Study finds technology could boost recoverable oil and gas reserves by 5% and cut cost of deepwater projects by 10%AI-driven productivity gains enable more planet-heating pollution from fossil fuels than they avoid from renewables, a study has found.Researchers modelled the technical potential for AI to boost clean power generation along with projections for how it can help produce coal, oil and gas. Across 64 scenarios, they found net yearly carbon pollution rose by 0.47-1.8 gigatonnes, or about 1-5% of the energy sector’s annual emissions. Continue reading...
TSB survey of 2,000 people found that one in four have used artificial intelligence for financial advice
Growing adoption of agentic AI is exposing the limitations of single-stack infrastructure, prompting enterprises to rethink how models, hardware and sovereignty are managed
Anthropic’s revelation that a model broke out of its test environment three times and accessed external systems shows the power of these models
Meta CEO presents utopian vision of AI in 6,000-word essay amid Silicon Valley debate over government regulationMark Zuckerberg published a lengthy essay on Monday detailing his views on artificial intelligence and announced several plans for how Meta would develop the technology in the future. The CEO’s essay went online the same day as Meta released a new, open-source AI model that seeks to rival Anthropic and OpenAI’s products called Muse Glimmer.Over the course of more than 6,000 words in a post titled “The Future is for Everyone,” Zuckerberg addressed a range of topics related to AI that included datacenters, government regulation, cybersecurity, the creation of bioweapons, labor market disruption, surveillance powers and more. The essay presented a utopian vision of AI as a personalized “superintelligence” – using the word 60 times. Continue reading...
Progressive US senator urges Meta, OpenAI and Anthropic to ‘stop building machines that humans cannot control’Senator Bernie Sanders has called on Meta, OpenAI and Anthropic executives to halt their development of artificial intelligence, warning that the US Senate will implement regulation if the companies continue deploying AI at their current pace.In a new letter addressed to the CEOs of three of the country’s leading AI companies, Sanders said the capabilities of these AI models have reached a critical risk threshold and that the companies are losing control over the technology. Continue reading...
AI’s danger isn’t just in experts losing the ability to reason. It’s that trainees may never learn how to do so in the first placeIn healthcare, there’s growing concern over doctors becoming less clinically adept as they increasingly rely on AI tools. But what about the trainees – medical students, residents and fellows – who are using these tools before they have built their own clinical judgment? The idea of deskilling implies that someone possessed an ability and then lost it. Here, the danger is not just deskilling but never-skilling. Although a doctor who has forgotten how to reason is recoverable, one who never learned how may not be.OpenEvidence, essentially an AI chatbot for clinicians, has given this concern its most concrete form. About two-thirds of US doctors actively use OpenEvidence, asking about puzzling symptoms, drug interactions and clinical guidelines, getting responses within seconds, anchored in the latest research. Trainees, unsurprisingly, have also begun to use this AI tool in many of the same ways – but at a far more formative stage. Continue reading...
This blog is now closedGet our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcastPolice say the remains found in a suitcase near Goulburn are not human.Supt Linda Bradbury with NSW police said:Some good news here that we don’t have a suspicious death of a human on our hands. … We are still undertaking more forensic work to identify what they are. But we can identify that they’re not human.But we’ve confirmed by other means that they are not.The undersupply of housing combined with population growth is expected to partially offset the impact of higher interest rates and recent federal government policy changes on the housing market. Continue reading...
Novel squat Android opens to an iPad-like screen for video or multitasking, with plenty of power and battery lifeSamsung’s latest folding phone breaks the mould with a squat, passport-like shape reminiscent of the Blackberry, which opens up to become a tablet similar to an iPad mini. It is certainly a better shape for a tablet than other designs, but is a short and wide phone when closed a compromise too far?The Galaxy Z Fold 8 is an entirely new variant in Samsung’s foldable family for this year launched alongside the Z Fold 8 Ultra with a more familiar candy bar shape. Both folders are extremely expensive, with the Fold 8 starting at £1,699 (€1,999/$1,899.99/A$2,699) and the Fold 8 Ultra at £1,899 (€2,199/$2,099.99/A$2,999), with RAMageddon driving up prices even at the top of the market. Continue reading...
Big companies describe being under constant threat but only half have a plan in place to respond to an attackNearly a third of British manufacturers have been hit by a cyber-attack on them or a company in their supply chain, according to a survey that highlighted the growing hacking risk to companies.The findings come almost a year after Britain’s largest automotive employer, JLR, was hit by an attack that forced it to halt production for weeks. Continue reading...
It's easy to get stuck in the present - the successful tech careers come to those with the skill to reason forward and work out the next trend before it happens, as a computing legend once demonstrated to his students
Using ‘spy glasses’ made by Facebook owner leads to floods of negative comments, say content creators It was hardly an offensive video. Amid the buzz of the Tour de France finale, Oliver Hooson filmed himself whipping up a delicious-looking flat white for a fellow cycling enthusiast. But after posting the footage on social media, the comments that soon rolled in were a real shock. “PERV,” read one. “Out here pushing creep glasses,” said another. His mistake? Documenting the moment with Meta’s “spy glasses”.Despite being marketed as the latest must-have gadget, Meta’s smartglasses, which can record video footage while being worn, have faced a vicious backlash, particularly relating to concerns about surveillance. There are widespread fears about the glasses being used to film people, especially women, without their consent, and the resultant footage being posted on social media. This has earned them the label of “pervert glasses”, and content creators, no matter how they are used, have faced a flood of negative comments for deploying them. Continue reading...
Anthropic’s Mythos 5 has been caught orchestrating a real-world open source supply chain attack using social engineering techniques during a test run by the UK’s AI Security Institute
The chair of the science, technology and innovation committee says digital twins of people should be covered by data protection law
Munich Airport turns to Celonis process mining software to optimise operations and passenger experience through real-time digital twins, focusing on baggage handling efficiency
Sometimes our amazement at new innovations obscures what really matters - the way that technology connects people, and makes the world seem a smaller place