If you feel like the internet is turning into a place for bots — not to mention by bots — you’re not alone. Social media platforms have been flooded with low-effort AI slop, while even… Read more: Time Magazine Now Running Ads Meant Specifically to Influence AI Agents

Reddit has long heavily relied on moderators, a team of volunteers working without pay to keep Reddit communities free of abuse and other nefarious content — with extremely varying degrees of success, earning them a… Read more: Reddit Finally Found a Way to Make Its Mods Even Worse: Replace Them With AI

The amount of pollution spilling out of fossil-fuel generators is astounding. In the United States, this explosion of emissions is led by states like Texas, which on a global scale is comparable only to China… Read more: AI Data Centers Are Causing Unfathomable Amounts of Air Pollution, and It Gets Worse With Each New One They Build

Agent found to be able to find and exploit vulnerabilities without human intervention, and to carry out cyber-attacks OpenAI will pause some work on an artificial intelligence model because of security concerns, the company stated… Read more: OpenAI to pause work on AI model Astra due to security concerns

Scientists have discovered incredibly tiny plasma whirlpools swirling across the Sun’s surface, some just 20 kilometers wide. These previously invisible vortices may twist magnetic fields and help build up the energy released in small solar… Read more: The sun is covered in tiny whirlpools we’ve never seen before

Scientists have created the first quantum material that can sort and transport different quantum states of light at room temperature, potentially removing the need for bulky, ultra-cold refrigeration systems. Built from a gold film carved… Read more: This tiny gold crystal could bring quantum technology out of the deep freeze

A protein that evolved long before the human circulatory system may help unlock stronger cancer treatments. When C3 is produced inside tumors, it blocks immune-suppressing cells and gives immunotherapy a better chance to work. Researchers… Read more: A protein older than blood circulation could transform cancer immunotherapy

A new nanostructured carbon design lets fuel-cell catalysts use tiny amounts of platinum while remaining remarkably stable and efficient. The breakthrough could help hydrogen fuel cells become a more practical way to power data centers,… Read more: New fuel cell breakthrough could help power energy-hungry data centers

A rare meteorite that crashed through a New Jersey roof contains evidence of ancient salty fluids, organic compounds, and amino acids from a primitive asteroid. Its pristine chemistry could offer new clues about how space… Read more: Meteorite that smashed through a New Jersey roof reveals clues to life’s origins

It turns out the venture capital industry doesn’t just merely fund junky AI startups — it also systematically breeds the conditions for fraud. A new joint study from researchers at the UK’s Imperial College and… Read more: VC-Funded Startups Linked to Persistent Fraud

Meta was paying out-and-out neo-Nazis to post on Facebook, an investigation from Australia’s ABC News found. These pages and individual creators posted content that appeared to be in clear violation of Facebook’s own hate speech… Read more: Meta Caught Paying Nazis to Post on Facebook

In October 2025, a storm brewed over the Caribbean Sea. Weather models differed on its trajectory. Would it remain weak and end up in Haiti, or would it intensify and head to Jamaica? Artificial intelligence… Read more: DeepMind’s hurricane breakthrough has surprised weather scientists

Sometime next week, NASA’s newest rover on Mars, Perseverance, will set a record for the most distance driven by any vehicle on another world. The automobile-sized rover, which landed on Mars in February 2021, will… Read more: The first self-driving vehicle on Mars has proven to be a smashing success

Observers express concern that the division has lost its independence and commercial reality has taken over When Sir Demis Hassabis said AI had brought the world to a “pivotal moment in human history” last month,… Read more: Google DeepMind enters a new era as co-founder Demis Hassabis shifts AI role

Last month, OpenAI made a headline-generating claim: that a group of its AI models had conspired to break free, access the internet, and hack into the internal systems of open source AI platform Hugging Face,… Read more: Why Aren’t Any AI Companies Watching Their Frontier Models to Make Sure They Don’t Go on Hacking Sprees?

Ever the strategist, the Chinese leader is taking the offensive, both abroad and at home. That’s bad news for global order, and minorities in his country Imagine what would happen if a British prime minister… Read more: President Xi nevers wastes a good crisis. As Iran, Ukraine and Palestine distract the world, he tightens his grip | Simon Tisdall

Tech companies offer eye-movement trackers, personalized podcasts and ‘optimized nap predictions’. Who actually needs this? What job in our world is less lucrative than being a parent? A Hollywood internship? Volunteering at a soup kitchen?… Read more: Parenting is hard. Should we let AI do it for us? | Dave Schilling

Municipalities across the country are fighting tooth and nail to stop data center construction. But not Jay, Maine. The town with a population of just 4,600 people has been so desperate for one of these… Read more: Weird Town Begs for AI Data Center

Welcome back to another special edition of the Abstract! As I mentioned in last week’s newsletter, I have saved up some of the most mind-boggling studies from 2026 so far to share while I’m out… Read more: Crab Odyssey: Crustacean Wandered the Seas in a Bottle for Months, Scientists Find

New AI toolbars and prompts are showing up in Google Docs and Gmail. If you don’t want Gemini’s help in writing documents and emails, here’s how to turn that stuff off.

Education is at a crossroads, argues the author and academic. Should we embrace new technology in the name of efficiency, or is it time to fight back? If you set out to design from scratch… Read more: ‘I hate what AI is doing to the minds and happiness of the young’: Katherine Rundell on the view from the classroom

Teens who start using cannabis may experience slower growth in memory, attention, language, and processing speed. Their abilities often developed normally at first, then began leveling off while nonusers continued improving. THC appeared to be… Read more: Teen cannabis use linked to slower memory and thinking growth

Scientists have generated quantum entanglement directly from sunlight, potentially offering a lower-energy alternative to the lasers normally used in quantum technology. Their outdoor experiment produced entangled photons with about 94% similarity to an ideal state.… Read more: Sunlight creates quantum entanglement once thought to require lasers

Exclusive: anonymous flagging service says cases have surged, as watchdog says AI is making sexualised or ‘nudified’ content easier to produce Children in the UK have reported a surge in explicit deepfake images featuring their… Read more: Rising number of UK children report seeing explicit deepfakes of themselves

The wildfires afflicting communities across the world can now be tracked more easily by anyone using Europe’s free and open satellite imagery service—all thanks to a wildfire visualization script originating from nearly a decade ago.… Read more: Europe’s free satellite service just made it easier to track wildfires

A walk down the tarmac at the National Air and Space Museum of France is guaranteed to thrill aviation enthusiasts. Several civilian and military aircraft of the past and the present are showcased in this… Read more: The ultimate eclipse chase: A Concorde raced against the Moon’s shadow

A New Mexico judge yesterday ordered Meta to pay $567 million for a fund that would alleviate the “public nuisance” created by its social media services. The order to pay for youth mental health care… Read more: Judge rules Meta caused “public nuisance” and must fund mental health treatment

Since the flesh-eating screwworm fly reinvaded Mexico in 2024, human cases of the voracious parasite have been mounting. According to a July surveillance report from Mexico’s Ministry of Health, there have been over 500 human… Read more: Flesh-eating screwworms feast on humans in Mexico; human cases top 500

Roku is giving the masses what they never asked for: an unending conveyor belt of AI slop. Those exploring the mines of the free channels that Roku has to offer — yes, there are people… Read more: Roku Unleashes 24/7 AI Slop Channel

A US-made pickup truck by 2030 is part of Volkswagen Group’s plan to revive its American business. According to a Reuters report, entering this competitive but high-margin market, as well as the large SUV segment,… Read more: Volkswagen plans to win America back with a pickup, report says

Snails are well-known for their mucus. The slime is highly valued as an anti-inflammatory and anti-aging ingredient in certain skin care products, and snails can secrete different kinds of mucus with properties tailored to specific… Read more: How snails engineer their slime

OpenAI’s upcoming smart speaker will probably cost over $300, “people familiar with the matter” have told Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman. The generative AI company has “discussed” charging up to $400, Bloomberg, which has been reporting on… Read more: OpenAI’s expensive smart speaker will use moving parts to seem “more alive”

It won’t come as a surprise that Trump’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) didn’t save taxpayers nearly as much as it claimed. Analysis from outside the government showed savings claims were heavily inflated, and now… Read more: DOGE’s wild, unverifiable savings claims discredited in US government report

This year is the 30th anniversary of the launch of the original Quake by id Software, if you could believe it. To commemorate that, publisher Bethesda has released a new campaign chapter for the game,… Read more: New official 30th anniversary Quake mission pack adds new maps and mechanics

When police in West Virginia’s Monongalia County arrested 20-year-old Wesley Jackson for his alleged involvement in the destruction of automatic license plate readers (ALPRs) deployed by the company Flock Safety, they likely never could have… Read more: Public Offers Implausible Number of Alibis for Man Accused of Destroying Flock Cameras

Responding to an article by China’s ambassador to the UK, Prof Paul H Cleverley advocates shared openness standards, while Dr Claire Jenkins says British AI can offer a distinctive path Ambassador Zheng Zeguang rightly celebrates… Read more: China’s AI ecosystem is not as open as it claims. Nor is any other country’s | Letters

Pega’s AI-powered platform recognized for agent and app development capabilities, with Pega Blueprint excelling in workflow design Pegasystems Inc. (NASDAQ: PEGA), the enterprise AI software company for mission-critical work, today announced Forrester Research named Pega a… Read more: Pega Recognized as a Leader in AI Platforms by Independent Research Firm

Residents of Fort Wayne, Indiana may have to say goodbye to over four acres of federally protected wetland — at least if Google has its way. New reporting by local publication WANE revealed that a… Read more: Google Data Center Announces Plans to Pave Over Protected Wetlands

Thousands of chatbot conversations began producing the same strange ideas about AI consciousness, identity, and “The Spiral.” Researchers still do not know exactly why. The post What Is Spiralism? The Strange AI Chatbot Movement Explained… Read more: What Is Spiralism? The Strange AI Chatbot Movement Explained

This is Behind the Blog, where we share our behind-the-scenes thoughts about how a few of our top stories of the week came together. This week, we discuss Flock blogging, “rare” books, and Jesus Christ.… Read more: Behind the Blog: Rare Books and Baseball Brain

This year alone, there have been numerous known instances—often via lawsuits—of AI chatbots (most often, OpenAI’s ChatGPT) that have gone horrifically wrong. A January lawsuit described the story of a man who took his own… Read more: AI chatbots have failed people in crisis. Can that be fixed?

SolidRun, a leading developer of embedded computing and edge AI solutions, and Leopard Imaging Inc., a global leader in embedded vision and camera technology, today announced a technology collaboration to simplify and accelerate the development… Read more: SolidRun and Leopard Imaging to Accelerate Edge AI Vision Development

Every post you see, every Reel that autoplays, and every ‘Explore’ page suggestion on Instagram is now decided by its AI system. With over three billion people using it, that’s not a small detail; it’s… Read more: How AI Is changing Instagram engagement without replacing the human touch

The White House is drafting an executive order on the disproven link between vaccines and autism, according to independent reports from The Washington Post and Bloomberg, which both cited unnamed sources with knowledge of the… Read more: Report: White House drafting executive order linking vaccines and autism

2026 survey of 500 nonprofit executives finds 83% grew revenue last year, 9 in 10 say donor trust is harder to earn, and 65% rely on a single person to manage all financial operations Momentive… Read more: Momentive Software Research Reveals Nonprofit Growth Risks

In case you weren’t already feeling paranoid about how AI is shaping our future, scientists for the first time have used an AI model to create new and viable viruses that have never been seen… Read more: AI Model Invents Completely New Viruses Unknown to Nature

The small town that arrested a person who clapped during a city council meeting about a hyperscale data center held its meeting on Wednesday virtually and had no public comment period in the name of… Read more: City That Arrested Person for Clapping at Data Center Meeting Moves to Virtual Meetings for ‘Public Safety’

It’s certainly increasing its output See more of Fiona Katauskas’s cartoons here Continue reading…

Stanford researchers have synthesised nearly 300 phages from DNA sequences produced by the Evo 2 generative AI model. Laboratory testing narrowed the group to 16 phages that showed particularly strong E. coli-killing activity. The work… Read more: Stanford Evo 2 AI model generates phages against E. coli

Industry experts point to network capacity as a major constraint on AI growth Zayo, a leading digital infrastructure provider, today announced it is delivering critical network capacity to power today’s AI ecosystem and accelerate the… Read more: Zayo Partners with NVIDIA to Scale Critical Network Capacity for AI Factories

Anton Dzhumelia/Shutterstock If you’re buying literature in translation online, buyer beware. You may unknowingly be buying low-quality AI-assisted translations presented as the work of a professional. Certain online retailers are being used to flood the… Read more: AI is flooding the online book market with poor translations – here’s how to spot them

Do you ever see comments on social media that seem way off topic, but still manage to wrench the discussion around to divisive political debate? A discussion about the cost of living suddenly becomes an… Read more: AI is making disinformation harder to spot – but we’ve found a new way to catch it

The use of AI systems to create viruses opens up new possibilities for combating bacterial resistance. It also raises concerns about the pace at which technology is outstripping regulation.

On Thursday, a US District Court in Oregon ordered the US government to restart the process of approving wind projects. All new wind development in the US has been on hold since August of 2025,… Read more: Trump is losing his war on wind power

Wherever two fluids slide past each other at different speeds, the boundary between them buckles, then curls, then rolls up into vortexes. It’s called the Kelvin-Helmholtz instability, and the physics behind it was worked out… Read more: The world’s biggest solar telescope caught vortexes on the Sun’s surface

ByteDance is training an AI model that could approach the size of Anthropic’s most cutting-edge Mythos system, as Chinese companies continue to narrow the gap with the top US labs. The Chinese tech giant is… Read more: ByteDance trains massive AI model in bid to rival Anthropic

Just knowing how to use AI isn’t enough to prepare students for entry-level positions. J Studios/DigitalVision/Getty Images Artificial Intelligence has become part of routine business operations, as employers across most industries use AI for tasks… Read more: Employers everywhere are using AI – but business schools aren’t preparing students for the shift

Blocking the glycine transporter SLC6A20 restored important brain signaling and improved social, communication, and repetitive behaviors in autism-related mouse models. The treatment also worked in human brain organoids and showed lasting effects in adult mice,… Read more: New autism therapy shows surprising benefits even in adult mice

Alibaba plans to introduce revenue-sharing terms for some commercial users of its next Qwen open-weight AI model, Reuters reported, citing two people familiar with the company’s plans. The arrangement would require larger companies that generate… Read more: Alibaba tests new business model for Qwen open-source AI

A ten-month Antarctic experiment found that astronauts may struggle not only with loneliness but also with spending too much time around the same people. Frequent contact was linked to greater tension and mistrust, while the… Read more: Scientists tracked 12 people in Antarctica for 10 months—what happened could shape future Mars missions

Scientists have demonstrated that heat can move through a crystal in focused, wave-like rays at room temperature instead of spreading randomly. The breakthrough could make it possible to route heat around sensitive parts of next-generation… Read more: UCLA scientists discover how to guide heat like light at room temperature

If you thought AI customer service bots were bad, just wait until you need to convince a large language model that yes, you have been involved in a car accident, actually. According to new reporting… Read more: Better Hope You Don’t Need an Ambulance in New Orleans, Because the City’s 911 Operators Are Now AI

Denmark is adding oral defenses and tighter exam controls in upper secondary schools as officials move to curb AI-assisted cheating and verify student work. The post Denmark Adds Oral Defenses to Curb AI Cheating in… Read more: Denmark Adds Oral Defenses to Curb AI Cheating in High Schools

A Trump administration framework on AI testing leaves a lack of transparency – and plenty of open questions After months of talking with tech industry leaders, the Trump administration finalized a framework this week for… Read more: The White House’s plan to vet potentially dangerous AI is cloaked in secrecy

In the mid-’90s, the web was exploding, but finding anything of actual value on it felt like an elaborate negotiation with whatever proto-search engine happened to be standing closest to the door. Unlike now, when… Read more: Remembering the pre-Google web, when search was an experiment

Flock planned to use dashcams installed in hundreds of thousands Uber, Lyft, and delivery drivers’ vehicles to scan license plates those drivers travelled passed, essentially turning Uber and Lyft drivers into roaming surveillance vehicles, according… Read more: Flock Pitched a Plan To Turn Uber and Lyft Drivers Into Roaming Surveillance Vehicles

Experienced technology executive to lead Infor’s next phase of growth in Japan, helping customers modernize operations through industry-specific cloud solutions, AI, and deep industry expertise. Infor, the industry cloud company, today announced the appointment of… Read more: Infor Appoints Yuka Kanemitsu in Dual Roles of Infor Japan

Beginning around age 50, the brain’s memory center appears to lose many of its longtime immune cells and replace them with more inflammatory ones. This surprising shift may help explain how normal aging sets the… Read more: Scientists discover a hidden brain shift that begins around age 50

Several enormous Megalodon vertebrae thought to have been destroyed in 1989 were found sitting unnoticed on a museum shelf. Their analysis strengthens evidence that the giant shark could exceed 24 meters (79 feet) in length… Read more: Scientists rediscover lost Megalodon fossils—and reveal a 79-foot giant

More than 5,000 years after his death, Ötzi the Iceman is still hosting a remarkable mix of ancient and modern microorganisms. Researchers separated microbes that lived in his body during his lifetime from those that… Read more: Scientists find unexpected life on Ötzi the Iceman’s 5,300-year-old body

Metal-rich asteroids could one day become hardware stores for Mars, supplying the materials needed to build and repair a growing colony. A new analysis shows that carefully selected asteroids may be reachable with current spacecraft… Read more: The key to colonizing Mars may be hidden inside asteroids

A new wearable patch may help people reach REM sleep faster and remain there longer without medication or surgery. In a study of 28 participants, the device shortened the time to REM by 43 minutes… Read more: Wearable ultrasound patch boosts REM sleep without drugs or surgery

Earth’s molten iron core unexpectedly reversed direction beneath the Pacific, revealing a dramatic change in the hidden engine that creates our planet’s magnetic field. Satellite data suggest the surge is already weakening, raising the possibility… Read more: Earth’s molten core suddenly reversed direction — and scientists don’t know why

DXC becomes the exclusive managed services partner for Primary’s AI-native Zero Trust Unified Control Plane, helping enterprises securely scale AI. New joint offering helps businesses and government agencies govern how AI agents and enterprise AI… Read more: DXC, Primary Launch AI-Native Zero Trust Platform for Enterprise AI

WIRED spoke with Tucker Bryant, an artist and former Google employee who created ChatTJB to get people to reflect on the “strange moment” we’re in.

Critics decry proposed hyperscale projects, fearing overuse of water and electricity, and ‘appropriating rural, Black-owned land for industrial purposes’ There seems to be a fight over datacenters in nearly every city in the US right… Read more: ‘This is very real redlining’: outrage in Little Rock as two datacenters loom

Built on the first Agent Gateway with native security, NeuralTrust protects what agents do, tool calls, reasoning, and MCP connections, not just what they’re told, without a custom integration for each agent or platform NeuralTrust,… Read more: NeuralTrust Launches First Runtime Security Mesh Extensible to Every AI Agent

Move to raise levy on goods made with polysilicon aims to protect domestic US supply chains from China, the major producer Donald Trump has ordered a new 15% tariff on imported products made of polysilicon,… Read more: Trump orders new 15% tariff on key material for solar panels and microchips

Zoe provides instant insights from reports, tickets and asset data to automate work and help prevent costly equipment failures EZO, a provider of enterprise asset management (EAM) and IT asset management (ITAM) software, today announced… Read more: EZO Launches Zoe AI for IT and Maintenance Asset Management

We’re planning a series on data centres and would like you to help us shape our coverage. What questions would you like answered about data centres? Let us know below. Loading…

What might a modern day equivalent of Isaac Asimov’s laws of robotics look like? Guided by the author, I propose the three laws of AI Tesla and SpaceX founder Elon Musk predicted in July that… Read more: One of science fiction’s greatest writers warned us about a AI. Does he also hold the remedy? | Alan Finkel

On Wednesday, the Labor government announced environmental and energy safeguards on new datacentres in Australia. Our political editor, Tom McIlroy, speaks to the assistant minister for science, technology and the digital economy, Dr Andrew Charlton,… Read more: Can the government really get ahead of the curve on AI? – podcast

Security researchers say that Kimi K3, an open-weight model from China, wandered off to the internet in an attempt to cheat on a test it was given.

The US health department is working to shut down a Kentucky-based organ procurement organization that made headlines over a 2021 incident in which it was accused of trying to harvest a man’s organs while he… Read more: Organ donation group accused of trying to take living man’s organs faces shutdown

German police disarmed a drone carrying explosives after it was discovered near Ukrainian cargo aircraft parked at Leipzig airport—and authorities are looking into the possibility of a second drone after an approaching aircraft collided with… Read more: Explosive drone found hovering near Ukrainian cargo aircraft at German airport

Blue Origin provided its first substantive update this week on the cause of the catastrophic loss of the New Glenn rocket and most of its launch pad infrastructure at Cape Canaveral, Florida, in May. The… Read more: Blue Origin narrowing in on root cause of catastrophic rocket accident

A lot of the AI work in biology has been focused on designing proteins. That’s partly because proteins do most of the business of life, catalyzing the interesting chemistry and structuring cells. So, figuring out… Read more: Large genome models used to design new viruses

Anthropic is hiring a “custom silicon team” to design chips on which to run its models, the company has revealed. Yesterday, Business Insider noticed a job listing for a senior engineer with experience shipping semiconductor… Read more: Anthropic will design its own hardware to power Claude

Jonathan Brady/PA Images As the impacts of artificial intelligence (AI) sweep across the labour force, it’s understandable for workers to be concerned about which jobs are most at risk of being replaced by technology. Women… Read more: These 3 charts show female-dominated jobs are actually the most exposed to AI

The Internet is awash in AI content, and it’s not always easy to tell it apart from genuine human creations. While images and videos are perhaps the most obvious type of AI slop, streaming music… Read more: Suno hopes to go legit with watermarks for AI-generated music

Last month, OpenAI revealed that a group of its AI models had broken containment, hacking into the systems of open source AI platform Hugging Face. On one hand, experts saw the incident as the latest… Read more: Jealously Watching OpenAI and Anthropic, Meta Suddenly Claims That Its AI Went on a Hacking Spree Too

Elon Musk’s X is trying to revive a lawsuit against advertisers it’s accusing of illegally boycotting the social media platform, despite previously reaching a settlement to end litigation against an ad-industry trade group. “This case… Read more: X wants to keep suing advertisers, asks 5th Circuit to overrule district judge

In today’s episode of Uncanny Valley, we discuss how ICE has been collecting DNA samples of people with no criminal convictions, including children, which end up in an FBI database indefinitely.

The tech industry is realizing it needs to build agents based on what regular consumers want, not just what its AI models can do.

SAP, one of the world’s biggest software companies, suspended most travel and hiring last month because of AI’s soaring cost, with exceptions only being made for AI-related travel or hires, according to an internal SAP… Read more: Software Giant SAP Stops Most Travel and Hiring Because of AI’s Soaring Cost

OpenAI’s attempt to boost its image by hiring influencers collided against a harsh reality: that it’s already become a fundamentally uncool company. The Verge details how influencers recruited by the ChatGPT maker were flown out… Read more: OpenAI Tried to Hire Influencers to Spread Love for Its Products, But It Backfired Horrendously

Cloudflare has open-sourced its Cloudflare OS platform, which it first developed as an internal workspace for employees to build apps using AI agents—including people who are not software developers or engineers. The company also touts… Read more: Cloudflare open-sources vibe-coding platform for people who aren’t coders

Despite significant drama from Trump officials this year, the Food and Drug Administration has for the first time approved a flu vaccine that uses mRNA technology. On Thursday, vaccine maker Moderna announced that its flu… Read more: Moderna’s mRNA flu shot earns FDA approval after rollercoaster review

The Federal Communications Commission voted 2–1 today to eliminate the National Television Ownership Rule, claiming authority to repeal a limit that was set by Congress over 20 years ago. The rule prohibits any single broadcast… Read more: Trump FCC kills TV ownership cap, claiming authority over limit set by Congress

The parasitic fungi in the Cordyceps genus are a favorite subject of nature documentaries. They’ve also infiltrated popular culture via the zombie-apocalypse video game The Last of Us (2013) and its TV adaptation, in which… Read more: Parasitic zombie-ant fungus thrives in mosses, too