Artificial Intelligence - General News

New sense-sore (Spock pronunciation)
https://phys.org/news/2026-01-ai-driven-ultrafast-spectrometer-chip.html
I don’t believe this study
https://phys.org/news/2026-01-women-ai-greater-skepticism-men.html
Magic missile
https://techxplore.com/news/2026-01-ai-dungeons-dragons-term-decision.html
Recognize speech!
https://techxplore.com/news/2026-01-phonetic-reduction-speech-ai-voices.html“Wreck a nice beach?”

Gotta work on my timing
https://phys.org/news/2026-01-comedic-framework.html
Let us now sing in praise of the bookkeepers
https://techxplore.com/news/2026-01-reveals-line-defense-cyber-accountants.html
Steel for shipbuilding
https://techxplore.com/news/2026-01-real-3d-steel-shipbuilding.html
* And perhaps the most relevant AI usage to buildings, aerospace, naval and army equipment—a welder’s aid:
https://techxplore.com/news/2026-01-ai-smart-eyes-welding-defects.html
 
Last edited:
Less than three months ago, industry experts told 9news.com.au the use of generative AI in advertising will be much more common in the future
Jeanswest has proven them right far sooner than expected.
The fashion retailer, which has gone into administration twice in the last six years, has been called out by consumers for using generative AI extensively in advertising online.
Click to expand...

Australian retailer lashed over AI ads, which experts warn are on the rise
 
China has deployed life-sized AI-powered 'robocops' to police roads and direct traffic around the clock.

Wearing reflective vests and white caps, the humanoid officers have been spotted patrolling Wuhu City, in eastern China's Anhui Province, barking orders at civilians.

'For your safety, please ride bicycles in the non-motorized lane,' one robot was heard calling out to a cyclist who veered into traffic.

The robots' futuristic appearance has made them local celebrities, with pedestrians frequently pausing to snap photos.

Traffic police officer Jiang Zihao described the machines as 'new colleagues' capable of assisting officers on the streets.

According to Jiang, the AI-enabled robot - known as Intelligent Police Unit R001 - is linked to the city's traffic signal system and can perform traffic-control gestures in sync with changing lights.
Click to expand...

China's AI-powered real-life 'robocops' that work around the clock and bark orders at civilians
 
OpenAI says that it is focused on “practical adoption” as it moves into 2026, and will aim to make artificial intelligence actually useful.

The announcement comes as the company prepares its first physical product, which is widely rumoured to be a device without a screen that will allow people to interact with similar technology to ChatGPT.

This week, Chris Lehane, OpenAI's chief global affairs officer, said during an interview with Axios that the company is “on track” to reveal that first product this year, too. He gave no indication of what the product might actually be – and said only that it would be introduced in 2026, leaving open the possibility that it might not actually be available until next year.

OpenAI has said that it working with Jony Ive, the Apple designer, and his firm LoveFrom to create the product. But it still remains largely secret.
Click to expand...

OpenAI says its job for this year is making AI actually useful
 
AI-Driven ‘Zero Clicks’ Phenomenon Threatens Democracy; News Outlets Must Be Able to Recover Costs, Stay Independent


7:00 JST, December 26, 2025

The Japan Fair Trade Commission’s probe into generative AI is fueled by a growing sense of alarm over the future of democracy. Should the exploitation of news articles without compensation persist, media organizations’ very survival will be at risk, threatening the existence of essential institutions that sustain a functioning democracy.

As AI searches accelerate the “zero-click” phenomenon — where users finish their searches without clicking through to original websites — urgent measures are required to ensure that news organizations can sustain their vital role as guardians of democracy.
Feeding off news

“AI search engines feed off news content as the essential nutrients for their services. If we allow this one-sided consumption without compensation to continue, it could jeopardize the existence of news organizations,” a JFTC official warned.

AI search services use AI to summarize information from the internet to generate answers to users’ questions in a conversational format. This offers users the convenience of immediate answers, as opposed to inputting keywords.

However, this very efficiency poses a threat to media outlets, as summarized content discourages users from visiting the original websites.

However, when AI summarizes information from multiple sources, users often find the summary sufficient and stop visiting the original sites. This puts publishers in a precarious position because the content they produce at great cost is unilaterally siphoned off, severing the vital ad revenue they previously relied on.
Click to expand...

https://japannews.yomiuri.co.jp/politics/politics-government/20251226-300543/
 
Artificial intelligence has quietly powered YouTube for years, helping recommend videos, moderate content, and keep the platform running at global scale. Now, YouTube is making its ambitions for AI far more explicit. In a new blog post, CEO Neal Mohan outlined four areas the company believes it must “get right” in 2026 as AI becomes more visible across creation, discovery, and viewing.

At the centre of YouTube’s strategy is what Mohan calls a “new creative frontier.” Drawing comparisons with past technological shifts like synthesizers, Photoshop, and CGI, he positioned AI as a tool that can lower barriers and expand creative expression, not replace it. According to YouTube, more than one million channels used its AI creation tools daily in December alone. Over the coming year, creators will be able to generate Shorts using their own likeness, build games from simple text prompts, and experiment with AI-assisted music tools. Mohan stressed that throughout this evolution, AI is intended to remain “a tool for expression, not a replacement.”
Click to expand...

YouTube CEO Neal Mohan explains how it plans to manage AI creativity and ‘slop’ in 2026
 
According to the Tasmania Tours website, Weldborough Hot Springs offers a "peaceful escape" and an "authentic connection to nature".

The "secluded forest retreat" even features in the "7 Best Hot Springs Tasmania Experiences for 2026".

The website says walkers are greeted by pools "rich in therapeutic minerals".

"This makes it a popular destination for those looking to immerse themselves in Tasmania's raw beauty," the site reads.

"Its reputation as a tranquil haven has made it a favourite among local hiking groups, wellness retreat organisers, and anyone wanting to experience one of the more untouched hot springs Tasmania has to offer."

And with the webpage lacking directions, excited travellers have descended on the area's other famous landmark — the Weldborough Hotel, about two hours' drive north-east of Launceston — to ask how they can find the idyllic pools.

The problem is, the hot springs, as depicted in the imagery, do not exist.
Click to expand...

Tour website's AI sends visitors to Tasmanian sites that do not exist
 
After a whirlwind relationship with AI, workers are waking up to the sobering reality of the technology’s adoption.

Workforce solutions firm ManpowerGroup’s 2026 Global Talent Barometer found that worker relationships with AI have grown complicated. The study—based on interviews with nearly 14,000 workers across 19 countries—found that while regular AI usage jumped among workers by 13% in 2025, confidence in the technology’s use plummeted by 18%.

“AI adoption is accelerating, but confidence is collapsing,” Mara Stefan, VP of global insights at ManpowerGroup, told Fortune. “Workers are being handed tools without training, context, or support.”

The confidence gap isn’t hitting everyone equally. It’s most pronounced among older workers, with a 35% decrease in confidence among baby boomers and a 25% drop among Gen X workers. As the technology becomes a daily requirement, the workforce—and especially its most experienced members—is feeling left behind.
Click to expand...

‘AI adoption is accelerating, but confidence is collapsing’: The more workers use AI, the less they trust it. Baby boomers show a 35% drop
 
This is an offshoot issue effecting not just Universe Today but also Scott Manley & Everyday Astronaut. Where people copyright strike them for using clips that the person making the copyright claim doesn’t actually own. The problem is the system checking is fully automated.

View: https://youtu.be/WoNQ257OUNc
 
About time as regards this.

On Thursday, the EU Parliament adopted a report on technological sovereignty and digital infrastructure with a large, cross-party majority of the EPP, Social Democrats, Liberals, and Greens. This broad alliance signals the determination of the MEPs to drastically reduce European dependence on US technologies and to massively expand their own capabilities.
Click to expand...
With the resolution, the representatives are calling on the EU Commission for bold reforms, particularly an ambitious "Cloud and AI Development Act".
Click to expand...
With the decision, the MEPs want to lay the foundation for a European digital public infrastructure based on open standards and interoperability. The principle of Public Money, Public Code is anchored as a strategic foundation to reduce dependence on individual providers. Software specifically developed for administration with tax money should therefore be made available to everyone under free licenses. For financing, the Parliament relies on the expansion of public-private investments. A "European Sovereign Tech Fund" endowed with ten billion euros was discussed beforehand, for example, to specifically build strategic infrastructures that the market does not provide on its own.
Click to expand...
https://www.heise.de/en/news/Digita...-detachment-from-US-tech-giants-11151222.html
 
Scarecrows for right now.

He ate my homework
https://www.coasttocoastam.com/arti...or-eating-another-students-ai-generated-work/
AI training
https://techxplore.com/news/2026-01-ai-smarter.html
The AI’s have it:
https://techxplore.com/news/2026-01-generation-disinformation-ai-swarms-threaten.htmlhttps://hackaday.com/2026/01/21/can-skynet-be-a-statesman/
Learn to code
https://techxplore.com/news/2026-01-ai-software-code.html
Cybermesses
https://phys.org/news/2026-02-volunteers-link-social-exclusion-higher.htmlhttps://techxplore.com/news/2026-02-years-instagram-social-media.html
Visioneering
https://techxplore.com/news/2026-01-stress-ai-vision-rethinking-adversarial.html
Blind spots
https://techxplore.com/news/2026-01-ai-mirror-human-social-biases.htmlhttps://techxplore.com/news/2026-01-mistaken-critical-overly-aggregated-machine.htmlhttps://techxplore.com/news/2026-02-cybersecurity-pay-links-readiness-stronger.htmlhttps://techxplore.com/news/2026-01-ai-canadian-soul.htmlhttps://techxplore.com/news/2026-02-consensual-ai-porn-doesnt-violate.htmlhttps://techxplore.com/news/2026-02-ai-powered-digital-twin-enables.htmlhttps://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-02-online-medical-misinformation-scarce-older.html
AI prescribe self-deletion next
https://techxplore.com/news/2026-01-ai-emotions.htmlhttps://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-01-psychiatrists-chat-reveal-secrets-ai.htmlhttps://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-01-llms-major-depressive-disorder-voice.html
Move along
https://techxplore.com/news/2026-01-city-traffic-approach-ai-slash.htmlhttps://techxplore.com/news/2026-01-blockchain-fast-iot-networks.htmlhttps://techxplore.com/news/2026-01-analog-hardware-internet-bottlenecks.html
Main-frame-splaining
https://techxplore.com/news/2026-01-online-dating-ai-transparency-user.html
Waiting for Guffman
https://techxplore.com/news/2026-01-meta-teen-access-ai-characters.htmlhttps://techxplore.com/news/2026-01-google-users-option-ai-mode.htmlhttps://www.livescience.com/health/...ead-brother-after-late-night-chatbot-sessions
The edge
https://techxplore.com/news/2026-01-creative-talent-ai-humans.html
 
Last edited:
A review of that chart topping AI song published in a US Libertarian publication.

"Walk My Walk" topped Billboard's country chart for digital song sales in November. The song opens with a deep, soulful hum, followed by a mellow, slightly twangy voice telling listeners that he's been beat down but doesn't stay low. What follows is a decent bluesy ballad, full of country clichés ("every scar's a story that I survived") but with an appealingly catchy beat and a rich, expressive drawl.

The artist, Breaking Rust, is no country music veteran or Nashville songwriter. "Walk My Walk"—along with the entire album it appears on, Resilient—was made with generative artificial intelligence, according to Billboard.
Click to expand...

Review: A Hit Country Song Made by AI
 
 
Last edited:
Apple is developing a wearable “AI pin” that could be able to hear people talk and record conversations.

The iPhone maker is preparing a disc-shaped device equipped with speakers, microphones and cameras that could go on sale as soon as next year.

Several electronics companies have already released wearable gadgets that can record and understand conversations before speaking back to the user, using advances in AI technology.
Click to expand...

Apple developing wearable 'AI pin' that could listen to conversations
 
What could possibly go wrong?

Government by AI? Trump Administration Plans to Write Regulations Using Artificial Intelligence

The Transportation Department, which oversees the safety of airplanes, cars and pipelines, plans to use Google Gemini to draft new regulations. "We don't need the perfect rule," said DOT's top lawyer. "We want good enough."
Click to expand...

These developments have alarmed some at DOT. The agency’s rules touch virtually every facet of transportation safety, including regulations that keep airplanes in the sky, prevent gas pipelines from exploding and stop freight trains carrying toxic chemicals from skidding off the rails. Why, some staffers wondered, would the federal government outsource the writing of such critical standards to a nascent technology notorious for making mistakes?
Click to expand...
 

France announced that it will roll out the Visio platform across all government departments by 2027.​

France will replace the American platforms Microsoft Teams and Zoom with its own domestically developed video conferencing platform, which will be used in all government departments by 2027, the country announced on Monday.
Click to expand...
…

The platform also has an artificial intelligence-powered meeting transcript and speaker diarization feature, using the technology of the French start-up Pyannote.

Viso is also hosted on the French company Outscale’s sovereign cloud infrastructure, which is a subsidiary of French software company Dassault Systèmes.
Click to expand...
https://www.euronews.com/next/2026/...zoom-for-sovereign-platform-amid-security-con
 
Britain's take on 'Robocop'

Dixon of Dock Green will be 'reincarnated' in a new era of policing driven by 'artificial intelligence' and live facial recognition, cops have pledged.

Senior officers insisted the archetypal British bobby – who featured in the BBC drama from the Fifties to the Seventies – will be reborn as part of major reforms unveiled by Shabana Mahmood.
Click to expand...

Dixon of Dock Green to be 'reincarnated' as real-life Robocop under AI-driven police reforms

Britain's police forces are getting a high–tech upgrade, as artificial intelligence (AI) tools are rolled out to tackle crime.

As part of major police reforms, Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood has announced that over £140 million will be invested in new technology.

Police will be given access to facial recognition vans, tools for rapid CCTV analysis, and a suite of digital forensics tools.
Click to expand...

How AI police will patrol Britain's streets - from live facial recognition to virtual chatbots

Labour’s plan to use AI ‘chat bots’ to screen non-urgent calls to police could lead to victims of crime wasting time on ‘inane’ and ‘pointless’ online chats, the Conservatives have warned.

Shadow Home Secretary Chris Philp urged the Government to concentrate on reversing declining police numbers instead.

A new police reform White Paper, published by Home Secretary Shabana Mahmood on Monday, proposed rolling out artificial intelligence 'chat bots' to ‘create efficiencies in triaging non-urgent online queries’ from members of the public.

Police 999 control rooms will also use 'AI-assisted operator services' to help call handlers deal with tasks more effectively, it said.
Click to expand...

Warning over plan to use AI 'chat bots' to screen calls to police
 
How Anthropic Built Claude: Buy Books, Slice Spines, Scan Pages, Recycle the Remains
Slashdot, msn.com, 27 Jan 2026

Court documents unsealed last week in a copyright lawsuit against Anthropic reveal that the AI company ran an operation called "Project Panama" to buy millions of physical books, slice off their spines, scan the pages to train its Claude chatbot, and then send the remains to recycling companies.

The company spent tens of millions of dollars on the effort and hired Tom Turvey, a Google executive who had worked on the legally contested Google Books project two decades earlier. Anthropic bought books in batches of tens of thousands from retailers including Better World Books and World of Books. A vendor document noted the company was seeking to scan between 500,000 and two million books.

Before Project Panama, Anthropic co-founder Ben Mann downloaded books from LibGen, a shadow library of pirated material, over 11 days in June 2021. He later shared a link to the Pirate Library Mirror site with colleagues, writing "this is awesome!!!" Meta employees similarly downloaded books from torrent platforms after approval from Mark Zuckerberg, court filings allege, though one engineer wrote that "torrenting from a corporate laptop doesn't feel right." Anthropic settled for $1.5 billion in August without admitting wrongdoing.
Click to expand...
 
Faustian bargain
https://reactormag.com/the-most-faustian-of-technologies-ai-and-deals-with-the-devil/
Getting in your head
https://techxplore.com/news/2026-01-brain-hardware-spike-coding-ai.htmlhttps://techxplore.com/news/2026-01-mind-ai-kind-person.htmlhttps://techxplore.com/news/2026-01-emitting-artificial-neurons-ai-reliably.html
Beyond Turing
https://techxplore.com/news/2026-01-ai-humanity-exam-machine-intelligence.html
Hi, I'm AL from A.I. How can I irritate you today?
https://phys.org/news/2026-01-hospitality-skills-businesses-ai-revolution.html
Are you dead yet?
https://phys.org/news/2026-01-dead-china-viral-app-reveals.html
grousing
https://arstechnica.com/ai/2026/01/...s-work-and-thats-precisely-what-worries-them/https://arstechnica.com/information...r-is-that-just-what-it-wants-claude-to-think/https://gizmodo.com/openai-working-...ld-require-creepy-eye-scans-report-2000715588
 
Last edited:
I always thought the purpose of a search engine was to show you what you are looking for, not tell you what you are looking for.

Google is expanding the capabilities of Search by allowing users to ask follow-up questions directly from AI Overviews, the AI-generated summaries that appear at the top of search results. With the new update, users can seamlessly jump from these snapshots into a conversational exchange with AI Mode, Google’s chat-style Search experience designed for more complex queries.

Alongside this change, Google announced that Gemini 3 is now the default model powering AI Overviews globally. According to the company, the shift to Gemini 3 is intended to deliver higher-quality responses directly on the search results page, improving both accuracy and depth without requiring users to leave Search.
Click to expand...

Google blurs the line between search and chat by linking AI overviews to AI mode
 
Apparently, they're trying to preempt state AI legislation again.

I wouldn't object to good-faith nationwide legislation in principle: There's something useful in having an overarching standardized rulebook which everybody played out of. The problem is that, given the last few times they've pushed for it, the plan wasn't to implement such a system; it was to simply prevent states from imposing any legislation while doing nothing.

Off the bat I can see a few problems
  1. Baseline protections might be weak (weaker than leading state laws) providing consumers/employees inadequate protection
  2. Overly permissive rules could lead to unchecked deployment
  3. It blocks states from experimenting with stricter rules and may undermine public safety, public interest
  4. If challenged, federal preemption can freeze state action for years, delaying stronger regulation.
  5. The fact that it includes Section 230 provisions strikes me as dangerous
 
Last edited:

Similar threads

Back
Top Bottom