Machine learning & AI news

Machine learning & AI

AI agents can build consensus on a scale humans can't

Everyone is familiar with the situation: A larger group of people plans to visit a restaurant together, but it can take time and sometimes a great deal of patience to agree on a time and place to meet. The better the participants ...

Engineering

AI could help design cities, but planners need safeguards

AI is showing up in nearly every aspect of daily life—from internet searches to visits to the doctor's office. It could one day even play a role in the street layout in front of your apartment building.

Robotics

Robots learn new skills from a single video—in just 29 seconds

To operate reliably in dynamic real-world settings, robots should be able to acquire new skills quickly without undergoing extensive additional training. Most existing robotic systems, however, primarily perform well on the ...

Security

Swarm-inspired AI may expose suspicious blockchain cash flows more effectively

An AI model inspired by ants, bees and birds could be key to cracking down on blockchain-based money laundering, new research led by Charles Darwin University (CDU) has found. The study is published in the journal Communications ...

Machine learning & AI

AI helps turn citizen photos into water-level data

For the past 15 years, Christopher Lowry, Ph.D., has led CrowdHydrology, a University at Buffalo citizen-science project that relies on thousands of volunteers to collect water-level observations from streams and other waterways ...

Machine learning & AI

Q&A: Promise and perils of agentic AI

Chatbots and large language models can execute a seemingly countless number of tasks, from writing emails and reports to generating code and analyzing data. However, they still primarily act only in response to user prompts ...

Security

How attackers persuade AI agents to break the rules

Today, most of us interact with AI assistants—reactive bots that wait for human instructions. Yet AI assistants are rapidly being replaced by agentic AI agents that can interact with external tools, browse the web, generate ...

Machine learning & AI

OpenAI says ads are coming to ChatGPT in Europe next week

European users of ChatGPT's free and low-cost artificial intelligence agents will start seeing ads Aug. 24 as its creator, OpenAI, expands its plan to extract more revenue from its models.

Machine learning & AI

China goes rural with data centers in quest to power AI

In China's hilly Guizhou province, a cluster of European-style buildings complete with a clock tower and a multi-arched bridge emits a low, permanent hum—a clue to its unexpected identity as tech giant Huawei's largest data ...

Consumer & Gadgets

Intelligent, but not conscious: A warning about AI chatbots

Have you ever said "thanks" to ChatGPT, or "please" to Claude? Maybe you're just being polite, showing some civility to a helpful and eloquent conversational partner. You may even consider politeness a safe choice, just in ...

Security

AI model predicts robberies across US cities with 86.3% accuracy

Researchers have developed an artificial intelligence model that predicts crime more accurately than several existing approaches by combining information about where crimes occur, when they happen and wider social patterns. ...

Computer Sciences

Combining lessons from ants and birds to improve AI

Combining ideas inspired by ant colonies and flocks of birds may hold the key to unlocking more effective artificial intelligence, according to a researcher at Missouri S&T. "With the way AI algorithms are currently structured, ...

Robotics

Could AI tell you where you left your keys?

An auto factory worker can remember the storage bin where she left a partly assembled component the night before and quickly return to that spot to pick it up. But robots that may work side by side with her would struggle ...

Robotics

When will AI robots become part of everyday lives?

Many AI robots appear intelligent as long as they operate in controlled environments. Neuroscientist and robotics researcher Elisa Donati explains why robots with real-world readiness require more than just fast software.

Machine learning & AI

AI raises profound moral questions—for all of humanity to answer

Will you be flagged at the border? Will your mortgage application be approved? During wartime, whose neighborhood would a weapon system target? These are moral choices—about harm and fairness—and they used to be made by people.

Machine learning & AI

No breakthrough in Anthropic talks with Trump administration

Officials with artificial intelligence startup Anthropic met with the Trump administration Monday as it seeks to restore models blocked over national security concerns, a spokesperson for the company said.