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Here's the latest tech news from the last 24 hours:

🛰 Elon Musk disabled Starlink during Ukraine attack to avoid escalation
🤖 TSMC warns AI chip crunch will last another 18 months
🛩 Oculus founder unveils a high-speed autonomous aircraft
✈️ World’s first crewed liquid hydrogen plane takes off
👨‍⚖️ Microsoft says it will defend AI Copilot users from copyright infringement lawsuits

🛰 Elon Musk disabled Starlink during Ukraine attack to avoid escalationLINK

Elon Musk, CEO of Starlink, shut down satellite communications near Crimea out of fear of escalating war between Ukraine and Russia, according to a new biography by Walter Isaacson.

Musk's decision reportedly resulted in Ukraine's submarine drones losing connectivity and failing to launch an attack on the Russian fleet off the Crimean coast, making peace negotiations more feasible.

Despite urgent pleas from Ukraine's Deputy Prime Minister, Musk refused to reactivate the satellites, fearing an increase in Ukranian aggression and potential Russian retaliation, with sustained involvement in the conflict only after a negotiated deal for additional Starlink terminals.

🤖 TSMC warns AI chip crunch will last another 18 monthsLINK

TSMC, the world's leading chip manufacturer, cannot currently meet the high market demand for AI accelerator packages, creating a shortage.

This shortage is not caused by a lack of AI chips from Nvidia, but rather TSMC's limited capacity for CoWoS packaging, an advanced platform used in high performance computing applications.

To address this, TSMC is investing $3 billion in a new packaging fab and aims to increase its CoWoS packaging capacity by the end of next year.

🛩 Oculus founder unveils a high-speed autonomous aircraftLINK

Palmer Lucky's company, Anduril, has unveiled an AI-enabled autonomous military aircraft, dubbed "Fury", which is designed to integrate into the firm's Lattice AI surveillance system used at the US border.

Fury is a top-level autonomous aircraft capable of reaching over 700 mph and can be fitted with various sensors and payloads for both surveillance and combat operations.

The development of Fury comes as the US Department of Defense shows increased interest in cheaper, large-scale AI systems, potentially using such technology to maintain a technological edge against international competition.

✈️ World’s first crewed liquid hydrogen plane takes offLINK

German startup H2FLY has successfully completed the world's first crewed liquid hydrogen-powered flights, making use of a fuel-cell powertrain for the entire test flight.

The H2FLY's propulsion system includes hydrogen storage, a 120kW fuel-cell energy converter, and an electrical engine, with liquid hydrogen enabling greater flight range due to its higher energy density compared to gaseous hydrogen.

In partnership with Deutsche Aircraft, H2FLY plans to increase the fuel-cell system's capacity, aiming to retrofit a demonstrator plane with hydrogen-electric fuel cells and begin test flights by 2025.

👨‍⚖️ Microsoft says it will defend AI Copilot users from copyright infringement lawsuitsLINK

Microsoft has confirmed it will protect users of its Copilot AI tool from any claims of intellectual property infringement.

Microsoft's responsibility includes legal defense and settlement costs, provided users adhere to the company's product guidelines and filters.

The protection extends to paid versions of commercial Copilot services, Bing Chat Enterprise, Microsoft 365 Copilot, and GitHub Copilot.

Other news you might like

BMW scraps controversial subscription plan for heated seats, shifting focus to software and service-related post-purchase subscriptions, raising concerns about product ownership.LINK

FAA closed SpaceX's Starship mishap report, identifying multiple causes and requiring 63 corrective actions before allowing future launch attempts.LINK

AI startup Kaedim allegedly relies more on low-paid human artists than AI to rapidly produce 3D models from 2D inputs for video games and productions.LINK

Rockstar's use of pirated code for digital re-releases backfired, making certain games unplayable, and ironically affecting legitimate customers more than pirates.LINK

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