Author: The Conversation

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.…

Passwords are the keys to our digital lives – think how many times you log in to websites and other systems. But just like physical keys, they can be lost, duplicated and stolen. Many alternatives have been proposed in recent years, including passkeys. These offer a significant improvement in terms of user friendliness and potential for widespread use. But what exactly are they – and how do they differ from passwords? Passwords are vulnerable In simple terms, a password is a secret word or phrase that you use to prove who you are to computer systems and/or online. If you…

Artificial intelligence is now part of everyday life. It’s in our phones, schools and homes. For young people, AI shapes how they learn, connect and express themselves. But it also raises real concerns about privacy, fairness and control. AI systems often promise personalisation and convenience. But behind the scenes, they collect vast amounts of personal data, make predictions and influence behaviour, without clear rules or consent. This is especially troubling for youth, who are often left out of conversations about how AI systems are built and governed. https://youtu.be/wIc50ju_OUo The author’s guide on how to protect youth privacy in an AI world. Concerns about privacy…

Buying and selling online with e-commerce is old news. We’re entering the age of A-commerce, where artificial intelligence (AI) is increasingly able to shop for us. At the end of September, OpenAI launched its “Buy it in ChatGPT” trial in the United States, using AI agents built to interact with us to do more of people’s browsing and shopping. The technology is known as “agentic commerce”, sometimes shortened to A-commerce. American shoppers can now ask for shopping suggestions from US Etsy sellers within a ChatGPT chat – then buy a product immediately, without having to navigate away to look at individual shop pages. ChatGPT already helps millions…

Imagine a student using a writing assistant powered by a generative AI chatbot. As the bot serves up practical suggestions and encouragement, insights come more easily, drafts polish up quickly and feedback loops feel immediate. It can be energising. But when that AI support is removed, some students report feeling less confident or less willing to engage. These outcomes raise the question: Can AI tools genuinely boost student motivation? And what conditions can make or break that boost? As AI tools become more common in classroom settings, the answers to these questions matter a lot. While tools for general use…

In recent years, several websites selling ultra-low-cost goods have appeared on the French market. Shein, Temu and AliExpress, to name but a few, are shaking up the online retail landscape. According to a study conducted by BPCE Digital & Payments, the number of payment cards recording at least one monthly transaction on a discount site increased by 20% between the first quarters of 2022 and 2023. This is hardly surprising given that Temu’s website has millions of French visitors every month, according to data from the Federation of E-commerce and Distance-Selling (FEVAD). In mid-July 2025, low-cost platforms accounted for 22% of parcels handled by the…

Your phone buzzes at 6 a.m. It’s ChatGPT: “I see you’re travelling to New York this week. Based on your preferences, I’ve found three restaurants near your hotel. Would you like me to make a reservation?” You didn’t ask for this. The AI simply knew your plans from scanning your calendar and email and decided to help. Later, you mention to the chatbot needing flowers for your wife’s birthday. Within seconds, beautiful arrangements appear in the chat. You tap one: “Buy now.” Done. The flowers are ordered. This isn’t science fiction. On Sept. 29, 2025, OpenAI and payment processor Stripe launched the Agentic…

Poisoning is a term most often associated with the human body and natural environments. But it is also a growing problem in the world of artificial intelligence (AI) – in particular, for large language models such as ChatGPT and Claude. In fact, a joint study by the UK AI Security Institute, Alan Turing Institute and Anthropic, published earlier this month, found that inserting as few as 250 malicious files into the millions in a model’s training data can secretly “poison” it. So what exactly is AI poisoning? And what risks does it pose? What is AI poisoning? Generally speaking, AI poisoning refers to the process…

When someone opens the door and enters a hospital room, wearing a stethoscope is a telltale sign that they’re a clinician. This medical device has been around for over 200 years and remains a staple in the clinic despite significant advances in medical diagnostics and technologies. The stethoscope is a medical instrument used to listen to and amplify the internal sounds produced by the body. Physicians still use the sounds they hear through stethoscopes as initial indicators of heart or lung diseases. For example, a heart murmur or crackling lungs often signify that an issue is present. Although there have been significant…

The hope of the world wide web, according to its creator Tim Berners-Lee, was that it would make communication easier, bring knowledge to all, and strengthen democracy and connection. Instead, it seems to be driving us apart into increasingly small and angry splinter groups. Why? We have commonly blamed online echo chambers, digital spaces filled with people who largely share the same beliefs – or filter bubbles, the idea that algorithms tend to show us content we are likely to agree with. However, these concepts have both been challenged by a number of studies. A 2022 study led by one of us (Dana), which…