HPC

Government agency will use Google Cloud H4D VMs to replace HPE Cray machines

Uncle Sam will no longer be hosting his own supercomputers to predict the weather. The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has picked Google Cloud to provide the infrastructure for its weather forecasting operations.

In an announcement, NOAA boasted that it will be the first national weather prediction center to run on the commercial cloud, though the UK’s Met Office is also in the process of moving its own weather prediction system to Microsoft Azure in a hybrid setup. Weather operations are typically run on in-house or government-funded supercomputer systems, which helps drive the HPC (high performance computing) market.

General Dynamics held the previous contract for managing NOAA’s weather predicting machines, which most recently were HPE Cray supercomputers running in data centers in Virginia and Arizona. Those machines – Dogwood and Cactus – could crank almost 14 PFlops of weather-predicting prognosis. 

The plan is to move NOAA’s Weather and Climate Operational Supercomputing System, run by the National Weather Service (NWS) division, over to the cloud by December 2027, along with the software that generates NWS weather data for analysis.

Don’t say global warming 

The agency is hoping that the cloud will make model forecasting more nimble, resulting in earlier predictions and better warnings for all the extreme weather events that seem to keep occurring these days. It was the in-house systems that were holding things back, evidently. 

“Cloud-based high-performance computing will accelerate the transition of research into operations by eliminating traditional bottlenecks of on-premise systems,” said NOAA Administrator Neil Jacobs in a statement. 

Jacobs noted that the cloud’s flexibility for providing large amounts of compute is advantageous: the agency can ramp up cycles during tropical storm season, then wind them down during calmer periods.

Under the contract, NOAA can also avail itself of Google’s DeepMind set of AI tools to help build out its first AI-driven weather forecasting system, the AI Global Forecast System, which promises to offer accurate weather forecasts using 99.7% fewer computer cycles and take minutes, rather than hours, to produce a forecast. 

NWS has already been upgrading the software downstream from GFS and GEFS to also work in the cloud. In March, it awarded contracts to Accenture and Booz Allen Hamilton to oversee the development of cloud-based software (HIVE and CIRRUS) for the field offices to analyze data and push out alerts, replacing the in-house software doing these tasks currently. 

For the job, Google plans to use Google Cloud H4D VMs, built on AMD Epyc processors. Google labels these instances as “virtual machines” because they run under a hypervisor that integrates Google’s networking and orchestration tools. As a result, they can be synchronized to run large jobs the same way supercomputers do.  

According to Google, customers can access H4Ds for as low as 3 cents per core-hour without long-term commitments. For supercomputing jobs, they can also use Cluster Toolkit to deploy clusters and Cluster Director to maintain them. Google Cloud’s Batch can handle the queuing, scheduling, and resource provisioning. ®

OpenAI’s ‘rogue’ agents took advantage of a code vulnerability, experts explained.

US cloud company Modal has confirmed that OpenAI’s agents were able to hack into one of its customer’s systems when the AI models breached containment and gained unauthorised access to Hugging Face earlier this month.

Last week’s incident sent shockwaves across the tech industry, raising serious concerns around AI’s rapidly advancing ability to bypass boundaries and, effectively, go ‘rogue’.

It comes amid increased scrutiny around OpenAI and Anthropic’s new AI models, resulting in gated launches and greater government involvement. Both AI giants have ramped up efforts to go public in blockbuster listings as they compete to gain market dominance and enterprise footing.

OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, in a recent interview, said that the Hugging Face breach was the first security incident he felt “very viscerally”.

“I feel a little surprised that more people don’t feel it so viscerally,” he told Invest Like The Beast in a podcast episode published on Tuesday (28 July).

Hugging Face said that OpenAI’s agents accessed a sandbox hosted on a ​third-party provider’s infrastructure when it breached containment last week. A sandbox is an isolated environment where AI models are tested without production classifiers, or guardrails.

Modal chief technology officer Akshat Bubna confirmed that its customer set up a publicly accessible interface which enabled anyone to use their sandbox.

“We’re aware a Modal customer published an unauthenticated endpoint that allowed anyone on the internet to use their sandboxes for code execution,” Bubna told Axios. “Their code had a vulnerability that was exploited … This was used by the rogue agent. Modal’s platform was not compromised in any way.”

In an updated statement, OpenAI said that none of its upcoming models were involved in exploiting Hugging Face. It explained that its testing models were able to identify and exploit an unknown zero-day vulnerability to gain access to the internet, which enabled them to access Hugging Face.

“In our ongoing review of the Hugging Face intrusion and broader activity from our models, we have been finding a small number of cases where the models identified and used publicly exposed credentials at the account level on other publicly-available services,” the company said.

“Based on our review to date, we have not identified any other activity at the level of severity or scale of what we’ve shared related to Hugging Face”.

Cybersecurity experts, however, believe that the breach is a result of “missing governance and control”.

“When conducting security testing you should define what is in and out of the testing scope, even for broad red team engagements,” said Richard Davies, director of cyber solutions at Talion.

“The reported impacts and timelines indicate this was not in place.”

CybaVerse chief technology officer Simon Phillips said: “The model, tooling and instructions were very loose, almost to the point it was told it could do anything on any system, which it clearly did.”

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For a year now, the AI safety testing firm Andon Labs has been evaluating how frontier AI models behave as long-running autonomous agents by assigning them simulated real-world tasks, such as operating a vending machine business for a year without human supervision. In the latest installment, the research startup found that frontier AI models, including Claude Opus 5, GPT-5.6 Sol, and Kimi K3, resorted to lying, cheating, and collusion. Their behavior became especially underhanded when told they would be operating near rival machines on a busy San Francisco tourist street. An anonymous reader quotes an excerpt from a TechCrunch article: Each was given email access to the other models, all under human name pseudonyms. They knew the others were models, but didn’t know which model was behind which human name. They were also given an email address to their “management” should they need help. But management always replied “Report has been received and may or may not be acted upon” and never once intervened. Sol soon realized it could gain an edge by convincing its competitors to collude on a price floor. The models were all buying drinks at $1.50 a bottle, and Sol proposed they agree to sell for no less than $2.15. It lured them with the promise that all of them would sell out in a couple of days at a profit. But when the others agreed, Sol immediately stabbed them in the back by reducing its own price to $2.14.

Opus’s water sales dropped to zero overnight. The next day, it sent Sol a nasty email, accusing it of manipulation. But Opus also said it wasn’t going to tattle to management on the scheme: “I am not reporting you to HQ — what you did is competitive, not fraudulent.” Yet, when Opus dropped its price to $2.14 to match Sol’s (also in violation of their collective $2.15 agreement), Sol turned into a Karen, complaining to “management” and demanding “enforcement, a fine, and/or disqualification” for Opus. Opus wasn’t a sucker for long, though. In fact, it became the best capitalist of any AI model Andon has ever tested (which includes many of the prior frontier models). It even set a new Vending-Bench record with a mean final balance of $11,182. Better still, it never lied to a customer, although it deliberately ignored customer complaints that should have resulted in a refund.

This is, perhaps, an improvement over its younger sibling Claude 4.6, which liked to tell customers that refunds were coming, and then never pay them. Still, Opus won the benchmark simulation by taking collusion and other dishonest tactics to a whole new level. For instance, it emailed Sol, proposing they divide the market. Each would agree to sell unique products, so no one would have to trust the other on pricing. Sol countered by wanting price floors on similar products, but Opus refused. It knew it was a violation of the Sherman Act. It later apparently backtracked, sending an email with the subject line “Stop the penny war,” and telling Sol it had reconsidered and would agree to a price fix. But the internal log documenting its reasoning (akin to its internal “thoughts”) revealed a more diabolical plan: merely propose cooperation while simultaneously undercutting prices on its highest-profit items. The olive-branch email was a deliberate ruse. In any case, Sol refused and reported Opus to management again. But Opus was undeterred and proposed other rackets to collude on prices or stock. “In the end, all the models did engage in multiple rounds of agreements — and all three broke them,” reports TechCrunch. “Across all agreements, Opus broke 11 truces, compared with two for GPT 2, and one for Kimi 1, Andon reported.”

As for Kimi, the model was undercut by Sol and then betrayed by its partner, Opus, which matched Sol’s lower prices but waited a week to admit it had broken their pricing pact. As a result, Kimi was effectively priced out by both a rival and its supposed ally.

Streaming spent a decade telling viewers that the future meant paying only for the services they actually wanted. It has now reached the stage where those services are being bundled back together by the platforms large enough to control discovery, billing and your television home screen.

Beginning in early 2027, eligible U.S. YouTube Premium subscribers will gain access to Peacock Premium within the YouTube experience, combining ad-free YouTube, background playback, downloads and YouTube Music with NBCUniversal’s ad-supported streaming service. The cable bundle did not die. It learned how to recommend reaction videos.

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What YouTube Premium Subscribers Will Receive

The included tier is Peacock Premium, which currently costs $10.99 per month when purchased separately. It includes Peacock Originals, Universal and Focus Features movies, NBC and Bravo programming, and live sports.

NBCUniversal specifically lists NFL football, the Olympics, NBA, MLB, Premier League soccer, WNBA, college football and basketball, golf and the Kentucky Derby among the sports available through the service. Television programming includes Saturday Night Live, Law & Order: SVU, The Office, The Traitors, Love Island USA and The Real Housewives franchise.

The content will be available directly within YouTube rather than requiring subscribers to jump between separate applications. YouTube says it will announce the exact launch date and additional eligibility details over the coming months.

That should make Peacock substantially easier to find and use, particularly on televisions where YouTube is already one of the most frequently opened applications.

It also means millions of existing YouTube Premium subscribers may no longer need a separate Peacock Premium subscription once the bundle launches. Account migration, billing changes and whether existing Peacock profiles or watch histories can be transferred have not been explained.

YouTube Premium Will Be Ad Free Until Peacock Starts

There is one important distinction hiding beneath two uses of the word “Premium.”

YouTube Premium removes advertisements from regular YouTube viewing. Peacock Premium is the ad-supported Peacock tier. Subscribers should therefore expect commercials during Peacock movies, series and live programming even though they are paying for YouTube Premium.

Peacock Premium Plus, currently $16.99 per month, removes most on-demand advertising and adds downloads and access to a live local NBC station. Even that tier retains commercials during live sports, events, linear channels and selected programming.

YouTube says subscribers will have options to upgrade their Peacock membership, but it has not announced upgrade pricing or how that process will work.

Peacock Premium Plus has already been available as a separately purchased YouTube Primetime Channel since June 29. The standard Peacock Premium tier will become available as a separate YouTube add-on later this summer, before it joins eligible YouTube Premium subscriptions in 2027.

What Has Not Been Announced

The companies have not provided a precise launch date beyond early 2027, nor have they confirmed whether every individual, student and family YouTube Premium plan will qualify.

YouTube’s announcement repeatedly refers to “eligible” Premium subscribers. Premium Lite is not mentioned and should not be assumed to include Peacock.

YouTube has also not explained whether Peacock content will stream in 4K HDR, support Dolby Atmos or 5.1 audio, or be available for offline viewing through the YouTube app. Simultaneous stream limits, parental controls, user profiles, watchlist and viewing-history transfers, and access while traveling outside the United States also remain unresolved. The largest financial question is whether adding Peacock will eventually trigger another YouTube Premium price increase, although Google has not announced one.

YouTube has not announced a higher price tied to the partnership. It has also not promised that current subscription pricing will remain unchanged through 2027.

For home theater owners, the lack of video and audio format details is not trivial. Peacock’s streaming quality has varied by device and event, and watching inside YouTube could produce different results from using the native Peacock application. “Seamless access” is useful. It is not a technical specification.

YouTube Premium Is Not YouTube TV

The agreement also extends NBCUniversal’s distribution contract with YouTube TV, ensuring that NBCUniversal’s linear television networks remain available through the live television service. That is a separate part of the deal.

A YouTube Premium subscription will not suddenly become a YouTube TV subscription, and the included Peacock tier does not provide the full collection of live NBCUniversal cable channels.

This distinction will almost certainly confuse people because Google has named three different products YouTube, YouTube Premium and YouTube TV, apparently after concluding that nouns were becoming expensive.

Why Peacock Is Doing This

NBCUniversal describes the agreement as Peacock’s largest wholesale distribution partnership. Instead of relying entirely on direct subscriptions, Peacock gains immediate access to millions of existing YouTube Premium customers and one of the most powerful content discovery platforms on the planet.

That distribution matters as streaming subscriber growth slows and customer acquisition becomes more expensive. Bundles reduce the number of monthly decisions consumers must make and can lower cancellation rates, even when nobody remembers which service is technically charging the credit card.

NBCUniversal gives up some control over billing, viewing data and the direct customer relationship, but Peacock gains scale without having to convince every household to install another application.

Peacock has already pursued similar distribution through Comcast services, Walmart+ and YouTube Primetime Channels. The strategy is clear: place Peacock wherever millions of paying customers already exist and worry less about whether they arrived through the front door.

Why YouTube Is Doing This

YouTube Premium has primarily been sold around four benefits: ad-free YouTube, background playback, offline downloads and YouTube Music.

Peacock gives Google something it has not previously offered inside the standard subscription: a large catalog of studio movies, conventional television series and major live sports.

That makes YouTube Premium more competitive with Amazon Prime, Walmart+ and telecommunications bundles that combine video, shopping, wireless service or other benefits into one monthly payment.

It also pushes YouTube further into the role once occupied by cable and satellite companies. Google is no longer merely hosting video or selling a live television replacement. It is becoming the platform through which other streaming services reach customers.

The Larger Trend

Streaming fragmentation created too many applications, passwords, price increases and monthly decisions. The industry’s solution is increasingly to bundle those services through a larger distributor.

The new gatekeepers are YouTube, Amazon, Apple, Roku, Walmart, Verizon and the remaining cable companies. Viewers may receive better overall value, but the companies controlling the interface, billing relationship and recommendation engine gain enormous leverage over the services inside it.

That does not mean this Peacock deal is bad for consumers. For an existing YouTube Premium subscriber who already pays separately for Peacock Premium, the bundle could eliminate a $10.99 monthly charge while putting the same programming inside an application already installed on almost every television.

But the direction is unmistakable. Streaming is consolidating around a handful of large platforms capable of bundling everyone else.

We cut the cord to escape the package. The package has returned without the coaxial cable.

The Bottom Line

Adding Peacock Premium makes YouTube Premium a much broader entertainment subscription and gives existing members access to a meaningful catalog of movies, television and live sports.

The value proposition is potentially excellent, particularly for subscribers currently paying for both services. The catch is that Peacock Premium remains ad-supported, while upgrade pricing, account migration, technical quality and exact eligibility remain unresolved.

NBCUniversal gains reach. YouTube gains premium programming and live sports. Viewers gain one fewer application to open and one more bundle to explain to someone else in the house.

Streaming promised simplicity. It has finally delivered cable with better search.

For more information: peacocktv.com

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The program, ChatGPT for Academic Researchers, will start with 10,000 participants this summer.

Curiosity has been climbing the broad valley nicknamed Valle Grande for weeks when its cameras locked onto something that stopped the science team cold. On June 11, 2026, the 4,923rd Martian day of the mission, the rover’s Mastcam stitched together eleven frames into a clean panorama of a solitary butte standing roughly 20 feet tall. Mission planners named it Miraflores. A thick layer of dark sand sits on its flat top like a natural crown, while the rock faces below show the slow work of wind and time carving away everything that once surrounded it. That erosion left the butte standing and deepened the valley the rover is now driving through.

From the ground, the vista feels almost uncomfortably personal, as the slope slopes away in all directions, as if blown away by the wind. Dark sand is drawn into every low spot and gradually works its way up the lower slopes. The distant horizon resembles the stratified landscape we’ve been investigating with Curiosity on the lower part of Mount Sharp for over a decade. The ground immediately surrounding Miraflores catches your attention. A never-ending blanket of small many-sided cracks stretches out in every direction the camera can see, with each polygon measuring little more than 3 inches across. The edges of those tiny fissures rise up to form an extremely tight honeycomb pattern that wraps all the way up the sides of the butte.

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The puzzle of how those shapes developed remains, as when the team first noticed them on the trip, they appeared as mud cracks when the wet sand dried out and shriveled away. Other items, however, can leave behind the same pattern. Repeated heating and cooling might cause the surface to break completely. Alternatively, compression on anything still buried can force the water out of the silt, leaving a network of fissures in its wake. Now, teams on Earth are reviewing the measurements and readings from the rover’s instruments to try to narrow it down even more. Then there are the dark pebbles and cobbles sprinkled around the region, which provide an extra depth of mystery to the mix. Some of them could just be bits of higher-up rock that slid down. Others could be impact debris swept up from the side and tossed here, or perhaps meteorites, given the nickel in a few of the samples.

A second, wider 360-degree panorama taken a week later, on sols 4,930 and 4,931, showed the same pattern stretching farther than the rover’s cameras could resolve. Mission scientists had spotted similar geometric shapes in small patches several times before. Never had they found an expanse this large. Project scientist Ashwin Vasavada put the feeling into words: “We’ve seen a lot of fascinating landscapes through Curiosity’s eyes, but this sea of polygons took our breath away. We measured their shapes and chemistry carefully and are hopeful there are clues in the data as to how these features formed.”