Thursday, 16 July, 2026

SpaceX Dragon CRS-34 hauls 6,500 lb of science to the ISS

After two weather scrubs, SpaceX successfully launched its CRS-34 cargo mission to the International Space Station from Florida on 15 May 2026. Dragon carried about 6,500 pounds (2,950 kg) of supplies, hardware, and scientific experiments, with autonomous docking to the forward port of the Harmony module scheduled for 17 May around 7:05 a.m. EDT. CRS-34 […]

New CRISPR variant Cas12a2 selectively kills cancer cells without harming healthy ones

A paper published in Nature on 6 May 2026 describes a new class of CRISPR tool, Cas12a2, that destroys cells displaying a target RNA signature rather than editing DNA. The mechanism — “RNA-triggered cell killing” — opens a precision-medicine route to cancers and viral infections that has been hard to reach with conventional gene-editing. In […]

NASA tests AI space chip 500x more powerful than current spacecraft processors

NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory shared on 15 May 2026 that its new High Performance Spaceflight Computing (HPSC) processor is performing as designed in early testing — and is running at roughly 500 times the performance of the radiation-hardened chips currently flying. Small enough to fit in the palm of a hand, the HPSC packs a […]

First large-scale Blackwell B200 AI cluster goes live in Canada

Alpha Compute announced on 8 May 2026 the handover of its first large-scale NVIDIA Blackwell deployment: a 504-chip B200 server cluster located in Canada, now in final testing and ready for AI compute customers. It is one of the first commercial-scale Blackwell clusters to come online outside the hyperscalers. Blackwell-architecture GPUs pack 208 billion transistors […]

US AI Safety Institute wins pre-release access to Google, Microsoft, xAI models

The US Center for AI Standards and Innovation (CAISI), the successor body to the US AI Safety Institute, announced on 5 May 2026 that it had signed agreements with Google DeepMind, Microsoft, and Elon Musk’s xAI to evaluate their frontier AI models before public release. The deals expand a framework that already covered OpenAI and […]

Google previews ‘Gemini Intelligence’ for Android ahead of I/O

On 13 May 2026, days before its I/O developer conference, Google previewed Gemini Intelligence: a system-level layer that pushes Gemini into the core of Android. The rollout begins this summer on the Samsung Galaxy and Google Pixel lines, then expands across compatible Android devices — phones, watches, cars, glasses, and laptops — through the rest […]

Google releases Gemma 4, betting on intelligence-per-parameter

Google quietly shipped the Gemma 4 family on 4 May 2026, the next generation of its open-weight models. The release continues Google’s twin-track strategy: keep Gemini at the frontier of closed models while using Gemma to set the bar for what open-weight systems can do. Gemma 4 is explicitly engineered for advanced reasoning and agentic […]

EU strikes Omnibus deal to soften AI Act and extend deadlines

On 7 May 2026 the European Parliament and Council reached a political agreement on the AI Act “Omnibus” package, a set of amendments designed to simplify Europe’s flagship AI rulebook before its toughest provisions take effect this summer. The deal pushes back compliance deadlines for high-risk AI systems, which would otherwise have applied from 2 […]

Anthropic in talks to raise up to $50B at a $950B valuation

Anthropic is in early discussions for a new funding round that would push its valuation to as much as $950 billion, the New York Times reported on 12 May 2026. At the top of the range, the AI lab would overtake OpenAI’s last reported $825 billion valuation and become the highest-valued private AI company in […]

Bulletin France — 16 mai 2026

Politique Présidentielle 2027 : Jordan Bardella se prépare – Le président du Rassemblement national affine sa stratégie en vue de l’élection présidentielle de 2027, tandis qu’il attend la décision de justice concernant Marine Le Pen. Cette échéance judiciaire reste un enjeu central pour le parti. Aurore Bergé sur le tapis rouge de Cannes – La […]