RFK Jr. Faces Crucial September Moves Over Vaccines and Health Policy

Robert F. Kennedy Jr., stirring tensions within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, is gearing up for a pivotal September. He plans to release a report on environmental causes of autism and convene his own vaccine advisory committee on September 18 regarding COVID booster availability. Additionally, simplified dietary guidelines and a report targeting childhood chronic disease are expected. Kennedy, through strategic personnel placements, has effectively restricted access to COVID shots without outright banning them, prompting pushback from medical associations, nine former CDC directors, and several blue states considering alternative guidance. Congressional oversight may follow, as Kennedy’s influence is critical for Republicans heading into midterms—though his political leverage may wane after the elections. (Axios)

Collaborative Latin American AI Project Aims to Build Region-Specific Open Model

An initiative led by Chile’s National Center for Artificial Intelligence is developing Latam‑GPT, an open‑source, collaborative language model tailored for Latin America. The project, rooted in a bottom‑up, multi‑country effort, leverages contributions from 33 institutions across Latin America and the Caribbean to build an over eight‑terabyte corpus with 50 billion parameters—comparable to GPT‑3.5. Training data spans 20 countries plus Spain, with Brazil, Mexico, and others heavily represented. The goal is a model with strong regional relevance—handling local dialects, history, and culture better than mainstream AIs. It will launch in 2025, with plans to expand into image/video models and specialized versions for sectors like education, health, agriculture, and indigenous language translation. (Wired)

Nvidia CEO Predicts AI Will Make Humans Busier, Not Idle

Nvidia’s CEO Jensen Huang challenged the idea that AI will free humans from work. Speaking on Fox Business, he said that faster execution of tasks will lead to more ideas and more work—not leisure. While he welcomed the idea of four‑day workweeks, he emphasized that increased productivity would feed more opportunities to pursue new initiatives, enriching life even as work intensifies. Huang foresees robots everywhere—hospitals, factories, farms—and predicts widespread transformation of jobs, with many disappearing and many new ones arising. He expects AI and automation to boost GDP and life quality, rather than leaving people idle. (Gizmodo)

Nvidia Joins Japan’s Ambitious Supercomputer Project FugakuNext

Nvidia is partnering with Riken and Fujitsu to develop Japan’s next flagship supercomputer, FugakuNext, expected to be operational around 2030. This marks the first time Japan will incorporate GPUs—specialized for generative AI—from Nvidia into its top-tier supercomputer design. The goal is to achieve 100‑fold real‑world performance improvement over its predecessor, Fugaku, through combined GPU/CPU architecture and software optimizations. With development costs north of ¥110 billion (approx. $740 million), the system aims to enhance capabilities like torrential rain forecasting and material science, while strengthening Japan’s semiconductor expertise and global tech presence. (Asahi)

Africa’s Cholera Surge Fuels Global Health Emergency, WHO Warns

From January 1 to August 17, 2025, Africa reported 172,759 cholera and acute watery diarrhea cases and 3,763 deaths (CFR ~2.2%), contributing to a global toll of 409,222 cases and 4,738 fatalities. Acute outbreaks are concentrated in five African countries—Chad, DRC, Republic of Congo, South Sudan, and Sudan—where weak health systems, poor water, sanitation and hygiene infrastructure, low cholera awareness, conflict, displacement, and seasonal flooding are fueling high transmission and case-fatality rates (notably 7.7% in Republic of Congo and 6.8% in Chad. In response, WHO and Africa CDC launched a continent-wide cholera emergency preparedness and response plan; however, without urgent improvements in case management, WASH, vaccination, and cross-border coordination, the risk of further spread is considered very high. (CIDRAP)