AI experts

A group of religious scholars met with Anthropic to discuss the moral and ethical dimensions of its Claude AI systems, according to a New York Times report. The meetings reflect growing efforts by AI companies to consult outside experts, including theologians and ethicists, on how powerful AI models should handle questions of values, judgment and human morality.

A new report examining frontier artificial intelligence and the concept of an intelligence explosion is drawing attention among technology readers. The piece lays out how advanced AI systems could rapidly improve their own capabilities, a scenario debated by researchers. Readers are discussing how close current models might be to such a tipping point and what safeguards would be needed.

President Donald Trump's administration has named a new AI czar, and policy experts say the appointment could help push forward long-stalled federal regulation of artificial intelligence. Commentators in the policy community say the new adviser's leadership may finally move the needle on rules for AI safety and oversight, though concrete proposals remain to be seen.

Google has suspended its bug bounty program that rewarded security researchers for finding vulnerabilities in open-source projects, citing a flood of low-quality, likely AI-generated reports. The company said the volume of submissions has made it difficult to identify genuine vulnerabilities. Security experts note the incident highlights how generative AI tools are being misused to mass-produce automated vulnerability reports, straining bounty programs across the industry.

An expert argues that the surge in AI investment is changing bond markets and making borrowing more expensive. Massive spending on data centres and AI infrastructure is competing for capital, putting upward pressure on interest rates and government debt costs, with effects rippling through the global economy and investment markets.

VIDRAFT has released POCKET-Darwin-180B-GGUF, a quantized build that reportedly runs a 180-billion-parameter mixture-of-experts model on a laptop with just 8GB of VRAM. Using 4-bit quantization and llama.cpp, the project claims hardware requirements are cut by roughly 250 times, making local deployment of very large AI models feasible on consumer machines.

Security firm Manifold Security published research asking whether AI models factor morality into their judgments about malicious code. The finding: when asked to assess whether code is malware, language models appear to bring moral reasoning into their analysis rather than relying purely on technical criteria. The report is circulating among developers and security researchers interested in how AI tools evaluate potentially harmful software.

Agricultural technology experts say artificial intelligence is playing a growing role in farming, from crop monitoring to decision support, but they stress that human judgment remains essential. As AI tools advance, specialists argue farmers' experience and local knowledge are still needed to interpret data and make sound decisions in the field.

The One Conference on cybersecurity is taking place in The Hague today, focusing on digital security, privacy and artificial intelligence. A Dutch journalist shared that she was dropping in on the event, which brings together policymakers and experts to discuss the Netherlands' approach to cyber threats and how privacy and AI intersect with national security policy.

The Wall Street Journal reports that pressure from AI-driven cyber threats is increasing, with artificial intelligence tools making attacks faster and more sophisticated while defenses struggle to keep pace. The piece adds to growing warnings from security experts that both criminals and defenders are racing to exploit AI capabilities.

Rappler reports that artificial intelligence is pushing cybersecurity to operate at 'machine speed', with the same technology enabling faster, more sophisticated cyberattacks and equally rapid defensive responses. Security experts say organizations must adopt AI-driven defenses to keep pace with attackers who automate phishing, malware and intrusion attempts, turning the field into an escalating arms race between AI on both sides.

The New York Times reports that China is having difficulty attracting foreign artificial intelligence researchers despite its push to compete with the United States for global AI leadership. The recruitment shortfall highlights the competition for international talent, with the US still drawing top researchers even as China invests heavily in domestic AI development and tries to lure experts from abroad.

Parents are being offered guidance on how artificial intelligence tools should be used around young children, as experts weigh whether the technology is more helpful or harmful for early development. The advice encourages parents to supervise AI use, understand what these tools can and cannot do, and set sensible limits while recognising the growing role AI already plays in apps, toys and learning products aimed at kids.

A University of Missouri expert is weighing in on the growing spread of political deepfakes, offering guidance on how to tell manipulated images, audio and video from authentic material. The commentary comes as AI-generated fakes increasingly circulate during election seasons, raising concerns about misinformation and voter trust, and prompting universities and researchers to teach the public how to spot synthetic content.