Machine learning & AI news

Robotics

Chinese humanoid robots smash human records in 100m sprint and high jump at Beijing robot games

Chinese humanoid robots broke records set by humans, including beating Usain Bolt's 100-meter sprint world record, on the opening day of the Olympics-like World Humanoid Robot Games in Beijing on Saturday.

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 ...

Business

AI-generated ads outperform human designers in live campaign, advantage holds 18 months later

The common belief throughout the marketing and advertising world is that generative AI can produce striking visuals, but it struggles to match the performance and brand discipline of skilled human designers. New research ...

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 ...

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 ...

Machine learning & AI

Is this your AI? ZEN framework cracks AI black box

Artificial intelligence (AI) systems power everything from chatbots to security cameras, yet many of the most advanced models operate as "black boxes." Companies can use them, but outsiders can't see how they were built, ...

Security

AI education could be crucial in tackling rising voice scams

A new study from Abertay University reveals that the most effective way to protect people from AI voice scams is not through traditional warning messages, but by educating them about how advanced and authentic AI voices have ...

Energy & Green Tech

AI tool predicts building emissions from simple text descriptions

Researchers at the University of Bath have developed the first artificial intelligence (AI) tool that predicts the carbon footprint of buildings from simple text descriptions, giving architects real-time feedback on sustainability ...

Machine learning & AI

What to know before asking an AI chatbot for health advice

With hundreds of millions of people turning to chatbots for advice, it was only a matter of time before tech companies began offering programs specifically designed to answer health questions.

Computer Sciences

Don't panic: 'Humanity's last exam' has begun

When artificial intelligence systems began acing long-standing academic assessments, researchers realized they had a problem: the tests were too easy. Popular evaluations, such as the Massive Multitask Language Understanding ...

Machine learning & AI

Report recommends 'net neutrality for AI'

Innovation in artificial intelligence applications, including the rising tide of AI agents, is based on startups accessing AI foundation models offered by Anthropic, OpenAI, and Google. Each of these companies also competes ...

Business

Michael Caine's voice is iconic: Why would he sell that to AI?

Few actors are imitated as often as Michael Caine. Even Michael Caine has imitated Michael Caine. His voice has been used in birthday card greetings and been the source of jokes in various comedy sketches. It is synonymous ...

Computer Sciences

Adaptive drafter model uses downtime to double LLM training speed

Reasoning large language models (LLMs) are designed to solve complex problems by breaking them down into a series of smaller steps. These powerful models are particularly good at challenging tasks like advanced programming ...

Business

Understanding the data center building boom

As artificial intelligence (AI) drives explosive growth in data centers, communities across the U.S. are facing rising electricity costs, new industrial development, and mounting strain on an aging power grid.

Machine learning & AI

Where are Southeast Asia's data centers?

New data centers are springing up worldwide as demand soars for artificial intelligence and cloud computing, with Asia one of the sector's fastest growing regions.

Computer Sciences

How AI could help make society less selfish

The Care Bears taught a generation of kids that sharing is caring, but not everyone has carried this principle into adulthood. Researchers at Michigan State University have found a new angle to promote cooperation: artificial ...