China leads the humanoid robot race — but the U.S. still has a shot

9 March 2026 at 05:00

Since the start of the year, China’s humanoid robots have made waves at home and abroad — from the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas to China’s Lunar New Year...

A humanoid robot is on display in China.

Waiting for the check marks: The reality of connecting with family in Iran

Rest of World

By:Bahareh Sahebi

6 March 2026 at 06:00

The first thing I look at each morning is not the headlines; it’s two check marks on my phone. They sit under the message I sent hours earlier to my...

Black-box AI and cheap drones are outpacing global rules of war

Rest of World

By:Rina Chandran

5 March 2026 at 11:27

The ongoing conflict in the Middle East has brought artificial intelligence and the technology behind unmanned aerial vehicles, or drones, into sharp focus. The U.S. military is using the most...

A boy walks past an unexploded Iranian missile that landed in an open field in eastern Syria, on March 5, 2026.

Meta’s Oversight Board races to govern the AI surge

Rest of World

By:Ananya Bhattacharya

5 March 2026 at 06:00

As the worlds of social media and artificial intelligence collide, Meta’s Oversight Board is rethinking how it can best execute its regulatory role. Meta’s Oversight Board is an independent, external...

Iranian drone strikes at Amazon sites raise alarms over protecting data centers

Rest of World

By:Viola Zhou

4 March 2026 at 13:17

The Iranian drone strikes that hit Amazon Web Services facilities in the Middle East have thrust a new question to the forefront of the tech industry: Should data centers be...

Big Tech’s Gulf megaprojects are trapped between two war choke points

Rest of World

By:Indranil Ghosh

4 March 2026 at 11:05

Billions of dollars in U.S. technology infrastructure, and trillions more in planned investment, now depend on fiber-optic cables running through war zones. Amazon, Microsoft, and Google spent years building data...

Smoke rises from an unknown location in Tehran, Iran, on March 4, 2026, after U.S.-Israeli attacks.

An AI avatar is running to represent Indigenous voters in Colombia

Rest of World

By:Mariel Lozada and Rina Chandran

4 March 2026 at 08:00

Among the thousands of candidates seeking election in Colombia’s parliamentary polls this month is an artificial intelligence avatar. Its creator hopes it will change the way Indigenous people in the...

An AI generated image of Gaitana, an AI avatar and political candidate in an upcoming Colombian election.

Open-source AI hardware could weaken Big Tech’s grip on AI

Rest of World

By:Ananya Bhattacharya

4 March 2026 at 06:00

On February 20, attendees at the India AI Impact Summit watched an unusual demonstration unfold. An artificial intelligence-powered device scanned a table and identified the candy bars laid out on...

India’s tech sovereignty is built on digital dependence

Rest of World

By:Dwaipayan Banerjee

3 March 2026 at 06:00

India’s computing history is punctuated by moments of possibility, each representing a road not taken. What began as a genuine struggle for technological sovereignty has mutated into its inverse: a...

Iranian strikes test the Gulf’s trillion-dollar AI dream

Rest of World

By:Indranil Ghosh

2 March 2026 at 11:46

For years, Gulf leaders made a simple promise to Silicon Valley: Bring your data, your models, and your chips, and we will give you stability. On Sunday, that promise ended...

President Donald Trump attends a business meeting in Abu Dhabi, United Arab Emirates., on May 16, 2025.

Trump opens for Vietnam the chip door he locked on China

Rest of World

By:Indranil Ghosh

2 March 2026 at 06:00

The U.S. is helping Vietnam build a chip industry designed to replace that of China. On February 20, President Donald Trump said he would remove Vietnam from a strategic export...

US President Donald Trump stands during an arrival ceremony in Hanoi on November 12, 2017.
Trump arrived in the Vietnamese capital on November 11 after attending the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) Summit leaders meetings earlier in the day in Danang. / AFP PHOTO / JIM WATSON (Photo credit should read JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)

Why are Chinese EVs cheaper than Tesla?

Rest of World

By:Ananya Bhattacharya

27 February 2026 at 04:00

Everyone thinks they know why Chinese electric vehicles are so cheap, and almost everyone is wrong. Western carmakers’ share of China’s EV market fell to just over a third last...

The next AI whistleblower could come from anywhere in the world

Rest of World

By:Rina Chandran

26 February 2026 at 06:00

In recent weeks, former safety workers and researchers at OpenAI and Anthropic have gone public with their grievances, sparking a debate about the safety of artificial intelligence. Mrinank Sharma quit...

Dubai taps U.S. startups to go over, under, and around its traffic

Rest of World

By:Indranil Ghosh

25 February 2026 at 04:00

No city is betting bigger on electric and autonomous transport than Dubai. At the World Governments Summit earlier this month, Dubai’s Roads and Transport Authority signed agreements with three U.S....

Traffic is seen on the main road of Dubai city, Sheikh Zayed Road during the COP28, UN Climate Change Conference, held by UNFCCC in Dubai Exhibition Center, United Arab Emirates on December 9, 2023. The main protest during the conference focused on Palestinian war and the climate consequences of colonialism. COP28, running from November 30 to December 12 focuses on particular nations' decarbonisation goals. The Conference in Dubai focuses also on the most vulnerable communities and Loss and Damage (Photo by Dominika Zarzycka/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

Data centers are racing to space — and regulation can’t keep up

Rest of World

By:Damilare Dosunmu

24 February 2026 at 06:00

Data centers are going to space faster than the rules that govern them. Over the past month, six American companies and a Chinese firm have expressed interest in building orbital...

Gig workers in Africa have been helping the US military. They had no idea

Rest of World

By:Niamh McIntyre · Edwin Okoth and Cam Wilson

23 February 2026 at 06:00

This piece was republished with permission from the Bureau of Investigative Journalism. It was produced in partnership with the Pulitzer Center’s AI Accountability Network. Six weeks before the US launched...

U.S. plans Peace Corps-style “Tech Corps” to counter China’s AI exports

Rest of World

By:Viola Zhou

20 February 2026 at 18:31

The U.S. government is planning to send “Tech Corps” volunteers abroad to promote the adoption of American artificial intelligence, as Washington competes with China for global AI dominance. The program...

Can social media age verification really protect kids?

Rest of World

By:Rina Chandran

19 February 2026 at 08:00

Fourteen-year-old Carolina has been on Roblox since she was 10, chatting and playing with other gamers on the platform. When the site rolled out mandatory age checks at the start...

Family deepfakes help people celebrate and grieve in India

Rest of World

By:Hanan Zaffar and Jyoti Thakur

19 February 2026 at 06:00

When the lights dimmed at Jaideep Sharma’s wedding reception in the north Indian city of Ajmer, guests expected to see a cheesy montage of the young couple in various attractive...

AI sovereignty won’t come from renting Big Tech’s models

Rest of World

By:Raffi Krikorian

19 February 2026 at 04:00

As the world descends on New Delhi for India’s AI Impact Summit this week, the questions on the table could not be more consequential. Artificial intelligence has become a core...

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