AI ethics on Saturday, 18 July 2026

A.I. is destroying the application process for employers and potential employees. We need to fix it.

Australia risks ‘shipping’ intellectual capability overseas if educational rigour not restored, experts warn Follow our Australia news live blog for latest updates Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast An academic at the Australian National University has accused it of a “hysterical” response to students using AI to cheat, as tertiary institutions rush to shore up the credibility of assessments. But a colleague warned Australia is in danger of “shipping our national intell

The PM’s vision must look beyond datacentres and copyright to questions of capability, security and public benefit Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast Every new technology has a tipping point, when it speeds towards ubiquity, changing the world as we once knew it. In the past six months, artificial intelligence, in its various forms, has crossed that threshold. You can measure it in the billions of dollars being invested; the hope-tinged-with-fear decrees from presidents

Last year, Sam Altman invited author Dave Eggers to give a talk to around 200 OpenAI staffers. The man has written countless novels, screenplays, pieces of journalism, started McSweeney's, and founded multiple schools and nonprofits that support writers and the arts more broadly. So one might expect he'd roll into the company's offices and offer […]

“Context bombing” tricks malicious AI agents into shutting down before they can do harm.

U.S. Central Command said the strikes were designed to further degrade Iran’s ability to restrict the traffic of oil tankers through the Strait of Hormuz.

This year's honorees were announced at a ceremony in Los Angeles on Friday night.

The 'Landman' and 'Yellowstone' creator is co-writing the screenplay with Berg directing. The live-action adaptation is slated to hit theaters on June 30, 2028.

ZTE showcased the NaviX Ultra at the World AI Conference in Shanghai this week, calling it the world’s first agentic AI smartphone. The device, built under ZTE’s Nubia brand, runs ByteDance’s Doubao AI agent and can be activated by voice or a dedicated button. It comes in four colours and was prototyped in December at […] This story continues at The Next Web

Paramount Pictures’ upcoming “Call of Duty” movie from writer Taylor Sheridan will be based on the Xbox-owned first-person shooter franchise’s “Modern Warfare” games. Plot details about the movie have been kept under wraps since it was first announced in September 2025. But during a “Call of Duty in Culture Panel” promoting the October release of […]

China es uno de esos destinos que tengo marcados en mi lista de deseos de vacaciones: ojalá ver los osos panda rojos, los Guerreros de Xi’an y la Gran Muralla. Sí, he estado dos veces ya allí, pero fueron viajes de trabajo donde aunque pude ver el espectacular skyline nocturno de Shanghái, la Avenida de las Estrellas de Hong Kong o templos en Shenzhen, donde más estuve fue en cuarteles generales de marcas y sus fábricas.  Ojo, no me arrepiento de nada: fueron viajes maravillosos donde descu

The original lawsuit was filed in 2023 and claimed Twitter hosted thousands of cases of copyright infringement.

Weeks before the first day of school, teachers across Mississippi say state leaders have made it more difficult for them to access money for classroom supplies. Educators have to complete training before they’re able to spend the money the state gives them for classroom supplies, but teachers say the live training has been hard to […]

The water lock feature on Apple Watches automatically activates when you're swimming, but what does it do?

There’s a pattern I’ve watched repeat for two years. A team builds an agent, hits reliability problems, upgrades the model, The post The bottleneck for AI agents isn’t the model anymore. It’s the context layer. appeared first on The New Stack .

Samsung Electronics has cut jobs at ​its U.S. display, phone and other consumer electronics operations — affecting workers mainly in New Jersey and Texas, according to documents and two people ...

It's probably both.

[Deal du jour] Envie de filmer vos voyages cet été ? Pourquoi ne pas investir dans du bon matériel qui vous durera longtemps, comme l'action cam HERO13 Black dans son pack Creator en promotion.

France and Germany pledged on Friday to develop a European alternative to Palantir’s military AI software. A joint declaration signed after talks between Emmanuel Macron and Friedrich Merz committed the two countries to examine “a European sovereign digital backbone” covering data-centric security, AI, and cloud solutions. France’s Arcadia, an AI-powered command-and-control platform, was named as […] This story continues at The Next Web

Nebius raised $775 million in its first secured debt facility, borrowing against deployed GPU infrastructure and contracted cash flows from an investment-grade customer. The facility matures on October 31, 2030, and is priced at SOFR + 2.50%, roughly 6.8% at current rates. Together with the customer agreement’s cash flows, the facility covers more than 100% […] This story continues at The Next Web

Platform engineering has won the argument. Some 90% of organizations have adopted at least one internal platform; golden paths are The post Platform engineering’s new job: serving environments at agent speed appeared first on The New Stack .

Now generally available, Pinecone Nexus is a "knowledge engine" for AI agents that transforms enterprise data into a structured layer agents can query directly. It enables teams to ingest and curate business context once for all, making it reusable across agents and reducing token costs while improving accuracy. By Sergio De Simone

Greater global cooperation and development-focused AI regulations are urgently needed to prevent a widening digital divide, scholars and international figures said at China’s premier AI conference on Saturday. The message aligned with a broader pitch on display at the annual World AI Conference (WAIC) in Shanghai, where Beijing is courting the Global South with an artificial intelligence package centred on training, infrastructure and a bid for greater influence over global governance. “We need.

China lleva años con las pilas puestas en la nueva carrera espacial . Aparte de probar sus cohetes de ida y vuelta como elemento clave para abaratar misiones y para llenar la órbita baja de satélites de todo tipo ( tanto militares como centros de datos ), están sacando partido a la Tiangong .  En uno de los últimos cargamentos enviados a su estación espacial mediante la Tianzhou‑10, había un paquete de lo más especial : una célula con embriones de peces cebra, ratones y humanos artificiales

Kevin O’Leary is making the golf course argument again. The “Shark Tank” investor, whose 40,000-acre Stratos data centre project in Utah sparked protests and a governor’s executive order, told Business Insider that AI data centres consume far less water than America’s golf courses. The comparison is technically correct today. The Golf Course Superintendents Association of […] This story continues at The Next Web

Physicists have longed for a theory of everything, a single framework that would explain every force in the universe. After the better part of a century, they’re still looking. But social science, improbably, may have beaten them to it. In 2021, three British writers — John Myers, Sam Bowman, and Ben Southwood — published an […]

President Trump on Friday doubled down on his accusations of widespread voter fraud and interference by China in the 2020 presidential election in a series of social media posts. Trump delivered a highly anticipated primetime address to the nation on Thursday, in which he unveiled his administration compiled new proof that the 2020 election, which...

From heat waves to wildfires, climate impacts are happening all at once.

OpenAI will send a notification to parents with linked teen accounts if their children have violated its policies around violence.

Half a year since Australia restricted social media companies from providing accounts to kids under 16, signs of success are beginning to show.

Shares of Elon Musk’s rockets and AI company have slipped below their listing price for the first time

At the World AI Conference in Shanghai, Xi Jinping announced 5,000 AI training slots for Global South countries and the launch of the "World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization." Cooperation centers with ASEAN, the African Union, BRICS, and other alliances are planned to follow. China is systematically building a parallel AI governance structure outside Western influence. The article China's new World Artificial Intelligence Cooperation Organization is President Xi's clearest play y

During the school year, Mānoa Heritage Center hosts students of all ages learning about native plants, Hawaiian culture and history. But on a recent summer morning, teachers donned name tags, explored the gardens and diligently took notes as they became students for the day. On Thursday, 20 educators gathered for a professional development workshop, spending […]

The British AI Security Institute warns that open-weight models like GLM-5.2 and DeepSeek V4-Pro now trail closed frontier models in cyber capabilities by four to seven months. At the start of 2025, the gap was still six to ten months. It also found that safety measures on open models are largely ineffective, leaving defenders less time to prepare. The article Open-weight models now match frontier cyber performance from just four months ago at a fraction of the cost appeared first on The Decoder

Raidium, a Paris and Silicon Valley-based radiology startup, has launched its AI-native imaging platform in the US at Moffitt Cancer Center, one of the country’s leading oncology research institutions. The platform, called Raidium Read, replaced Moffitt’s legacy radiomics applications and is currently available for clinical trials and research use. FDA 510(k) clearance is expected before […] This story continues at The Next Web

Von "Ich bin st�ndig erreichbar" bis zur strikten Kein-Diensthandy-nach-Feierabend-Policy ist bei euren Erz�hlungen alles dabei. ( Arbeit , Smartphone )

GoCab, the mobility fintech that operates Yango's largest fleet in Côte d'Ivoire, has handed over 100 fully electric cars to drivers in Abidjan.

For the past year, Faramade, who earns a little over ₦800,000 ($578.42), has invested at least ₦200,000 ($144.61) monthly through Bamboo, a Nigerian digital investment platform.

The US Department of the Navy has signed a strategy to "weaponize" data and AI and build an "AI-first" fleet. Large language models would run directly on warships, and an AI war council would prioritize mission scenarios. The core message is that moving too slowly carries greater risks than "imperfect alignment." The article The Pentagon's new AI playbook treats slow adoption as a bigger risk than imperfect alignment appeared first on The Decoder .

Disney and Life360's collaboration introduces three new Tile Bluetooth trackers for Android and Apple devices, combining Mickey and Minnie with advanced location and safety features.

« Festival international de journalisme » (1/7). L’intelligence artificielle générative fait aujourd’hui pleinement partie de notre quotidien. Mais dans les médias et pour le public, elle crée la confusion entre réalité et fake news.

Mehr Datenschutz, weniger Kosten: Was ist mit einem lokalen KI-Server möglich? Gibt es Einschränkungen oder überwiegen die Vorteile?

Kirby died Wednesday three years after being diagnosed with ALS.

Investments in semiconductors fuel growth in regional revenues for US banks

The post How a Man Once Ordered to Pay Libel Damages Helped Launch an Investigation Into Islamic Private Schools appeared first on ProPublica .

SPOILER ALERT: This interview contains spoilers for Episode 4 of “Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness: An Almost History of America,” now streaming on HBO Max. Larry David weaponizes history to mock his former pal Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in his HBO sketch comedy show “Life, Larry and the Pursuit of Unhappiness.” In the […]

The Credit Assignment Problem (CAP) is fundamental to developing efficient and explainable Reinforcement Learning (RL) agents. Existing frameworks, whether relying on temporal contiguity or hindsight-conditioned reward reweighting, frequently fail to attribute properly between an agent's policy (skill) and environmental stochasticity (luck). A principled approach to CAP must isolate the true causal drivers of observed outcomes from spurious correlations and environmental randomness. We introduce

Large language model (LLM) post-training is essential for improving reasoning, adaptation, and alignment. Existing methods mainly follow two paradigms: reinforcement learning (RL) and on-policy distillation (OPD). However, RL relies on coarse-grained outcome supervision, resulting in difficult credit assignment and limited capability to acquire new knowledge. OPD, meanwhile, unconditionally matches teacher logits through KL divergence, which creates a dilemma: similar teachers provide little new

Video multimodal large language models (MLLMs) can describe what happens in a video, but rarely identify when the supporting evidence occurs. We study generalist video temporal grounding, in which one model predicts a variable-cardinality set of evidence intervals across video lengths, domains, query forms, and viewpoints. Existing training strategies are misaligned with this set-valued task: long-video labels often rely on brittle one-pass annotation, while reinforcement-learning rewards either

This paper introduces EvolvingWorld, a framework and benchmark for character and world co-evolution in interactive literary worlds. Existing systems either treat interactive literary simulation as static persona imitation or isolated scene generation, failing to capture how characters and worlds evolve together over time. To address this, EvolvingWorld models literary simulation as a long-horizon process where characters interact, scenes progress, and character and world states are persistently

Diffusion large language models (dLLMs) are a promising alternative to autoregressive generation. However, reasoning-oriented post-training for dLLMs remains challenging. Supervised fine-tuning (SFT) for dLLMs requires dense but often off-policy masked states, while reinforcement learning (RL) relies on sparse rewards or value modeling. This paper proposes \textbf{trace-based on-policy distillation (TOPD)}, a teacher-supervised framework that transfers reasoning ability to a target dLLM without

Real-world perception and decision making are inherently multimodal, integrating complementary signals across modalities. However, training multimodal models faces two main obstacles. First, collecting large-scale, well-aligned paired multimodal datasets is often impractical, making end-to-end multimodal training difficult. Second, existing multimodal representations frequently entangle information shared across modalities with modality-specific information, hindering interpretability and contro

Publication date: September 2026 Source: Technology in Society, Volume 88 Author(s): Zeljko Tekic, Yury Omelchenko, Arina Dunaeva

Publication date: Available online 16 July 2026 Source: International Journal of Human-Computer Studies Author(s): Shirlei Aparecida de Chaves, Fabiane Barreto Vavassori Benitti

Publication date: Available online 16 July 2026 Source: Computers and Education: Artificial Intelligence Author(s): Moeketsi Mosia, Fadip Audu Nannim, Felix Egara

Publication date: Available online 16 July 2026 Source: Computers and Education: Artificial Intelligence Author(s): Kamila Misiejuk, Sonsoles López-Pernas, Eduardo Araujo Oliveira, Brendan Eagan, Mohammed Saqr

Introduction. Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) programs must document their scholars' research impact, but assembling each scholar's record by hand takes staff an estimated 15 hours and does not scale to a full cohort. An artificial intelligence (AI) agent could serve as a tool to gather scholar data across platforms and disciplines. Methods. We built a human-in-the-loop AI agent that assembles a dossier of sourced evidence for each scholar and drafts one-sentence Translational Sc

This course examines refugees, migrants, stateless people, and internally displaced persons in contemporary crisis settings. It explores how conflict, political violence, disasters, climate stress, ...

Value-aware AI systems require explicit computational representations of human values (groundings) and their aggregation into value systems in order to align their decisions with ours. As such representations are difficult to elicit, value learning seeks to infer them by observing human behaviour. This work addresses the lack of grounded value learning methods in generative AI: existing approaches typically replicate human preferences without awareness of the multidimensional structure of value

Differential privacy (DP) is increasingly deployed to limit membership inference risk in machine-learning systems. Prior work has shown that DP-SGD can widen accuracy disparities across demographic groups, but this framing treats fairness as a purely outcome-side concern. We argue that privacy cost, the information leakage borne by each group, is itself a form of harm, and adopt a compensatory-fairness framework in which a group that involuntarily bears greater privacy exposure is owed proportio