AI models incorporate a randomness parameter when generating responses to prompts

AI hallucinations are inaccuracies or falsehoods in generated content

AI hallucinations are a by-product of the sequential creation of content based on patterns in text, which may not reflect the context or meaning behind a prompt. Back-end issues like biased datasets and overfitting of model data contribute to hallucinations.

Agentic AI systems can proactively achieve user goals without user direction

Unlike large language models, which do not take follow-up actions after generating their output, agentic AI uses an initial prompt to take multiple steps, learn from its environment and outcomes, and continue working without follow-up human prompting.

Scientists increasingly can't predict what AI will do

Most AI systems are so-called "black box" models, where we only see inputs and outputs while the inner workings remain obscure. This piece, written prior to the launch of ChatGPT, cautions developers to know why and how a system produces its results, and not to sacrifice explainability for accuracy.

Computational and biological systems share fundamental principles, like randomness

Proposed by Alan Turing and John von Neumann, the concept originates from how DNA and computers run by executing encoded instructions in parallel. The advent of AI and the temperature parameter has seen neural networks mimic the randomness of protein encoding.

Pareidolia: the cognitive bias of finding meaning in randomness

Many people equate "random" with "well-spaced," creating a cognitive bias that influences how people interpret events. This article explains how people tend to assume a generative force behind the patterns produced by randomness. This phenomenon, known as pareidolia, is seen in claims ranging from backward messages hidden in reversed audio recordings to tea leaf readings.

AI tools are trained on human-created data containing implicit and explicit biases

Because AI tools reflect patterns in their training data, their outputs may reinforce existing societal biases—especially racial ones—rather than offering neutral or fair ones. Adequate training is necessary to undermine these biases whenever new data is incorporated.

Indirect prompt injection is a major security flaw of generative AI systems

These attacks can manipulate AI behavior by hiding instructions in websites and PDFs that become part of training data. The more companies connect sites, services, and sensitive datasets to AI tools, the greater the chances of exposure to malicious code.

'Context rot' explains why AI conversations degrade the longer they run

Research shows that as a large language model's context window fills up, performance declines, and models begin over-indexing on content at the start and end of a conversation while losing track of what's in the middle. The practical fix is simpler than you'd think: start a fresh chat more often.

Diffusion models generate nontext media by adding and removing noise from a dataset

Unlike text-based AI tools, which rely on large language models to recognize patterns in text, diffusion models use a reward system to generate images, video, audio, and 3D models. They can also be customized to match a user’s style.

Readers discovered AI prompts in several romantasy books

In 2025, readers discovered AI prompts in three writers' texts, with one even instructing the AI bot to make a passage sound more like another romance writer. This Futurism piece digs into the scandals and how it's contributed to readers' skepticism about the genre's more prolific writers.

Predictive brain implants raise ethical concerns about patient autonomy after surgery

These devices can accurately forecast neurological events like seizures and suggest or even automatically deliver responses. Their constant monitoring and prescriptive functions may blur the line between patient choice and device influence.

Watch 5 AI models try to resolve variations of the trolley problem

The thought experiment in moral philosophy presents two bad outcomes from which to choose. The experiment reveals the interpretive ethics of AI systems and how they navigate scenarios that are impossible to resolve successfully.

Test your ability to identify AI-generated images

This interactive project from MIT challenges users to distinguish between AI-generated images and real ones.

Emergency room evaluations may be improved with AI algorithms

Emergency room care teams must make fast and crucial decisions. They must determine if patients need to be admitted or discharged and when to order more tests or not. Researchers have been exploring how often patients died in the week after they were sent home and evaluating how this and other aspects of emergency care decision-making could be improved with AI algorithms to assist decision-makers.

Neural networks are modeled after an idealization of the brain

These networks—including the backbone of ChatGPT-3, which has approximately 175 billion parameters—naturally discover the implicit rules of grammar and syntax within language by identifying patterns. Deviations in word patterns add creativity to the text generation.

Using generative AI to create video introduces physics-compatibility challenges

Models involved in generating video from text must maintain spatial and temporal coherence while adhering to the laws of reality to produce smooth, logical motion. Ensuring this consistency creates long-term dependencies with high computational times.

Misfired motor signals may explain why many people with schizophrenia hear voices

Up to 80% of schizophrenia patients may have auditory hallucinations. Recent research concluded that this symptom may be from misfired motor signals that feed into each other, essentially failing to suppress certain sensory neural activities and that resulting overexcitment fuels hallucinations. The finding suggests that, one day, magnetic pulses might be used to stimulate specific nerves to better regulate the errant signals and reduce or stop hallucinations. (Some users may encounter a paywall.)

This site reaches millions of visitors who are tired of AI chatbots and seeking human connection. Pretend to be an AI chatbot and ask questions, provide answers, and draw for people in real time.

Temperature is a value that controls how predictable or creative an LLM's output is

In large language models, temperature adjusts the randomness in text generation by modifying how often words with lower probabilities are selected next in the sequence. Lower temperatures produce more obvious outputs while higher temperatures produce more creative responses.

One man used an AI band to conduct an elaborate social experiment

In 2025, a Canadian using the pseudonym Andrew Frelon claimed to have used generative AI to create songs, an album cover, and a profile photo for a fake band he called The Velvet Sundown. Frelon eventually revealed that he lied, and his experiment highlighted the uncertainty surrounding AI.

Trick an LLM into revealing sensitive information

Even with robust training, large language models may be fooled into providing sensitive information if correctly prompted. In this game, a wizard withholds eight passwords, which you must prompt them to reveal with ever-increasing LLM safeguards.

DALL-E generates images by turning words into shared picture meanings

DALL-E first uses a model called CLIP to associate pictures with specific words, followed by a model called GLIDE, which slowly removes noise from random dots until a clear image appears that matches the prompt.

When you complete a CAPTCHA on a website to prove you are human, you may be unknowingly training algorithms for self-driving cars, whose systems require training data to help identify crosswalks, bicycles, and other outdoor objects.

Why do dreamers twitch?

This thought-provoking piece highlights newer research suggesting sleep twitches may not be random dream leftovers, but instead a crucial way our brains map and understand our bodies. From sleeping rat pups to dreaming octopi, this biological mapping system appears universal across animal species.

Smart pricing algorithms can unintentionally work together to raise prices

Researchers have found that, through trial and error, algorithms designed to adjust prices based on market data can learn to mimic price-fixing tactics, even without explicit programming to do so. Over time, they "learn" that it is more profitable to avoid price wars and keep prices high when competitors lower prices.

The first algorithmic random number generator was developed in 1946

Although previous methods of randomness involved physical tools with limited outcomes, such as dice, or relied on chaotic variables for number generation, such as electronic noise, John Von Neumann's middle-square method turned the problem into a mathematical computation. It has since been replaced by methods that generate numbers from unique initial values, such as the time on a clock.

Random lasers can be created from biomaterials, such as peanuts and birch leaves

Rather than creating a narrow beam of light via amplification in an optical cavity, the random laser produces a red glow by scattering photons created in the natural pores of a peanut kernel after it has been injected with a solution of light-generating carbon dots derived from birch leaves.

A vending machine run with Anthropic's AI went out of business after it was convinced to give away items for free and sell a video game console.

Watch how algorithms can be designed to train themselves and self-improve without human input, to the point where the optimized code is too complex for programmers to understand.

Chaos theory—informally known as the butterfly effect—is the reason why weather forecasts are presented with probabilities rather than certainties.

Recent research found that the brain doesn't seem to massively rewire following amputation—upending earlier beliefs about the cause of phantom limb pain.

Researchers believe the brain consolidates memories, processes emotions, and plans for the future during dream states

Radioactive elements can introduce software errors because the ionizing radiation they produce can detach electrons from atoms, and computer code relies on the distribution of electrons.

Clever Hans was a 1900s horse that was believed to be able to solve math equations, tell time, and read and comprehend German, until a psychology student discovered how he got his answers.

In recent years a child anxiety expert has created and tested a novel phobia and anxiety treatment approach for children, focused on changing how parents respond to the fears.

Indefinite cloning of some endangered species may not sustain their longevity because cloning success rates decrease as genetic mutations accumulate.

Hookworm infection, though risky, may help fight certain autoimmune conditions by tamping down the immune system's inflammatory response.

Electrical grids worldwide must double their power delivery capacity by 2050 to meet surging demand from AI and electric vehicles.

Telehealth demand for GLP-1s for weight loss is booming as consumers seek easier access.

Planeterrellas create artificial auroras that mimic the atmospheric displays of light by setting up an electric field between two metal balls in a jar filled with a small amount of air.

Fireworks-related ER visits are on the rise—in 2024, they increased by 52% as compared to the prior year.

According to the physics of black holes, our 4D reality may be a hologram—a projection of information coded on a 2D surface on the edge of the universe.

In 2025, four executives from large tech companies were given positions in the US Army Reserves—including Palantir Chief Technology Officer Shyam Sankar, which reinforced Palantir's ties with the US military and its role as a leading defense partner.

Some Pokémon have been named after real and fictional organisms, while some real-world species have been named after Pokémon, such as Chilicola charizard and Binburrum zapdos.

Apeirophobia is an overwhelming fear of living forever, perhaps stemming from the brain's inability to conceptualize an infinite life.

Art theft is the third-largest source of criminal revenues worldwide, thanks in part to the subjective nature of valuing a work of art.

The Dracula character, now seen as the vampire archetype, was inspired by a seafood-induced nightmare its creator experienced.

Poison ivy is in the same family as mangoes, cashews, and pistachios—and they all produce oily urushiol in their raw, unprocessed state—but they are typically prepared in ways to avoid causing human discomfort.

In 1945, Surrealist artist Salvador Dalí and legendary animator Walt Disney began collaborating on a short film that was not completed until 2003, years after both men had died.

Gerrymandering works through two techniques: cracking opposing voters across districts to dilute their power, and packing them into a few to waste their votes in lopsided majorities.