Singularity Hub

For 30 years, the world wide web has run on a surprisingly profound social contract. Most sites are free for search engines to access, but if you use their content, you give credit by linking to the source. Recently, that social contract has begun to collapse. Artificial intelligence tools are crawling sites not to link to them, but to train models and generate answers (which may or may not be accurate).

The Alzheimer’s brain faces a double whammy. Toxic protein clumps build up inside and outside neurons to torpedo normal function and destroy delicate structures. Eventually, the cells die. The adult brain has an extremely limited ability to grow new neurons. Once gone, they’re rarely replaced. Over time, the brain withers, taking learning, memory, and cognition with it. But there might be a sneaky workaround. The brain is packed with star-shaped cells called astrocytes that keep neurons healthy.

OpenAI Is Developing a ‘Persistent’ AI AgentMaxwell Zeff | Wired ($) "In recently aired podcasts, interviews, and private investor meetings, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman has described his desire to turn ChatGPT into a proactive, always-on AI agent. ...'There’s like a single product which is: I need to ask the AI something,' Altman said on a recent episode of David Senra’s podcast.

There’s growing excitement in the AI industry about the idea that today’s leading models could build the next generation of the technology. But a new study recently found top AI agents struggle on the kind of genuinely open-ended research problems required to push the field forward. Large language models have made rapid progress in many of the day-to-day jobs involved in machine learning research, such as writing code, generating and curating data, and running experiments.

Last week, Australia's Fair Work Commission ruled Gregory Baker, a computing academic at Macquarie University, should be treated as an ongoing, part-time employee, after the university had earlier declined his request to convert from a casual role. It was immediately described as a “landmark” decision, the first test of Labor’s “employee choice pathway” reforms passed in 2024. But the ruling also made headlines for other reasons.

Five years is an eternity for brain organoids. Also called mini brains, these blobs of tissue have taken neuroscience by storm for their ability to capture the intricacies of developing brains. Organoids begin life as a collection of stem cells. Within weeks, they spontaneously produce a range of brain cells. Neurons form circuits that spark with electrical activity. Gene expression resembles that of early fetal brains. Some organoids learn to control small, isolated muscles.

Increasingly, companies are building humanoid robots that perform impressive athletic feats to mark the field’s progress. Now, Chinese robotics company Unitree says its new "Superman" robot can run 12.66 meters per second, faster than Usain Bolt's top recorded speed. Getting a humanoid robot to run at all requires split-second control and has been a significant engineering challenge occupying roboticists for decades.

Our cherished memories may be more resilient than previously thought. Long-term memories are stored in synapses, the connections between neurons. These structures sit on tiny protrusions called dendritic spines, which dot neurons’ branching arms. When we learn, these spines grow. Larger spines tend to form stronger synapses and are more likely to persist during learning. In Alzheimer’s and other diseases that eat away at these connections, memories can fade. At least, that’s the traditional picture.

Human beings have long told versions of the same warning: Be careful what you wish for. In Greek mythology, King Midas got exactly what he asked for, but at the cost of everything else he valued. In the famous story of The Monkey’s Paw, a man’s wishes are granted through terrible and unforeseen routes. These stories feel newly relevant with the rise of artificial intelligence agents, systems to which we can give a goal, then leave them to work out how to get there.

You might assume scrapping a brand new car would be terrible for the environment, but it depends on what you replace it with. New research suggests replacing a gas car with an electric vehicle can cut overall emissions even when the gas car is only a year or two old. Transportation is the second biggest source of carbon dioxide emissions globally, and passenger vehicles contribute nearly half of them, according to Our World in Data.