An unreleased Pentagon probe suggests that an overreliance on Palantir's Maven Smart System, an AI-powered data integration and targeting platform, contributed to a U.S. strike in Minab, Iran, that killed over 150 people, including 123 children. The strike mistakenly hit Shajarah Tayyebeh Elementary School, which was identified as an Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) facility due to outdated data.

Personnel at U.S. Central Command (Centcom) reportedly leaned too heavily on Maven, expecting it to flag stale records or contradictions, though it's unclear why they held this expectation. Palantir stated it is not responsible for the underlying data or identifying intelligence deficiencies, but has since added features to Maven to re-review intelligence for disqualifying factors and detect inconsistencies.

Other contributing factors to the tragedy included bad intelligence, outdated satellite imagery (the site had been a school since 2017-2018), and a significant reduction in civilian harm mitigation teams. The UN's Independent International Fact-Finding Mission on Iran concluded there were reasonable grounds to believe the U.S. committed the war crime of launching an indiscriminate attack.

The article highlights a recurring pattern of errors tied to overreliance on AI in military and law enforcement, citing other incidents such as a chatbot hallucination leading to a near-boarding of a ship and false arrests due to facial recognition AI. It emphasizes the critical importance of humans understanding AI's capabilities and limitations, and verifying its outputs to prevent catastrophic consequences.

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Researchers at Texas A&M University accidentally discovered a new state of matter, a "metallic gel," during an experiment with copper and tantalum. When heated to nearly 1,000 °C, liquid copper became trapped within a porous solid tantalum skeleton, forming a hybrid structure that is mostly liquid but retains its shape.

This metallic gel flows without breaking and can withstand extreme temperatures that would melt most other components. This discovery has significant implications for liquid metal batteries, which have previously faced stability issues (leaks and short circuits) at high temperatures.

The metallic gel maintains high electrical conductivity while ensuring physical stability, enabling the development of high-temperature mobile batteries for heavy machinery, ships, and large electric vehicles. It also holds potential for long-duration energy storage for solar and wind power, and for reusing industrial waste heat.

While initial experiments used costly materials, researchers are exploring more economical combinations like aluminum or iron to scale the technology. This breakthrough redefines the boundary between states of matter and is expected to have broad applications beyond batteries, including robotics, thermal reactors, self-healing materials, and extreme cooling systems.

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