Machine learning & AI news

Electronics & Semiconductors

AI speeds up discovery of next-gen computer chips and electronic materials

An international study team, led by Flinders University in collaboration with Khalifa University UAE, built the machine-learning platform to act like a "smart materials discovery engine," which is capable of dramatically ...

Robotics

Motion tracking system shows robots the path most traveled by, keeping them on task

There's a delicate art to teaching robots, even when you're preparing them for predictable environments like factories, where they'll repeat the same tasks a little differently depending on the obstacles they face. Whether ...

Robotics

New framework helps robots turn complex language into precise 3D actions

Over the past few decades, roboticists worldwide have introduced increasingly advanced robots that can understand human instructions, move in their surroundings and reliably complete basic manual tasks. While they perform ...

Robotics

Unlocking soft robotics control with AI's cousin: Reservoir computing

Soft robotics—machines made of flexible, muscle-like materials—can bend and stretch in fluid ways that put the rigid robots of old sci-fi movies to shame. But the flexibility that lets them pick ripe tomatoes or navigate ...

Robotics

What AI taxis and robots can learn from bees

Even advanced technology can struggle when the real world becomes unpredictable. In April 2026, a Waymo robotaxi in San Antonio, Texas, drove into a flooded lane during severe weather, prompting the company to recall about ...

Internet

US enforces law to crack down on sexual deepfakes

The United States on Tuesday began enforcing a law requiring tech platforms to remove sexual deepfakes and other non-consensual intimate imagery, but experts warned of shortcomings and raised online censorship concerns.

Machine learning & AI

When AI imagines cities, smaller communities can disappear

When College of Natural Resources and Environment geospatial data scientist Junghwan Kim asked an artificial intelligence (AI) image generator to create a picture of Blacksburg, the result wasn't quite right. "The image looked ...

Machine learning & AI

From graduation boos to voter unease: AI anxiety grows in the US

Speakers promoting AI are getting booed at universities, voters are rebelling against data centers, and even AI-friendly Trump administration officials are starting to retreat as an artificial intelligence backlash gathers ...

Security

AI can seem more human than real humans in a classic Turing test

A new University of California San Diego study unveils the first empirical evidence that a modern artificial intelligence system can pass the Turing test—a major scientific benchmark that asks whether a machine can imitate ...

Robotics

Training four-legged robots as if they were dogs

Over the next decades, robots are expected to make their way into a growing number of households, public spaces, and professional environments. Many of the most advanced and promising robots designed to date are so-called ...

Machine learning & AI

Geometry behind how AI agents learn revealed

A new study from the University at Albany shows that artificial intelligence systems may organize information in far more intricate ways than previously thought. The study, "Exploring the Stratified Space Structure of an ...

Consumer & Gadgets

Say what's on your mind, and AI can tell what kind of person you are

If you say a few words, generative AI will understand who you are—maybe even better than your close family and friends. A new University of Michigan study found that widely available generative AI models (e.g., ChatGPT, Claude, ...

Business

Amazon in talks to invest $50 billion in OpenAI, expand ties

Amazon.com Inc. is in talks to invest as much as $50 billion in OpenAI and expand an agreement that involves selling computer power to the AI startup, according to a person with knowledge of the matter. OpenAI is also weighing ...

Business

How AI deepfakes have skirted revenge porn laws

Federal and state governments have outlawed "revenge porn," the nonconsensual online sharing of sexual images of individuals, often by former partners. Last year, South Carolina became the 50th state to enact such a law. ...

Business

Meta leans on improved ad business to fuel massive AI spending

Meta Platforms Inc.'s better-than-expected sales outlook helped ease Wall Street concerns about plans for unprecedented spending on artificial intelligence this year. The social networking giant topped projections for holiday ...

Business

Human-led AI opens tech jobs for refugees

AI can help displaced people avoid exploitation, but humans must call the shots, warn experts. For Susan Achiech, life began in Kenya's Kakuma refugee camp, where her South Sudanese parents fled to for safety in the early ...

Energy & Green Tech

Powering AI from space, at scale, with a passive tether design

Penn Engineers have developed a novel design for solar-powered data centers that will orbit Earth and could realistically scale to meet the growing demand for AI computing while reducing the environmental impact of data centers.