Alzheimer’s disease slowly takes over the mind. Long before symptoms occur, brain cells are gradually losing their function. Eventually they wither away, eroding brain...
Recent progress in AI largely boils down to one thing: Scale.
Around the beginning of this decade, AI labs noticed that making their algorithms—or models—ever...
Artificial intelligence prophets and newsmongers are forecasting the end of the generative AI hype, with talk of an impending catastrophic “model collapse.”
But how realistic...
Our brains are constantly learning. That new sandwich deli rocks. That gas station? Better avoid it in the future.
Memories like these physically rewire connections...
Sleep works magic on memory.
You might’ve felt these frustrations before: Trying to learn a guitar riff, shoot a free-throw, or nail a difficult phrase...
Bacteria and antibiotics have been in a roughly century-long game of cat and mouse. Unfortunately, bacteria are gaining the upper hand.
According to the World...
Language enables people to transmit thoughts to each other because each person’s brain responds similarly to the meaning of words. In newly published research,...
Traveling the vast distances between solar systems is well beyond existing technology. But a new ultra-thin lightsail designed with AI could make it possible...
Generative AI is a data hog.
The algorithms behind chatbots like ChatGPT learn to create human-like content by scraping terabytes of online articles, Reddit posts,...
A new system for forecasting weather and predicting future climate uses artificial intelligence to achieve results comparable with the best existing models while using...
Despite their uncanny language skills, today’s leading AI chatbots still struggle with reasoning. A secretive new project from OpenAI could reportedly be on the...
Magic mushrooms have recently had a reputation revamp. Often considered a hippie drug, their main active component, psilocybin, is being tested in a variety...
With half their skulls replaced by translucent 3D-printed implants, the mice looked straight out of a science fiction movie. Yet they nosed around, ferociously...
A new generation of "flying cars" promises to revolutionize urban mobility, but limited battery power holds them back from plying longer routes. A new...
Rats are incredibly nimble creatures. They can climb up curtains, jump down tall ledges, and scurry across complex terrain—say, your basement stacked with odd-shaped...
Imagine a future with nearly silent air taxis flying above traffic jams and navigating between skyscrapers and suburban droneports. Transportation arrives at the touch...
A squishy, fatty, beige-colored organ covered with grooves and ridges, the brain doesn’t look all that impressive on the surface.
But hidden underneath are up...
Recently we have seen the launch of artificial intelligence programs such as SOUNDRAW and Loudly that can create musical compositions in the style of...
Generative AI, the technology behind ChatGPT and Google’s Gemini, has a “hallucination” problem. When given a prompt, the algorithms sometimes confidently spit out impossible...
Stem cells are finicky creatures.
With the ability to generate any type of cell in the body, they’re constantly bombarded by chemical, hormone, and other...
It's a year of elections, and the internet is already rife with AI-generated political content. An AI robocaller mimicking Joe Biden made the rounds...
If you’ve ever vented to ChatGPT about troubles in life, the responses can sound empathetic. The chatbot delivers affirming support, and—when prompted—even gives advice...
Many people understand the concept of bias at some intuitive level. In society, and in artificial intelligence systems, racial and gender biases are well...
Proteins are biological workhorses.
They build our bodies and orchestrate the molecular processes in cells that keep them healthy. They also present a wealth of...
AI models are power hogs.
As the algorithms grow and become more complex, they’re increasingly taxing current computer chips. Multiple companies have designed chips tailored...
Robots doing feats of acrobatics might be a great marketing trick, but typically these displays are highly choreographed and painstakingly programmed. Now researchers have...
Proteins are social creatures. They’re also chameleons. Depending on a cell’s needs, they rapidly transform in structure and grab onto other biomolecules in an...
AI continues to generate plenty of light and heat. The best models in text and images—now commanding subscriptions and being woven into consumer products—are...