Machine learning & AI news

Consumer & Gadgets

Research finds hotel booking chatbots can 'creep out' customers

Travelers who use AI-powered chatbots on hotel booking platforms often feel uneasy. That discomfort can cause them to disengage or delay booking decisions, according to new research from the Texas A&M College of Agriculture ...

Hardware

New light-based switch could cut chip energy use and speed future AI photonics

Photonic devices are hardware systems that can process information using light instead of electricity. These systems could potentially perform computations faster than electronic devices, while also consuming less energy.

Computer Sciences

Enhanced YOLO framework boosts 360-degree small-object detection to 90% accuracy

Omnidirectional cameras are widely popular as they capture a full 360-degree view. They are often utilized for surveillance, traffic analysis, and autonomous systems. But the same wide-angle vision also leads to a technical ...

Machine learning & AI

AI controversy swirls around writer from Trinidad and Tobago who won a prestigious prize

A prize-winning Caribbean writer from Trinidad and Tobago is embroiled in the latest controversy involving the use of AI for a creative work, after allegations that artificial intelligence was used to write a short story.

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 ...

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

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 ...

Machine learning & AI

How transparent is AI in the workplace and in recruitment?

As artificial intelligence continues to transform recruitment and workplace practices, questions around transparency, fairness, and trust are becoming increasingly urgent. A new article sheds light on how workers and job ...

Computer Sciences

When AI can't count—and what researchers are doing about it

Today, artificial intelligence can describe images, recognize objects, and explain complex relationships. The pace of development is remarkable: So-called vision-language models (VLMs) combine text and image understanding ...

Consumer & Gadgets

What does it mean to train an AI to speak like you?

Ultra-personalized artificial intelligence for assisted communication risks muting aspects of the user's identity and occasionally breaches privacy, according to a new study from a Cornell Tech doctoral student who trained ...

Software

Which pothole to fix? AI team helps company develop city system

Artificial intelligence (AI) experts from The University of Texas at Dallas have partnered with a Japanese company through its Irving, Texas-based subsidiary to help local governments prioritize road repairs. The system builds ...

Computer Sciences

What skills do people need to successfully program with AI?

The new trend of "vibe coding" allows people to program software without writing a single line of code. Now, a new study by ETH Zurich published in the Proceedings of the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing ...

Machine learning & AI

New report looks at how AI is impacting software development

Generative AI tools are rapidly transforming how software is built—and raising new risks in the process, according to a new TechBrief from the Association for Computing Machinery's Technology Policy Council (TPC) on the rise ...