Latest news with #AIresearch
CNA
4 days ago
- Science
- CNA
Singapore Botanic Gardens embarks on digitalisation effort to aid research
The Singapore Botanic Gardens is embarking on its largest digitalisation effort. It will capture more than 850,000 local botanic specimens and documents in a two-year project. These will go toward enhancing international research and the study of climate impact using AI.
The Independent
5 days ago
- Business
- The Independent
UK's most powerful supercomputer comes online in major AI drive
Britain's most powerful supercomputer has come online as the Government unveils plans for a major drive in AI research across the country. Technology Secretary Peter Kyle flicked the switch on the Isambard-AI machine in Bristol on Thursday, in a move ministers say will help the UK develop new medical cures and tools to cut emissions. The Government has pledged £1 billion to increase Britain's compute capacity 20-fold by 2030, including through the creation of a series of AI 'growth zones' designed to hasten planning approvals for new data centres. One of these will be built in Scotland, where Chancellor Rachel Reeves has also confirmed £750 million of funding will be dedicated to developing another supercomputer in Edinburgh, and another in Wales. Together with a second existing supercomputer in Cambridge, Isambard is expected to be able to process in one second 'what it would take the entire global population 80 years to achieve', the Government said. Businesses and scientists are expected to be able to use the systems to process more of the data required to train and build AI models to make new drug discoveries and breakthroughs in climate change technology. Researchers at the University of Liverpool are already using the machine to sift through tens of millions of chemical combinations in the hopes of finding ways to decarbonise British industry. The plans form part of the new Compute Roadmap, a strategy aimed at reducing reliance on foreign processing power and transform the UK's public compute capacity. By 2030, the Government expects this capacity to increase to 420 AI exaFLOP – the equivalent of one billion people spending 13,316 years doing what the system will do in one second. To support the plans, researchers, academics and tech bosses have been brought together to develop an AI science strategy to be published in the autumn. The group includes Google DeepMind vice-president Pushmeet Kohli, vice-president of the Royal Society Alison Noble and chairwoman of the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council Charlotte Deane. Ms Reeves said the plans would 'transform our public services, drive innovation and fuel economic growth that puts money in people's pockets'. Mr Kyle said they would 'put a rocket under our brilliant researchers, scientists and engineers – giving them the tools they need to make Britain the best place to do their work.'
Yahoo
6 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Meta reportedly scores two more high-profile OpenAI researchers
OpenAI researcher Jason Wei will join Meta's new Superintelligence Lab, reports Wired, citing two sources familiar with the matter. Another team member, Hyung Won Chung, may also join Meta. Sources told Wired that both the researchers' internal OpenAI Slack profiles are currently deactivated. Wei and Chung would be Meta's latest grab as CEO Mark Zuckerberg works to catch up in the race to AGI, or superintelligence, by luring top tech talent with astounding compensation packages. Wei's main focus at OpenAI was o3 and deep research models. He came to the ChatGPT-maker after working on chain-of-thought research at Google. Chung, who overlapped with Wei at Google, worked on deep research and OpenAI's o1 model. His research is focused on reasoning and agents. Sources told Wired that the two had a close working relationship, which could be why Zuckerberg scooped them both up. Like World War II drafters in the UK, he seems to have a penchant for bringing on groups who've worked together. Got a sensitive tip or confidential documents? We're reporting on the inner workings of the AI industry — from the companies shaping its future to the people impacted by their decisions. Reach out to Rebecca Bellan at and Maxwell Zeff at For secure communication, you can contact us via Signal at @rebeccabellan.491 and @mzeff.88. Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
TechCrunch
6 days ago
- Business
- TechCrunch
Meta reportedly scores two more high-profile OpenAI researchers
In Brief OpenAI researcher Jason Wei will join Meta's new Superintelligence Lab, reports Wired, citing two sources familiar with the matter. Another team member, Hyung Won Chung, may also join Meta. Sources told Wired that both the researchers' internal OpenAI Slack profiles are currently deactivated. Wei and Chung would be Meta's latest grab as CEO Mark Zuckerberg works to catch up in the race to AGI, or superintelligence, by luring top tech talent with astounding compensation packages. Wei's main focus at OpenAI was o3 and deep research models. He came to the ChatGPT-maker after working on chain-of-thought research at Google. Chung, who overlapped with Wei at Google, worked on deep research and OpenAI's o1 model. His research is focused on reasoning and agents. Sources told Wired that the two had a close working relationship, which could be why Zuckerberg scooped them both up. Like World War II drafters in the UK, he seems to have a penchant for bringing on groups who've worked together. Got a sensitive tip or confidential documents? We're reporting on the inner workings of the AI industry — from the companies shaping its future to the people impacted by their decisions. Reach out to Rebecca Bellan at and Maxwell Zeff at For secure communication, you can contact us via Signal at @rebeccabellan.491 and @mzeff.88.
WIRED
7 days ago
- Business
- WIRED
Another High-Profile OpenAI Researcher Departs for Meta
Jul 15, 2025 10:56 PM Jason Wei, who worked on OpenAI's o3 and deep research models, will be joining Meta's superintelligence lab. His colleague Hyung Won Chung is also joining Meta, a source tells WIRED. ILLUSTRATION: WIRED STAFF; GETTY IMAGES OpenAI researcher Jason Wei is joining Meta's new superintelligence lab, according to multiple sources familiar with the matter. Wei worked on OpenAI's o3 and deep research models, according to his personal website. He joined OpenAI in 2023 after a stint at Google, where he worked on chain-of-thought research, which involves training an AI model to process complex queries step-by-step. At OpenAI, Wei became a self-described 'diehard' for reinforcement learning, a method of training or refining an AI model with positive or negative feedback. It's become a promising area of AI research—one that several of the researchers Meta has hired for its superintelligence team specialize in. One source tells WIRED that another OpenAI researcher, Hyung Won Chung, will also be joining Meta. Multiple sources confirm that both Wei and Chung's internal OpenAI Slack profiles are currently deactivated. OpenAI, Meta, Wei, and Chung did not immediately respond to requests for comment from WIRED. Chung worked on some of the same projects at OpenAI as Wei, including deep research and OpenAI's o1 model, according to Chung's personal website. His research is primarily focused on reasoning and agents, the website says. Chung overlapped with Wei at Google as well, and joined OpenAI at the same time as Wei, per their LinkedIn profiles. Multiple sources tell WIRED that Wei and Chung have a close working relationship. Meta has previously poached groups of researchers that have experience working together for its new superintelligence lab, including a trio from OpenAI's Switzerland office that joined the ChatGPT maker from Google. Meta has been going on a poaching spree over the past month, offering up to $300 million over four years to top AI talent. WIRED reported late last month that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg sent an internal memo to staff that laid out a fresh plan for the company's AI efforts. It included a list of new staffers for the superintelligence team, most of whom had been recruited from OpenAI. The hiring frenzy shows no signs of slowing down, and OpenAI has been fighting back. Just last week, WIRED reported that OpenAI had recruited four high-ranking engineers from Tesla, xAI, and Meta. On Tuesday, Wei shared a post on social media reflecting on what he called 'an important lesson' that reinforcement learning taught him 'about how to live my own life.' In life, (and when building AI models), imitation is good and you have to do it at first, Wei wrote. But 'beating the teacher requires walking your own path and taking risks and rewards from the environment.'
