US pledges nearly $US1 billion in weapons for UkraineThe AP Top 25 men’s college basketball poll is back every week throughout the season! Get the poll delivered straight to your inbox with AP Top 25 Poll Alerts. Sign up here . LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Landin Hacker scored 21 points as Bellarmine beat NAIA-member Brescia 94-66 on Saturday. Hacker finished 7 of 11 from 3-point range for the Knights (3-7). Ben Johnson scored 17 points while going 6 of 13 (5 for 12 from 3-point range) and added six assists. Dylan Branson shot 5 of 7 from the field and 2 for 3 from the line to finish with 12 points, while adding 10 rebounds. Damian Garcia led the way for the Bearcats with 27 points. Gonzalo Luque added nine points, eight rebounds and five assists for Brescia. John Seanz also had eight points and two steals. Both teams next play Saturday. Bellarmine hosts Ball State and Brescia goes on the road to play Cleveland State. ___ The Associated Press created this story using technology provided by Data Skrive and data from Sportradar .Bitcoin ( BTC -0.13% ) continued to surge in value this year, maintaining its dominance as the largest and most valuable cryptocurrency on the planet. But looking ahead to 2025 and beyond, there's another cryptocurrency that could eventually rival Bitcoin's No. 1 position. That cryptocurrency, of course, is Ethereum ( ETH -0.18% ) , which also surged in value this year. Should you dump Bitcoin for Ethereum next year? You might be surprised by the answer. Bitcoin versus Ethereum in 2025 For those who don't know, there are a few major differences between Bitcoin and Ethereum. Bitcoin is primarily used as a store of value, like gold, but it can also be used for value exchange, like a traditional currency. Many projects are working to make Bitcoin more functional, including a handful of DeFi initiatives, but for the moment, those are its basic uses. Ethereum, on the other hand, was designed specifically to be flexible and extensible in order to serve as a foundation for other decentralized tools, services, and applications. That means Ethereum has far more potential uses than Bitcoin. But what about the differences in 2025? What's in store for these currencies? A host of Layer 2 projects are looking to make Ethereum faster, cheaper, and more efficient. New DeFi, non-fungible tokens, and gaming applications should also make the protocol more attractive to both users and developers. But there could also be some foundational improvements. Pending proposals include the adoption of new sharding improvements that can boost the protocol's ability to scale without limiting throughput or raising costs for transactions. Bitcoin already had a halving event in 2024, and the next is not expected until 2028. Layer 2 options like the Lightning Network, meanwhile, may improve Bitcoin's ability to act as a means of exchange, though Ethereum has more development effort aimed at solving this particular scaling issue. In general, Bitcoin's story remains a simple one. In 2025, expect more attention and adoption for Bitcoin from both retail and institutional investors, with new Bitcoin-based exchange-traded funds and investment options allowing more and more people to gain exposure to the cryptocurrency without needing to worry about special tax or custody challenges. With these differences in mind, which cryptocurrency is the superior investment for 2025? Bitcoin Price data by YCharts Which leading cryptocurrency is the better bet for 2025? While Bitcoin and Ethereum are often compared, they really have very different long-term use cases. While Bitcoin may gain more functionality over time, it should be viewed mainly as a store of value. Gold's current market cap is nearly $18 trillion, while Bitcoin's is still around $2 trillion. If you believe Bitcoin will be around for a while, there's clearly long-term upside potential as it closes the gap with gold. At its core, Ethereum is fundamentally different from other cryptocurrencies because it's not just a digital currency -- it's an entire technological platform. The smart contracts platform has already attracted the largest and most active developer community in the blockchain space, which gives it a significant competitive advantage. However, investing in Ethereum requires understanding that you're not just betting on a currency; you're investing in the potential of digital services using decentralized technology in the future. While this broader scope makes Ethereum more volatile than Bitcoin, it also creates more opportunities for substantial growth. Think of it as the difference between buying in digital gold (Bitcoin) and investing in the future of software infrastructure (Ethereum). Should you ditch Bitcoin for Ethereum in 2025? Only if you want to bet on the rise of decentralized networks. If you're undecided, however, you can always do what I did: buy some of both.The U.S. leads the world in developing artificial intelligence technology, surpassing China in research and other important measures of AI innovation, according to a newly released Stanford University index. There’s no surefire way to rank global AI leadership but Stanford researchers made an attempt by measuring the “vibrancy” of the AI industry across various dimensions, from how much research and investment is happening to how responsibly the technology is being pursued to prevent harm. “The gap is actually widening” between the U.S. and China, said computer scientist Ray Perrault, director of the steering committee that runs Stanford’s AI Index. “The U.S. is investing a lot more, at least at the level of firm creation and firm funding.” The California-based university’s Institute for Human-Centered AI — which has ties to Silicon Valley’s tech industry — released the report as government AI officials from the U.S. and several allies met in San Francisco to compare notes on AI safety measures. Here’s which countries made the top 10: United States The U.S. ranks No. 1 on Stanford’s list and has consistently held that position since 2018 when it overtook China. It far outpaced China in private AI investment, which hit $67.2 billion in the U.S. last year compared to $7.8 billion in China, according to the report. It also leads in publishing responsible AI research. It’s no surprise that the home of commercial AI powerhouses such as Google and Meta, along with relative newcomers like OpenAI and Anthropic, produced many notable AI models that influence how the technology is being developed and applied. The U.S. also gets some points for having a number of AI-related laws on the books, though Congress has yet to pass any broad AI regulations. China China requested far more patents than any other country regarding generative AI, the U.N. intellectual property agency said this year. Stanford researchers counted that as one measure of China’s strong growth in AI innovation but not enough to lead the pack. Still, the report says that “China’s focus on developing cutting-edge AI technologies and increasing its R&D investments has positioned it as a major AI powerhouse.” China’s universities produced a large number of AI-related research publications and it has commercial leaders developing notable AI models, such as Baidu and its chatbot Ernie. United Kingdom Coming in at No. 3 is the UK, which also ranked high in research and development, and educational infrastructure due to top computer science universities churning out a skilled AI workforce. It’s also home to Google’s AI subsidiary DeepMind, whose co-founder recently won a Nobel Prize; and “had more mentions of AI in parliamentary proceedings” than any other country. Last year, the UK hosted the world’s first international AI safety summit. India Close behind the UK was India, thanks to a “strong AI research community,” improvements in economic investments tied to AI and a robust public discourse about AI on social media, according to the report. United Arab Emirates The UAE’s deliberate focus on AI appears to have paid off in the Middle Eastern nation’s fifth-place score. It was one of the top locations for AI investments. Microsoft this year said it will invest $1.5 billion in UAE-based tech firm G42, which is overseen by the country’s powerful national security adviser. Based in Abu Dhabi, G42 runs data centers and has built what’s considered the world’s leading Arabic-language AI model, known as Jais. The rest of the top 10 Rounding out the top 10 are France at No. 6, followed by South Korea, Germany, Japan and Singapore. France, home to the buzzy AI startup Mistral, ranked high in AI policy and governance. Both it and Germany are part of the European Union’s sweeping new AI Act that places safeguards on a range of AI applications based on how risky they are. The EU also follows the U.S. in developing a plan to expand semiconductor production within the bloc. Be the first to know Get local news delivered to your inbox!
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UAE government launches KYC platform for enhanced financial data