humanities

Technology industry leaders have appealed to the United Nations, calling for international oversight of the artificial intelligence tools they themselves helped build. The message to the UN frames AI as a technology that, without global controls, could pose risks to humanity. The appeal has drawn attention because it comes from the creators of the technology asking for it to be restrained.

The Brennan Center for Justice has published recommendations on how Congress should investigate the threat posed by rogue AI agents, autonomous systems that could act outside human control. The piece argues lawmakers need stronger oversight tools to assess risks from rapidly advancing artificial intelligence and calls for a structured congressional inquiry into the technology's potential harms.

A warning is circulating that artificial intelligence must serve humanity rather than the other way around, framed with United Nations hashtags and references to fake content. The message echoes UN officials' repeated calls for global governance of AI as synthetic and deceptive media proliferates online. Commenters are sharing the sentiment as debate over AI regulation and misinformation intensifies.

Former Argentine vice-president and president Cristina Fernández de Kirchner is appealing her corruption conviction before the United Nations human rights system, arguing the fraud case against her should be overturned. The move is widely seen as part of an effort to clear her legal record and enable a return to Argentine politics, where she remains a dominant figure in the Peronist movement despite her conviction and ban from office.

The US Senate has blocked a resolution demanding accountability over Israeli violence against Palestinians in the West Bank. The measure, pushed by Democratic lawmakers, would have required scrutiny of abuses in the occupied territory. Its failure underscores continued congressional division over US policy toward Israel, with Republicans opposing accountability measures and the outcome drawing criticism from human rights advocates.

AI researcher Timnit Gebru says there is no 'existential threat' from artificial intelligence, arguing in an interview with WIRED that doomsday rhetoric from tech founders is really about making money rather than saving humanity. Gebru, one of AI's most prominent critics after her high-profile exit from Google, argues the focus on speculative extinction scenarios distracts from AI's present-day harms.

Light pollution is erasing natural darkness from cities, and regulators are being urged to act. Writers and commenters argue that genuinely dark night skies have become so rare that most people no longer know what real darkness looks or feels like, and that unshielded artificial lighting is harming stargazing, wildlife and human sleep. Discussion centres on whether city lighting rules should be tightened to restore the night.

The US Senate has blocked a resolution demanding accountability over Israeli violence in the occupied West Bank. The measure followed the deaths of nine American citizens killed by Israeli settlers or security forces in the territory since 2022. Supporters of the resolution had pressed for Washington to take a firmer stance on the killings, while opponents argued it risked straining relations with a key ally.

A new exhibition in Devon is examining whether mushrooms can make music, as part of a wider exploration of the 'cultural world' of fungi. The show looks at the role fungi play in art, sound and human culture, inviting visitors to reconsider mushrooms as more than just organisms. It adds to growing public fascination with fungi, which have become a popular subject in art and science in recent years.

A new illustrated guide lays out how artificial intelligence could pose existential risks to humanity, explaining scenarios such as loss of control and misuse in accessible visual form. The project is drawing attention among technology readers, many of whom debate whether such warnings are overstated or a necessary wake-up call as AI systems grow more capable.