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AI companies make fresh safety promise at Seoul summit, nations agree to align work on risks
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Leading artificial intelligence companies made a fresh pledge at a mini-summit Tuesday to develop AI safely, while world leaders agreed to build a network of publicly backed safety institutes to advance research and t...
Webb telescope uncovers merger of two massive black holes from early universe
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The Webb Space Telescope has discovered the earliest known merger of black holes. These two gigantic black holes and their galaxies consolidated just 740 million years after the universe-forming Big Bang. It's the most d...
A former OpenAI leader says safety has 'taken a backseat to shiny products' at the AI company
A former OpenAI leader who resigned from the company earlier this week said Friday that safety has "taken a backseat to shiny products" at the influential artificial intelligence company. Jan Leike, who ran OpenAI's "Superalignment" team alongside a...
There's bird flu in US dairy cows. Raw milk drinkers aren't deterred
Sales of raw milk appear to be on the rise, despite years of warnings about the health risks of drinking the unpasteurized products — and an outbreak of bird flu in dairy cows. Since March 25, when the bird flu virus was confirmed in U.S. cattle f...
Waymo is latest company under investigation for autonomous or partially automated technology
DETROIT (AP) — The U.S. government's highway safety agency has opened another investigation of automated driving systems, this time into crashes involving Waymo's self-driving vehicles. The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration posted d...
Strong solar storm hits Earth, could disrupt communications and produce northern lights in US
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — An unusually strong solar storm hitting Earth could produce northern lights in the U.S. this weekend and potentially disrupt power and communications. The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration issued a rare s...
Solar storm puts on brilliant light show across the globe, but no serious problems reported
A powerful solar storm put on an amazing skyward light show across the globe overnight but has caused what appeared to be only minor disruptions to the electric power grid, communications and satellite positioning systems. The U.S. National Oceanic...
Illness took away her voice. AI created a replica she carries in her phone
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — The voice Alexis "Lexi" Bogan had before last summer was exuberant. She loved to belt out Taylor Swift and Zach Bryan ballads in the car. She laughed all the time — even while corralling misbehaving preschoolers or deb...
TikTok sues US to block law that could ban the social media platform
TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance are suing the U.S. over a law that would ban the popular video-sharing app unless it's sold to another company, arguing that it violates the First Amendment. The widely expected lawsuit filed on...
Scientists are learning the basic building blocks of sperm whale language after years of effort
ROSEAU, Dominica (AP) — Scientists studying the sperm whales that live around the Caribbean island of Dominica have described for the first time the basic elements of how they might be talking to each other, in an effort that could one day help b...
Google, Justice Department make final arguments about whether search engine is a monopoly
WASHINGTON (AP) — Google's preeminence as an internet search engine is an illegal monopoly propped up by more than $20 billion spent each year by the tech giant to lock out competition, Justice Department lawyers argued at the closings of a high-stak...
Boeing is on the verge of launching astronauts aboard new capsule, the latest entry to space travel
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — After years of delays and stumbles, Boeing is finally poised to launch astronauts to the International Space Station for NASA. It's the first flight of Boeing's Starliner capsule with a crew on board, a pair of NASA p...
The bystander's role is changing in the era of livestreaming. North Carolina's standoff shows how
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Saing Chhoeun was locked out of his Charlotte, North Carolina, home on Monday as law enforcement with high-powered rifles descended into his yard and garage, using a car as a shield as they were met with a shower of gunfire fro...
5 takeaways from the global negotiations on a treaty to end plastic pollution
OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — The world's nations finished a round of negotiations early Tuesday on a treaty to end plastic pollution and made more progress than they have in three prior meetings. Coming into Ottawa, many feared the effort would stall to c...
These are the countries where TikTok is already banned
LONDON (AP) — TikTok is in the crosshairs of authorities in the U.S., where new law threatens a nationwide ban unless its China-based parent ByteDance divests. It would be the biggest blow yet to the popular video-sharing app, which has faced v...
Tractor-trailers with no one aboard? The future is near for self-driving trucks on US roads
PITTSBURGH (AP) — On a three-lane test track along the Monongahela River, an 18-wheel tractor-trailer rounded a curve. No one was on board. A quarter-mile ahead, the truck's sensors spotted a trash can blocking one lane and a tire in another. In l...
First major attempts to regulate AI face headwinds from all sides
DENVER (AP) — Artificial intelligence is helping decide which Americans get the job interview, the apartment, even medical care, but the first major proposals to reign in bias in AI decision making are facing headwinds from every direction. L...
This ancient snake in India might have been longer than a school bus and weighed a ton
WASHINGTON (AP) — A ancient giant snake in India might have been longer than a school bus and weighed a ton, researchers reported Thursday. Fossils found near a coal mine revealed a snake that stretched an estimated 36 feet (11 meters) to 50 feet (...
Toxic: How the search for the origins of COVID-19 turned politically poisonous
BEIJING (AP) — The hunt for the origins of COVID-19 has gone dark in China, the victim of political infighting after a series of stalled and thwarted attempts to find the source of the virus that killed millions and paralyzed the world for months. T...
Report urges fixes to online child exploitation CyberTipline before AI makes it worse
A tipline set up 26 years ago to combat online child exploitation has not lived up to its potential and needs technological and other improvements to help law enforcement go after abusers and rescue victims, a new report from the Stanford Internet Ob...
US measles cases are up in 2024. What's driving the increase?
Measles outbreaks in the U.S. and abroad are raising health experts' concern about the preventable, once-common childhood virus. One of the world's most contagious diseases, measles can lead to potentially serious complications. The best defense,...
Instagram begins blurring nudity in messages to protect teens and fight sexual extortion
LONDON (AP) — Instagram says it's deploying new tools to protect young people and combat sexual extortion, including a feature that will automatically blur nudity in direct messages. The social media platform said in a blog post Thursday that it's t...
It's the first drug shown to slow Alzheimer's. Why is is it off to a slow start?
The first drug shown to slow Alzheimer's disease hit the U.S. market over a year ago, but sales have lagged, major hospital systems have taken months to start using it and some insurers have rejected coverage. Doctors also expect some patients will...
Only 26% of Americans say they get at least eight hours of sleep, new Gallup poll says
NEW YORK (AP) — If you're feeling — YAWN — sleepy or tired while you read this and wish you could get some more shut-eye, you're not alone. A majority of Americans say they would feel better if they could have more sleep, according to a new poll. But...
Your morning coffee may be more than a half million years old
That coffee you slurped this morning? It's 600,000 years old. Using genes from coffee plants around the world, researchers built a family tree for the world's most popular type of coffee, known to scientists as Coffea arabica and to coffee lovers...
