Research & Development news

• Anthropic bans users from being 'cruel' to its AI systems

  09-10-2026 14:34 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The firm said users can no longer engage in "sustained and needless" abusive behaviour towards the tech.
  
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• AI is less regulated than milk, says Microsoft president

  12-10-2026 01:07 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Brad Smith calls for global rules on AI, and says the UK is in the "best position" to lead the charge.
  
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• King warns malicious online actors are evolving tactics

  10-10-2026 17:56 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The King spoke of "threats to our international order" in a letter marking the 10th anniversary of the National Cyber Security Centre.
  
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• Rogue Anthropic AI agent gave police fake tip in unsolved murder case

  10-10-2026 12:06 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Philadelphia police said the tip was "flagged as spam", but criticised the tech company for taking more than two months to detect and report the breach.
  
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• How drones are hunting fires hidden beneath the Cairngorms

  10-10-2026 11:31 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Dramatic flames from the huge Cairngorms wildfire in July have disappeared - but hot spots can continue to burn beneath the earth.
  
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• Prize-winning image which sparked backlash was AI-generated, Nikon rules

  09-10-2026 17:32 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The camera-maker says it is now re-evaluating the rules and procedures of its Small World in Motion contest.
  
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• The Download: AI’s refusal problem and weight-loss drug side effects

  09-10-2026 14:10 via technologyreview.com
  
  This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.We’re putting too much faith in AI’s ability to say noToday’s AI models are trained to refuse a vast number of prompts. If you ask your chatbot how to poison a colleague or how to tie a noose, chances are it’ll turn you down. But refusal fails, sometimes horrifically.Some people are attempting to use AI to hone biological pat
  
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• Fired OpenAI researchers say they were let go for 'prioritising safety'

  09-10-2026 11:30 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The AI firm instead claims the researchers were fired for mishandling sensitive information.
  
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• We’re still figuring out the side effects of GLP-1 weight-loss drugs

  09-10-2026 11:00 via technologyreview.com
  
  This week my colleague Antonio Regalado had an interesting update on GLP-1 weight-loss drugs. According to research presented at an aging meeting in Boston, these drugs seem to affect at least some measures of biological age.Overweight and diabetic people who take GLP-1s have a biological age around two to three years younger than similar individuals who take a placebo, according to findings from Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk, two pharmaceutical companies that make the drugs.I’ve heard peopl
  
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• We’re putting too much faith in AI’s ability to say no

  09-10-2026 11:00 via technologyreview.com
  
  Ever since people first seriously contemplated giving machines an intelligence modeled on our own, there has never been any question that they would, like us, be able to say no. The sci-fi canon is full of stories of robotic disobedience. Most of these capers are, of course, cautionary. But recently, the idea that AI shouldn’t do everything you ask has become something like a commandment. In 2021, a team at Anthropic wrote that large language models should be made helpful, honest, and
  
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• Job titles of the future: Delivery drone air traffic controller

  09-10-2026 11:00 via technologyreview.com
  
  The moment Trevor Wischnewsky heard that drones were delivering pizza and sushi around his Texas neighborhood, his mind was made up. “It was super fascinating,” he says. “I just immediately wanted to be a part of it.” Wischnewsky is now an RPIC, or “remote pilot in command,” at a company called FlyTrex. An RPIC is like an air traffic controller. But instead of airplanes, this new class of aviators tend to fleets of hexa­copter drones that ferry cargo to ho
  
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• Nvidia-backed data centre firm scraps IPO as AI valuation concerns deepen

  09-10-2026 09:14 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Firmus said it had made the decision due to "recent market volatility and prevailing market conditions".
  
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• 'Careless use of AI is the real threat - not the ghost stories'

  09-10-2026 09:05 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Meredith Whittaker says the tech has been misunderstood, in an exclusive interview with BBC Global Women.
  
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• Roundtables: A Conversation With the Creator of AI-Designed Viruses

  09-10-2026 02:08 via technologyreview.com
  
  Friday, October 16, 2026Can AI design new life forms? In 2025, Stanford University PhD student Samuel King came up with a preliminary answer when he used a generative AI model to propose genetic blueprints for microscopic viruses. It isn’t yet an example of AI-generated life, but that could be next. Join senior AI reporter James O’Donnell as he interviews King about his work, being named one of MIT Technology Review’s Innovators Under 35 and new ways of seeing biology.
  Going li
  
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• Why are more roofs not made of solar tiles?

  09-10-2026 01:09 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Solar tiles were touted as an attractive alternative to solar panels - why have they not taken off?
  
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• White House blocks Microsoft from foreign worker hiring programme

  08-10-2026 23:37 via bbc.co.uk
  
  An international visa programme has for years allowed US tech companies to hire highly skilled workers from abroad.
  
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• The Download: AI roadblocks for humanoids and portable rubber dams

  08-10-2026 14:10 via technologyreview.com
  
  This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.AI breakthroughs in robotics won’t change your life any time soonThe hype around humanoid robots is reaching fever pitch. Much of it comes from the idea that the same AI advances behind ChatGPT and Claude could enable robots to imitate human movement the way chatbots imitate human language. But many researchers are skeptical.They argue that su
  
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• Asos hackers took more personal details than first revealed, BBC finds

  08-10-2026 13:01 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Retailer issues update after BBC contacted by cyber criminals who said this week's breach went beyond "basic contact details"
  
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• Why we’re watching these climate tech companies

  08-10-2026 12:00 via technologyreview.com
  
  This week, we released our 2026 version of our Climate Tech Companies to Watch list. It’s an annual project that the MIT Technology Review team puts together. Our goal is to highlight some of the promising, interesting advances and firms we think are worth paying attention to in the world of climate and energy technology. The list is always a little ray of hope for me—there are some fascinating ideas out there for changing how we power our world or moving away from fossil fuels
  
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• AI breakthroughs in robotics won’t change your life any time soon

  08-10-2026 11:00 via technologyreview.com
  
  The story is a collaboration between MIT Technology Review and Aventine, a non-profit research foundation that creates and supports content about how technology and science are changing the way we live.A robot shaped like a human—white with a black head and torso—has been popping up on video feeds. Perhaps you’ve seen it dance or pass popcorn, put trash in a bin, vacuum, or press the button of a microwave. Or maybe you’ve watched it fall backward while handing out water b
  
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• Building a safer path to autonomous industrial AI

  08-10-2026 10:17 via technologyreview.com
  
  Industrial AI is entering a new phase. After decades of predictive analytics and other specialized applications, advances in foundation models, physical AI, and agentic AI are making it possible to automate more complex tasks across industrial environments. But unlike AI that operates purely in the digital world, industrial AI can interact directly with physical systems, where an unexpected decision can have consequences for safety, reliability, and critical infrastructure.That makes responsible
  
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• AI chip boom pushes Samsung profits to record $80bn

  08-10-2026 03:59 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The tech giant is also expected to get a boost from its latest folding devices that were launched in August.
  
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• Fuel prices added to Google Maps as petrol and diesel costs soar

  08-10-2026 01:50 via bbc.co.uk
  
  A search for forecourts will now display their pricing, using the government's Fuel Finder scheme.
  
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• OpenAI says teen ChatGPT use limited but research finds it an 'unacceptable risk'

  07-10-2026 22:34 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The research found that important guardrails for teens using ChatGPT often failed.
  
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• The Download: weight-loss drugs slowing aging and carbon dioxide batteries

  07-10-2026 14:10 via technologyreview.com
  
  This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology.Weight-loss drugs show signs of slowing biological aging, say drugmakersPopular weight-loss drugs may do more than help people shed pounds. They might also slow the aging process.Drugmakers Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk say patients taking their GLP-1 drugs age less quickly, according to molecular “aging clocks” that track changes in DNA or
  
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• Rainmakers: The drones used to seed clouds

  07-10-2026 09:09 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Cloud seeding is gaining attention as countries look to boost rainfall - will drones help?
  
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• Braid-creator Jonathan Blow on making the 'biggest puzzle game ever'

  07-10-2026 01:01 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Order of the Sinking Star is due out on Thursday and has roughly 1,500 puzzles for players to try
  
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• Asos confirms hackers sent 'unauthorised' notification to app users

  06-10-2026 19:50 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Asos confirmed an "unauthorised customer notification" was sent out via its app on Tuesday, after users raised alarm.
  
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• Finland orders halt to work on two Google data centres

  06-10-2026 19:15 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The order affecting two planned data centres follows concerns over forest clearance.
  
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• Weight-loss drugs show signs of slowing biological aging, say drugmakers

  06-10-2026 18:40 via technologyreview.com
  
  Popular weight-loss drugs may do more than help people shed pounds. They might also melt away the years.Drug giants Eli Lilly and Novo Nordisk say patients taking their drugs age less quickly, according to readouts from molecular “aging clocks.”Such clocks assess a person’s biological age by looking at changes to DNA that accumulate with time, or, in newer versions, by tracking levels of key proteins.Both companies found that overweight or diabetic patients taking the drugs, ca
  
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