<h2>Baby Erdoğan's Mustache</h2>
It's called diplomacy, guys.
This year's European Political Community, an annual forum for European leaders founded in 2022 following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, kicked off on Friday in Tirana, Albania. Europe's leaders were greeted with a <a href="https://www.facebook.com/watch/live/?ref=watch_permalink&amp;v=1033881978212556&amp;t=1309">ten-ish minute presentation</a> that celebrated Europe's commitment to sovereignty and shared triumphs over evil. There were flashing lights and dance performances, and a few different video sequences. And to close out the show, <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/ai-generated-baby-greet-europe-leader-albania-summit/">as Politico reports</a>, the Albanian government landed on the obvious editorial choice: a montage of the summit's leaders pictured as AI-generated babies, who each said "Welcome to Albania" in their country's language.
It was perfect. Did baby-fied Recep Tayyip Erdoğan, Turkey's authoritarian strongman, rock a tiny AI-generated mustache? He did indeed! Did French President Emmanuel Macron smack his gum in pleasant bemusement as he watched his AI baby self smile onscreen? You bet!
Our hats are off to <a href="https://www.politico.eu/article/albania-election-edi-rama-socialist-party-maga-opponents-eu-accession/">Edi Rama</a>, Albania's recently re-elected president. So far, between MAGAworld and its monarch <a href="https://futurism.com/trump-ai-genderqueer-bellydancers">embracing AI slop</a> as its <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/08/trump-posts-ai-image/679540/">defining aesthetic</a>, AI-generated misinformation <a href="https://futurism.com/hurricane-scam-ai-slop">causing chaos</a>, and <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/ai-investigation-running-mayor-wyoming">attempted AI mayors</a> and <a href="https://futurism.com/political-party-led-by-artificial-intelligence">political parties</a>, this is easily the most compelling use of generative AI in politics we've seen.
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Heads of state turned into baby leaders in Tirana welcome | REUTERS" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/I7OBWloLxUs?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
<h2>Politicking</h2>
The camera televising the event repeatedly panned to the crowd, where the response from Europe's most powerful was mixed. Some laughed, while others bristled; some mostly looked confused. Which makes sense, given that this is a serious conference where, per Politico, the majority of leaders are looking to push for harsher sanctions on Russia as its war on Ukraine wages on and <a href="https://www.reuters.com/world/russia-ukraine-hold-first-direct-peace-talks-over-3-years-2025-05-16/">tense talks</a> between Moscow and Kyiv continue without a ceasefire.
It's unclear how the AI baby bit fit into Albania's message of a peaceful, unified Europe. Though the presentation did start with childlike drawings, the sounds of kids laughing, and a youthful voiceover, so maybe it was an attempt to bring the show full circle? Or maybe, considering the heavy subject matter and fast-heating global tension and uncertainty, Rama just wanted to break the ice.
Anyway. We're sure nothing will humble you, a leader of a nation, like sitting in an auditorium and oscillating between unsure grimaces and giggling whilst staring down your AI-generated baby face.
More on AI and guys in Europe: <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/new-pope-skeptical-ai">The New Pope Is Deeply Skeptical of AI</a>

Diplomacy in Action

No notes.

World Leaders Shown AI Baby Versions of Themselves at European Summit

If Disney leadership has its way, we'll all be drooling over endless Star Wars reboots, sequels, and spinoffs until the Sun explodes. And what better way to keep the slop machine humming than using good old generative AI?
Unfortunately, as <a href="https://www.404media.co/star-wars-shows-the-future-of-ai-special-effects-and-it-sucks/">highlighted by </a><a href="https://www.404media.co/star-wars-shows-the-future-of-ai-special-effects-and-it-sucks/">404 Media</a>, we just got a preview of what that might look like. Industrial Light and Magic, the legendary visual effects studio behind nearly every "Star Wars" movie, released a new demo showcasing how AI could supercharge depictions of the sci-fi universe. 
And unsurprisingly, it looks absolutely, flabbergastingly awful.
The demo, called "Star Wars: Field Guide," was revealed <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E3Yo7PULlPs">in a recent TED talk</a> given by ILM's chief creative officer Rob Bredow, who stressed that it was just a test — "not a final product" — created by one artist in two weeks. 
It's supposed to give you a feel of what it'd be like to send a probe droid to a new Star Wars planet, Bredow said. But what unfolds doesn't feel like "Star Wars" at all. More so, it's just a collection of generic-looking nature documentary-style shots, featuring the dumbest creature designs you've ever seen. And all of them are immediately recognizable as some form of real-life Earth animal, which echoes the criticisms of generative AI as being merely a tool that <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2023/1/17/23558516/ai-art-copyright-stable-diffusion-getty-images-lawsuit">regurgitates existing art</a>.
<iframe loading="lazy" title="Star Wars Changed Visual Effects — AI Is Doing It Again | Rob Bredow | TED" width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/E3Yo7PULlPs?start=641&feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
You can watch it <a href="https://youtu.be/E3Yo7PULlPs?si=RHCwUjsLvDuEcWai&amp;t=641">here</a> yourself, but here's a quick rundown of the abominations on display — which all have that fake-looking AI sheen to them. A blue tiger with a lion's mane. A manatee with what are obviously just squid tentacles pasted onto its snout. An ape with stripes. A polar bear with stripes. A peacock that's actually a snail. A blue elk that randomly has brown ears. A monkey-spider. A zebra rhino. Need we say more? 
<img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-351357" src="https://wordpress-assets.futurism.com/2025/05/Screenshot-2025-05-14-at-2.49.58 PM-300x148.png" alt="" width="300" height="148" /> <img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-medium wp-image-351358" src="https://wordpress-assets.futurism.com/2025/05/Screenshot-2025-05-14-at-2.50.50 PM-300x148.png" alt="" width="300" height="148" />
"None of those creatures look like they belong in Star Wars," wrote one commenter on the TED talk video. "They are all clearly two Earth animals fused together in the most basic way."
Make no mistake: ILM is a pioneer in the special effects industry. Founded by George Lucas during the production of the original "Star Wars" movie, the outfit has innovated so many of the feats of visual trickery that filmmakers depend on today while spearheading the use of CGI. Its bona fides range from "Terminator 2," and "Jurassic Park," to "Starship Troopers." 
Which is why it's all the more disheartening to see it kowtowing to a technology that bastardizes an art form it perfected. What ILM shows us is a far cry from the iconic creature designs that "Star Wars" is known for, from Tauntauns to Ewoks.
Sure, there's some room for debate about how much of a role <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/cgi-totally-ai-generated-movie">AI should play in filmmaking</a> — with <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/lionsgate-deal-ai-company">labor being the biggest question</a> — and Bredow broaches the subject by pointing out that ILM has always taken cutting-edge technologies and used them along with proven techniques. He assures the audience that real artists aren't going anywhere, and that "innovation thrives when the old and new technologies are blended together."
That's all well and good. But to jump from that sort of careful stance to showing off completely AI-generated creations sends a deeply conflicting message.
More on AI in movies: <a href="https://futurism.com/disney-marvel-fantastic-four-ai">Disney Says Its "Fantastic Four" Posters Aren't AI, They Actually Just Look Like Absolute Garbage</a>

Slop Wars

"None of those creatures look like they belong in Star Wars."

Star Wars' Showcase of AI Special Effects Was a Complete Disaster

A team of researchers at the University of California, Davis, made small tweaks to the molecular structure of lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) to see if it could be turned into an effective brain-healing treatment for patients that suffer from conditions like schizophrenia — without risking a potentially disastrous acid trip.
As detailed in a <a href="https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2416106122">new paper</a> published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences last month, the researchers created a new compound called JRT by shifting the position of just two atoms of the psychedelic's molecular structure.
With the two atoms flipped, the new drug could still stimulate brain cell growth and repair damaged neural connections, while simultaneously minimizing psychedelic effects, in mice.
"Basically, what we did here is a tire rotation," said corresponding author and UC Davis chemistry professor David Olson in a <a href="https://scitechdaily.com/scientists-flip-two-atoms-in-lsd-and-unlock-a-game-changing-mental-health-treatment/">statement</a>. "By just transposing two atoms in LSD, we significantly improved JRT’s selectivity profile and reduced its hallucinogenic potential."
In experiments involving mice, the team found that JRT improved negative symptoms of schizophrenia without worsening other behaviors associated with psychosis.
While it's still far too early to tell if JRT could be effective in humans as well, the team is hoping that the new drug could become a powerful new therapeutic, especially for those suffering from conditions like schizophrenia.
"No one really wants to give a hallucinogenic molecule like LSD to a patient with schizophrenia," said Olson. "The development of JRT emphasizes that we can use psychedelics like LSD as starting points to make better medicines."
"We may be able to create medications that can be used in patient populations where psychedelic use is precluded," he added.
Olsen and his colleagues hope their new drug could provide an alternative to drugs like clozapine, a schizophrenia treatment, without negative side effects like an inability to feel pleasure and a decline in cognitive function.
Interestingly, it also proved a powerful antidepressant in early experiments involving mice at doses 100-fold lower than ketamine, a popular anesthetic used for the treatment of depression and pain management.
But before it can be tested in humans, the team still has plenty of work to do.
"JRT has extremely high therapeutic potential," Olsen said in the statement. Right now, we are testing it in other disease models, improving its synthesis, and creating new analogs of JRT that might be even better."
More on LSD: <a href="https://futurism.com/neoscope/former-ceo-sues-microdosing-lsd">Former CEO Sues Company That Fired Him for Microdosing LSD in an Investor Meeting</a>

No Trip

Treatments

This new compound could be a game changer.

Scientists Tweaked LSD’s Molecular Structure and Created a Wild New Brain Drug

At the end of 2024, fifteen US states had laws banning some version of facial recognition.
Usually, these laws were written on the basis that the technology is a nightmare-level privacy invasion that's also too shoddy to be relied upon. Now, a new company aims to solve that problem — though maybe not in the way you'd imagine (or like).
Per <a href="https://www.technologyreview.com/2025/05/12/1116295/how-a-new-type-of-ai-is-helping-police-skirt-facial-recognition-bans/">a report in MIT Technology Review</a>, a new AI tool called Track is being used not to improve facial recognition technology, nor as a way to make it less invasive of your personal civil liberties, but as a workaround to the current laws against facial recognition (which are few and far between, at least when compared to <a href="https://www.banfacialrecognition.com/map/">the places it's allowed to operate</a>). It's a classic tale of technology as "disruption," simply by identifying a legal loophole to be exploited.
That new tool, called Track, is a "nonbiometric" system that emerged out of a SkyNet-esque company that specializes in video analytics, Veritone.
According to MIT Technology Review's story, it already has 400 customers using Track in places where facial recognition is banned, or in instances where someone's face is covered. Even more: Last summer, Veritone issued a press release announcing the US Attorney's office had <a href="https://www.veritone.com/newsroom/press-releases/doj-eousa/">expanded the remit</a> of their Authorization to Operate, the mandate that gives a company like Veritone the ability to carry out surveillance operations.
Why? Because Track can (supposedly) triangulate people's identities off of footage using a series of identifying factors, which include monitored subjects' shoes, clothing, body shape, gender, hair, and various accessories — basically, everything but your face. The footage Track is capable of scanning includes everything from closed-circuit security tapes, body-cams, drone footage, Ring cameras, and crowd/public footage (sourced from various social media networks where it's been uploaded).
In a view MIT Technology Review obtained of Track in operation, users can select from a dropdown menu listing a series of attributes by which they want to identify subjects: Accessory, Body, Face, Footwear, Gender, Hair, Lower, Upper. Each of those menus has a sub-menu. On "Accessory," the sub-menu lists: Any Bag, Backpack, Box, Briefcase, Glasses, Handbag, Hat, Scarf, Shoulder Bag, and so on. The "Upper" attribute breaks down into Color, Sleeve, Type (of upper-body clothing), and those types break down into more sub-categories.
Once the user selects the attributes they're looking for, Track gives the user a series of images taken from the footage being reviewed, containing a series of matches. And from there, it will continue to help users narrow down footage until they've assembled a triangulation of their surveillance target's path.
If this sounds like current facial recognition software — in other words, like it's a relatively fallible Orwellian enterprise, bound to waste quite a bit of money, <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/facial-recognition-ai-false-arrest">netting all the wrong people</a> along the way — well, the folks at Veritone see it another way.
Their CEO called Track their "Jason Bourne tool," while also praising its ability to exonerate those identified by it. It's an incredibly dark, canny way to get around limitations on their ability to use facial recognition tracking systems, simply by providing something very much like it, that isn't precisely biometric data. By going around that loophole, Signal equips police departments and federal law enforcement agencies with the unencumbered opportunity to conduct surveillance that's been legislated against in all but the precise letter of the law. And surveillance, it's worth noting, that might be even more harmful or detrimental than facial recognition itself.
It's entirely possible that people who wear certain kinds of clothing or look a certain way can be caught up by Track. And this is in a world where we already know people have been falsely <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/rite-aid-facial-recognition-shoppers">accused of theft</a>, falsely <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/facial-recognition-ai-false-arrest">arrested</a>, or <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/sunglass-hut-facial-recognition-falsely-jailed">falsely jailed</a>, all thanks to facial recognition technology.
Or as American Civil Liberties Union lawyer Nathan Wessler told MIT Tech Review: "It creates a categorically new scale and nature of privacy invasion and potential for abuse that was literally not possible any time before in human history.”
Looks like they're gonna have to find another name for <a href="https://www.banfacialrecognition.com/map/">the big map</a>.
More on Facial Recognition: <a href="https://futurism.com/facial-recognition-meta-plan">Years After Promising to Stop Facial Recognition Work, Meta Has a Devious New Plan</a>

LOOPHOLE SHAPED EYE OF SAURON

Laws against facial recognition? Please.

The Hot New AI Tool in Law Enforcement Is a Workaround for Places Where Facial Recognition Is Banned

<h2>More Cowbell</h2>
In southeastern Brazil, bovine beauty pageants help determine the most genetically desirable cows in the world — and these "supercows" are changing the meat farming industry as we know it.
As <a href="https://www.economist.com/the-americas/2025/05/14/brazilian-supercows-are-taking-over-the-world">The Economist reports</a>, the drapey-necked "zebu" cows who compete in Brazil's ExpoZebu gala originally hailed from India, but have taken over in the South American country since the 19th century — initially thanks to a <a href="https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC8833572/">natural resistance</a> to heat and parasites that European breeds lacked, and later thanks to <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20003849/">genetic modification and cloning</a>.
In Brazil's Minas Gerais, cattle farming took the region from poverty to plenty — and zebu, which now make up some 80 percent of the more than 230 million-strong cow population of the country, are the king of the crop.
Thanks to genetic modification programs from the 1970s onwards, both the plants that these "supercows" eat and the cattle themselves have made them all the stronger. In the 1990s, when animal breeding programs really began to take hold in Brazil, zebu began to quite literally get larger — and the average weight of one has ballooned by 16 percent since 1997, The Economist notes.
<h2>Pageant Queens</h2>
At these pageants, buyers flock from all over the world not to purchase individual cows, but to get access to their genes — though the richest of the ranchers are able to bid on shares of each.
The value of these elite zebu can balloon into the millions — last year, a female named Viatina-19 FIV Mara Movéis became <a href="https://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/world-records/70813-most-expensive-cow-sold-at-auction">the most valuable cow in the world</a> at $4 million, and she has a team of vets and even an armed bodyguard to make sure she stays safe and healthy.
Cows like Viatina-19 have three owners, each given the right to harvest their eggs for four months out of the year and sell them to breeders who, down the line, will license those genes to farmers looking to sell the meat. Unsurprisingly, prize-winning zebu are also cloned to ensure their genetic lines remain intact.
Notably, the bovine heartiness of these zebu gene-hacking endeavors has opened the door not only to greater access to cow meat, but also to safer supplies as well.
The World Organization for Animal Health, for instance, is slated to declare Brazil <a href="https://www.paho.org/en/news/7-4-2025-south-america-nears-eradication-foot-and-mouth-disease-over-65-livestock-disease-free">free of foot-and-mouth disease</a>, The Economist reports — a boon for Brazil, but also for food safety and sanitation around the world, too.
More on future meat: <a href="https://futurism.com/neoscope/fda-approves-gene-hacked-pigs-consumption">FDA Approves Gene-Hacked CRISPR Pigs for Human Consumption</a>

Fancy Girls

These are no normal bovines.

Brazilian "Supercows" Reportedly Close to Achieving World Domination

In the 1960s, physicist Freeman Dyson proposed that advanced alien civilizations could be building enormous megastructures around a star to harness its energy.
Such a move would allow a civilization to advance from a Type I to a Type II civilization on the <a class="underline hover:text-the-byte hover:no-underline transition-all duration-200 ease-in-out" href="https://www.space.com/kardashev-scale">Kardashev scale</a>, harvesting the energy available from a star directly instead of from a given planet's surface.
These shells, dubbed <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/dyson-sphere-sun-jupiter-raw-materials">Dyson spheres</a>, could be <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/star-systems-alien-megastructures">giving off distinct technosignatures</a>, astronomers have suggested, making them observable, potentially, from many light-years away.
But despite our best efforts, we have yet to make first contact, let alone with an alien-built megastructure siphoning off the energy released by a star.
And, as <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2479677-alien-megastructures-would-likely-self-destruct-before-we-spot-them/">New Scientist reports</a>, there could be a good reason for that. According to Brian Lacki, a scientist involved with the Breakthrough Listen Initiative — which searches for evidence of extraterrestrial civilizations — Dyson spheres may destroy themselves long before we can encounter one.
In a <a href="https://arxiv.org/abs/2504.21151">yet-to-be-peer-reviewed paper</a>, Lacki proposed that having satellite-like objects swarming a star all at once could result in a disastrous, cascading effect in the case of a collision.
"When you have a whole bunch of things moving together like that in a swarm, a natural question is going to be, do they sometimes bump into each other?" Lacki told New Scientist. "At their orbital speeds, that can be disastrous."
In many ways, the risk of that kind of scenario is already playing out in the orbit of our own planet. Scientists have long warned that satellites circling the Earth could collide with each other or with one of the countless pieces of space junk, potentially triggering a knock-on effect, called <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/spacex-starlink-satellites-space">Kessler syndrome</a>.
Experts have warned that it's <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/space-junk-disaster-inevitable">only a matter of time</a> until a collision could trigger a catastrophe.
According to Lacki, aliens would have to tread very carefully to ensure that satellites aren't crossing each other's paths.
"You just can’t have that much material around a star without it colliding with itself and eventually shredding itself to pieces, unless each of those swarm components is careful about managing its orbit," Penn State astrophysics professor Jason Wright, who was not involved in the research, told New Scientist.
Lacki's conclusion leaves an intriguing possibility: we may still be able to detect the signatures of already collapsed megastructures orbiting distant stars. However, without that visible technosignature, they would be incredibly difficult to spot.
As far as harnessing the power of the Sun is concerned, researchers <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/dyson-sphere-sun-jupiter-raw-materials">have previously found</a> that we would need to demolish a Jupiter-sized planet to build a Dyson sphere around our host star, an enormous — and likely risky — endeavor.
More on Dyson spheres: <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/star-systems-alien-megastructures">Scientists Identify Seven Star Systems That May Be Hosting Alien Megastructures</a>

Hoopty Sphere

Is this why we haven't caught one yet?

What Are Alien Dyson Spheres, Why Are They So Janky, and Why Are They Doomed to Go Undetected?

A controversial new study has found that those who live within just two miles of a golf course may face up to three times the odds of developing Parkinson's disease, the progressive neurological disorder that causes tremors and difficulty with balance.
According to the <a href="https://jamanetwork.com/journals/jamanetworkopen/fullarticle/2833716">population-based case-control study</a> published in the journal JAMA Network Open, environmental risks (including pesticide exposure and groundwater contamination) could be contributing to the risk of developing Parkinson's near a golf course. And in the United States, golf courses are treated with extremely high levels of pesticides, which could in fact be varying degrees of <a href="https://beyondpesticides.org/dailynewsblog/2023/03/pesticide-dangers-at-golf-courses-much-higher-in-the-us-than-europe-study-finds/">hazardous to human health</a>.
The team examined medical records of over 5,000 people in southern Minnesota and western Wisconsin from 1991 to 2015, as well as groundwater vulnerability data. The team found that people living between one and two miles from a golf course weren't just more likely, but were 198 percent more likely to develop Parkinson's compared to a control group.
"The odds of PD were relatively constant within close proximity to a golf course and decreased linearly as distance increased; individuals living farther from a golf course had reduced odds of PD, decreasing relative to the distance from the nearest golf course," the researchers wrote in the paper.
But not everybody agrees with that assessment. Experts have called the conclusion "reductive," arguing that the evidence is simply not strong enough to draw a definitive line between the prevalence of Parkinson's and the pesticides used at golf courses in the US.
"This study suggests an association between pesticides and Parkinson’s, however there are some important limitations in the methodology to be aware of," said Parkinson’s UK director of research David Dexter in a <a href="https://www.sciencemediacentre.org/expert-reaction-to-study-looking-at-parkinsons-disease-risk-and-proximity-to-golf-courses/">statement</a>. "Firstly, Parkinson’s starts in the brain ten-15 years before diagnosis and the study didn’t only use subjects who permanently lived in the area. This would not only affect participants’ exposure, but also suggests their Parkinson’s could have started before they moved around a golf course."
"The population was also not matched for location with 80 percent of the Parkinson’s subjects living in urban areas, compared to only 30 percent of controls, hence other factors like air pollution from motor vehicles etc. could also account for some of the increases in Parkinson’s incidence," he added.
"Many studies have investigated whether pesticides increase the risk of developing Parkinson’s in different populations around the world," Parkinson's UK research lead Katherine Fletcher added. "The results have been varied, but overall suggest that exposure to pesticides may increase the risk of the condition."
"However, the evidence is not strong enough to show that pesticide exposure directly causes Parkinson’s," she added, arguing the study is "reductive" and "doesn’t take into account how someone might have been exposed to pesticides at their workplace or whether they have a genetic link to the condition."
Despite decades of research, there's no cure for Parkinson's disease. However, treatments to slow its progression are available.
Nailing down the exact cause of the disease has also proven extremely difficult. The consensus is that there are likely a number of genetic and environmental factors at play.
"It’s probably a perfect storm," Parkinson’s Canada CEO Karen Lee <a href="https://globalnews.ca/news/11175291/parkinsons-disease-linked-living-near-golf-course-study/">told Global News</a>. "Meaning, you have genes that prime you to potentially get Parkinson’s, and if you’re put in the right environment, potentially that is what sets off the onset of Parkinson’s disease."
More on Parkinson's: <a href="https://futurism.com/neoscope/brett-favre-parkinsons-concussions">Brett Favre Says He Has Parkinson’s, Likely From Countless Concussions</a>

Taking a Mulligan

Studies

"It’s probably a perfect storm."

Study: Living Near a Golf Course Could Lead to a Terrible Chronic Illness

<h2>Budget Batteries</h2>
General Motors <a href="https://news.gm.com/home.detail.html/Pages/topic/us/en/2025/may/0513-LMR-batteries-outlook-EV-market.html">recently announced</a> its intention to mass-produce what it calls a "<a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2025/05/13/gm-new-ev-battery-tech.html">groundbreaking</a>" EV battery that's 33 percent more dense than the top-end of lithium iron phosphate batteries, currently the world-standard.
To be developed with battery manufacturer LG, the new batteries are said to rely on lithium manganese rich (LMR) technology, which requires a lot less nickel and cobalt than their lithium iron phosphate counterparts. In turn, the new energy packs could reduce the cost of GM EVs immensely, as batteries currently account for <a href="https://www.caresoftglobal.com/thinking/understanding-the-cost-dynamics-in-the-ev-industry/">over half</a> of EV production expenses.
With the new batteries, the automotive company said it "aims to offer more than 400 miles of range in an electric truck" while decreasing the battery's weight and size by 2028.
That could help US automakers catch up to China's BYD in the global EV race, which <a href="https://futurism.com/tesla-byd-electric-vehicle-charge-five-minutes">recently announced</a> a battery that could absorb 250 miles worth of charge in just five minutes.
However, it's still far too early to tell if GM's claims will turn out to be accurate. For one, while the tech has been around for decades, they have offered a far shorter lifespan than alternatives, as <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2025/05/13/gm-new-ev-battery-tech.html">CNBC reports</a>. However, if GM is to be believed, that's no longer a problem.
<h2>Power Pouch</h2>
GM is hoping that its move to LRM batteries could cut the weight of battery packs by hundreds of pounds for its large EVs, making them more efficient. The cells are also far simpler in their construction.
There's still a lot we don't know about the batteries, including how much charge they can actually hold. But if the gambit works out, the company could gain an edge in a rapidly evolving and growing industry.
Cost is currently said to be the main factor limiting EV adoption in the United States — only three percent of EVs sold in the US are priced at less than $37,000, compared to over 50 percent of gas vehicles, according to a <a href="https://www.utilitydive.com/news/US-electric-vehicle-EV-adoption-slowdown-BOA-Bloomberg/719826/">Bank of America analysis</a>.
That's led some companies to <a href="https://futurism.com/bare-bones-electric-pickup-truck-slate">develop scaled-back EVs</a> without the bells and whistles. But as Donald Trump guts <a href="https://www.pbs.org/newshour/politics/whats-next-for-evs-as-trump-aims-to-eliminate-biden-era-incentives">tax-incentives</a> for EV buyers, only time will tell whether cost-cutting will be enough to reverse the country's waning interest in electric vehicles.
Whether GM's new battery tech will live up to its promises remains to be seen. But longer range and lower cost could give the carmaker an edge.
More on EVs: <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-canada-tesla">Elon Musk Threatens to Sue Canada After Tesla Was Caught Doing Something Incredibly Sketchy</a>

Shedding Weight

Is this the EV battery revolution we've been waiting for?

General Motors Unveils Their "Groundbreaking" New EV Battery

Amazon, the multi-trillion dollar e-commerce monolith, seemingly cheaped out on on a key feature installed on its six-propeller delivery drones. Predictably, this backfired almost immediately.
On a (lightly) rainy December day at the company's testing range in Oregon, not one but two <a href="https://futurism.com/amazon-drone-delivery-annoying-homeowners-begged">Prime Air drones</a> suddenly stopped spinning their propellers mid-flight and plummeted some 200 feet to the ground. The crashes, which destroyed both aircraft, happened within minutes of each other. 
And now, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-05-16/amazon-removed-backup-landing-sensor-before-drone-crashes?sref=YfHlo0rL">Bloomberg reports</a>, we know why. According to documents from the National Transportation Safety Board, bad readings from the drones' onboard lidar sensors led the drones to believe they had already landed. Their software, thinking it was on solid ground, cluelessly cut off power to the propellers.
But that's not all. After Amazon decided to remove them, the drones no longer had backup sensors that were equipped on older versions. And these probably would've prevented the drones from shutting down, per Bloomberg's sources.
Amazon denies this line of thinking.
"Bloomberg's reporting is misleading," an Amazon spokesperson told the newspaper. "Statements that assume that replacing one system with another would have prevented an accident in the past is irresponsible." 
Per the NTSB documents, a botched software update made the <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/elon-musk-tesla-sensors">lidar sensors</a> more susceptible to being thrown off by rain. Lidar is short for light detection and ranging, a form of technology that uses lasers to scan surroundings in a similar manner to radar.
A glitch may have been the main reason, but it definitely sounds like it could've been easily avoidable had Amazon kept the redundant system from its previous drone, the MK27. 
The backup sensors came in the form of two metal prongs on the bottom of the drone called squat switches. When the drone lands, the switches are depressed, providing confirmation that it's on solid ground. A source told Bloomberg that the MK27 drone's software was originally designed to confirm a landing only when two of its three sensors agreed.
This was removed with the MK30, and it's unclear why. Reducing costs could be one reason, and it's not uncommon to remove redundant systems to streamline a device.
It could also be because of a shift in how Amazon intends to deliver packages with its drones, according to a Bloomberg source. The MK27 was designed to make deliveries by landing in a customer's yard, with enclosed propellers to make them safer. The MK30 moved away from this and drops packages from around a dozen feet in the air.
This is far from the only setback Amazon has faced during its drone development, which it first <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2013/12/02/tech/innovation/amazon-drones-questions">announced</a> back in 2013. In 2021, a drone crash <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/amazon-delivery-drone-field-fire-b2043644.html">sparked an acres-wide blaze</a> in Oregon, and outside of incidents like that, many residents living where the drones are being trialed simply find them annoying. After the latest December SNAFU, Amazon halted future experiments for months — though it maintained that the crashes weren't the "primary reason" — and only <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2025/03/31/amazon-resumes-drone-deliveries-after-two-month-pause.html">recently lifted</a> the pause.
Overall, development has been sluggish and the project remains <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/amazon-drone-delivery-fail">years behind schedule</a>. Currently, Amazon is only carrying out drone deliveries in College Station, Texas, and Tolleson, Arizona.
More on Amazon: <a href="https://futurism.com/nypd-sending-drones-calls">The NYPD Is Sending Drones to the Sites of 9-1-1 Calls</a>

Droning On

This sounds like it could've easily been avoidable.

Amazon’s Delivery Drones Are Crashing, and We Finally Know Why

<h2>Oodles of Experience</h2>
The advent of generative AI has fundamentally altered the job application process. Both recruiters and applicants are making heavy use of the tech, making an already soul-sucking and tedious process even worse.
And as <a href="https://www.techradar.com/pro/most-job-applicants-use-ai-cv-builder-tools-to-get-into-work-and-to-my-dismay-they-say-it-is-fair-play">TechRadar reports</a>, applicants are going to extreme lengths to nail down a job — and stand out in an extremely competitive and crowded job market. According to a recent campaign by insurer Hiscox, more than half of recent job applicants said they had used AI tools to write their resumes.
A whopping 37 percent admitted they didn't bother correcting embellishments the AI chatbot made, like exaggerated experience and fabricated interests. 38 percent admitted to outright lying on their CVs.
The news highlights a worrying new normal, with applicants using AI to facilitate fabricating a "perfect candidate" to score a job interview.
"AI can help many candidates put their best foot forward... but it needs to be used carefully," Hiscox chief underwriting officer Pete Treloar told TechRadar.
<h2>Perfect Candidate</h2>
Meanwhile, it's not just job applicants using generative AI to automate the process. Recruiters have been <a href="https://futurism.com/software-engineer-trailer-ai">outsourcing the role of interviewing for jobs</a> to often <a href="https://futurism.com/ai-job-recruiter-glitch-video">flawed AI avatars</a>.
Earlier this week, <a href="https://fortune.com/2025/05/14/software-engineer-replaced-by-ai-lost-six-figure-salary-800-job-applications-doordash-living-in-rv-trailer/">Fortune reported</a> how a former software engineer went from earning $150,000 in upstate New York to living out of a trailer after being replaced by AI. Out of the ten interviews he scored after sending out 800 job applications, a handful of them were with AI bots.
In short, it's a frustrating process that's unlikely to make applying for jobs any less grueling. Hiscox found that 41 percent of applicants said AI gives some candidates an unfair advantage. 42 percent of respondents said the tech is misleading employers.
But now that the cat is out of the bag, it remains to be seen how the future of job applications will adapt to a world teeming with accessible generative AI tools.
It's never been easier to lie on your resume — but anybody willing to do so will have to live with the consequences as well. Being caught could not only lead to immediate disqualification, it can damage one's professional reputation, and in a worst-case scenario, result in a lawsuit. Remember: Just because everyone's doing it doesn't mean you won't get busted for it — or worse.
More on lying AIs: <a href="https://futurism.com/law-firms-fine-ai-slop-court">Law Firms Caught and Punished for Passing Around "Bogus" AI Slop in Court</a>