its launch in September, Daniel says NeuroTranslator has attracted more than 200 paid subscribers. An earlier web version of the app, called Autistic Translator, amassed 500 monthly paid subscribers. As transformative as this technology has become, some warn against becoming too dependent. The ability to get results on demand can be 'very seductive,' says Larissa Suzuki, a London-based computer scientist and visiting NASA researcher who is herself neurodivergent. Overreliance could be harmful if it inhibits neurodivergent users' ability to function without it, or if the technology itself becomes unreliable — as is already the case with many AI search-engine results, according to a recent study from the Columbia Journalism Review.'If AI starts screwing up things and getting things wrong,' Suzuki says, 'people might give up on technology, and on themselves." Baring your soul to an AI chatbot does carry risk, agrees Gianluca Mauro, an AI adviser and co-author of Zero to AI. 'The objective [of AI models like ChatGPT] is to satisfy the user,' he says, raising questions about its willingness to offer critical advice. 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But for users who have come to rely on this technology, such fears are academic. 'A lot of us just end up kind of retreating from society,' warns D'hotman, who says that she barely left the house in the year following her autism diagnosis, feeling overwhelmed. Were she to give up using ChatGPT, she fears she would return to that traumatic period of isolation. 'As somebody who's struggled with a disability my whole life,' she says, 'I need this.' (Editing by Yasmeen Serhan and Sharon Singleton)

Oil prices ease to three-week low at weekend as negative economic news offsets trade optimism
Oil prices ease to three-week low at weekend as negative economic news offsets trade optimism

The Star

time2 hours ago

  • The Star

Oil prices ease to three-week low at weekend as negative economic news offsets trade optimism

JAKARTA/SINGAPORE (Reuters): Oil prices eased to a three-week low on Friday night on negative economic news from the United States and China and signs of growing supply despite optimism U.S. trade deals could boost global economic growth and oil demand in the future. Brent crude futures fell 76 cents, or 1.1%, to US$68.42 a barrel by 1:44 p.m. EDT (1744 GMT), while US West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude fell 91 cents, or 1.4%, to US$65.12. That put Brent on track for its lowest close since July 4 and WTI on track for its lowest close since June 30. For the week, Brent was down about 1% and WTI down about 3%. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen will meet U.S. President Donald Trump on Sunday in Scotland after European Union officials and diplomats said they expected to reach a framework trade deal this weekend. The euro zone economy has remained resilient to the pervasive uncertainty caused by a global trade war, a slew of data showed on Friday, even as European Central Bank policymakers appeared to temper market bets on no more rate cuts. In the U.S., meanwhile, new orders for U.S.-manufactured capital goods unexpectedly fell in June while shipments of those products increased moderately, suggesting that business spending on equipment slowed considerably in the second quarter. Trump said on Friday that he had a good meeting with Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell and got the impression that the head of the U.S. central bank might be ready to lower interest rates. Central banks, like the Fed or ECB, use interest rates to keep inflation in check. Lower interest rates reduce consumer borrowing costs and can boost economic growth and demand for oil. In China, the world's second biggest economy, fiscal revenue dipped 0.3% in the first six months from a year earlier, the finance ministry said on Friday, maintaining the rate of decline seen between January and May. GROWING SUPPLIES? The US is preparing to allow partners of Venezuela's state-run PDVSA, starting with U.S. oil major Chevron, to operate with limitations in the sanctioned nation, sources said on Thursday. That could boost Venezuelan oil exports by a little more than 200,000 barrels per day (bpd), which would be welcome news for U.S. refiners, as it would ease tightness in the heavier crude market, ING analysts wrote. In the Middle East, Iran said it would continue nuclear talks with European powers after "serious, frank, and detailed" conversations on Friday, the first such face-to-face meeting since Israel and the U.S. bombed Iran last month. Venezuela and Iran are members of the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). Any deal that could increase the amount of oil either sanctioned country could export would boost the amount of crude available to global markets. A meeting of the Joint Ministerial Monitoring Committee, which includes top ministers from OPEC and allies like Russia, a group known as OPEC+, is scheduled for 1200 GMT on Monday. Four OPEC+ sources told Reuters the meeting was unlikely to alter the group's existing policy, which calls for eight members to raise output by 548,000 bpd in August. In Russia, the world's second biggest crude oil producer behind the U.S., daily oil exports from its western ports are set to be around 1.77 million bpd in August, down from 1.93 million bpd in July's plan, amid the expected rise in refinery runs, Reuters calculations based on data from two sources show. In the U.S., energy firms this week cut the number of oil and natural gas rigs operating for the 12th time in 13 weeks, energy services firm Baker Hughes said in its closely followed report on Friday. (Reporting by Scott DiSavino in New York, Robert Harvey in London, and Sudarshan Varadhan and Siyi Liu in Singapore. Editing by Kirsten Donovan and Emelia Sithole-Matarise) - Reuters

Australia, Britain sign 50-year AUKUS submarine partnership treaty
Australia, Britain sign 50-year AUKUS submarine partnership treaty

The Star

time3 hours ago

  • The Star

Australia, Britain sign 50-year AUKUS submarine partnership treaty

SYDNEY: Australia's government said on Saturday (July 26) it signed a treaty with Britain to bolster cooperation over the next 50 years on the AUKUS nuclear submarine partnership. The AUKUS pact, agreed upon by Australia, Britain and the US in 2021, aims to provide Australia with nuclear-powered attack submarines from the next decade to counter China's ambitions in the Indo-Pacific. US President Donald Trump's administration announced a formal review of the pact this year. Defence Minister Richard Marles said in a statement that the bilateral treaty was signed with Britain's Defence Secretary John Healey on Saturday after a meeting in the city of Geelong, in Victoria state. "The Geelong Treaty will enable comprehensive cooperation on the design, build, operation, sustainment and disposal of our SSN-AUKUS submarines," the statement said. The treaty was a "commitment for the next 50 years of UK-Australian bilateral defence cooperation under AUKUS Pillar I", it said, adding that it built on the "strong foundation" of trilateral AUKUS cooperation. Britain's ministry of defence said this week that the bilateral treaty would underpin the two allies' submarine programmes and was expected to be worth up to 20 billion pounds (US$27.1 billion) for Britain in exports over the next 25 years. AUKUS is Australia's biggest-ever defence project, with Canberra committing to spend A$368 billion over three decades to the programme, which includes billions of dollars of investment in the US production base. Australia, which this month paid A$800 million to the US in the second instalment under AUKUS, has maintained it is confident the pact will proceed. The defence and foreign ministers of Australia and Britain held talks on Friday in Sydney on boosting cooperation, coinciding with Australia's largest war games. As many as 40,000 troops from 19 countries are taking part in the Talisman Sabre exercises held from July 13 to August 4, which Australia's military has said are a rehearsal for joint warfare to maintain Indo-Pacific stability. Britain has significantly increased its participation in the exercise co-hosted by Australia and the United States, with aircraft carrier HMS Prince of Wales taking part this year. - Reuters

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