House lawmakers approved a NASA authorization bill this week, while Google employees called for the cancellation of contracts with US immigration authorities, and Waymo unveiled a new simulation model for autonomous driving. These developments, along with Anthropic's ongoing work in AI safety and NASA's new stage show featuring the Fraggles, highlight a range of activities across the technology and space sectors.
Members of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee voted to approve the NASA Reauthorization Act of 2026, according to Ars Technica. The committee added more than 40 amendments to the bill before a unanimous vote to refer the legislation to the full House of Representatives. This is just one of several steps needed for the bill to become law.
Meanwhile, more than 880 Google employees and contractors signed a petition calling on the company to disclose and cancel any contracts it may have with US immigration authorities, as reported by Wired. The workers expressed opposition to Google's dealings with the Department of Homeland Security, including Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP). "We object to the technology we build being used to power state violence around the world," a Google software engineer, who declined to give their name, told reporters.
Waymo introduced the Waymo World Model, a new generative model setting a new bar for large-scale, hyper-realistic autonomous driving simulation, according to Hacker News. The Waymo Driver has traveled nearly 200 million fully autonomous miles, and the new model allows the company to simulate billions of miles in virtual worlds.
Anthropic, an AI company, is focused on AI safety, but is also pushing towards the next level of artificial intelligence, according to Wired. The company released two documents acknowledging the risks associated with its path.
In other news, NASA launched a new stage show at the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex in Florida, featuring the Jim Henson Company's Muppets, the Fraggles, as they discover outer (outer) space for the first time, according to Ars Technica. The show, titled "Fraggle Rock: A Space-y Adventure," replaces a previous show featuring Snoopy.
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