Hardware
Drone Swarms Go to War: Ukraine experiments with small groups of low-contact, high-autonomy drones that strike on initiative
Swarms of drones that coordinate with one another autonomously have become a battlefield staple in Ukraine.
Tech & Society
Tech & Society
States Ban AI-Driven Treatments for Mental Health: Illinois follows Nevada, prohibiting certain uses of chatbots unless used by licensed therapists
Illinois became the second U.S. state, after Nevada, to ban AI applications that administer psychotherapy.
Letters
Knowledge Is Great, Skills Are Greater: Educators are shifting from teaching knowledge to teaching practical skills. A report from the Coursera Connect conference
This week, Coursera held its annual conference in Las Vegas. A major theme was the shift from knowledge- to skills-based education, which will help many individuals, businesses, and educational institutions.
Tech & Society
2 Hours With AI Versus 6 With Teacher: Inside Alpha School, a Texas-based program using algorithms and video monitors to teach children
A growing private school system replaces the typical 6-hour school day with 2 hours of personalized, AI-assisted education.
Business
Google Must Share Data With AI Rivals: Google must share its search index, but can keep Chrome and Android
AI companies that aspire to compete with Google in search and other information-retrieval applications got a boost from the United States government.
Tech & Society
Meta, OpenAI Reinforce Guardrails: Meta and OpenAI respond to criticism by adding new rules for teens’ chatbot use
Meta and OpenAI promised to place more controls on their chatbots’ conversations with children and teenagers, as worrisome interactions with minors come under increasing scrutiny.
Business
China’s Emerging AI Hub: Inside DeepSeek and the other "little dragons" transforming Hangzhou into China's Silicon Valley
Hangzhou, a longtime manufacturing hub in eastern China, is blossoming into a center of AI innovation.
AI Careers
Chatbot Interviewers Fill More Jobs: Study shows AI agent interviewers improve hiring, retention in customer service jobs
Large language models may have advantages over human recruiters when conducting job interviews, a study shows.
Science
Mistral Measures LLM Consumption of Energy, Water, and Materials: French AI startup discloses full lifecycle consumption and emissions for Mistral Large 2
The French AI company Mistral measured the environmental impacts of its flagship large language model.
Hardware
Proactive AI Assistance for Phones: Inside Magic Cue, Google’s new AI assistant for Pixel 10
Google’s latest smartphone sports an AI assistant that anticipates the user’s needs and presents helpful information without prompting.
Business
China Reconsiders U.S. AI Processors: Nvidia and AMD must reassure China their high-end GPUs don't pose security risk
Nvidia and AMD, having obtained the U.S. government’s permission to resume selling AI processors in China, received a cool welcome there.
Business
AI Video Goes Mainstream: Meta, Google, and other giants slice up text-to-video
Generated video clips are capturing eyeballs in viral videos, ad campaigns, and a Netflix show.