Indonesia’s Mount Lewotobi Laki-laki has begun erupting again – at one point shooting an ash cloud 18km (11mi) into the sky – as residents flee their homes once more.

There have been no reports of casualties since Monday morning, when the volcano on the island of Flores began spewing ash and lava again. Authorities have placed it on the highest alert level since an earlier round of eruptions three weeks ago.

At least 24 flights to and from the neighbouring resort island of Bali were cancelled on Monday, though some flights had resumed by Tuesday morning.

The initial column of hot clouds that rose at 11:05 (03:05 GMT) Monday was the volcano’s highest since November, said geology agency chief Muhammad Wafid.

“An eruption of that size certainly carries a higher potential for danger, including its impact on aviation,” Wafid told The Associated Press.

Monday’s eruption, which was accompanied by a thunderous roar, led authorities to enlarge the exclusion zone to a 7km radius from the central vent. They also warned of potential lahar floods – a type of mud or debris flow of volcanic materials – if heavy rain occurs.

The twin-peaked volcano erupted again at 19:30 on Monday, sending ash clouds and lava up to 13km into the air. It erupted a third time at 05:53 on Tuesday at a reduced intensity.

Videos shared overnight show glowing red lava spurting from the volcano’s peaks as residents get into cars and buses to flee.

More than 4,000 people have been evacuated from the area so far, according to the local disaster management agency.

Residents who have stayed put are facing a shortage of water, food and masks, local authorities say.

“As the eruption continues, with several secondary explosions and ash clouds drifting westward and northward, the affected communities who have not been relocated… require focused emergency response efforts,” say Paulus Sony Sang Tukan, who leads the Pululera village, about 8km from Lewotobi Laki-laki.

“Water is still available, but there’s concern about its cleanliness and whether it has been contaminated, since our entire area was blanketed in thick volcanic ash during yesterday’s [eruptions],” he said.

Indonesia sits on the Pacific “Ring of Fire” where tectonic plates collide, causing frequent volcanic activity as well as earthquakes.

Lewotobi Laki-laki has erupted multiple times this year – no casualties have been reported so far.

However, an eruption last November killed at least ten people and forced thousands to flee.

Laki-Laki, which means “man” in Indonesian, is twinned with the calmer but taller 1,703m named Perempuan, the Indonesian word for “woman”.

Additional reporting by Eliazar Ballo in Kupang.

“And do you work well with AI?”

As tools such as ChatGPT, Copilot and other generative artificial intelligence (AI) systems become part of everyday workflows, more companies are looking for employees who can answer “yes” to this question. In other words, people who can prompt effectively, think with AI, and use it to boost productivity.

In fact, in a growing number of roles, being “AI fluent” is quickly becoming as important as being proficient in office software once was.

But we’ve all had that moment when we’ve asked an AI chatbot a question and received what feels like the most generic, surface level answer. The problem isn’t the AI – you just haven’t given it enough to work with.

Think of it this way. During training, the AI will have “read” virtually everything on the internet. But because it makes predictions, it will give you the most probable, most common response. Without specific guidance, it’s like walking into a restaurant and asking for something good. You’ll likely get the chicken.

Your solution lies in understanding that AI systems excel at adapting to context, but you have to provide it. So how exactly do you do that?

Crafting better prompts

You may have heard the term “prompt engineering”. It might sound like you need to design some kind of technical script to get results.

But today’s chatbots are great at human conversation. The format of your prompt is not that important. The content is.

To get the most out of your AI conversations, it’s important that you convey a few basics about what you want, and how you want it. Our approach follows the acronym CATS – context, angle, task and style.

Context means providing the setting and background information the AI needs. Instead of asking “How do I write a proposal?” try “I’m a nonprofit director writing a grant proposal to a foundation that funds environmental education programs for urban schools”. Upload relevant documents, explain your constraints, and describe your specific situation.

Angle (or attitude) leverages AI’s strength in role-playing and perspective-taking. Rather than getting a neutral response, specify the attitude you want. For example, “Act as a critical peer reviewer and identify weaknesses in my argument” or “Take the perspective of a supportive mentor helping me improve this draft”.

Task is specifically about what you actually want the AI to do. “Help me with my presentation” is vague. But “Give me three ways to make my opening slide more engaging for an audience of small business owners” is actionable.

Style harnesses AI’s ability to adapt to different formats and audiences. Specify whether you want a formal report, a casual email, bullet points for executives, or an explanation suitable for teenagers. Tell the AI what voice you want to use – for example, a formal academic style, technical, engaging or conversational.

Context is everything

Besides crafting a clear, effective prompt, you can also focus on managing the surrounding information – that is to say on “context engineering”. Context engineering refers to everything that surrounds the prompt.

That means thinking about the environment and information the AI has access to: its memory function, instructions leading up to the task, prior conversation history, documents you upload, or examples of what good output looks like.

You should think about prompting as a conversation. If you’re not happy with the first response, push for more, ask for changes, or provide more clarifying information.

Don’t expect the AI to give a ready-made response. Instead, use it to trigger your own thinking. If you feel the AI has produced a lot of good material but you get stuck, copy the best parts into a fresh session and ask it to summarise and continue from there.

Keeping your wits

A word of caution though. Don’t get seduced by the human-like conversation abilities of these chatbots.

Always retain your professional distance and remind yourself that you are the only thinking part in this relationship. And always make sure to check the accuracy of anything an AI produces – errors are increasingly common.

AI systems are remarkably capable, but they need you – and human intelligence – to bridge the gap between their vast generic knowledge and your particular situation. Give them enough context to work with, and they might surprise you with how helpful they can be.

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Holding a virtual monopoly in a product on which the artificial intelligence boom relies should be a golden ticket. For chipmaker Nvidia, it has been. But ASML, which makes extraordinarily complex machines that etch silicon and is no less integral to the rise of AI, has found that ruling the roost can still be an up-and-down affair.

The €270bn Dutch manufacturer, which reports its earnings next week, is a sine qua non of technology; chips powering AI and even fridges are invariably etched by ASML’s kit. The flipside is its exposure to customers’ fortunes and politics.

Revenue is inherently lumpy, and a single paused purchase makes a big dent — a key difference from fellow AI monopolist Nvidia, which is at present struggling to meet demand for its top-end chips. ASML’s newest high numerical aperture (NA) systems go for €380mn; as an example of how volatile revenue can be for such big-ticket items, one delayed order would be akin to drivers holding off on buying 8,000-odd Teslas.

Initial hopes were high for robust spending on wafer fab equipment this year and next. Semi, an industry body, in December reckoned on an increase of 7 per cent this year and twice that in 2026. Jefferies, for example, now expects sales to flatline next year.

Mood music bears that out. Top chipmaker TSMC has sounded more cautious over the timing of the adoption of new high NA machines. Other big customers are reining in spending. Intel in April shaved its capital expenditure plans by $2bn to $18bn, while consensus numbers for Samsung Electronics suggest the South Korean chipmaker will underspend last year’s $39bn capex budget.

Politics is also getting thornier. Washington, seeking to hobble China’s tech prowess, has banned sales of ASML’s more advanced machines. Going further would hurt. China, which buys the less advanced but more profitable deep ultraviolet machines, typically accounts for about a quarter of sales. Last year, catch-up on orders lifted that to half.

Meanwhile, Chinese homegrown competition, given an extra nudge by US trade barriers, is evolving. Shenzhen government-backed SiCarrier, for example, claims to have encroached on ASML territory with lithography capable of producing less advanced chips.

The good news is that catch-up in this industry, with a 5,000-strong supplier base and armies of engineers, requires years if not decades. Customers, too, will probably be deferring rather than nixing purchases. The zippier machines help customers juice yields; Intel reckons it cuts processes on a given layer from 40 steps to just 10.

Over time, ASML’s enviable market position looks solid — and perhaps more so than that of Nvidia, whose customers are increasingly trying to create their own chips. Yet the kit-maker’s shares have been the rockier investment. In the past year, ASML has shrunk by a third while Nvidia has risen by a quarter; its market capitalisation is within a whisker of $4tn. That makes ASML the braver bet, but by no means a worse one.

louise.lucas@ft.com