The Government said that the strategy is essential to ensuring Ireland remains competitive in attracting the next wave of large-scale, high-value manufacturing investment opportunities in sectors such as semiconductors, life sciences, and renewables.

The Irish Government has signed off on a strategic approach to developing next-generation sites (NGS) that are considered central to the country’s plans to be industrially competitive in attracting future manufacturing investments.

NGS development is to be led by IDA Ireland and the Department of Enterprise, Tourism and Employment, with collaborative efforts to be made alongside other Government departments, state agencies and utility providers as needed for the preparation and development of each site.

The Government said that the strategy is essential to ensuring Ireland remains competitive in attracting the next wave of large-scale, high-value manufacturing investment opportunities in sectors such as semiconductors, life sciences and renewables.

The goal of the NGS approach is to provide pre-permitted, master-planned landbanks with clear pathways to delivery of required utilities and transport, including public transport, to enable swift development and certainty for investors.

Minister for Enterprise, Tourism and Employment Peter Burke, TD said that the “plan-led” approach to NGS development would help Ireland win “high-value, employment-rich projects in future-focused sectors”, with three sites anticipated for creation in the next 15 years.

Each site is forecast to be between 500 and 1,000 acres, with one each in the west, east and south of the country, although potential locations will not be publicly disclosed to protect the integrity of negotiations and future acquisitions.

The Government said preparing sites in advance would reduce risk and accelerate decision-making for investors, “crucial to competing for large-scale investments in today’s fast moving international environment”.

It said that each site would be chosen by IDA Ireland for its ability to connect efficiently to energy, transport and water networks, and for its proximity to talent, third-level institutions and supply chains.

“The sectors targeted by NGS – semiconductors, life sciences and green energy, in particular – provide quality and skilled employment, pay high salaries and contribute to Ireland’s tax receipts,” said Burke.

He added that “many global companies in the semiconductor and life science sectors located and expanded in Ireland over several decades”, and are now employing tens of thousands in “well-paid jobs, with several now operating across multiple sites”.

The NGS sign-off is in line with the Government’s ‘Silicon Island’ national strategy on semiconductors, which was unveiled last May.

The strategy is a part of the Programme for Government, is aligned with the European Chips Act and the EU Digital Decade, and aims to supercharge the country’s semiconductor industry through skills development, boosting R&D, the development of the domestic semiconductor ecosystem and attracting foreign investment.

The plan also commits to developing large-scale manufacturing sites with the necessary infrastructure, enhance R&D capacity and support businesses working in the semiconductor industry with commercialisation support and access to finance.

Don’t miss out on the knowledge you need to succeed. Sign up for the Daily Brief, Silicon Republic’s digest of need-to-know sci-tech news.

Watching the wildly popular television series Love Story took me back to a strange week in my past. One day in April 1994, I was working in a studio apartment that I used as an office. I split the cost with Cynthia Horner, a psychiatrist who’d recently moved out to live with her boyfriend, the songwriter and cyberspace philosopher John Perry Barlow, who was a friend of mine. Late in the afternoon my wife called me with the shocking news that Cynthia, just shy of her 30th birthday, was dead. I called Barlow, who told me that Cymthia had passed away suddenly on a plane. Both of them had suffered from a bad flu the previous week, and the virus had been silently attacking her heart. I dropped everything and headed to Barlow’s place. For the next six hours, Barlow and I cried, drank, and head-banged in the wake of the inexplicable, along with another friend. That friend was no stranger to tragedy. He was John F. Kennedy Jr.

Barlow, who died in 2018 at age 70, was known for many things. He was the self-described junior lyricist of the Grateful Dead, a proselytizer of the Internet, cofounder of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, and a networker nonpareil. Not to mention a key figure in WIRED’s early days. He was also among the closest friends of the so-called American prince, the son of our martyred president. The friendship was no secret—Barlow was an inveterate name-dropper. Still, the pairing was fascinating and said something about both parties.

The connection began in the summer of 1977. Barlow was tending his family ranch in Pinedale, Wyoming, when Jackie Kennedy called at the suggestion of a mutual friend. As Barlow wrote in his posthumously published autobiography, Mother American Night, Jackie wanted her 17-year-old son, JFK Jr., to get a taste of rugged ranch life. Barlow, in his retelling, said yes, and augmented the teen’s ranch chores with LSD. Things they did while dosing included long drives in Barlow’s truck and dropping explosives down gas wells. They became close, and over the years Barlow moved from a reprobate father figure to more of a friend.

It was a lifelong connection. Barlow writes of attending a 1993 Prince concert with Kennedy where both were once again tripping. Kennedy felt that the audience was too restrained, and he urged Barlow to get up and dance. As Barlow writes, all of Radio City Music Hall joined in. Later, after Barlow met Cynthia, the two would double-date with Kennedy and his then-girlfriend, Daryl Hannah. After the night I spent with Barlow and Kennedy, Hannah flew to New York and helped in the postmortem planning for a memorial service. She seemed to be a lovely person.

In 1994, Kennedy moved on from Hannah and wooed the charismatic Carolyn Bessette. Barlow became a confidant of his friend’s new sweetheart—even becoming part of the ceremony at their intimate wedding in 1996. One picture shows Barlow preparing for the formalities with JFK Jr., Ted Kennedy, and the priest. I don’t know what Barlow said to honor the couple, but I’d imagine the lyricist who wrote “Estimated Prophet” delivered trenchant words blending comedy and insight.

In Mother American Night, Barlow provides an alternate explanation for why Kennedy’s Cessna took off at sunset, resulting in a night flight that culminated in the man’s death, along with the deaths of his wife and her sister. Barlow says that he had just sent his 2,500 closest friends the news that his mother had died. Kennedy, he says, was late to the airport because he was composing a long condolence email to Barlow. Reasons for the late takeoff aside, Barlow claims that he had previously given Kennedy a warning that was ultimately ignored: “When you lose sight of the horizon don’t look for it. Just put your eyes on the instrument and believe it.”

Video Friday is your weekly selection of awesome robotics videos, collected by your friends at IEEE Spectrum robotics. We also post a weekly calendar of upcoming robotics events for the next few months. Please send us your events for inclusion.

ICRA 2026: 1–5 June 2026, VIENNA

RSS 2026: 13–17 July 2026, SYDNEY

Summer School on Multi-Robot Systems: 29 July–4 August 2026, PRAGUE

Enjoy today’s videos!

Getting Digit to dance takes more than putting on some fancy shoes–our AI Team can teach Digit new whole-body control capabilities overnight. Using raw motion data from mocap, animation, and teleop methods, Digit gets new skills through sim-to-real reinforcement training.

[ Agility ]

[ Generalist ]

Unitree open-sources UnifoLM-WBT-Dataset—high-quality real-world humanoid robot whole-body teleoperation (WBT) dataset for open environments. Publicly available since March 5, 2026, the dataset will continue to receive high-frequency rolling updates. It aims to establish the most comprehensive real-world humanoid robot dataset in terms of scenario coverage, task complexity, and manipulation diversity.

[ Hugging Face ]

Autonomous mobile robots operating in human-shared indoor environments often require paths that reflect human spatial intentions, such as avoiding interference with pedestrian flow or maintaining comfortable clearance. This paper presents MRReP, a Mixed Reality-based interface that enables users to draw a Hand-drawn Reference Path (HRP) directly on the physical floor using hand gestures.

[ MRReP ]

Thanks, Masato!

Eye contact, even momentarily between strangers, plays a pivotal role in fostering human connection, promoting happiness, and enhancing belonging. Through autonomous navigation and adaptive mirror control, Mirrorbot facilitates serendipitous, non-verbal interactions by dynamically transitioning reflections from self-focused to mutual recognition, sparking eye contact, shared awareness, and playful engagement.

[ ARL ] via [ Cornell University ]

Experience PAL Robotics’ new teleoperation system for TIAGo Pro, the AI-ready mobile manipulator designed for advanced research. This real-time VR teleoperation setup allows precise control of TIAGo Pro’s dual arms in Cartesian space, ideal for remote manipulation, AI data collection, and robot learning.

[ PAL Robotics ]

Utter brilliance from Robust AI. No notes.

[ Robust AI ]

Come along with our Senior Test Engineer, Nick L., as he takes us on a tour of the Home Test Labs inside the iRobot HQ.

[ iRobot ]

By automating the final “magic 5%” of production—the precise trimming of swim goggles’ silicone gaskets based on individual face scans—UR cobots allow THEMAGIC5 to deliver affordable, custom-fit goggles, enabling the company to scale from a Kickstarter sensation to selling over 400,000 goggles worldwide.

[ Universal Robots ]

Sanctuary AI has once again demonstrated its industry-leading approach to training dexterous manipulation policies for its advanced hydraulic hands. In this video, their proprietary hydraulic hand autonomously manipulates a lettered cube, continuously reorienting it to match a specified goal (displayed in the bottom-left corner of the video).

[ Sanctuary AI ]

China’s Yuxing 3-06 commercial experimental satellite, the first of its kind to be equipped with a flexible robotic arm, has recently completed an in-orbit refueling test and verification of key technologies. The test paves the way for Yuxing 3-06, dubbed a “space refueling station,” to refuel other satellites in orbit, manage space debris, and provide other in-orbit services.

[ Sanyuan Aerospace ] via [ Space News ]

This is a demonstration of natural walking, whole-body teleoperation, and motion tracking with our custom-built humanoid robot. The control policies are trained using large-scale parallel reinforcement learning (RL). By deploying robust policies learned in a physics simulator onto the real hardware, we achieve dynamic and stable whole-body motions.

[ Tokyo Robotics ]

Faced with aging railway infrastructure, a shrinking workforce and rising construction costs, Japan Railway West asked construction innovator Serendix to replace an old wooden building at its Hatsushima railway station using its 3D printing technology. An ABB robot enabled the company to assemble the new building in a single night ready for the first train service the next day.

[ ABB ]

Humanoid, SAP, and Martur Fompak team up to test humanoid robots in automotive manufacturing logistics. This joint proof of concept explores how robots can streamline operations, improve efficiency, and shape the future of smart factories.

[ Humanoid ]

This MIT Robotics Seminar is from Dario Floreano at EPFL, on “Avian Inspired Drones.”

[ MIT ]

This MIT Robotics Seminar is from Ken Goldberg at UC Berkeley, on “Good Old-Fashioned Engineering Can Close the 100,000 Year “Data Gap” in Robotics.”

[ MIT ]

Infinix has quietly but surely been doing some good work in 2026, especially when every other brand has been hiking prices thanks to RAM shortages. After introducing the super pretty Pininfarina-designed Note 60 Ultra, Infinix is ready to double down on gaming with its next GT-series smartphone. A new leak has revealed details about the upcoming Infinix GT 50 Pro, which is set to feature a redesigned “hypercar-inspired” look and some serious thermal engineering upgrades. Here’s everything we know so far.

All New Design

The GT 50 Pro reportedly builds on Infinix’s signature hypercar aesthetic but refines it with cleaner lines and a more premium finish. Leaked images reveal a new Kevlar-like texture and aerodynamic detailing that give it a more polished look.

However, the real star here is what Infinix calls the “Pipeline Window Display.” It’s essentially a transparent section on the back that visually exposes the cooling system underneath. According to the leak, this creates a live, almost mechanical effect in which the cooling channels appear to be actively flowing, making the phone feel like it’s “breathing” during use.

For all the eSports aficionados, the GT 50 Pro will introduce dual-pressure shoulder triggers. These triggers support pressure sensitivity, multiple mapping points, and even sliding gestures. Latency is kept to just 20ms, and they can also be configured to work with the camera to help zoom in.

Redesigned Thermals

Thermal efficiency is super important for gamers. After all, no one wants their frames dropping as the phone heats up. To tackle this exact problem, the GT 50 Pro will feature what’s being described as the industry’s largest micro-pump HydroFlow liquid-cooling system, with a massive 6437 mm² diaphragm area. With a 100% coverage of the core heat area, the goal is simple: better heat dissipation and more stable performance during long gaming sessions.

Another nice-to-have is the MagCharge Cooler 2.0 (bypass charging). This means the phone can be powered directly without routing energy through the battery, reducing heat buildup during gaming. At the same time, it delivers active cooling using TEC refrigeration, allowing users to charge and cool the device simultaneously.

While there’s no confirmation of the CPU, early reports indicate the MediaTek Dimensity 8400 Ultimate. An India launch is coming soon, so stay tuned for more information.

from the unfun-twist-on-an-old-story dept

This may not be an actual “Wyden siren,” but it still has his name attached to it. What’s being said here isn’t nearly as ominous as this single sentence he sent to CIA leadership earlier this year:

I write to alert you to a classified letter I sent you earlier today in which I express deep concerns about CIA activities.

Few people are capable of saying so much with so little. This one runs a bit longer, but it has implications that likely run deeper than the surface level issue raised by Wyden and others in a recent letter to Trump’s (satire is dead) Director of National Intelligence, Tulsi Gabbard. Here are the details, as reported by Dell Cameron for Wired:

In a letter sent Thursday to Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard, the lawmakers say that because VPNs obscure a user’s true location, and because intelligence agencies presume that communications of unknown origin are foreign, Americans may be inadvertently waiving the privacy protections they’re entitled to under the law.

Several federal agencies, including the FBI, the National Security Agency, and the Federal Trade Commission, have recommended that consumers use VPNs to protect their privacy. But following that advice may inadvertently cost Americans the very protections they’re seeking.

The letter was signed by members of the Democratic Party’s progressive flank: Senators Ron Wyden, Elizabeth Warren, Edward Markey, and Alex Padilla, along with Representatives Pramila Jayapal and Sara Jacobs.

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That’s alarming. It’s also a conundrum. VPN use (often required for remote logins to corporate systems) is a great way to secure connections that are otherwise insecure, like those made originating from people’s homes (to log into their work stuff) or utilizing public Wi-Fi. There are also more off-the-book uses, like circumventing regional content limitations or just ensuring your internet activity can’t be tied to your physical location.

The trade-off depends on the threat you’re trying to mitigate. It’s kind of like the trade-off in cell phone security. Using biometrics markers to unlock your phone might be the best option if what you’re mainly concerned with is theft of your device. A thief might be able to guess a password, but they won’t be able to duplicate an iris or a fingerprint.

But if the threat you’re more worried about is this government, you’ll want the passcode. Courts have generally found that fingerprints and eyeballs aren’t “testimonial,” so if you’re worried about being compelled to unlock your device, the Fifth Amendment tends to favor passwords, at least as far as the courts are concerned.

It’s almost the same thing here. VPNs might protect you against garden-variety criminals, but the intentional commingling of origin/destination points by VPNs could turn purely domestic communications into “foreign” communications the NSA can legally intercept (and the FBI, somewhat less-legally can dip into at will).

That’s the substance of the letter sent to Gabbard, in which the legislators ask the DNI to issue public guidance on VPN usage that makes it clear that doing so might subject users to (somewhat inadvertent) domestic surveillance:

Americans reportedly spend billions of dollars each year on commercial VPN services, many of which are offered by foreign-headquartered companies using servers located overseas. According to the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, VPNs have the potential to be vulnerable to surveillance by foreign adversaries. While Americans should be warned of these risks, they should also be told if these VPN services, which are advertised as a privacy protection, including by elements of the federal government, could, in fact, negatively impact their rights against U.S. government surveillance. To that end, we urge you to be more transparent with the American public about whether the use of VPNs can impact their privacy with regard to U.S. government surveillance, and clarify what, if anything, American consumers can do to ensure they receive the privacy protections they are entitled to under the law and Constitution.

I wouldn’t expect a response from ODNI. I mean, I wouldn’t expect one in any case, but I especially don’t expect Tulsi Gabbard to respond to a letter sent by a handful of Democratic Party members.

A warning would be nice, but even an Intelligence Community overseen by competent professionals, rather than loyalists and Fox News commentators would be hard-pressed to present a solution. To be fair, this letter isn’t asking for a fix, but rather telling the Director of National Intelligence to inform the public of the risks of VPN usage, including increasing their odds of being swept up in NSA dragnets.

Certainly the NSA isn’t concerned about “incidental collection.” It’s never been too concerned about its consistent “incidental” collection of US persons’ communications and data in the past and this isn’t going to budge the needle, especially since it means the NSA would have to do more work to filter out domestic communications and the FBI would be less than thrilled with any efforts made to deny it access to communications it doesn’t have the legal right to obtain on its own.

Since the government won’t do this, it’s up to the general public, starting with everyone sharing the contents of this letter with others. VPNs can still offer considerable security benefits. But everyone needs to know that domestic surveillance is one of the possible side effects of utilizing this tech.

Filed Under: alex padilla, domestic surveillance, ed markey, elizabeth warren, executive order 12333, fbi, national security, nsa, odni, pramila jayapal, ron wyden, sara jacobs, section 702, surveillance state, tulsi gabbard, vpn

It’s been looming for weeks, but now the end is near: Just a few hundred Tesla Model S and Model X vehicles remain unsold. Tesla CEO Elon Musk confirmed this week in a post on X that custom orders of the Model S sedan and Model X SUV are over. “All that’s left are some in inventory,” he wrote.

Musk first announced Tesla’s plan to end Model S and Model X production back in January. And the data helps explain why.

Sales of the Tesla Model X and Model S have fallen steadily over the years as the company’s high volume and cheaper entries — the Model 3 and Model Y — took over. Tesla doesn’t separate S and X sales, instead combining them under “other models,” a category that now includes the Cybertruck. And those combined figures show S and X sales peaking in 2017 at 101,312 vehicles before declining to 50,850 vehicles (including Cybertruck) in 2025 — a fraction of the 1.63 million vehicles it delivered globally last year.

In other words, their deaths were inevitable. What comes next is a bit more complicated.

Musk isn’t filling the void left by the Model X and Model S with a traditional EV; he ditched plans to produce a lower-cost EV that was expected to be priced around $25,000. Instead, Musk is placing his bets on the Optimus robot, which has yet to go into production, and the Cybercab, an all-electric two-seater autonomous vehicle that was first shown as a concept in 2024.

Tesla plans to build Optimus robots at its Fremont, California, factory once production of the Model S and Model X end, which could be any day now that final orders have been taken. Musk has said Tesla will begin producing the Cybercab this month at its factory in Austin, Texas. 

A look back

The Model S and X EVs have taken a backseat to the more affordable Model 3 and Model Y vehicles. But their debuts, and initial sales, marked two critical moments in Tesla’s colorful and often volatile history. The Model S launched in 2012 as its first volume EV. Its popularity not only changed how consumers viewed EVs, it prompted legacy automakers — long dismissive of the value of electric vehicles — to take notice.

The Model X followed in fall 2015 and was famously described by Musk as the Fabergé egg of EVs.

“I think we got more carried away with the X,” Musk said in a September 2015 press interview attended by this reporter just an hour before Tesla’s Model X delivery event began. “I’m not sure anyone should make this car.”

The Model X was often delayed, and initially criticized for its complexity. But it ultimately introduced the company to a new market: women.

The Model X raised Tesla’s profile, and it set the company up for its next big move: an affordable mass-produced EV. The Model 3 had a difficult start, but it ended up catapulting Tesla into the mainstream. The Model Y clinched its status, helping Tesla widen the gap as the top-selling EV producer globally until China’s BYD took over that top global EV sales spot in 2025 when it delivered 2.26 million EVs.

Tesla continues to sell thousands of Model 3 and Model Y, but its growth has stalled, and even reversed. The company reported in January that it sold 1.69 million vehicles in 2025, a decrease for the second year in a row. Its efforts to boost sales with cheaper, stripped-down versions of the Model 3 and Model Y that were introduced in October have had a modicum of success, according to first-quarter 2026 figures that were reported April 2.

Tesla delivered 358,023 EVs globally in the first three months of the year, about 6% more than the same period in 2025, which also happened to be the company’s worst quarter in years. The figure was below analysts’ expectations of around 368,000.

But never mind that. In Musk’s view — one which he is well compensated for — Tesla isn’t an automaker or a sustainable energy company, as he has described it before. Tesla is an AI company and his new gambit goes all in on that mission.

Cybercab risks

The Optimus robot is one part of the Tesla AI effort. But it’s perhaps the Cybercab that best embodies, and exposes the risks of, the company’s AI-first campaign.

The Cybercab was designed to be used as an autonomous vehicle without traditional controls like a steering wheel or pedals — meaning once it launches it will be without the initial backup of a human safety operator.

The first Cybercab rolled off the Tesla factory assembly line in February and is supposed to go into mass production this month. Although that date could slip, as so many have in Tesla’s history.

Unlike Tesla’s previous vehicles, the challenges aren’t in its production (who can forget the production hell of the Model 3). Instead, it faces a major regulatory hurdle before it can ever hit the road. Federal motor vehicle safety standards place requirements on vehicles such as having a steering wheel and pedals. There is no evidence that Tesla has applied for an exemption, according to publicly available files with the Federal Register and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

The vehicles will also rely on Tesla’s Full Self-Driving software to navigate public streets and safely shuttle passengers to their destination. Despite improvements to FSD and limited driverless robotaxi tests in Austin, Tesla has not yet demonstrated that its software can operate reliably at scale.

And that piece requires more than technical mastery. Robotaxi operations are also tricky. And in states like California, they also require permits to deploy and charge for rides in driverless vehicles.

Zoox, the autonomous vehicle company owned by Jeff Bezos’ Amazon, may end up clearing a path for Tesla and its Cybercab. Zoox received an exemption from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration that allows the company to demonstrate its custom-built robotaxis, which lack pedals or a steering wheel, on public roads. Zoox is now going through a public process to have that exemption extended to commercial operations.

Musk tried to sell shareholders on why the risk was worth it during the company’s earnings call in January.

“The vast majority of miles traveled will be autonomous in the future,” Musk said at the time, later noting that the Cybercab is super optimized for minimum cost per mile and also for a much higher-duty cycle. “I would say probably less than, I’m just guessing, but probably less than 5% of miles driven will be where somebody’s actually driving the car themselves in the future, maybe as low as 1%.”