SpaceX says a fire might have caused its Starship to break during liftoff and send trails of flaming debris near the Caribbean.

SpaceX’s Elon Musk said preliminary indications are that leaking fuel built up pressure in the cavity above the engine firewall. The resulting fire would have doomed the spacecraft.

On Friday, the Federal Aviation Administration ordered SpaceX to investigate what went wrong. The FAA said there were no reports of injuries from Starship debris.

The 400-foot Starship — the world’s biggest and most powerful rocket — launched from the southern tip of Texas on a test flight early Thursday evening. The booster made it back to the pad for a catch by giant mechanical arms, only the second time in Starship history. But the engines on the still-ascending spacecraft shut down one by one, and communication was lost 8-1/2 minutes into the flight.

Dramatic video taken near the Turks and Caicos Islands showed spacecraft debris raining down from the sky in a stream of fireballs. Flights near the falling debris had to be diverted, the FAA said.

SpaceX said Starship remained in its designated launch corridor over the Gulf of Mexico and then the Atlantic. Any surviving wreckage would have fallen along that path over water, the company said on its website.

Starship had been shooting for a controlled entry over the Indian Ocean, halfway around the world. Ten dummy satellites, mimicking SpaceX’s Starlink internet satellites, were on board so the company could practice releasing them.

It was the seventh test flight of a Starship, but it featured a new and upgraded spacecraft. The FAA said it must approve SpaceX’s accident findings and any corrective actions.

SpaceX said the booster and spacecraft for the eighth demo are already built and undergoing testing. Musk said on X the loss was “barely a bump in the road” in his plans to build a fleet of Starships to carry people to Mars.

NASA already has booked two Starships to land astronauts on the moon later this decade under its Artemis program, the successor to Apollo.

“Spaceflight is not easy. It’s anything but routine,” NASA Administrator Bill Nelson posted on X after the accident. “That’s why these tests are so important.”

Earlier Thursday, Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin company also had mixed results with the debut of its massive New Glenn rocket. It achieved orbit on its first try, putting a test satellite thousands of miles above Earth. But the booster was destroyed after failing to land on a floating platform in the Atlantic.
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With a pending law declaring the social media application TikTok illegal in the United States, set to take effect on Sunday, the incoming administration of U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is signaling that it plans to try to find a way to prevent the service from going offline.

Under current law, the service’s parent company, China-based ByteDance, must either sell TikTok to a non-Chinese firm or see it banned in the U.S.

Representative Mike Waltz, who has been tapped to serve as Trump’s national security adviser, told Fox News on Thursday that the president-elect has options available to postpone enforcement of the law while a possible deal is worked out to sell the company. That includes a section of the law allowing the president to give ByteDance a 90-day extension to finalize a sale.

“We will put measures in place to keep TikTok from going dark,” Waltz said, “as long as a viable deal is on the table. Essentially that buys President Trump time to keep TikTok going.”

Executive action reportedly considered

Also on Wednesday, several media outlets reported that Trump is considering issuing an executive order that would protect TikTok.

The legality of such a move is unclear and is thrown further into doubt by the fact that the Supreme Court is poised to rule on a request by the company to overturn the law.

The high court heard arguments in the case last week and is expected to rule shortly. The outcome is not certain. However, in oral arguments, a majority of the justices appeared to favor upholding the law.

Trump’s attitude toward TikTok has evolved considerably over the years. During his first term in office, he attempted to shut the service down in the U.S. Since then, though, he has used the service, with considerable success, to connect with his supporters.

In a press conference in Florida last month, Trump said, “I have a warm spot in my heart for TikTok,” and credited the app with helping him get his message out to younger American voters.

Trump has denied that his change of heart about TikTok was influenced by a brief meeting in March with Republican megadonor and ByteDance investor Jeff Yass. Lobbying disclosure reports from 2024 show that ByteDance paid a former Trump campaign aide to lobby lawmakers in Washington in favor of TikTok, and that former senior Trump aide Kellyanne Conway has been paid to advocate for TikTok in Congress via the Yass-funded conservative group Club for Growth.

Trump also said TikTok was not mentioned during his meeting with Yass.

Economic concerns

In the years since TikTok took off, thousands of U.S.-based content creators have developed large audiences on the app, and in many cases have been able to monetize their TikTok feeds.

Many small businesses have found success advertising their products to TikTok users. Other TikTok personalities have parlayed fame on the app into broader celebrity that has led to lucrative product endorsements and other deals.

Some members of Congress have expressed concern that abruptly shutting the app down could have economic consequences.

On Monday, Democratic Senator Edward Markey introduced legislation that would delay the TikTok ban by 270 days.

“Let me be clear: TikTok has its problems,” Markey said in a statement released by his office. “Like every social media platform, TikTok poses a serious risk to the privacy and mental health of our young people. I will continue to hold TikTok accountable for such behavior. But a TikTok ban would impose serious consequences on millions of Americans who depend on the app for social connections and their economic livelihood. We cannot allow that to happen.”

Viability of sale unclear

As the Sunday deadline nears, there have been a number of rumors about a possible sale of the company. Bloomberg reported on Wednesday that Chinese officials were considering the possibility of selling the service to billionaire Elon Musk, a close Trump adviser who already owns the social media service X, formerly Twitter.

Another U.S. billionaire, real estate developer Frank McCourt, told Reuters on Thursday that a consortium of investors he had formed has already made a formal offer to purchase TikTok, valuing the service at $20 billion.

However, it is far from clear that a sale is something the Chinese government is prepared to allow. Any sale worth the buyer’s investment would have to include the “recommendation engine,” TikTok’s name for the algorithm that makes the service so popular and, many would say, addictive.

Last year in a court filing, TikTok characterized such a deal as unavailable.

“Just as the United States restricts the export of U.S.-origin technologies (e.g., certain computer chips), the Chinese government regulates the transfer of technologies developed in China,” the company argued in a court filing. “The Chinese government has made clear in public statements that it would not permit a forced divestment of the recommendation engine.”

Privacy, national security worries

A wildly popular service for sharing short videos, TikTok has an estimated 170 million U.S. users. Federal officials have been concerned about TikTok for years because it collects vast amounts of information about its user base. They have argued that Chinese laws compelling domestic companies to cooperate with intelligence agencies could be used to force the company to share that data with the Chinese Communist Party.

U.S. officials have expressed concern that China could misuse the private information about U.S. users of the service. They have also warned that Beijing could use TikTok’s powerful recommendation algorithm to shape public discourse in the U.S. to the benefit of China.

In December, when a federal appeals court upheld the law mandating the company’s sale or shutdown, Democratic Representative Raja Krishnamoorthi, one of the original sponsors of the law, released a statement expressing the thoughts of many of the law’s supporters.

“With today’s opinion, all three branches of government have reached the same conclusion: ByteDance is controlled by the Chinese Communist Party, and TikTok’s ownership by ByteDance is a national security threat that cannot be mitigated through any other means than divestiture,” Krishnamoorthi said.

“Every day that TikTok remains under the Chinese Communist Party’s control is a day that our security is at risk,” Krishnamoorthi added.
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U.S. President-elect Donald Trump says he wants the United States to be the world leader in artificial intelligence and crypto currency. To that end, he has tapped a Silicon Valley entrepreneur and investor to be the AI and crypto czar. Michelle Quinn has the story.
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On Wednesday the U.S. Department of Commerce announced it would implement new export controls on certain biotechnology equipment, citing national security concerns relating to artificial intelligence and data science.

The Commerce Department warned that China could use the biotech equipment’s technology to bolster its military capabilities and help design new weapons using artificial intelligence.

The department said the technology has many applications, including its ability to be used for “human performance enhancement, brain-machine interfaces, biologically inspired synthetic materials and possibly biological weapons.”

The sanctions effectively restrict shipments of the technology to countries without a U.S. license, such as China.

The controls apply to parameter flow cytometers and certain mass spectrometry equipment, which according to the Commerce Department, can “generate high-quality, high-content biological data, including that which is suitable for use to facilitate the development of AI and biological design tools.”

Last week, the Chinese Embassy in Washington said Beijing “firmly opposes any country’s development, possession or use of biological weapons.”

This latest move by the United States follows recent policy decisions that reflect Washington’s broad aim to limit Beijing’s access to U.S. technology and data.

Washington announced on Monday that it would tighten Beijing’s access to AI chip and technology exports by implementing new regulations that cap the number of chips that can be exported to certain countries, including China, Russia, Iran and North Korea.

This month, the ban on popular Chinese-owned social media TikTok is planned to go into effect due to U.S. concerns over its potential to share sensitive data with China’s government.
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Two moon landers built by private U.S. and Japanese companies are on their way to the moon after lifting off early Wednesday on a shared ride aboard a SpaceX rocket.

The launch from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida is the latest in a public-private program that put a spacecraft from Intuitive Machines on the moon last year.

Wednesday’s launch included a lander from Japanese space exploration company ispace that is carrying a rover with the capability of collecting lunar dirt and testing potential food and water sources on the moon.

The spacecraft is also carrying a small red “Moonhouse” built by Swedish artist Mikael Genberg.

The ispace mission is expected to reach its destination on the moon’s far north in four to five months.

The company is making its second attempt at a lunar landing, after a 2023 mission failed in the final stages. 

Also aboard the rocket heading toward the moon is a lander from U.S. company Firefly Aerospace that is set to carry out 10 experiments for NASA.

The planned experiments include gathering dirt and measuring subsurface temperatures.

The spacecraft is expected to arrive in about 45 days.

Some information for this story was provided by The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters
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WASHINGTON — U.S. President Joe Biden signed on Tuesday an executive order to boost development of artificial intelligence infrastructure in America. A day earlier, his administration announced sweeping measures to block access to the most advanced semiconductors by China and other adversaries.

But the U.S. left India, its strategic partner in the Indo-Pacific, off a list of 18 countries that are allowed unrestricted access to advanced AI chips. Analysts say while a growing technological relationship between the two countries would likely make India eligible in the future to access advanced U.S. AI chips, New Delhi’s existing ties with Moscow and the perception of a less robust technology regulatory framework led to its exclusion from the top list.

Exclusion not a surprise

The Commerce Department’s policy framework divides the world into three categories. The first tier includes the U.S. and 18 countries with unrestricted access, followed by a list of more than 100 countries that will be subjected to new caps on advanced semiconductors with individual exemptions. The third tier includes adversaries such as China and Russia that face maximum restrictions.

India falls in the second category, along with U.S. allies like Israel and close friends such as Singapore.

Bhaskar Chakravorti, the dean of global business at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in Massachusetts, said that India’s relationship with Russia “puts it outside a super safe category.”

India has had close ties with Russia since the Soviet Union supported its desire for independence from Britain. It maintained those ties during the Cold War, when the U.S. sided with India’s rival Pakistan.

Scott Jones, a non-resident fellow at Washington’s Stimson Center think tank, highlighted recent reports that accused a few Indian companies of aiding Russia’s war on Ukraine, but stressed that while being excluded is a disappointment, it’s “not a setback for India.”

He also pointed to the perception that “India’s ability to control and manage technology is perhaps not as robust as evidenced in some of the 18 countries.”

While India may be off the unrestricted list for now, analysts say its growing technological cooperation with the U.S. may shield it from some curbs.

Richard Rossow, senior adviser and chair on India and Emerging Asia Economies at Washington’s Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the presence of caveats in the new framework would ensure India’s later participation.

“The fact that they have announced that there will be a pathway for some countries to get exemptions that are above what they’re going to consider the standard cap, India, I imagine, would be on the short list of countries,” he told VOA.

In early January, national security adviser Jake Sullivan traveled to India and met with Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other senior officials. During the trip, both sides reiterated their commitment to forge a “strategic technology partnership” and strengthen cooperation under the U.S.-India initiative on Critical and Emerging Technology (iCET), a bilateral mechanism focused on technology partnership.

On semiconductors, the U.S. is facilitating investments in India’s semiconductor manufacturing and intensifying R&D collaboration.

During his trip, Sullivan highlighted the investment of $2.7 billion in India by U.S. chipmaker Micron to create semiconductor packaging facilities, which he hoped would contribute to establishing “India as a new hub in the global chip ecosystem.”

The Indian government too is investing billions of dollars through its dedicated program called the India Semiconductor Mission and Production Linked Incentive scheme.

Rossow argued that the Indian government would not have been “terribly surprised” that “they were not included” in the list.

Jones of the Stimson Center agreed.

“Jake Sullivan was in New Delhi last week, and I would be very surprised if he did not inform his Indian counterparts of what was going to happen,” he said.

Ensuring America’s leadership in AI

The Biden administration has focused on the centrality of artificial intelligence to America’s security and economic strength. According to a White House factsheet, the latest steps are part of its effort to prevent offshoring this critical technology and ensure that “the world’s AI runs on American rails.”

Since October 2022, the U.S. government has enacted a series of export controls, blocking access of advanced semiconductors to China to prevent its use for military applications. While initially the measures adversely affected the Chinese semiconductor industry, Beijing has continued to advance its capabilities and is attempting to narrow the technology gap.

According to Chakravorti of the Fletcher School, there are numerous implementation challenges of this expansive global strategy.

“From lobbying from the U.S. chipmakers that will start as soon as Trump takes office to potential leaks in the carefully calibrated list of countries. Will there be a secondary market? How does this affect where future data centers are built?” he asked.

Jones of the Stimson Center argued that the policy is more a “symbolic gesture than a practical consideration” but has a stern message for the rest of the world.

“The U.S. is clearly saying, if you want to participate in the U.S.-sponsored AI ecosystem, you have to pick now. You pick China or you pick us. You can’t have it both ways. You can’t play one off against the other. You have to choose,” he concluded.
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The White House says it has finalized rules that crack down on Chinese and Russian automobile technology effectively banning all personal smart cars from the two countries from entering the U.S. market.

In a White House fact sheet detailing the decision, the Biden administration Tuesday said that while connected vehicles offer advantages, the involvement of foreign adversaries such as China and Russia in their supply chains presents serious risks granting “malign actors unfettered access to these connected systems and the data they collect.”

“The Department of Commerce has issued a final rule that will prohibit the sale and import of connected vehicle hardware and software systems, as well as completed connected vehicles, from the PRC and Russia,” the fact sheet said.

PRC is the acronym for China’s official name, the People’s Republic of China.

Connected vehicles are smart cars that are designed to be convenient for consumers and provide safety for drivers, passengers, and pedestrians through the use of many connected parts such as Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, cellular, and satellite connectivity.

“Cars today aren’t just steel on wheels; they’re computers,” said Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo when speaking on the rule.

“This is a targeted approach to ensure we keep PRC- and Russian-manufactured technologies off American roads,” said Raimondo.

The new rule is the “culmination of a year-long examination” of potential risks posed by connected vehicles and will “help the United States defend against the PRC’s cyber espionage and intrusion operations, which continue to pose a significant threat to U.S. critical infrastructure and public safety.”

The crackdown on cars follows Washington’s announcement earlier this month that the U.S. consider new rules aimed at addressing risks posed by drones that utilize technology from China and Russia.

The U.S. has repeatedly emphasized the need to balance technological progress with the protection of national security interests.
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— U.S. President Joe Biden issued an executive order Tuesday directing the development of artificial intelligence data centers on six federal land sites, with a special focus on powering them with clean energy and upholding high labor standards. 

Biden said in a statement that the United States is the world leader in AI, but cannot take that lead for granted. 

“We will not let America be out-built when it comes to the technology that will define the future, nor should we sacrifice critical environmental standards and our shared efforts to protect clean air and clean water,” Biden said. 

The order calls for the Department of Defense and Department of Energy to each identify three suitable sites where private companies will lease the land, pay for the construction and operation of the data centers and ensure the supply of enough clean energy to fully power the sites. 

The developers will also have to buy “an appropriate share” of semiconductors produced in the United States to help ensure there is a “robust domestic semiconductor supply chain,” the White House said. 

In addition to identifying the sites, the federal government will also commit under the order to expedite the permitting process for the data center construction. 

Senior administration officials, in a phone call with journalists previewing the order, highlighted the national security need for the United States to have its own powerful AI infrastructure, both to protect it for its own use but also to prevent adversaries such as China from possessing those capabilities. 

“From the national security standpoint, it’s really critical to find a pathway for building the data centers and power infrastructure to support frontier AI operations here in the United States to ensure that the most powerful AI models continue to be trained and stored securely here in the United States,” an official said. 

A senior administration official cited the priority of making sure the AI industry had an anchor in the United States to avoid repeating the history of other technologies that moved offshore to areas with lower labor and environmental standards as well. 

AI chip restrictions 

Tuesday’s order comes a day after the Biden administration announced new restrictions on the export of the most advanced artificial intelligence chips and proprietary parameters used to govern the interactions of users with AI systems.    

The rule, which will undergo a 120-day period for public comments, comes in response to what administration officials described as a need to protect national security while also clarifying the rules under which companies in trusted partner countries could access the emerging technology in order to promote innovation.   

“Over the coming years, AI will become really ubiquitous in every business application in every industry around the world, with enormous potential for enhanced productivity and societal, health care and economic benefits,” Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told reporters. “That being said, as AI becomes more powerful, the risks to our national security become even more intense.”   

A senior administration official said the new rule will not include any restrictions on chip sales to Australia, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Japan, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, South Korea, Spain, Sweden, Taiwan, the United Kingdom or the United States.   

The rules build on 2023 curbs limiting the export of certain AI chips to China, a strategic competitor in the production of advanced semiconductors. Beijing attacked the new U.S. AI edict as a “flagrant violation” of international trade rules.  

China’s Ministry of Commerce said the Biden administration announcement “is another example of the generalization of the concept of national security and the abuse of export control, and a flagrant violation of international multilateral economic and trade rules.”  

Beijing said it would “take necessary measures to firmly safeguard its legitimate rights and interests.” 

Countries that are under U.S. arms embargoes are already subject to export restrictions on advanced AI chips, but a senior administration official said they will now be under restrictions for the transfer of the most powerful closed weight AI models.    

The weights in an AI model determine how it processes the inputs from a user and determines what to provide the user as a response, according to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration. In a closed weight system, those parameters are secret, unlike with an open weight system in which users could see the settings the model is using to make its decisions.    

Most countries — those not included in the closed partner or arms embargo lists — will not face licensing requirements for obtaining the equivalent of 1,700 of the most advanced AI chips currently available, nor for any less advanced chips.   

Companies in the United States and allied countries will not face restrictions in using the most powerful closed weight AI systems, provided they are stored under adequate security, a senior administration official said. 

 
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LONDON — Britain’s antitrust regulator said on Tuesday it would investigate Google’s search services using its new powers to see how they impact consumers and businesses, including advertisers, news publishers and rival search engines.

The Competition and Markets Authority, which has gained new powers to examine big tech, said search was vital for economic growth and it was critical that competition was working well.

“Millions of people and businesses relied on Google’s search and advertising services – with 90% of searches happening on their platform and more than 200,000 UK businesses advertising there,” CMA boss Sarah Cardell said in a statement.

“It’s our job to ensure people get the full benefit of choice and innovation in search services and get a fair deal.”

The CMA’s move comes after U.S. prosecutors in November argued to a judge that Google must sell its Chrome browser, share data, and search results with rivals, and take a range of other measures to end its monopoly on online search.

Google did not immediately respond to a request for a comment.
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CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — Blue Origin will try again to launch its massive new rocket as early as Tuesday after calling off the debut launch because of ice buildup in critical plumbing.

The 98-meter New Glenn rocket was supposed to blast off before dawn Monday with a prototype satellite. But ice formed in a purge line for a unit powering some of the rocket’s hydraulic systems and launch controllers ran out of time to clear it, according to the company.

Founded by Amazon’s Jeff Bezos, Blue Origin said Tuesday’s poor weather forecast could cause more delay. Thick clouds and stiff wind were expected at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station.

The test flight already had been delayed by rough seas that posed a risk to the company’s plan to land the first-stage booster on a floating platform in the Atlantic.

New Glenn is named after the first American to orbit Earth, John Glenn. It is five times taller than Blue Origin’s New Shepard rocket that carries paying customers to the edge of space from Texas.

Bezos founded the company 25 years ago. He took part in Monday’s countdown from Mission Control, located at the rocket factory just outside the gates of NASA’s Kennedy Space Center.

No matter what happens, Bezos said this weekend, “We’re going to pick ourselves up and keep going.”
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WASHINGTON — The U.S. on Monday imposed sanctions on an extreme right-wing online network, designating the “Terrorgram” collective a terrorist group and accusing it of promoting violent white supremacy. 

The U.S. State Department said in a statement that it had designated the group, which primarily operates on the Telegram social media site, and three of its leaders as Specially Designated Global Terrorists. 

The State Department said the group has motivated and facilitated attacks and attempted attacks by users, including a 2022 shooting outside an LGBTQ bar in Slovakia, a planned attack in 2024 on energy facilities in New Jersey and an August knife attack at a mosque in Turkey. 

“The group promotes violent white supremacism, solicits attacks on perceived adversaries, and provides guidance and instructional materials on tactics, methods, and targets for attacks, including on critical infrastructure and government officials,” the State Department said. 

The action freezes any of the group’s U.S. assets and bars Americans from dealing with it. 

The leaders targeted on Monday with sanctions were based in Brazil, Croatia and South Africa, according to the statement. 

In September, U.S. prosecutors unveiled criminal charges against two alleged leaders of the group, saying they used Telegram to solicit attacks on Black, Jewish, LGBTQ people and immigrants with the aim of inciting a race war. 

Britain in April said it would proscribe the Terrorgram collective as a terrorist organization, meaning it would become a criminal offense in the country to belong to or promote the group. 

U.S. President Joe Biden has railed against white supremacy while in office. 

In 2021, Biden launched the first-ever U.S. National Strategy for Countering Domestic Terrorism, which included resources to identify and prosecute threats and new deterrents to prevent Americans from joining dangerous groups.
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President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Federal Trade Commission has vowed to continue the agency’s drive to break up Big Tech monopolies while adding a new focus: free speech. VOA’s Matt Dibble has the story.
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jerusalem — When a renowned Israeli TV journalist lost his ability to speak clearly because of ALS, he thought his career might be over. But now, using artificial-intelligence software that can re-create his widely recognized gravelly voice, Moshe Nussbaum — known to generations of viewers simply as “Nussi” — is making a comeback. 

Nussbaum, 71, was diagnosed two years ago with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, a progressive disease also known as Lou Gehrig’s disease that attacks nerve cells that control muscles throughout the body. 

At the time, he vowed to viewers of Israel’s Channel 12 News to continue working as long as he was physically able. But, gradually, it became more and more difficult. 

It was a devastating blow to the career of a leading, no-nonsense reporter who for more than 40 years had covered many of Israel’s most important stories from the field. He had appeared from the scenes of suicide bombing attacks and the front lines of wars in Gaza and Lebanon, and had covered scandals in Israel’s parliament and high-profile court cases. 

After Hamas’ Oct. 7, 2023, attack that triggered the war in Gaza, Nussbaum was unable to report from the field. It was the first war of his career he had ever sat out, he noted in a recent interview with colleagues at Channel 12, the country’s largest station. 

Even though he was having trouble moving and speaking, he launched a segment interviewing injured soldiers from Israeli hospitals. His questions were slow and halting, but he kept it up for the first half of the war. Then, as it became increasingly difficult to speak, and to be understood, his interviews became less frequent. 

On Monday, Channel 12 made the surprising announcement that it would bring Nussbaum back to the air in the coming weeks as a commentator— with the help of AI. 

“It took me a few moments to absorb it and to understand that it is me speaking now,” Nussbaum told The Associated Press via text message. “Slowly, slowly, I’m understanding the incredible meaning of this device for everyone with disabilities, including me.” 

Nussbaum will report his stories, and then write them up, using an AI program that has been trained to speak using Nussbaum’s voice. He will be filmed as if he were presenting, and his lips will be “technologically adjusted” to match the words. 

Mimicking intonation, phrasing

People with speech disorders have used traditional text-to-speech technology for years, but those voices sound robotic and flat, and lack emotion. In contrast, AI technology is trained using recordings of a person’s voice — there are thousands of hours of Nussbaum speaking thanks to his lengthy career in TV and radio — and it can mimic their intonations and phrasing. 

Thrilled by the possibilities the technology affords him, Nussbaum said he is also worried about the ease with which the technology could be used by bad actors to spread fake news and falsehoods. 

In its current form, the technology will not work for live broadcasts, so Nussbaum won’t be able to go out into the field, which is his favorite part of the job, he said. Instead, he will focus on commentary and analysis about crime and national security, his areas of expertise for decades. 

Ahead of the broadcasts, Channel 12 released a preview showing snippets of Nussbaum speaking naturally — garbled and difficult to understand — followed by the new “Nussi AI.” The new version sounds strikingly like the old Nussbaum, speaking quickly and emphatically. Nussbaum was filmed as if he was presenting the report, sitting straight with his trademark bushy eyebrows moving up and down for emphasis. 

“Honestly, this is my first time sitting here in the studio after more than a year,” AI Nussbaum says in the preview. “It feels a bit strange, and mostly, it tugs my heart.” 

AI-powered voice cloning has grown exponentially in recent years. Experts have warned that the technology can amplify phone scams, disrupt democratic elections and violate the dignity of people — living or dead — who never consented to having their voices re-created to say things they never said. 

It’s been used to produce deepfake robocalls mimicking President Joe Biden. In the U.S., authorities recently charged a high school athletic director with using AI to generate a fake audio clip of the school’s principal making racist remarks. 

But the technology also has tremendous potential to help people who have lost their ability to speak clearly. A U.S. congresswoman who cannot speak because of complications from Parkinson’s disease and a related palsy has used a similar AI program to give a speech on the House floor, and the technology has also helped a young woman who lost her voice because of a tumor. 

Channel 12 declined to say which AI program it was using. 

Nussbaum had worried that ALS would rob him of the career he loved. In an interview with Channel 12, he recounted telling his managers not to “feel like you’re pitying me, doing me a favor. The day you come to the conclusion that this is it — tell me. I’ll know how to accept it without a problem.” 

He calls his new AI-enabled persona a “magic trick” that enabled his comeback, and he believes it will raise awareness in Israel of ways that people with disabilities — especially progressive disabilities — can continue to work. 

“The fact that Channel 12 and my news managers are allowing me to reinvent myself anew, that is one of the most important medicines I can get in my fight with this disease,” he said.
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WASHINGTON — Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. has begun producing advanced 4-nanometer chips in Arizona for U.S. customers, a milestone in the Biden administration’s semiconductor efforts, Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo told Reuters.

In November, the Commerce Department finalized a $6.6 billion grant to TSMC’s U.S. unit for semiconductor production in Phoenix, Arizona.

“For the first time ever in our country’s history, we are making leading-edge 4-nanometer chips on American soil, American workers — on par in yield and quality with Taiwan,” Raimondo told Reuters in an interview, saying it had begun in recent weeks.

“That’s a big deal — never been done before, never in our history. And lots of people said it couldn’t happen,” Raimondo said of the previously undisclosed production start.

A spokesperson for TSMC, the world’s largest contract chipmaker and a major supplier to Apple and Nvidia, which reports earnings next week, declined to comment Friday.

In April, TSMC agreed to expand its planned investment by $25 billion to $65 billion and to add a third Arizona production facility by 2030.

Congress created a $52.7 billion semiconductor manufacturing and research subsidy program in 2022. Commerce persuaded all five leading-edge semiconductor firms to locate production facilities in the United States as part of the program.

Raimondo told Reuters earlier that Commerce had to persuade TSMC to boost its U.S. plans.

“It didn’t happen on its own. … We had to convince TSMC that they would want to expand,” Raimondo said.

TSMC will produce the world’s most advanced 2-nanometer technology at its second Arizona factory, expected to begin production in 2028. TSMC also agreed to use its most advanced chip manufacturing technology, called “A16,” in Arizona.

The TSMC award from Commerce also includes up to $5 billion in low-cost government loans.

Raimondo wants the United States to make 20% of world’s leading-edge logic chips by 2030 — up from the 0% before TSMC began production in Arizona.

In April, Commerce said TSMC expects to begin high-volume production in its first U.S. fab by the first half of 2025.

Last month, Commerce finalized an award of $407 million to help fund Amkor Technology’s planned $2 billion advanced semiconductor packaging facility in Arizona, which is set to be the largest of its kind in the U.S.

When fully operational, Amkor’s Arizona plant will package and test millions of chips for autonomous vehicles, 5G/6G and data centers. Apple will be its first and largest customer, with the chips produced at a nearby TSMC facility.
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