🌎 All in on AI

Chinese “exit bans” are leaving US citizens stranded

Apparently, Xi Jinping thinks the best souvenir is an indefinite stay. Dozens of Americans, including a US Patent and Trademark Office employee and at least one Wells Fargo executive, have been stranded in China after its controversial new “exit ban” policy went into effect.

What’s going on?

As the US and China currently undergo high-stakes trade talks, the US government has confirmed that several citizens have been barred from leaving China for months.

While Beijing claims these restrictions are standard legal practice tied to investigations, some say they’re often vague and applied without warning:

• In April, a US Commerce Department official had his passport, credit cards, phone, and tablet seized, and although his passport was returned days later, he was still not allowed to depart.

• Earlier this summer, a managing director at Wells Fargo found herself unable to board a flight after Chinese authorities said she was involved in a criminal investigation.

Is it really legal? China insists these are legitimate judicial decisions made “in accordance with the law,” and that each case is individual, not part of a broader political game.

Still, these exit bans ring alarm bells for foreign businesses and travelers, fueling concerns about unjustified arrests and prompting companies to rethink their travel plans to China.

Bad for business

As the bans persist, the US Embassy and State Department have lodged formal complaints, calling the bans “arbitrary,” and warned they could erode trust in foreign relations.

Meanwhile, business leaders are pretty wary of China:

• Wells Fargo recently suspended all employee travel to China, per the Wall Street Journal.

• BlackRock has banned employees from using company-issued devices while traveling in China, recommending loaner phones and laptops instead.

Additionally, Japanese companies are reportedly scaling back business travel to China following a Beijing court's sentencing of a Japanese pharmaceutical executive to 3.5 years in prison for espionage.

Déjà vu: The new exit ban comes just after the US had eased its cautionary travel advisory for China following the 2024 release of three long-detained American citizens.

The US government is betting big on AI

The data center race is on, and the White House just gave it the green light. On Wednesday, President Trump unveiled a sweeping AI Action Plan, focused on cementing US dominance in artificial intelligence and outpacing China in development.

Race to the top

The 23-page document (see here) details how the Trump administration will mobilize federal agencies, having them coordinate to accelerate AI innovation in the US and make the country a leader in the industry.

What does that mean? Overall, there are more than 90 federal actions the government aims to take within the next year, but the policy outlines some key steps to help achieve its goal:

• The plan wants to make it easier to build massive data centers by cutting back on environmental red tape, and will invest in training efforts for high-demand positions like electricians.

• It supports open-source AI development to ensure transparency, while requiring the Commerce Department to screen Chinese AI models for bias and censorship.

Trump already kick-started the plan by signing three executive orders aimed at streamlining data center permits, boosting AI exports to allies, and restricting federal chatbot use to those free of ideological bias.

Big Tech, unsurprisingly, loves the plan: Tech giants, including Nvidia, AMD, OpenAI, Meta, and Microsoft, have praised the plan’s deregulation and simplified export restrictions, which are expected to boost AI hardware development and global competitiveness.

New study suggests spiders originated in the ocean

Evolving from a land creature is overrated, anyway. A new study released this week suggests spiders and their land-dwelling relatives evolved from an ancient ocean creature, overturning the belief that their common ancestor lived on land.

Ocean evolution

Using advanced imaging techniques, researchers at the University of Arizona looked inside the 500-million-year-old fossil of Mollisonia symmetrica, an extinct aquatic creature long believed to be the ancestor of horseshoe crabs.

It revealed a surprising truth about humanity’s least favorite critter with eight legs:

• Its prosoma—the front part of its body—features radiating nerve clusters linked to pincer-like claws, a layout similar to modern spiders.

• Plus, the fossilized brain and central nervous system feature a reversed, back-to-front structure, which is also unique to spiders.

According to the lead author of the study (read here), this “flipped” structure likely gave arachnids superior motor control, enhancing their renowned stealth, speed, and web‑spinning abilities.

The evidence doesn’t end there: Statistical analyses of 115 neural traits reinforce Mollisonia as a sister group to modern arachnids, pushing the origin of spiders, scorpions, and their kin back into the Cambrian seas, well before they ventured onto land.

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China starts construction on the world’s biggest dam

Who knew the Great Wall of China needed a rival? China has officially commenced construction of the world's largest hydropower dam on the Yarlung Tsangpo River in Tibet, a project Premier Li Qiang has called the "project of the century."

It’s absolutely huge

China’s plan for the behemoth structure includes building five hydropower stations in sequence, producing roughly 300 million megawatt-hours of power each year. That’s a massive amount of energy:

• That could power the entire UK for a full year, drive an EV for one trillion miles, or supply electricity to all global households for over a decade.

• It’s nearly triple the output of the Three Gorges Dam, which is currently the world’s largest.

Not only is the energy output insane, but the price is, too. The colossal project, which is expected to be completed in nearly a decade, is set to cost roughly 1.2 trillion yuan, or $167 billion. For reference, that’s more expensive than it cost to build the International Space Station.

Bigger isn’t always better

While the project is anticipated to provide a significant boost to China's clean energy capacity and boost economic growth in the region, critics say it will have reverberating ecological and geopolitical consequences.

• Environmentalists warn that the dam's construction could disrupt local ecosystems, as the region is known for its rich biodiversity.

• The Yarlung Tsangpo River also flows into India and Bangladesh, providing a crucial water source for agriculture and daily use, prompting concerns over potential impacts downstream.

China has assured that it doesn’t seek “water hegemony” and will cooperate with downstream nations while emphasizing ecological protection, though details on how they will do so remain vague.

Looking ahead: The megaproject should be a boon for China’s sluggish economy, with Citigroup analysts estimating it may add a much-needed 0.1% to the country’s annual GDP growth for the next decade.

This company owns 3% of all Bitcoins ever made

I would say the company’s name checks out. Strategy, a software company owned by Michael Saylor, purchased roughly 6,220 BTC last week. Now, the company holds around 3.05% of all bitcoins in existence and is the largest corporate Bitcoin holder in the world.

A sound strategy

Strategy, formerly known as MicroStrategy, has turned from a software service to a bitcoin buying behemoth, now owning 607,770 of 19.9 million bitcoins in circulation.

Snatching up all that digital currency has paid off:

• Since it started buying Bitcoin in 2020, Strategy’s stock is up 3,500%.

• Its huge spike in share price is largely driven by bitcoin’s own 1,100% climb, well above the S&P 500’s 120%.

While it might seem somewhat mainstream now, Strategy was actually the first public company to buy Bitcoin. Its latest purchase set the company back around $740 million, but it’s nothing to sweat about considering its whole reserve of crypto is worth $72 billion.

Looking forward: Strategy’s, uh… strategy regarding bitcoin comes with risk, as the company’s value is now closely tied to a famously volatile asset, though advocates argue bitcoin’s fixed supply makes it a somewhat safe pick in the crypto world.

FAST FACTS
Catch up on this week’s weird news

Pandemic Problems: Living through the COVID-19 pandemic aged our brains by approximately 5.5 months, even among those who never contracted the virus, according to a new study.

Latin Locator: Google’s DeepMind has unveiled a generative AI model that can date, restore, and tell the location of incomplete Latin writing.

Putting Premier: Happy Gilmore 2, starring Adam Sandler reprising his iconic role, premieres today on Netflix. Nearly 30 years after the first movie, original cast members will reprise their roles along with fresh faces like Scottie Scheffler and Kid Cudi.

New Nuclear: Japan has taken a major step toward restarting its nuclear ambitions, proposing the first new reactor since the 2011 Fukushima meltdown, which was sparked by a tsunami and claimed more than 2,300 lives.

Quantum Question: A new study of supernovae suggests dark energy—the force behind the universe’s expansion—might be weakening over time, hinting at unknown physics at play.