Author: The Conversation

Generative artificial intelligence (AI), and especially large language models deployed as chatbots and digital assistants, are now part of everyday digital life. These models are being framed as a helpful assistant, a patient tutor, a customer service agent and even a source of emotional support. But what happens when even more human encounters are mediated by machines? This question matters especially in South Africa, where apartheid not only separated people by law, but also shaped who was seen, heard and recognised as fully human. Its legacy still lives in unequal access to education, healthcare, work, technology and public services. This is…

Interplanetary travel to Mars aboard nuclear-powered spaceships may sound like science fiction – yet NASA is planning to make it a reality. The Space Reactor-1 Freedom mission is scheduled for launch by December 2028 to explore Mars, with NASA heralding it as “the first nuclear-powered interplanetary spacecraft”. NASA also has plans to deploy a small nuclear reactor on the Moon by 2030 for its Artemis program, though any reactor on the lunar surface would look nothing like the large nuclear power plants found on Earth. And the White House has moved to establish a National Initiative for American Space Nuclear Power. The US isn’t alone in pursuing…

“Just as we always suspected”, writes musician and writer Anna Goldsworthy in her new Quarterly Essay on AI, “the god that may destroy us is the god of ourselves.” This sentence captures the core of the essay: a personal meditation on what AI reveals about humanity. She ponders not logic gates or quantum chips, but the technology’s moral, creative and even theological implications. Goldsworthy skilfully moves between conversations with her AI-literate children and reflects on AI’s existential risks, education, labour, art, loneliness, companionship, corporate power and future. She asks whether humanity is wise enough to live with a technology that amplifies…

Just over a third (38%) of the residents of South Africa’s commercial capital, Johannesburg, reported being satisfied with their electricity services in a survey conducted in 2023/2024. This was down from 77% in 2017/18. The decline reflected years of citizen concerns about the service. In 2026, the auditor general noted that the city had spent only 1% of its operating budget on maintenance in 2024/25, against a national treasury guideline of 8%. As part of a response to these concerns, in May 2026, the City of Johannesburg and the German state-owned development bank Kreditanstalt für Wiederaufbau (KfW) announced agreement on a R3.8 billion (over…

Can technology really replace human relationships? As philosophy scholars who focus on human happiness and on artificial intelligence (AI), we tackle this question in a recent paper. In our study, we address the rise of AI companions, chatbots, and social robots for friendship, advice, emotional support, and even romance. We argue that AI can reduce loneliness and provide assistance, but it lacks the genuine understanding, emotions, and moral responsibility needed for human flourishing. Genuine happiness relies on authentic interpersonal connections, but AI is disrupting traditional ideas of friendship and relationships. Replacing these with AI-driven interactions risks eroding well-being and community. Human happiness…

Will you be flagged at the border? Will your mortgage application be approved? During wartime, whose neighbourhood would a weapon system target? These are moral choices — about harm and fairness — and they used to be made by people. Now moral choices like these are made by artificial intelligence (AI) and by the companies developing it. Not government, not the public, but corporations. Chris Olah, co-founder of the AI company Anthropic and a self-described atheist, recently sat beside Pope Leo XIV at the Vatican and said his own industry cannot be trusted to govern itself. “Some might believe that matters…

In a recent episode of British sitcom Amandaland, Anne Flynn turns to ChatGPT for help talking to her teenage son about sex. The episode frames this as “The Chat”: the awkward parent-child conversation many adults dread. What Anne is doing on screen is what many people are now doing in private: taking hard human conversations to a machine that can answer immediately. The scene raises a bigger question: what do people need from another person when they are struggling, and can AI provide it? https://youtu.be/aUe5R9B1qzo Popular ideas about therapy often centre on expertise: the therapist as someone who can explain what…

Think about the last smartphone, tablet or smartwatch you stopped using. Odds are it is not in a recycling bin or a new owner’s hands; it is sitting in a drawer. From our survey of 4,000 American consumers, we found the single most common thing people did with a device they were finished with was nothing at all: 39% simply stored it. Recycling and reselling, outcomes better for the environment, each accounted for only about 1 in 10 devices. Throwing devices in the trash claimed another 9%. Funded by the National Science Foundation, our multidisciplinary team blended our expertise in causal inference, sustainability and cybersecurity, to…

The men’s football World Cup presents a unique global opportunity to showcase new football technology – from boots and balls to digital systems designed to enhance both officiating accuracy and fan engagement. The process of bringing these technologies to the game often begins in universities and other research institutions. The academic journal Sports Engineering, of which I am editor-in-chief, publishes peer-reviewed studies that are closely monitored by the sport’s global governing body, FIFA. In our two collections of studies so far, prominent research themes include the automatic tracking of players and automated event detection. Another strand focuses on checking how well wearable sensors work within stadium environments. Data obtained from tracking…

A customer sends a WhatsApp message to a local store asking about a product. Within seconds, they receive an answer. The product they’re after is in stock. Or, if it isn’t, they’re recommended an alternative. Welcome to the next generation of customer service bots – and the latest battleground among the world’s largest technology companies. Big tech firms are now pouring billions of dollars into artificial intelligence (AI) agents: systems capable of autonomous decision-making and task execution. The value of agentic AI’s global market is projected to climb from US$10.9billion in 2026 to a staggering $182.9 billion by 2033. At its annual Conversations conference in London this…