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 ...

Consumer & Gadgets

Laughter reveals how we use AI at home

Voice assistants such as Alexa are often marketed as smart tools that streamline everyday life. But once the technology moves into people's homes, interest quickly fades. This is shown by new research in which laughter is ...

Business

US tech giants announce India deals at AI summit

Google said it would build new subsea cables from India and chip titan Nvidia unveiled tie-ups with computing firms on Wednesday as tech giants rushed to announce deals and investments at a global AI conference in New Delhi.

Machine learning & AI

First 'hype cycle' of AI development puts tech above humans

Users around the world have rushed to adopt artificial intelligence—especially in safety-critical fields—but a new study has revealed the hype has prioritized technology for technology's sake instead of human-centered development. ...

Business

How AI can cause businesses to lose their knowledge

Over time, the loss of human expertise caused by AI use can impair the quality of that very AI—in the worst case, insidiously and unnoticed. This is the finding of a new study by researchers from the University of Passau ...

Machine learning & AI

AI model reads social media language to flag mental health risks

Mental health problems are among the most pressing of public health challenges, affecting millions across different age groups and societies. Depression, anxiety, and stress-related conditions rank among the leading causes ...

Machine learning & AI

OpenAI hires creator of 'OpenClaw' AI agent tool

OpenAI has hired the Austrian creator of OpenClaw, an artificial intelligence tool able to execute real-world tasks, the US startup's head Sam Altman said on Sunday.

Business

AI governance is not just top-down in China, research finds

China watchers arguing that Beijing's artificial intelligence controls are dependent on its authoritarian government are peddling a "stereotypical narrative," according to new research. Xuechen Chen, associate professor in ...

Machine learning & AI

Job threats, rogue bots: five hot issues in AI

As artificial intelligence evolves at a blistering pace, world leaders and thousands of other delegates will discuss how to handle the technology at the AI Impact Summit, which opens Monday in New Delhi.