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Google and NASA are teaming up to build a robotic medical assistant designed for deep space missions. With communication delays making real-time guidance from Earth impossible, the robot would help astronauts manage emergencies — retrieving equipment, assisting with procedures, and handling routine medical duties during long-duration flights.
Closer to home, a federal judge has ruled that Elon Musk's xAI must face a lawsuit brought by the NAACP over its data center operations in southern Memphis. The case centers on pollution concerns tied to the facility, and it marks a significant moment as AI infrastructure increasingly collides with environmental justice questions in communities that often have the least political leverage.
And a documentary project called Searching for SmarterChild is raising a question that sounds simple but cuts surprisingly deep — why do humans routinely insult and abuse AI chatbots? The film, which just won a top award at a Czech documentary festival, explores what our behavior toward machines might reveal about our own psychology and our evolving relationship with artificial minds.
Those are the stories moving the needle today. Keep surfing. Tech Beat out.
