A group of researchers covertly ran a months-long “unauthorized” experiment in one of Reddit’s most popular communities using AI-generated comments to test the persuasiveness of large language models. The experiment, which was revealed over the weekend by moderators of r/changemyview, is described by Reddit mods as “psychological manipulation” of unsuspecting users. “The CMV Mod Team … Read more
Microfabrication is—simply put—the construction of tiny things, including microscopic and nanoscopic objects and patterns. Microfabrication has major potential in medicine and biomedical engineering, in addition to fields like electronics and photonics—but first, researchers need to develop techniques that are biologically compatible. One team of researchers thinks a crucial step toward that goal involves tattooing tardigrades. … Read more
An expert team of biologists practising at the Naturalis Biodiversity Centre, a research museum in the Netherlands, has recently discovered evidence of the incorporation of microplastics into caddisfly casings. However, what’s even more interesting is that the use of these microplastics for building the casings has been progressing from as far back as the 1970s. … Read more
From our cell phones to our smartwatches and laptops, we’re surrounded by battery-powered devices. Today, batteries are solid, voluminous components of our technology—but what if they could be malleable, flexible, and even printable? Embracing this idea, researchers in Sweden have developed a fluid battery that can be shaped into different forms. As detailed in a … Read more
If you were wondering whether it’d be possible to ferment foods in space, the answer is apparently yes. In a study published in the journal iScience, researchers from the US and Denmark say they were able to make decent-tasting miso on the International Space Station — but the flavor and smell was distinct from that … Read more
Artificial intelligence company OpenAI has announced a fivefold increase in the maximum bug bounty rewards for “exceptional and differentiated” critical security vulnerabilities from $20,000 to $100,000. OpenAI says its services and platforms are used by 400 million users across businesses, enterprises, and governments worldwide every week. “We are significantly increasing the maximum bounty payout for … Read more
Hype is growing from leaders of major AI companies that “strong” computer intelligence will imminently outstrip humans, but many researchers in the field see the claims as marketing spin. The belief that human-or-better intelligence — often called “artificial general intelligence” (AGI) — will emerge from current machine-learning techniques fuels hypotheses for the future ranging from … Read more
Chewing gum releases hundreds of tiny plastic pieces straight into people’s mouths, researchers said on Tuesday, also warning of the pollution created by the rubber-based sweet. The small study comes as researchers have increasingly been discovering small shards of plastic called microplastics throughout the world, from the tops of mountains to the bottom of the … Read more
For the tests, his team used setups with Nvidia’s A100 and H100 GPUs, the ones most commonly used at data centers today, and measured how much energy they used running various large language models (LLMs), diffusion models that generate pictures or videos based on text input, and many other types of AI systems. The largest … Read more
A lucky group of scientists were able to explore a never-before-seen part of the Antarctic after an ice shelf broke, revealing newly exposed seafloor and a previously inaccessible ecosystem hundreds of meters beneath the surface. A team from the Schmidt Ocean Institute were aboard the “R/V Falkor (too)” research vessel in January 2025 when a … Read more