Tech

  1. Materials Science

    Scientists Say: Semiconductor

    Modern electronics, from cell phones to video games, work thanks to these conductor-insulator hybrids.

    By Katie Grace Carpenter
  2. Artificial Intelligence

    Here’s why AI like ChatGPT probably won’t reach humanlike understanding

    Unlike people, this type of artificial intelligence isn’t good at learning concepts that it can apply to new situations.

    By Tom Siegfried and Maria Temming
  3. Tech

    Scientists Say: Digital Footprint

    Your digital footprint contains both what you post online — and information about your online activity collected by others.

    By Aaron Tremper
  4. Artificial Intelligence

    How to design artificial intelligence that acts nice — and only nice

    Today’s bots can’t turn against us, but they can cause harm. “AI safety” aims to train this tech so it will always be honest, harmless and helpful.

    By Kathryn Hulick
  5. Artificial Intelligence

    ‘Jailbreaks’ bring out the evil side of chatbots

    Researchers break chatbots in order to fix them. This so-called red-teaming is an important way to improve AI’s behavior.

    By Kathryn Hulick
  6. Artificial Intelligence

    A new tool could guard against deepfake voice scams

    Scammers can use AI to create deepfake mimics of people’s voices. AntiFake could make that type of trick much harder to pull off.

    By Kathryn Hulick
  7. Artificial Intelligence

    AI learned how to influence humans by watching a video game

    New research used the game Overcooked to show how AI can learn to collaborate with — or manipulate — us.

    By Matthew Hutson
  8. Tech

    Scientists Say: Bionic

    This type of technology combines natural and synthetic systems. It can restore lost vision and mobility and even grant cells new abilities.

    By Katie Grace Carpenter
  9. Tech

    Could we build a mecha?

    In the movies, mechas come equipped with all kinds of abilities. But real giant robots would first have to master simpler actions, like walking and jumping.

    By Aaron Tremper
  10. Tech

    Artificial intelligence helped design a new type of battery

    Supercomputing and AI cut the early discovery steps from decades to just 80 hours. The process led to a new solid electrolyte.

    By Emily Conover
  11. Animals

    Analyze This: Marsupial gliders may avoid the ground to dodge predators

    It has been unclear why gliding evolved in marsupials. To search for clues, researchers strapped activity trackers to some of these cryptic creatures.

    By Carolyn Wilke
  12. Environment

    Scientists Say: Carbon capture

    Carbon capture technology tackles climate change by stomping out carbon dioxide at the source.

    By Katie Grace Carpenter