Author: The Conversation

An Australian tech entrepreneur has helped create what appears to be a made-to-measure cancer vaccine for his dog, Rosie, using artificial intelligence tools such as ChatGPT as part of the process. The science behind this sounds intimidating – DNA sequencing, mRNA vaccines, “neoantigens” – but at its core, it is about reading the instructions inside a tumour and then writing a new set of instructions to help the immune system see it. Rosie is an eight-year-old rescue Staffordshire bull terrier cross that developed aggressive mast cell cancer, a common skin cancer in dogs. She had surgery and chemotherapy, but the disease kept coming back,…

“Project Hail Mary,” the movie adaptation to Andy Weir’s 2021 novel about a science teacher attempting to save the Earth from sun-eating microbes, was released in March 2026 to stellar ratings from critics and audiences alike. The movie explores a few unique forms that extraterrestrial life could take, from space microorganisms that produce both infrared light and an unfathomable amount of energy, to rocklike aliens that live under crushing pressure and breathe ammonia. https://youtu.be/m08TxIsFTRI Over the past decade, scientists have come up with a variety of frameworks to guide their search for life in the universe. While it’s most convenient to start looking for…

Debates about generative AI in higher education have been informed by studies of completed student papers, or self-reported survey data. Research shows that artificial intelligence tools can support learning, but also has raised concerns, including students’ overreliance, cheating, and the potential degradation of critical thinking and engagement. While these types of studies provide interesting snapshots of reported practices, their methodologies may hide something important: how writing actually unfolds while students are composing with the assistance of AI. A pilot study I led of undergraduate writers at Kennesaw State University takes a different approach. Using think-aloud protocols – a method in which participants verbalise…

South Africa’s state-owned electricity provider, Eskom, announced in early March 2026 that it would cut off the power to 14 municipalities that collectively owe it more than R110 billion (US$6.5 billion). Energy economist Roula Inglesi-Lotz describes the growing crisis in South Africa’s power system, where many municipalities can’t pay their bulk electricity bills due to poor governance, weak finances, and low payment rates from consumers. She sets out why cutting the supply won’t help Eskom get paid but could harm low income communities. Why did Eskom decide to cut off 14 municipalities? Eskom went through many tough years burdened by high debt levels, rising operating costs,…

In February 2023, a little more than a year after the launch of ChatGPT, Vanderbilt University sent an email to its student body in the wake of a fatal campus shooting at Michigan State. “The recent Michigan shootings are a tragic reminder of the importance of taking care of each other,” the email read in part. In tiny type at the bottom of the message, a disclaimer appeared: “paraphrased from OpenAI’s ChatGPT.” Students immediately objected. “There is a sick and twisted irony to making a computer write your message about community and togetherness because you can’t be bothered to reflect on it…

Social media platforms Instagram and YouTube have a design defect, which means they are addictive, a jury in the United States has ruled. The Los Angeles jury took nearly nine days to reach its verdict in the landmark case brought by a woman known as KGM against social media platforms. It awarded US$3 million (A$4.3 million) in damages, with Meta (owner of Instagram) being 70% responsible and Google (owner of YouTube) 30%. The jury later awarded a further US$3 million in punitive damages. Both TikTok and Snap settled on confidential terms before the six-week trial commenced. This is Meta’s second big loss in the…

Suspicion and affection. Apprehension and excitement. Most people have mixed feelings about AI English, whether or not they always recognise it. When reading text generated by AI, people feel it sounds off, or fake. When reading English by a human, people are more likely to feel it has a characteristic voice or a personal touch. What exactly makes English sound human, or sound like AI? And does it matter if AI English never truly achieves a human feel? I research the institutionalisation of English. There is a long, problematic history of people feeling positively or negatively toward different kinds of English, rewarding how…

More than 10,000 Starlink satellites currently orbit the Earth. We see them crawling across dark skies, no matter how remote our location, and streaking through images from research telescopes. SpaceX recently announced that it wants to launch one million more of these satellites as orbital data centres for AI computing power. A few years ago, we wrote a paper predicting what the night sky would look like with 65,000 satellites from four planned megaconstellations: SpaceX’s Starlink, Amazon’s Kuiper (now Leo), the U.K.’s OneWeb and China’s Guowang. We calibrated our models to observations of real Starlink satellites and came up with a startling prediction: One in 15 visible points in the night sky would…

During the First World War, the British government was looking for ways to help people stretch their limited food supplies. It found pamphlets from a noted 19th-century herbalist who said rhubarb leaves could be used as a vegetable along with the stalks. The government duly printed its own pamphlets advising people to eat rhubarb leaves as a salad rather than throwing them out. There was one problem: rhubarb leaves can be poisonous. People reportedly died or became ill. The advice was corrected, and the pamphlets were pulled from circulation. But during the Second World War, the government was again looking for…

Since tools like ChatGPT burst into higher education, debate has focused on two extremes: either students are all committing underhanded academic fraud and plagiarism or artificial intelligence (AI) will magically revolutionise learning. The latest research project I co-authored with Anna Holland, and carried out among recent Management graduates in the United Kingdom, suggests something more complicated and surprisingly more human. Generative AI tools such as ChatGPT are increasingly used in business and management education for tasks like analysing cases, brainstorming ideas, and drafting reports, improving efficiency and personalised learning but also raising concerns about academic integrity and assessment design. AI literacy and ethical use…