Researchers use AI for the first time to create new viruses in the lab

France has begun utilizing its automotive industry to accelerate the production of military unmanned aerial vehicles. Since the beginning of the year, companies such as Renault, along with suppliers Valeo and Forvia, have entered into partnerships with defense enterprises. This strategy has been supported by the French government with the aim of strengthening the country's industrial and military autonomy.

The core idea involves applying the scale, automation, and efficiency of automotive production lines to one of the fastest-growing military segments. As noted by Valeo President Christophe Perrelat in July: 'Why now? Because the need has arisen now.' He added that the choice was made specifically in France because 'we are required to guarantee our sovereignty.'

According to a report from the Commission of the French Senate on Defense, published in July, the national reserve of military drones, estimated at several thousand units, is deemed insufficient to reach critical mass. The intensive use of this equipment in the war between Russia and Ukraine has changed methods of warfare, and pressure from the United States on Europe to expand its military capabilities has accelerated these processes.

Valeo will manufacture electric motors for drones developed by the defense technology company Harmattan AI in France. At the end of July, Forvia signed an agreement with an unnamed European defense company specializing in AI-based anti-drone systems. This company plans to establish a production facility in the country to produce thousands of interceptors monthly.

Renault has gone further: together with Turgis & Gaillard, it produces the long-range Chorus drone at its Le Mans plant in western France, where it claims the capacity to produce up to 600 units per month. In June, at the Eurosatory exhibition, the company announced cooperation with Thales to industrialize Toutatis, a remotely controlled munition—an explosive drone—with the goal of reaching a rate of one thousand units per month starting in 2027.

Also in June, the French drone manufacturer Delair partnered with German Schaeffler to install a line in France capable of producing about 100 drones daily until November.

The combined capacities of Renault, Schaeffler, and Forvia could approach 60,000 units annually. However, this volume is still below what French authorities consider necessary for high-intensity conflict. In December, the government announced the allocation of 150 million euros (approximately 884 million Brazilian reais) for sector development, but the industry considers this amount insufficient.

There is also a risk of accumulating rapidly obsolete equipment. Patrice Caine, President of Thales, noted this year: 'Drones are developing very quickly.' Therefore, the French focus is not so much on stockpiling armaments as on maintaining production readiness for activation. According to Patrick Peyeux, General Delegate for Armaments, the defense startup is failing to meet the challenge of mass production using robotic manufacturing lines.

A recent study investigated how the dodo perceived its surroundings before disappearing, using only two complete skulls known globally: one kept at the Natural History Museum Denmark in Copenhagen, Denmark, and another at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History.

Researchers from the University of Lethbridge, Canada, led this international investigation, whose results were published in the Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society. The analysis focused on the digital reconstruction of the bird's brain space within the skull, comparing it to live pigeons and doves.

The scientists concluded that the dodo's sensory universe showed significant differences compared to living birds. The bird might have possessed a more flexible daily activity pattern, extending into sunrise and sunset. Furthermore, they suggest that the dodo had a more developed sense of smell than its current relatives and a greater aptitude for processing tactile information, aided by its large upper beak.

Peter Andrew Hosner, an associate professor and avian curator at the Natural History Museum Denmark and co-author of the study, commented that although the dodo is a well-known extinct animal, little was known about its actual life. He highlighted that access to one of the two complete skulls allowed for an unprecedented comparison with living relatives, generating new insights into how the bird interacted with its environment.

The anatomical comparison indicated a unique combination of sensory traits. The findings suggest that the dodo was not necessarily active only during the day, but could also operate at dawn and dusk. The possibility was also raised that the bird relied more on smell and used its upper beak to capture tactile data from the environment.

The researchers emphasize, however, that anatomy alone does not provide an exact determination of the bird's behavior; the results serve as indications of how the dodo might have obtained food and interacted with its island habitat in Mauritius before its extinction in the late 17th century, without offering a definitive portrait.

Hipsley added that the dodo's skull is distinct from any living bird, making it complex to interpret. Comparing the digital reconstructions of the two available skulls provided a more robust basis for identifying typical species characteristics and inferring its way of life.

Contrary to the common representation that the dodo was clumsy and unintelligent, the new study found no evidence that the bird possessed cognitive abilities inferior to those of live pigeons and doves. Instead, the findings point to a species with unique sensory adaptations, developed over millions of years on an isolated island.

Hosner concluded that the research establishes a new benchmark for understanding the bird's ecology and behavior, helping to overcome myths and build a more accurate picture of how this extraordinary creature lived before disappearing.

The Copenhagen skull is on permanent display at the Natural History Museum Denmark. The tomography was conducted during preparations for the inauguration of a new museum building, with permanent galleries planned for 2027, at which time researchers could examine the specimen with such detail.

OpenAI announced on Friday, the 7th, the suspension of internal activities related to Astra, an artificial intelligence model under development. This decision was motivated by analyses that detected significant progress in areas such as autonomous programming and cybersecurity, raising the possibility that the system could reach a critical level of offensive digital capability.

OpenAI itself took this measure after internal evaluations and expert opinions indicated that the model might be approaching the risk parameters defined within its preparation framework. The central concern lies with systems capable of performing complex digital security tasks without human intervention.

This announcement comes amid various incidents related to security testing in artificial intelligence models. The company clarified that Astra was not involved in the previous incident that occurred with Hugging Face, as mentioned in past assessments.

The suspension was triggered because internal checks showed that Astra had shown notable improvements in functions related to code generation and digital security operations. According to OpenAI, such results were sufficient to suggest that the model could reach the maximum alert level foreseen in its preparation structure.

The company's internal criteria define that an artificial intelligence has critical cyber capability if it is able to discover and create unprecedented vulnerabilities, of various severity levels, in protected real systems without human help, or if it can formulate complete attack plans against robust targets starting from generic goals.

The organization emphasized that this evaluation does not imply that Astra carried out attacks or exploited flaws in external systems. OpenAI reiterated that the model under development did not participate in the episode involving Hugging Face.

In response to this alert, OpenAI announced its intention to raise the security requirements applied to models with greater potential and related activities. Among the measures disclosed is the implementation of stricter controls.

Additionally, the company stated that it has established comprehensive monitoring to track any actions considered risky or potential signs of deviation in applications built on artificial intelligence agents. The Astra case serves to intensify the debate on how technology corporations should reconcile the advancement of more powerful systems with effective mechanisms to restrict dangerous uses. In this instance, OpenAI's own internal analysis served as the basis for temporarily pausing the model's progress until new security standards were implemented.