Ray Blanco:

France Deploys AI Humanoid Robot Inside Nuclear Plant for Safer Operations

Capgemini and Orano have unveiled Hoxo – a robot that combines AI computer vision and advanced robotics to address operational challenges in nuclear facilities. The robot was launched at the Orano Melox facility in Gard, France.

Hoxo is a combination of embedded AI, advanced sensors, and autonomous navigation systems, designed to enhance operational efficiency and safety in nuclear environments.

It will play a major role in assisting human operators while handling hazardous and difficult technical tasks, while redefining human-machine collaboration. Hoxo replicates human movements to adjust to difficult environments around nuclear plants. The robot features real-time perception systems and the capability to perform technical tasks.

Arnaud Capdepon, Director of Orano Melox, said the new robot promises a significant transformation for the nuclear industry.

“Hoxo opens new perspectives for our operations by combining an intelligent and ergonomic robotic solution with the expertise of our on-site teams,” he explained. “It’s an innovation we aim to evolve to meet our industrial needs, contributing to both safety and competitiveness as we tackle the challenges of today and tomorrow."

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Chris Campbell:

DOJ, FBI, Secret Service Unveil 'Strike Force' to Combat Crypto Scams Rooted in China

The U.S. Department of Justice’s D.C. office announced an interagency initiative Wednesday specially designed to dismantle international crypto scam operations known as “pig butchering” schemes.

The Scam Center Strike Force will work across the DOJ, FBI, Secret Service, U.S. Treasury, and other government agencies to root out transnational criminal networks that, in recent years, have made billions of dollars scamming people across the world with fake crypto sites and by assuming false identities on social media platforms.

The initiative was announced Wednesday by Jeanine Pirro, the U.S. Attorney for the District of Columbia. During her remarks, Pirro specifically tied the scourge of online crypto scams to Chinese organized crime networks.

“We’re here today to target a growing epidemic,” Pirro said. “Crypto investment fraud scams perpetrated by organized Chinese crime syndicates that successfully target Americans and victimize them.”

Pirro claimed that such schemes likely defrauded Americans out of $135 billion in 2024 alone. She said that her office has already seized $400 million worth of crypto from bad actors, and today will reveal the seizure of another $80 million in stolen crypto that the DOJ will seek to return to victims.

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Greg Guenthner:

Anthropic To Spend $50 Billion on U.S. AI Infrastructure, Starting With Texas, New York Data Centers

Anthropic announced plans Wednesday to spend $50 billion on a U.S. artificial intelligence infrastructure build-out, starting with custom data centers in Texas and New York.

The facilities, which will be designed to support the company’s rapid enterprise growth and its long-term research agenda, will be developed in partnership with Fluidstack. Fluidstack is an AI cloud platform that supplies large-scale graphics processing unit, or GPU, clusters to clients like Meta, Midjourney and Mistral.

Additional sites are expected to follow, with the first locations going live in 2026. The project is expected to create 800 permanent jobs and more than 2,000 construction roles.

The investment positions Anthropic as a major domestic player in physical AI infrastructure at a moment when policymakers are increasingly focused on U.S.-based compute capacity and technological sovereignty.

The move comes as Anthropic rival OpenAI pushes forward with an aggressive build-out of its own. The ChatGPT maker has secured more than $1.4 trillion in long-term infrastructure commitments through deals with Nvidia, Broadcom, Oracle and the major cloud providers, including Microsoft, Google, and, most recently, Amazon

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