A year after the actor’s death, a generative AI version of Val Kilmer will co-star in an independent film. It's one of the boldest uses yet of artificial intelligence in moviemaking. First Line Films announced Wednesday that Kilmer has posthumously joined the cast of a film titled “As Deep as the Grave.” The producers said that before his death, Kilmer had signed on to perform in the movie but was unable to do due to his health. Kilmer’s estate gave permission for his digital replication, and is being compensated for it. Kilmer died last April from pneumonia at the age of 65.

China is signaling it will stay focused on technology and economic growth, even as U.S. tensions with Iran rise. On Thursday, China’s parliament approved a new five-year plan that puts advances in technology at the center. The plan backs big spending on areas like artificial intelligence and robotics. It gives less emphasis to quick consumer stimulus, and economists expect any shift in that direction to happen slowly. The plan sets a cautious climate goal tied to the size of the economy, not total emissions. Lawmakers also passed an ethnic minorities law that critics say cement a push toward assimilation.

Google Maps will depend more heavily on artificial intelligence to help people figure out where they want to go and the best way to get there as part of a major redesign unveiled Thursday. The overhaul driven by Google’s Gemini technology will introduce two AI features into a digital mapping service used by more than 2 billion people worldwide. One tool called Ask Maps will expand upon conversational abilities that Google brought to the service last November answer users looking for suggestions on where to go to get things done. The other called Immersive Navigation will feature 3D renderings of places to help users get their bearings as they drive.

The parents of a girl critically wounded in a school shooting in Canada is suing ChatGPT-maker OpenAI, alleging it knew the shooter was planning a mass attack. OpenAI has said it considered but didn’t alert police about the activities of the person who months later committed one of Canada's worst school shootings. The civil lawsuit launched Monday in British Columbia alleges that ChatGPT behaves willingly to assist users such as the shooter to plan a mass casualty event. Jesse Van Roostselaar killed eight people and herself at a school last month. The lawsuit from the mother and father of Maya Gebala says she was shot in the head and neck and will have permanent cognitive and and physical disabilities.

Two major economic plans unveiled at the annual meeting of China’s legislature outline top priorities. One is building a robust domestic market. The other is building China into a tech leader. Together they highlight the government’s balancing act between its efforts to transform the economy while managing a prolonged period of sluggishness. China is such a large exporter that the choices it makes affect countries and jobs around the world. The plans were presented at the opening of the National People’s Congress and are set to be endorsed by the rubber-stamp legislature on the final day of the eight-day session on Thursday.

Bigger and bigger data centers are leading to proposals for massive electric power transmission lines, sometimes across hundreds of miles. These high-voltage power lines cost tens of billions of dollars a year and are the latest front line in the battle over tech giants' massive operations. Artificial intelligence advances are seen by President Donald Trump as critical to the nation’s economic and national security. But their energy needs are threatening to overwhelm the power grid and the transmission expansion is drawing opposition from landowners, conservationists, local officials, consumer advocates and states.

A deluge of misrepresented or fabricated videos has spread widely online since the Iran war began last weekend, fueled in part by state-linked propaganda influence campaigns — particularly around who is winning the war and how bad casualties have been. Artificial intelligence has helped fuel misinformation in ways that weren’t possible during past conflicts, even just a few years ago. Coupled with state-linked disinformation and censorship, this creates an even wider vacuum in which the truth can get lost.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission has issued its first construction permit for a commercial nuclear reactor in eight years. The commission granted the permit Wednesday for a Bill Gates-backed company to build a sodium-cooled nuclear reactor in western Wyoming. The company filed for the permit in 2024. Construction of the reactor 130 miles northeast of Salt Lake City, Utah, is expected to begin within weeks, with a completion target of 2030. Gates is eyeing next-generation nuclear plants as a power source for the electricity-hungry data centers behind artificial intelligence. He is a founder of and primary investor in TerraPower, the company building the plant.