AI systems identify patterns involving physics and time through 'world models'

Neural networks mimic the structure and behavior of real physical systems

Early generative AI systems were inspired by scientific models such as the Ising model, which explains how atoms interact with one another and align in magnets. As these networks have expanded, their behavior has more closely resembled that of quantum fields, enabling them to be used in exploring complex particle physics interactions.

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.

Anthropic's interpretability team discusses how AI models' thinking mimics biology

Just as humans engage in complex behaviors to survive and reproduce, teams of experts in neuroscience, virology, mathematics, and other disciplines argue that large language models develop complex mechanisms to achieve their goals. These mechanisms can be manipulated to assess how they modify outputs—much like stimulating individual neurons—to uncover how LLMs "think."

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.

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.

Meta's Quest and other mixed reality devices can make learning new skills easier

PianoVision utilizes the passthrough visibility of a headset to illuminate which keys to play on a real piano or keyboard, providing an immersive, software-based learning alternative to human instruction. Similar apps also offer virtual model replacements for physical devices, such as a virtual piano, to practice with.

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.

Artificial intelligence may further enhance smart city data analysis

Identifying patterns within systems in the Internet of Things may enable AI tools to make informed decisions regarding transportation, safety, and sustainability without human intervention. However, such tools will also need to successfully address concerns about privacy, digital equity, and algorithmic bias.

The hardware powering AI was originally designed for video game graphics processing

Graphics processing units are specialized computer chips that can process multiple data streams in parallel, including pixel colors for a display. Such processing is required to find connections across text data and generate outputs quickly.

AI-powered models can provide low-cost, localized and accurate weather forecasting

These models can run on standard laptops, reducing the need for expensive supercomputers and expanding access to developing regions. AI forecasts can help farmers make informed planting decisions, improving crop yields and reducing costs.

AI-generated avatars allow users to create deepfakes in real time

Synthetic media tools can map voices and faces to make individuals appear as someone else. Although they open the door to new opportunities in immersive education and entertainment, they also raise concerns about the misuse of personal identity.

See the news with AI-generated data visualizations

Realtime uses generative AI to create immediate data visualizations of news items on its regularly-updated feed, pulling from public data feeds. Peruse stories around sports, economics, politics, and more with the helpful aid of charts and graphs. See the shape of the news with this clever AI tool here.

Explore persistent 3D environments with Marble

Marble is a spatial AI system built by World Labs, a San Francisco startup focusing on world models (rather than large language models). Using a text prompt (or a single image or video), users can generate a "world" and move through it, edit it, or export it. The company and project are part of the broader spatial intelligence area of AI, where AI can simulate environments.

Stephen Wolfram on AI's rapid progress & the "Post-Knowledge Work" era

AI, as a concept, has been around since at least the 1950s, but it's only in the last year or so that the technology has been able to equal humans at many tasks -- and in many cases surpass humans. In this podcast, mathematician and computer scientist Stephen Wolfram provides an AI 101, explaining how we got here, how highly advanced chatbots like ChatGPT work, and what our world is in store for next.

Self-driving formula cars race in the Abu Dhabi Autonomous Racing League

The league and high-speed versions of traditional cars help to showcase the capabilities of driverless vehicles and the reliability of their AI systems. Leonardo da Vinci first imagined the idea for such machines in the 16th century.

After 25 people used virtual reality headsets to practice flying with virtual wings—flapping their arms—their visual cortex responded to the wings almost as if they were real arms, treating them as body parts.

AI excels at assisting with structured tasks involving logistics and planning

Tools like ChatGPT, Gemini, and Perplexity can help organize chaotic calendars, troubleshoot bedtime routines, and assist with salary planning and moving. However, specific quotes, like insurance, and local cost comparisons can be flawed since AI draws from nonlocalized datasets.

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.

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.

Machine learning lets computers learn from data instead of relying on programming

ML is a core part of artificial intelligence and is foundational to applications like chatbots, fraud detection, and self-driving cars. Businesses are also adopting it to improve efficiency and identify patterns in data, though the latter may be inaccurate.

Help scientists at LIGO train AI to resolve glitches in observational data

Volunteers are provided with visual representations of signal abnormalities at various frequencies and tasked with categorizing them based on reference examples. Progressing through the tool unlocks more difficult images and additional features. Categorized images will be used to train machine learning algorithms for automated future classification.

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.

One private school network prefers AI to teachers

Alpha School, a private school network that uses AI tutors and human "guides" rather than teachers, is expanding across the US. Its founder says that two hours a day with AI-powered software frees students to pursue their passions. Critics, including the Pennsylvania Department of Education, say the methods are untested.

Digital twins create real-time 3D models of smart cities

These re-creations allow city planners to track changes and manage infrastructure more easily by testing strategies in virtual environments. Geospatial technologies, such as mobile mapping and satellite imaging, help cities assess urban layouts, plan for disasters, and manage resources more efficiently.

How artificial intelligence, which detects patterns, can identify burnout

Researchers are training AI to detect stress-related symptoms, helping physicians and other medical workers recognize and reduce stress from overwork and potentially avoid burnout.

An analysis on using VR to help train orthopedic surgeons

Virtual reality simulation provides surgical trainees with an immersive 3D experience that allows them to practice skills and operations in a safe yet realistic environment.

Play Infinite Craft, an AI software-powered game

In this browser-based game, users combine the elements of earth, wind, fire, and water to create an infinite number of new elements. Try your best to make as many natural phenomena as you can as you build up to the multiverse.

Mind-controlled bionic arms use nerve implants to restore sensation and movement

Unlike traditional prosthetics that rely on surface electrodes or mechanical parts, this system uses implanted titanium and nerve-connected electrodes to enable a seamless brain-to-arm connection. Patients train in virtual reality with their implanted signals before using the physical prosthesis.

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.

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.

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

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.

English mathematician Ada Lovelace wrote the first computer algorithm a century before computers existed and hypothesized that computing devices would one day be able to compose music—foreseeing the generative AI systems of today.

Explore the known asteroids, comets, and spacecraft involved in asteroid studies within our solar system with 'Eyes on Asteroids,' a 3D visualization from NASA.

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

Browse a detailed visual analysis of over 200,000 similes—comparisons that often use 'like' or 'as'—from popular fiction to see how frequently writers the same idiomatic expressions.

How Amazon operates a 'flywheel' business model, a self-reinforcing cycle that drives continuous growth

Visualize how CRISPR-Cas9—a type of immune system used by single-celled organisms to attack invasive viruses—targets and makes precise changes to a gene's DNA.

Play the role of a student in a game where you try to navigate college and remain debt-free, selecting different income levels, high school experience, race, ethnicity, and more.

As of 2025, the most cited papers in science include a review of graphene, methods to improve image recognition, streamlining electron density calculations, and optimizing protein studies.

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.

Learn how your body is, scientifically, like a firework with its own slow, controlled burn.

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.

Learn how monoclonal antibodies, which mimic the body's antibodies, can fight diseases like Ebola.

Alzheimer's can lead to brain shrinkage, with an average of around 2% of volume reduction per year

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.

The first robot in literature may have been a 'mechanical man' in 1907's 'Ozma of Oz,' a book in L Frank Baum's 'Wizard of Oz' series.

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

Stanford built a Google Maps for the Roman Empire, revealing how much it cost to travel in the ancient world

Long before Major League Baseball began allowing instant replay for balls and strikes, an umpire reluctantly used the technology to determine whether a hit was a home run, a move that inadvertently ushered in a new era for the sport.