Author: The Conversation

OpenAI claims that its new flagship model, GPT-5, marks “a significant step along the path to AGI” – that is, the artificial general intelligence that AI bosses and self-proclaimed experts often claim is around the corner. According to OpenAI’s own definition, AGI would be “a highly autonomous system that outperforms humans at most economically valuable work”. Setting aside whether this is something humanity should be striving for, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman’s arguments for GPT-5 being a “significant step” in this direction sound remarkably unspectacular. He claims GPT-5 is better at writing computer code than its predecessors. It is said to “hallucinate” a bit less, and…

A major breakthrough in quantum technology was achieved in October 2024: the first-ever quantum satellite communication link between China and South Africa. The connection spanned a remarkable 12,900km: the longest intercontinental quantum communication link established to date. The longest before this was 7,600km and within the northern hemisphere only. It was achieved with quantum key distribution, a method for a sender and receiver to share a secure key that they can use to safely send messages. Any interception during transmission leaves traces that can be detected. It involves sending single photons (tiny particles of light). If someone tries to intercept the photons, the photons…

When French video-game publisher Ubisoft announced it was shutting down servers for The Crew, a popular online racing game released in 2014, it wasn’t just the end of a title. It marked the beginning of a broader reckoning about the nature of digital ownership, led by players angry at the company’s decision to deny them something they had paid for. The Stop Killing Games (SKG) movement was born from that moment. As of July 2025, it has gathered more than 1.4 million signatures through the European Citizens’ Initiative. The European Commission is now obliged to respond. At the heart of the issue is…

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) is getting better at imitating human beings. It can create things that previously only humans could produce, like music, texts and images. AI is now also being used to imitate God, through chatbots that simulate conversation with human users and can be accessed on websites and apps. In Christianity, for example, there’s AI Jesus, Virtual Jesus, Jesus AI, Text with Jesus, Ask Jesus and many others. In other religions, the same development has taken place, with AI chatbots like the Buddhist Norbu AI and, in the Islam faith, like Brother Junaid at Salaam World. As a professor of philosophy and director of the AI Hub at my…

Have you ever sat in a meeting where someone half your age casually mentions “prompting ChatGPT” or “running this through AI”, and felt a familiar knot in your stomach? You’re not alone. There’s a growing narrative that artificial intelligence (AI) is inherently ageist, that older workers will be disproportionately hit by job displacement and are more reluctant to adopt AI tools. But such assumptions – especially that youth is a built-in advantage when it comes to AI – might not actually hold. While ageism in hiring is a real concern, if you have decades of work experience, your skills, knowledge and judgement could be exactly…

Teenagers are increasingly turning to AI companions for friendship, support, and even romance. But these apps could be changing how young people connect to others, both online and off. New research by Common Sense Media, a US-based non-profit organisation that reviews various media and technologies, has found about three in four US teens have used AI companion apps such as Character.ai or Replika.ai. These apps let users create digital friends or romantic partners they can chat with any time, using text, voice or video. The study, which surveyed 1,060 US teens aged 13–17, found one in five teens spent as much or…

Development of a new James Bond film is underway at Amazon Studios, with the creater of Peaky Blinders, Steven Knight, now attached to write the screenplay, which will be directed by Denis Villeneuve. The pair have given little away about what to expect from Bond 26. Knight said he wanted to do something “the same but different”, while Villeneuve said he would “honour the tradition” of the franchise. But a look back at how the films have dealt with key elements of Bond shows that following tradition can mean going in many different ways. Take Bond’s toolbag of gadgets, which…

Earlier this year, a robot completed a half-marathon in Beijing in just under 2 hours and 40 minutes. That’s slower than the human winner, who clocked in at just over an hour – but it’s still a remarkable feat. Many recreational runners would be proud of that time. The robot kept its pace for more than 13 miles (21 kilometres). But it didn’t do so on a single charge. Along the way, the robot had to stop and have its batteries swapped three times. That detail, while easy to overlook, speaks volumes about a deeper challenge in robotics: energy. Modern…

If you believe the hype, generative artificial intelligence (AI) is the future. However, new research suggests the technology may also improve our understanding of the past. A team of computer scientists from Google DeepMind, working with classicists and archaeologists from universities in the United Kingdom and Greece, described a new machine-learning system designed to help experts to understand ancient Latin inscriptions. Named Aeneas (after the mythical hero of Rome’s foundation epic), the system is a generative neural network designed to provide context for Latin inscriptions written between the 7th century BCE and the 8th century CE. As the researchers write in Nature, Aeneas…

We have developed a new way to secure video transmissions so even quantum computers in the future won’t be able to break into private video livestreams or recordings. We are computer scientists who study computer security. Our research introduces quantum-safe video encryption, which combines two complementary techniques: quantum encryption and secure internet transmission. With our encryption system, a hacker wouldn’t be able to access or understand the video data because it’s scrambled using a quantum key that changes unpredictably. Cryptographic keys scramble data so that only someone with the correct key can unscramble it. If the hacker even tries to peek, the system…