August 8, 2025
(Wired) – Discord users are already using video game characters to bypass the UK’s age-check laws. AI deepfakes could make things even more complicated. On gaming platforms like Roblox, age checks are becoming a key element of safety measures. But … Read More
August 8, 2025
(Christianity Today) – Mimicry is not the same as having intelligence, or as comprehending love and art. There is a reflexivity to our intelligence that is lacking in other creatures or creations. A machine, even an advanced AI model, cannot … Read More
August 8, 2025
(AP) – Afghanistan and Pakistan remain the only countries where transmission of polio — which is highly infectious, affects mainly children under 5, and can cause irreversible paralysis within hours — has never been interrupted. The worldwide campaign has focused … Read More
August 7, 2025
(New York Times) – For as little as $2,500, you can choose your future baby. Should you? Would you use an algorithm to select your embryos? Enter Orchid, a company that promises parents the ability to protect their future children … Read More
August 7, 2025
(Rest of World) – Multibillion-dollar partnerships show China’s rising influence in AI-driven pharmaceuticals. Western pharmaceutical giants are striking multibillion-dollar deals with Chinese biotech firms that use artificial intelligence, signaling growing confidence in China’s ability to deliver faster and cheaper innovative … Read More
August 7, 2025
(The Guardian) – The Swedish prime minister, Ulf Kristersson, has come under fire after admitting that he regularly consults AI tools for a second opinion in his role running the country. Kristersson, whose Moderate party leads Sweden’s centre-right coalition government, … Read More
August 7, 2025
(NBC News) – Autumn Bardisa, 29, allegedly helped provide care to 4,486 patients from June 2024 to this January despite “never holding a valid nursing license,” the Flagler County Sheriff’s Office said. Autumn Bardisa, 29, of Palm Coast, was facing … Read More
August 7, 2025
(NBC News) – Gefen and her colleagues at the Mesulam Center have autopsied nearly 80 SuperAger brains and compared them to those of their “neurotypical” peers. They focused on two indicators of Alzheimer’s: protein buildups in the brain called amyloid … Read More
August 7, 2025
(CBS Evening News) – A chatbot is a computer program that uses artificial intelligence to simulate human conversation. For the lonely, a chatbot can be a companion, as Meg Oliver reports in tonight’s “Eye on America.”
August 7, 2025
(New York Times) – How political red tape and a drug company’s thirst for profits limited the reach of a drug that experts believe could have reduced the opioid epidemic’s toll. In the years that followed, as the epidemic grew, … Read More
August 7, 2025
(Wired) – In an 18-month clinical trial of the experimental GLP-1 pill orforglipron, about 60 percent of people lost at least 10 percent of their body weight. An experimental pill made by Eli Lilly led to average weight loss of … Read More
August 7, 2025
(Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists) – Thirty years ago, as director of the Los Alamos National Laboratory, I wrote an essay on the 50th anniversary of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. In that piece (which can be found here), … Read More
August 6, 2025
(Wired) – First came the idea of splitting the atom; then, a chain of events leading to a moment forever etched in collective memory—the use of nuclear weapons on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945. On August 6, 1945, the sky … Read More
August 6, 2025
(BBC via Yahoo!) – Labour’s Mark Sewards has worked alongside a startup AI firm to create a virtual representation of himself, using his voice and allowing people to ask for help with local issues or policy queries. The West Yorkshire … Read More
August 6, 2025
(Gizmodo) – Think twice before you ask Google’s Gemini AI assistant to summarize your schedule for you, because it could lead to you losing control of all of your smart devices. At a presentation at Black Hat USA, the annual … Read More
August 6, 2025
(NPR) – China imprisoned the scientist, He Jiankui, for three years for violating medical regulations. Fast forward to today: Mainstream scientific organizations are encouraging very careful basic research to explore gene-editing and human reproduction. But they still warn any attempts … Read More
August 6, 2025
(UPI) – A group of scientists, primarily from South Korean universities, has confirmed the efficacy of an oral anti-viral treatment, called CP-COV03 or Xafty, against COVID-19 after a clinical trial. If a later-stage trial is successful and the medication is … Read More
August 6, 2025
(Axios) – Concerns over Americans turning to AI chatbots to solve mental health problems are prompting new guardrails so people don’t become too dependent on unvetted technology. Why it matters: AI’s booming popularity, the bots’ reputation for delivering emotionally validating … Read More
August 6, 2025
(Associated Press) – The NFL is banning the use of “smelling salts” during games, saying the products aren’t proven to be safe and also could mask signs of a concussion. The league sent a memo to teams on Tuesday explaining … Read More
August 6, 2025
(Wall Street Journal) – A couple with ties to China say they wanted a big family. Surrogates who carried the children say they were deceived. Local authorities removed the children from the homes, placed them in foster care, and called … Read More
August 6, 2025
(Wired) – Human judgement remains central to the launch of nuclear weapons. But experts say it’s a matter of when, not if, artificial intelligence will get baked into the world’s most dangerous systems. The people who study nuclear war for … Read More
August 6, 2025
(MIT Technology Review) – Thaddeus has taken the title of “world’s oldest baby” from the previous record-holders: twins Lydia Ann and Timothy Ronald Ridgeway, born in 2022, who developed from embryos that were created 30 years earlier, in 1992. Before … Read More
August 6, 2025
(MIT Technology Review) – OpenAI has finally released its first open-weight large language models since 2019’s GPT-2. These new “gpt-oss” models are available in two different sizes and score similarly to the company’s o3-mini and o4-mini models on several benchmarks. … Read More
August 5, 2025
(New York Times) – In unpublished research, researchers found live virus on equipment, in wastewater and in the air in so-called milking parlors. The Department of Agriculture has said that the virus spreads primarily from milking equipment or is carried … Read More
August 5, 2025
(NPR) – Tennessee is gearing up for an execution on Tuesday that experts say would likely mark the first time a man has been put to death with a working defibrillator in his chest. Gov. Bill Lee declined Monday to … Read More
