Science & Technology — August 12, 2026

ChatGPT and Gemini each pass 1 billion users. Google says Gemini hit 1 billion monthly users — its fastest-growing product ever — reaching the same milestone as OpenAI's ChatGPT as AI assistants go mainstream.

The Verge · Read more →

AI makes headway on famous math problem. An unreleased Anthropic model made unexpected progress on the Riemann hypothesis, unsolved for more than 150 years. It didn't crack the problem, but the advance surprised researchers.

TechCrunch · Read more →

NASA extends Voyager 2's life. Engineers shut down select systems aboard Voyager 2 — an operation nicknamed the 'Big Bang' — buying the probe more time nearly half a century after it left Earth.

The operation was prompted by the spacecraft's dwindling power supply, which threatened its ability to keep operating, according to Science Daily. By powering down select onboard hardware, engineers aim to stretch the remaining electricity and keep the mission returning data longer than it otherwise could, extending one of NASA's longest-running deep-space missions.

Science Daily · Read more →

Pharma, pediatricians reject Trump vaccine order. The pharmaceutical industry's main trade group and pediatricians rejected the executive order's call to split the MMR vaccine into separate shots. President Trump signed the order just a day earlier, as measles surges.

Pediatricians warn the directive could put children at risk and stoke fear and confusion among parents at a time when immunization rates are falling, according to AP News. The formal pushback from both drugmakers' main trade group and physicians escalates a standoff between the pharmaceutical industry and the White House over how childhood vaccines should be administered.

AP News · Read more →