Amazon used its annual re:Invent cloud conference in Las Vegas to pitch a vision of the workplace where AI agents serve not as tools but as "co-workers" and "teammates," even as the company proceeds with eliminating roughly 14,000 corporate jobs in its second major workforce reduction in recent years.

AWS CEO Matt Garman predicted on stage that autonomous "frontier agents" could represent 80 to 90% of enterprise AI value. Colleen Aubrey, senior vice president of applied AI solutions, described a future where companies manage "teams" of agents capable of working autonomously for hours or days while humans shift into supervisory roles. Amazon has already deployed agentic systems across tens of thousands of its own engineers to triage outages and propose fixes. The company calls these systems "teammates" rather than tools. CEO Andy Jassy has warned that AI would shrink Amazon's workforce, though a spokesperson attributed the current cuts to "reducing bureaucracy" and "removing layers" rather than AI deployment.

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America's Energy Department runs a research lab in Idaho — and this week announced successful results from a ground-breaking experiment. "This is the first time in history that chloride-based molten salt fuel has been produced for a fast reactor," says Bill Phillips, the lab's technical lead for salt synthesis. He calls it "a major milestone for American innovation and a clear signal of our national commitment to advanced nuclear energy."


Unlike traditional reactors that use solid fuel rods and water as a coolant, most molten salt reactors rely on liquid fuel — a mixture of salts containing fissile material. This design allows for higher operating temperatures, better fuel efficiency, and enhanced safety. It also opens the door to new applications, including compact nuclear systems for ships and remote installations.

"The Molten Chloride Fast Reactor represents a paradigm shift in the nuclear fuel cycle, and the Molten Chloride Reactor Experiment (MCRE) will directly inform the commercialization of that reactor," said Jeff Latkowski, senior vice president of TerraPower and program director for the Molten Chloride Fast Reactor. "Working with world-leading organizations such as INL to successfully synthesize this unique new fuel demonstrates how real progress in Gen IV nuclear is being made together."

"The implications for the maritime industry are significant," said Don Wood, senior technical advisor for MCRE. "Molten salt reactors could provide ships with highly efficient, low-maintenance nuclear power, reducing emissions and enabling long-range, uninterrupted travel. The technology could spark the rise of a new nuclear sector — one that is mobile, scalable and globally transformative.



More details from America's Energy Department:


MCRE will require a total of 72 to 75 batches of fuel salt to go critical, making it the largest fuel production effort at INL since the operations of Experimental Breeder Reactor-II more than 30 years ago. The full-scale demonstration of the new fuel salt synthesis line for MCRE was made possible by a breakthrough in 2024. After years of testing, the team found the right recipe to convert 95 percent of uranium metal feedstock into 18 kilograms of uranium chloride fuel salt in only a few hours — a process that previously took more than a week to complete...
After delivering the first batch of fuel salt this fall, the team anticipates delivering four additional batches by March of 2026. MCRE is anticipated to run in 2028 for approximately six months at INL in the Laboratory for Operation and Testing (LOTUS) in the United States test bed.
"With the first batch of fuel salt successfully created at INL, researchers will now conduct testing to better understand the physics of the process, with a goal of moving the process to a commercial scale over the next decade," says Cowboy State Daily.


Thanks to long-time Slashdot reader schwit1 for sharing the article.

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Informateur Sybrand Buma komt vandaag al met zijn eindverslag. Eind deze middag zal hij het verslag aanbieden aan de voorzitter van de Tweede Kamer en zal hij er in een…

Uit straatboekenkastjes in heel Nederland haalt Arjen Fortuin steeds een boek, bespreekt het, en geeft het door. Deze week bij een oude brouwerij in Breda.

fumi*23 has added a photo to the pool:

mountains

f.flibotte has added a photo to the pool:

A vibrant street in a Japanese city, bustling with people walking and cycling past shops with distinctive architecture and numerous signs in Japanese.

Portugal mag zich in 2025 verrassend genoeg de beste economie van de rijke wereld noemen. Volgens een jaarlijkse ranglijst van The Economist scoort het land het hoogst op een combinatie van groei, inflatie, werkgelegenheid en beurskoersen. Nederland komt in de kopgroep niet voor.

Het blad bekeek 36 rijke landen op vijf indicatoren:

• kerninflatie,

• de breedte van de inflatie (hoeveel prijzen stijgen boven 2 procent),

• groei van het bbp,

• werkgelegenheid

• de  prestaties van de nationale aandelenmarkt.

Portugal eindigt op nummer één, vóór Ierland, Israël, Colombia en Spanje. Opvallend: veel voormalige probleemkinderen van de eurozone – Portugal, Griekenland en Spanje – staan inmiddels in de kopgroep.

Nederland staat in de ranglijst van The Economist op plaats 20

Portugal combineert in 2025 relatief sterke economische groei met lage inflatie en een levendige beurs. De groei wordt gedragen door een sterke toerismesector en de toestroom van welvarende buitenlanders, terwijl de werkloosheid historisch laag blijft. De OESO verwacht dat de Portugese economie ook de komende jaren rond de 1,9 procent per jaar blijft groeien, gesteund door hogere lonen en Europese herstelgelden.

Niet alle grote economieën doen het zo goed. De Verenigde Staten belanden slechts in de middenmoot: de arbeidsmarkt is nog altijd stevig, maar relatief hoge inflatie trekt de score omlaag. Noord-Europese landen als Estland, Finland en Slowakije bungelen onderaan, mede door hardnekkig hoge of juist té lage inflatie. Zelfs Duitsland en het Verenigd Koninkrijk presteren volgens The Economist nog altijd matig vergeleken met Zuid-Europa.

Voor beleggers is er nóg een pikant detail. Historisch gezien stijgt de beurs van het door The Economist uitgeroepen “economie van het jaar” in het daaropvolgende jaar gemiddeld met nog eens zo’n 20 procent, zo rekent het blad voor. Doe er je voordeel mee.

• The Economist – “Which economy did best in 2025?”: https://www.economist.com/finance-and-economics/2025/12/07/which-economy-did-best-in-2025 ft​
• OESO – Economic Outlook Portugal 2025: https://www.oecd.org/en/publications/oecd-economic-outlook-volume-2025-issue-1_83363382-en oecd​

Atlantic Bastion combines AI systems with warships to counter increased surveillance

The UK government has announced enhanced protection for undersea cables using autonomous vessels alongside crewed warships and aircraft, responding to escalating Russian surveillance activities.…

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

Thomas Hawk posted a photo:

handwritten on back of photograph, "1974"