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AIs could debate whether a smart assistant should snitch on you

22 February 2019

If a smart home spots cannabis in a teenager’s bedroom, should it tell their parents? Or even the police? One proposal is to let debating AIs decide

This stunning map shows why everyone is fighting over the Arctic

30 January 2019

The environmentally damaging melting of polar ice is also exposing minerals, archaeological wonders and even ice volcanoes and there's a race to get to them

AI tries bad improv comedy to trick people into thinking it is human

14 September 2018

Artificial intelligence has joined forces with a group of actors to create spontaneous comedy sketches on stage. The result is a new variant of the Turing test

Incognito mode: the battle for privacy in a world of face recognition

12 September 2018

Face recognition technology has rapidly found its way into modern society, from policing to shopping. Is it too late to hold back the tide?

Google's AI hate speech detector is easily fooled by a few typos

7 September 2018

Demand is growing for tools that automatically flag online hate speech, but the current crop can easily be fooled by adding a few typos or an innocuous word

Moose and sheep pass down their migration routes through culture

6 September 2018

Bighorn sheep and moose establish a good migratory route through years of cultural learning – and the knowledge can be lost in a generation if they are moved

Flint water crisis: How AI is finding thousands of hazardous pipes

22 August 2018

Artificial intelligence is helping to find the thousands of lead pipes responsible for the water crisis in Flint, Michigan

Fortnite is coming to Android, but players risk downloading malware

10 August 2018

When blockbuster game Fortnite hits Android phones, gamers will be able to get it outside Google Play, which could leave them vulnerable to scams

Row over 3D-printed firearms distracts from US gun violence crisis

1 August 2018

Legal wrangling over whether plans for 3D-printed guns can be made available online ignores the US’s real public health crisis

Amazon face recognition mistakes US politicians for crime suspects

27 July 2018

A face recognition service sold by Amazon falsely identified 28 members of Congress - and disproportionately black legislators - as people arrested for a crime