Author: The Conversation

Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly becoming commonplace, despite statistics showing that only approximately 7% to 13% (depending on size) of companies have incorporated AI into their regular business workflows. Adoption in specific business functions is far higher, with up to 78% of companies reporting use of AI tools in at least one business area. And more than 90% of companies plan to increase AI investment within three years. This surge in adoption is underpinned by expectations of significant efficiency gains and cost reduction. Widespread implementation of AI is also accompanied by layoffs. Estimates vary, but it’s clear that within the next decade, millions of jobs will be reshaped or…

The latest generation of artificial intelligence (AI) models is sharper and smoother, producing polished text with fewer errors and hallucinations. As a philosophy professor, I have a growing fear: When a polished essay no longer shows that a student did the thinking, the grade above it becomes hollow – and so does the diploma. The problem doesn’t stop in the classroom. In fields such as law, medicine and journalism, trust depends on knowing that human judgment guided the work. A patient, for instance, expects a doctor’s prescription to reflect an expert’s thought and training. AI products can now be used…

After Christmas dinner in 2021, our family was glued to the television, watching the nail-biting launch of NASA’s US$10 billion (AU$15 billion) James Webb Space Telescope. There had not been such a leap forward in telescope technology since Hubble was launched in 1990. En route to its deployment, Webb had to successfully navigate 344 potential points of failure. Thankfully, the launch went better than expected, and we could finally breathe again. Six months later, Webb’s first images were revealed, of the most distant galaxies yet seen. However, for our team in Australia, the work was only beginning. We would be using Webb’s highest-resolution mode, called the…

What if the problem with social media isn’t just how much we use it, but when? A new study suggests that scrolling and posting through the small hours may be a red flag for mental well-being – and the effects could be as significant as binge drinking. For the study, published in Scientific Reports, my colleagues and I analysed the Twitter (now X) habits of 310 adults and discovered that those who regularly posted between 11pm and 5am showed meaningfully worse mental well-being than daytime users. This finding challenges the current policy obsession with screen time limits and points toward a more…

A “transformation” is upon us. After a multi-year procession of educational technology products that once promised to shake things up, now it’s AI’s turn. Global organisations like the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development, as well as government bodies, present AI to the public as “transformative.” Prominent AI companies with large language model (LLM) chatbots have “education-focused” products, like ChatGPT Education, Claude for Education and Gemini in Google for Education. AI products facilitate exciting new ways to search, present and engage with knowledge and have sparked widespread interest and enthusiasm in the technology for young learners. However, there are crucial areas of concern regarding AI use such as data privacy, transparency and…

Last week, OpenAI unveiled ChatGPT Atlas, a web browser that promises to revolutionise how we interact with the internet. The company’s CEO, Sam Altman, described it as a “once-a-decade opportunity” to rethink how we browse the web. The promise is compelling: imagine an artificial intelligence (AI) assistant that follows you across every website, remembers your preferences, summarises articles, and handles tedious tasks such as booking flights or ordering groceries on your behalf. But beneath the glossy marketing lies a more troubling reality. Atlas is designed to be “agentic”, able to autonomously navigate websites and take actions in your logged-in accounts. This introduces security…

Artificial intelligence (AI) is fast becoming part of the furniture. A decade after IBM’s Watson triumphed on “Jeopardy!,” generative AI models are in kitchens and home offices. People often talk about AI in science fiction terms, yet the most consequential change in 2025 may be its banal ubiquity. To appreciate how ordinary AI use has become, it helps to remember that this trend didn’t start with generative chatbots. A 2017 Knowledge at Wharton newsletter documented how deep learning algorithms were already powering chatbots on social media and photo apps’ facial recognition functions. Digital assistants such as Siri and Alexa were performing everyday tasks,…

The consulting firm Accenture recently laid off 11,000 employees while expanding its efforts to train workers to use artificial intelligence (AI). It’s a sharp reminder that the same technology driving efficiency is also redefining what it takes to keep a job. And Accenture isn’t alone. IBM has already replaced hundreds of roles with AI systems, while creating new jobs in sales and marketing. Amazon cut staff even as it expands teams that build and manage AI tools. Across industries, from banks to hospitals and creative companies, workers and managers alike are trying to understand which roles will disappear, which will evolve and which new ones will emerge. I research and teach at Drexel University’s LeBow…

Inspired by the human eye, our biomedical engineering lab at Georgia Tech has designed an adaptive lens made of soft, light-responsive, tissuelike materials. Adjustable camera systems usually require a set of bulky, moving, solid lenses and a pupil in front of a camera chip to adjust focus and intensity. In contrast, human eyes perform these same functions using soft, flexible tissues in a highly compact form. Our lens, called the photo-responsive hydrogel soft lens, or PHySL, replaces rigid components with soft polymers acting as artificial muscles. The polymers are composed of a hydrogel − a water-based polymer material. This hydrogel muscle changes the shape of a…

I have worked in AI for more than three decades, including with pioneers such as John McCarthy, who coined the term “artificial intelligence” in 1955. In the past few years, scientific breakthroughs have produced AI tools that promise unprecedented advances in medicine, science, business and education. At the same time, leading AI companies have the stated goal to create superintelligence: not merely smarter tools, but AI systems that significantly outperform all humans on essentially all cognitive tasks. Superintelligence isn’t just hype. It’s a strategic goal determined by a privileged few, and backed by hundreds of billions of dollars in investment, business incentives, frontier AI technology, and some of the world’s best researchers.…