Richard Lawler

Senior News Editor

Richard LawlerMay 22

SpaceX’s 12th Starship flight test has launched.

After a scrubbed launch on Thursday, SpaceX’s first V3 Starship left Pad 2 at Starbase on Friday evening.

SpaceX is now preparing to go public, and a lot of its big promises hinge on the development of vehicles like the next-generation Starship and Super Heavy vehicle launched today. The booster will not attempt a return this time, while the Flight 12 Starship is attempting to deploy 20 Starlink simulators and two “modified” Starlink satellites.

Richard LawlerMay 22

Tulsi Gabbard is resigning.

The Director of National Intelligence confirmed her resignation on X Friday afternoon, saying, “My husband, Abraham, has recently been diagnosed with an extremely rare form of bone cancer.” Trump announced Aaron Lukas will take over as Acting Director.

Gabbard, a former US Representative who reversed her previous stand against warrantless wiretapping before taking the post, was reportedly “largely sidelined” from national security operations in Venezuela and Iran, while Reuters reports a source claiming the White House forced her to resign.

“I am deeply grateful for the trust President Trump placed in me and for the opportunity to lead the ODNI for the last year and a half. Unfortunately, I must submit my resignation, effective June 30, 2026. My husband, Abraham, has recently been diagnosed with an extremely rare form of bone cancer. He faces major challenges in the coming weeks and months. At this time, I must step away from public service to be by his side and fully support him through this battle.“

Image: Tulsi Gabbard (X)

Richard LawlerMay 21

SpaceX won’t launch its first V3 Starship today.

After being pushed back an hour, we were a few minutes away from the scheduled 7:30PM ET opening of a 90-minute window for the 12th Starship flight test, before it was scrubbed about ten minutes later, saying they will try again tomorrow.

This is the first test flight since SpaceX and its most significant risk factor filed for a massive IPO yesterday, the first attempt for new “next generation Starship and Super Heavy vehicles,” and the first launch scheduled from a new Pad 2 at the Starbase in Boca Chica, TX.

The space race heats up: all the news on the latest rocket launches

Richard LawlerMay 21

Anthropic is in talks to use Microsoft’s AI chips too.

Apparently, that SpaceX $15 billion per year megadeal isn’t even enough capacity for Claude, as The Information reports Anthropic is in early talks to rent Azure servers with Microsoft’s chips, and that “Anthropic has been steadily increasing its Azure usage.”

Like OpenAI, Microsoft’s arrangement with Anthropic runs hot and cold, but its Maia 200 chips are designed to help run existing models like Claude, even if they aren’t as fast at helping to train new ones.

Anthropic Is in Talks to Use Microsoft’s AI Chips

[The Information]

Richard LawlerMay 20

Nvidia says some of its old drivers have “high severity” security vulnerabilities.

A security bulletin from Nvidia breaks down new vulnerabilities found in some of its GPU drivers for Windows and Linux and vGPU software. As Digital Foundry and Club386 point out, they affect drivers prior to 596.36 on the current branch, so if you’re running the most recently released update (596.49, which was released on May 12th), you don’t have anything to do.

Security Bulletin: NVIDIA GPU Display Drivers - May 2026

[Nvidia]

Richard LawlerMay 20

“You all have AI — actual intelligence.”

Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak was a commencement speaker for Grand Valley State University a few weeks ago, and managed to mention AI without being booed or completely ruining the event.

Richard LawlerMay 19

The Future of Truth has a problem in its fabricated present.

Despite its claim of explaining how AI tech threatens to impose “potentially catastrophic robotic certainty” on the concept of the truth, the NYT points out that this book contains multiple quotes made up by AI.

Author Steven Rosenbaum (“The Truth Whisperer”) says he takes “full responsibility” after using Claude and ChatGPT for research, writing, and editing, but claims: “These AI errors do not, in fact, diminish the larger questions that the book raises.”

Book on Truth in the Age of A.I. Contains Quotes Made Up by A.I.

[New York Times]

Richard LawlerMay 19

Apple Sports adds more countries and features ahead of the World Cup.

Apple’s dedicated sports app (where betting odds may be on by default until you turn them off) has expanded to 90 new markets. Apple also says that new features include a tournament bracket view for the World Cup stages, visual formations of each starting lineup, and one-tap links to Apple News coverage.

Simulated screenshots of the Apple Sports app

Image: Apple

Richard LawlerMay 19

Spotify is verifying podcasts made by real people too.

After launching the Verified by Spotify badge for musicians a few weeks ago, the service now has a sticker for podcasters who actually exist in real life, as AI-generated podslop floods RSS feeds.

It’s also “reaffirming” its unauthorized impersonation policy, saying it will remove podcasts that copy someone else’s likeness without permission, whether through AI cloning or any other method.