Today we are looking at two exciting updates in tech: a startup building rockets powered by plastic, and LinkedIn fighting back against boring computer-generated posts.
Let us look at space first. A Japanese company called Letara just raised $16 million to build a new kind of rocket engine. Letara designs hybrid rockets, which are engines that keep their solid fuel separate from the liquid chemicals needed to start the fire. Instead of using expensive ingredients, Letara uses cheap, everyday materials like plastic and rubber for its solid fuel. This makes the rockets much safer to handle and cheaper to build. The company started out making small steering engines for satellites. Now, they want to build much larger rocket systems for space travel and national defense.
Back on Earth, our social media feeds are getting a much-needed cleanup. LinkedIn recently added a new button that lets users flag "AI slop." This term refers to low-quality, boring posts written entirely by artificial intelligence rather than real people. More than 1 million users have already clicked this button to report bad content. Because of these reports, LinkedIn says people are now seeing 40% less of these robotic posts. The platform is even warning users when their posts sound too much like a computer wrote them.
Why does all of this matter to you? Out in space, cheaper and safer rockets will make it easier to launch the satellites we rely on for everyday GPS and internet. Online, it means your social feed will feel more human again, without endless pages of generic computer-written text. Tech is constantly changing, whether we are looking up at the stars or just scrolling through our phones.
