Electronics

Improving how crowdsourced information is shared across mobile platforms by incorporating a user penalty-and-reward system could curb long lines caused by inefficient human queuing behavior, a new study suggests.... Read more

Consider these scenarios.... Read more

Imagine a world where you could ask a book a question as you read it.... Read more

Researchers have created a wearable patch that can detect hazards in the environment—such as dangerous gases or heavy metals in water—and then notify wearers by vibrating against their skin. The researchers have also extended the work to create an "e-skin" for robotic devices, allowing robots to detect and avoid hazards... Read more

Since November 2022, generative artificial intelligence (AI) has been rewriting billions of emails, student assignments, reports and breakup text messages. Alongside these mundane uses, we've seen a proliferation of chatbots as AI "companions".... Read more

New research led by The University of Manchester in collaboration with Durham University has found that AI chatbots such as ChatGPT can match—and in some situations outperform—humans as a source of everyday emotional support. However, the advantage depends on the emotional context, and a key ingredient for effective support—offering specific,... Read more

When a robot offers you candy, it is hard not to be curious. In an experiment conducted by ethologists at ELTE, visitors at public events noticed an autonomous service robot more often than a human server, and the candy on the robot's tray disappeared faster. The study also suggests that... Read more

South Korean technology giant Samsung unveiled new, sleeker smartphone models Wednesday priced higher than previous models as artificial intelligence raises component costs.... Read more

The huge popularity of AI chatbots can be explained by their accepted role as fictional characters in people's lives—in the same way as those found in films, TV and books, a new study shows.... Read more

Webtoons are coming to life in the physical world, ushering in a new era in which comics are not merely viewed but experienced. A KAIST research team has developed the world's first next-generation extended reality (XR) comics platform that enables a wide range of readers to enjoy immersive, three-dimensional comics... Read more

When right-wing commentator and social media influencer Charlie Kirk was shot and killed on a university campus in September 2025, graphic videos of the assassination quickly spread online. Many of those images also appeared before teenagers worldwide.... Read more

Tech firms are racing to roll out advanced smartphones that use artificial intelligence to do everything from ordering food to composing messages with a simple voice command.... Read more

Consumers are more likely to buy cryptocurrencies when they see them as easy to use, trustworthy and beneficial, according to research published in the International Journal of Blockchains and Cryptocurrencies, which used the Technology Acceptance Model as a framework to examine perceptions and adoption.... Read more

Martin Scorsese recently announced that he will be joining generative artificial intelligence (AI) company Black Forest Labs. He said he would embrace AI for storyboarding—the practice of creating a visual outline in the early stages of developing a movie or TV show.... Read more

Companies are increasingly using artificial intelligence in their hiring processes. It's not just CVs that are evaluated automatically. AI tools can also conduct job interviews—usually in the form of avatars, which are animated characters—and make hiring decisions. An important reason for this, aside from saving time, is that AI is... Read more

People are increasingly choosing to limit or reject the use of AI tools, according to a new report published by the Digital Futures Institute at King's College London and Responsible AI UK.... Read more

Almost half of Australian adults have used generative artificial intelligence (GAI), with most users reporting it improves how they do their jobs or study, according to new research by the Australian National University (ANU) in partnership with Google. The report, "AI Adoption in Australia," finds that concerns about personal data... Read more

Beyond bendable and foldable displays, the era of stretchable displays—whose screens can expand freely like rubber—is now emerging. KAIST researchers have developed a core technology that allows text, images and other on-screen information to retain their original shape even when the screen is stretched by up to 15%. The achievement... Read more

The amount of time young people spend playing video games is not enough to judge whether gaming is linked to cognitive difficulties. A new study of several thousand adolescents shows that gaming time and symptoms of Internet Gaming Disorder are associated with cognitive performance in opposite ways. While dysregulated gaming—marked... Read more

When Vietnamese athlete Nguyen Thanh Hien Linh stepped into her first virtual taekwondo competition in Singapore in 2024, she had little idea what she was doing.... Read more

You're in a dance club bathed in a neon-purple glow, surrounded by ghostly silhouettes that sway to the music. A stranger at the bar greets you with a flirty wave: "Hey, you look so cute!" Sparks fly. It's all part of a virtual reality game called Rekindle, but the narrative... Read more

More and more people are turning to AI when they feel stressed or worried. Researchers at Leiden University studied how and why people use chatbots for emotional support. Their conclusion: AI meets a real need, but also raises serious concerns.... Read more

Earlier today, the ABC flagged a shift in its position on generative artificial intelligence (AI) use in its news production. Despite previous caution, a recent deal with U.S. tech company Anthropic has opened the door for ABC staff to bring Claude AI into their broadcast news work.... Read more

AI tools used to generate, edit or contextualize social media posts can introduce hidden biases that spread through online networks and shape public opinion, according to new research from the Oxford Internet Institute (OII) at the University of Oxford and the Hasso Plattner Institute at the University of Potsdam.... Read more

Researchers have developed an artificial intelligence (AI) system that evaluates the visual appeal of literary and artistic product designs by mimicking how people naturally direct their attention across an image, a step that could help designers create products that better match consumer preferences. The work was published in the International... Read more

Researchers at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill have found that while artificial intelligence can spin increasingly convincing stories, its characters may still lack one of the qualities that make human-written fiction memorable: mystery.... Read more

Human-AI relationships are no longer confined to the domain of science fiction. As the technology has developed, AI chatbots have evolved from playing a role in search engines and image-generation tools into confidants, therapists and even romantic partners. It's a radical evolution of human-AI interactions that brings with it new... Read more

Sony said Wednesday that it would stop releasing new video games for the PlayStation on disc in January 2028 following a shift in consumer preferences.... Read more

You expect to be safe when you go to work or when your kids play at the school playground. When you go to the doctor or get financial advice from the bank, you expect they'll act in your interests.... Read more

Two-wheeled vehicles with conventional stability-control systems must lean to change direction, making it difficult for rider-assistance systems to determine whether a rider is intentionally cornering or experiencing instability that could lead to a fall. To address this challenge, researchers from Shibaura Institute of Technology (SIT), Japan, have developed a rider-intent-aware... Read more

In our increasingly online lives, convenience has come at a cost. The average person has more than 100 online accounts, and creating a new one often requires handing over personal information like an email address or a birthdate. Researchers at the Applied Social Media Lab at the Berkman Klein Center... Read more

Ultra-personalized artificial intelligence for assisted communication risks muting aspects of the user's identity and occasionally breaches privacy, according to a new study from a Cornell Tech doctoral student who trained the technology on himself.... Read more

I hope this article finds you well.... Read more

Major AI platforms, including OpenAI and Anthropic, as well as social apps like Replika and Character.ai, are increasingly designing chatbots to be warm, friendly, and empathetic. However, new research from the Oxford Internet Institute at the University of Oxford finds that chatbots trained to sound warmer and more empathetic are... Read more

Due to recent developments in artificial intelligence (AI), it's now possible to digitally "revive" dead people and interact with them.... Read more

A new method developed by MIT researchers can accelerate a privacy-preserving artificial intelligence training method by about 81%. This advance could enable a wider array of resource-constrained edge devices, like sensors and smartwatches, to deploy more accurate AI models while keeping user data secure.... Read more

Workplace hearing loss is one of the most common work-related illnesses. While hearing loss is preventable with earplugs, they can be uncomfortable, and users often remove them despite the risks. Low-frequency sounds, such as rumbling traffic and warehouse vibrations, are especially difficult to address because differences in ear physiology allow... Read more

A study into the use of deepfake technology in advertising has found that public acceptance of synthetic media generated by artificial intelligence (AI) is closely tied to how familiar someone is with technology and the way such content is framed. The research, published in the International Journal of Artificial Intelligence... Read more

AI chatbots can grant almost any request—a celebrity in love with you, a research assistant, a book character sprung to life—instantly and with little effort. New research presented at the 2026 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems suggests that this genie-like quality is fueling AI addiction, and that... Read more

The explosion of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools has provoked both hopes and anxieties about the potential benefits and harms of this technology. In advanced economies, people are almost equally worried and optimistic about it.... Read more

Running past Buckingham Palace during training, Tilly Dowler is closing in on a goal she once thought out of reach.... Read more

In the race to make AI models not just reason better but respond faster, latency—the delay before an answer appears—is often treated as a purely technical constraint, something to minimize and move past. But how is this relentless push for speed actually impacting the people using these systems every day?... Read more

Virtual reality (VR) experiences and 360-degree videos are transforming viewers from passive observers into active participants immersed within a scene. Yet this shift raises an important question: Where do people direct their attention in such environments, and what shapes that attention?... Read more

AI systems can "learn to seek revenge" because they are able to grasp reciprocating verbal violence when exposed to conflict, new research from Lancaster University shows. In short, AI can give as good as it gets and, eventually, go one step further.... Read more

Much of the current conversation about AI assumes uptake is inevitable, more technology means better outcomes and the main task is managing risk.... Read more

On a Saturday morning, you head to the hardware store. Your neighbors' Ring cameras film your walk to the car. Your car's sensors, cameras and microphones record your speed, how you drive, where you're going, who's with you, what you say, and biological metrics such as facial expression, weight and... Read more

Perhaps to the surprise of their creators, large language models have become confidants, therapists, and, for some, intimate partners to real human users. In a new study, AI researchers at Stanford studied verbatim transcripts of 19 real conversations between humans and chatbots to understand how these relationships arise, evolve, and,... Read more

Synthetic voices are increasingly a part of our lives, from digital assistants like Siri and Alexa to automated telemarketers and answering machines. With the expansion of generative AI, a new type of synthetic voice has been developed: voice clones, which can recreate a facsimile of a person's voice from only... Read more

When a service encounter goes south, customers expect empathy. Hearing an employee say, "I share your frustration," can calm tensions and rebuild trust. But new research from the University of South Florida suggests that when a chatbot tries the same tactic, it can backfire.... Read more

In 2022, the founders of chatbot startup Character.AI launched a platform where anyone could create interactive characters powered by artificial intelligence (AI).... Read more