-
The AI takeover of mathematics has begun
OpenAI has announced that an advanced unreleased AI model, known as Astra, produced solutions to 10 long-standing mathematics problems, some of which had stumped academics for decades. The development has stirred a mixture of excitement and unease among mathematicians, including Oxford’s Fields Medal-winning professor James Maynard, who describes grappling with what the shift means for…
-
A New Trick Reveals AI Models’ Inner Thoughts
Computer scientists have found a way to extract the hidden “thinking” process that frontier AI models use to work through complex problems, exposing a vulnerability shared by major providers including OpenAI, Anthropic and Google. The technique offers evidence, though not proof, that some Chinese AI models may have been trained by “distilling” reasoning from US…
-
Building up the US power grid won’t be wasted, even if the AI bubble bursts
US power companies face a decision about how much new generation and grid capacity to build for surging datacentre demand, given that some planned AI facilities may never be completed if the AI boom cools. Consulting firm McKinsey & Company argues the bigger danger is under-building rather than over-building, since even if AI compute demand…
-
AI Is Dead. Organoids Are Alive
A growing number of biologists are moving beyond artificial intelligence to work directly with “brain organoids” – lab-grown clumps of human neurons cultivated from cells such as skin samples. These living tissues, which can produce brain-wave-like oscillations, are being used for far more than traditional drug and toxin testing: researchers are having them guide robots…
-
OpenAI gives Daybreak partners access to a more powerful cybersecurity model
OpenAI is expanding its Daybreak cybersecurity programme, adding partners including Accenture, IBM, CrowdStrike, Cisco, Sophos and Cloudflare, and giving some members access to a new, more powerful model that is less likely to refuse higher-risk security tasks. The firms involved will use the models to help protect their own customers, as OpenAI positions itself as…
-
AI ‘will do more to boost fossil fuel production than green energy’
A new study is the first to quantify AI’s climate impact across the entire power sector, finding that productivity gains AI delivers to fossil fuel extraction outweigh the emissions savings it enables in renewables. Researchers modelled 64 scenarios and concluded that net carbon pollution would rise, undercutting claims that AI is primarily a boon for…
-
AI Is Helping Solve the Intricate Genetic Puzzle of Schizophrenia
A study published in Nature Genetics has used AI-based computational models to map how genes interact in the brain to contribute to schizophrenia risk, identifying 766 associated genes, 641 of which had not appeared in previous transcriptomic analyses. Rather than a single faulty gene, schizophrenia appears to stem from hundreds of genetic variants working together…
-
Oil prices rise and gold hits two-month high after Trump makes new deal demands on Iran – business live
Oil prices and gold both rose after Donald Trump issued fresh demands over a new nuclear deal with Iran, including compensation for damage the US claims to have incurred, complicating an already fragile standoff. The Strait of Hormuz, a critical global oil-shipping route, remains effectively closed despite the absence of active conflict, keeping energy markets…
-
Nvidia links with Wall Street firms for $500bn AI financing deal
Nvidia has struck agreements with six major Wall Street firms to raise more than $500bn (£370bn) in capital to fund artificial intelligence infrastructure, underlining how the AI boom is drawing in institutional investors as governments, companies and startups race to build datacentres. Chief executive Jensen Huang said Nvidia has the option to backstop up to…