Vaporizable Electronics in the US

An Apple iPhone. Photo: Reuters
An Apple iPhone. Photo: Reuters
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Vaporizable Electronics in the US

An Apple iPhone. Photo: Reuters
An Apple iPhone. Photo: Reuters

A new technology allows electronic devices to be remotely vaporized into thin air, giving devices the ability to vanish - along with their valuable data - if they were to get into the wrong hands, according to a team of researchers from Cornell University and the Honeywell Aerospace Company in the United States.

This ability to self-destruct is an emerging technology known as transient electronics.

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The whole idea depends on the key portions of a circuit, or the whole circuit itself, that can discreetly disintegrate or dissolve.

And because this process does not release any harmful byproducts, the researchers see a possibility to use them in biomedical and environmental fields, along with data protection techniques, according to the German news agency (DPA).

There are a number of existing techniques for triggering the vaporization, each with inherent drawbacks.

Some transient electronics use soluble conductors that dissolve when contacted by water, requiring the presence of moisture. Others disintegrate when they reach a specific temperature, requiring a heating element and power source to be attached.

The Phys.org website reported that the team of researchers at the Cornell University has overcome these drawbacks by using a silicon-dioxide microchip attached to a polycarbonate shell. Hidden within the shell are microscopic cavities filled with rubidium and sodium biflouride - chemicals that can thermally react and decompose the microchip.

The thermal reaction can be remotely stimulated by using radio waves to open graphene-on-nitride valves that keep the chemicals sealed in the cavities, said Head of the Cornell University research team.



Huawei's AI Lab Denies that One of its Pangu Models Copied Alibaba's Qwen

FILE PHOTO: Huawei logo is seen during Munich Auto Show, IAA Mobility 2021 in Munich, Germany, September 8, 2021. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Huawei logo is seen during Munich Auto Show, IAA Mobility 2021 in Munich, Germany, September 8, 2021. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay/File Photo
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Huawei's AI Lab Denies that One of its Pangu Models Copied Alibaba's Qwen

FILE PHOTO: Huawei logo is seen during Munich Auto Show, IAA Mobility 2021 in Munich, Germany, September 8, 2021. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay/File Photo
FILE PHOTO: Huawei logo is seen during Munich Auto Show, IAA Mobility 2021 in Munich, Germany, September 8, 2021. REUTERS/Wolfgang Rattay/File Photo

Huawei's artificial intelligence research division has rejected claims that a version of its Pangu Pro large language model has copied elements from an Alibaba model, saying that it was independently developed and trained.

The division, called Noah Ark Lab, issued the statement on Saturday, a day after an entity called HonestAGI posted an English-language paper on code-sharing platform Github, saying Huawei's Pangu Pro Moe (Mixture of Experts) model showed "extraordinary correlation" with Alibaba's Qwen 2.5 14B.

This suggests that Huawei's model was derived through "upcycling" and was not trained from scratch, the paper said, prompting widespread discussion in AI circles online and in Chinese tech-focused media.

According to Reuters, the paper added that its findings indicated potential copyright violation, the fabrication of information in technical reports and false claims about Huawei's investment in training the model.

Noah Ark Lab said in its statement that the model was "not based on incremental training of other manufacturers' models" and that it had "made key innovations in architecture design and technical features." It is the first large-scale model built entirely on Huawei's Ascend chips, it added.

It also said that its development team had strictly adhered to open-source license requirements for any third-party code used, without elaborating which open-source models it took reference from.

Alibaba did not immediately respond to a Reuters request for comment.

Reuters was unable to contact HonestAGI or learn who is behind the entity.

The release of Chinese startup DeepSeek's open-source model R1 in January this year shocked Silicon Valley with its low cost and sparked intense competition between China's tech giants to offer competitive products.

Qwen 2.5-14B was released in May 2024 and is one of Alibaba's small-sized Qwen 2.5 model family which can be deployed on PC and smartphones.

While Huawei entered the large language model arena early with its original Pangu release in 2021, it has since been perceived as lagging behind rivals. It open-sourced its Pangu Pro Moe models on Chinese developer platform GitCode in late June, seeking to boost the adoption of its AI tech by providing free access to developers.

While Qwen is more consumer-facing and has chatbot services like ChatGPT, Huawei's Pangu models tend to be more used in government as well as the finance and manufacturing sectors.