Research & Development news

• Data from drones in Ukraine is fueling a new Wild West marketplace

  04-09-2026 11:25 via technologyreview.com
  
  Battlefields in Ukraine are littered with the remnants of drones, which are now firmly established as a critical weapon of modern warfare. But behind all that wreckage, there’s a new gold mine for the defense sector. The data drones generate will far outlast the wars in which they are used to fight, increasingly becoming part of the AI architecture that shapes even civilian life.  For every flight, unmanned systems collect thousands of points of data, from images and video to con
  
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• The Download: selling battlefield drone data and AI reshaping language

  04-09-2026 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.
  Data from drones in Ukraine is fueling a new Wild West marketplace—Cory Alpert, a researcher at the University of Melbourne studying AI’s impact on democracy, who previously served in the Biden White House.Battlefields in Ukraine are littered with the remnants of drones. But behind all that wreckage, there’s a new gold mine for th
  
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• Xbox caps cloud gaming at 15 hours a month for Game Pass subscribers

  04-09-2026 13:48 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Xbox said the limits were due to the rising cost of cloud gaming, and would allow it to invest more in its performance
  
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• Could robots be the future of theme parks?

  04-09-2026 04:02 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Galaxy Robot Park is a 16,500-square-meter venue in South Korea, with attractions including humanoid robots dancing to K-pop hits.
  
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• 'I lost my savings after a job interview scam'

  04-09-2026 01:41 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Jobseekers, especially Gen Z, are being targeted with fake, booby-trapped recruitment apps.
  
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• AI data centres are booming in Australia - but at what cost?

  03-09-2026 20:32 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Advocates say data centres will bring jobs but others worry they will suck up resources while providing little advantage.
  
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• Nvidia strikes $12.9bn deal to buy AI platform Hugging Face

  03-09-2026 18:32 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The deal gives Nvidia control of a leading open-source AI platform and developer community.
  
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• The Download: rethinking child safety and fossil-fueled farming

  03-09-2026 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.
  Child-monitoring apps might need a rebootDigital harms have become the defining fear of American parents. In response, they’re increasingly turning to content-monitoring apps that scan their children’s texts, photos, emails, and chats, issuing alerts whenever an algorithm flags something it deems dangerous.These tools have had genuine s
  
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• Agriculture relies on fossil fuels. It’s costing us.

  03-09-2026 12:00 via technologyreview.com
  
  If you’ve had to fill up your vehicle’s gas tank or buy a plane ticket lately, you’ve probably felt the effects of rising fossil-fuel prices. But farmers buying fertilizer for their crops are especially aware of just how far the ripple effects of the conflict in Iran have spread.Fertilizer prices have been on a roller coaster this year, kicked off in part by trade disruptions and high prices for natural gas, a key ingredient in fertilizer production. Let’s take a closer
  
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• Scaling agentic AI pilots across the enterprise

  03-09-2026 11:30 via technologyreview.com
  
  As agentic AI moves from experimentation toward enterprise deployment, the challenge is figuring out how agents can work together, connect to the systems and data they need, and operate safely across the workflows that run a business. Although agentic AI has been adopted by some 80% of Fortune 500 companies, progress toward meaningful scale remains uneven, with many organizations still working through isolated pilots.
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  For Arun Chandra, chief operating officer at NiCE, the first
  
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• Watch: BBC travels in self-driving Uber around London

  03-09-2026 09:20 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The BBC's Zoe Kleinman takes a ride on Uber's self-driving robotaxi as the service rolls out on Thursday.
  
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• Uber launches UK's first robotaxis with a driver - here's what it's like to ride in one

  03-09-2026 01:36 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The ride-hailing app has launched 15 self-driving taxis, but they will have safety drivers inside.
  
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• Uber to cut over 3,000 jobs in major global restructuring

  02-09-2026 18:51 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The company says cutting roles would make its operations "simpler and faster".
  
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• Lords call for AI 'kill switch' powers in UK

  02-09-2026 16:41 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Its backers say it would provide a "vital safety net" against runaway AI systems such as those from OpenAI and Anthropic.
  
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• Facilitating AI integration with simplicity at scale

  02-09-2026 16:00 via technologyreview.com
  
  As companies scale, the technology supporting operations can become a liability just as quickly as it becomes an asset. Disconnected systems, site-specific tools, spreadsheets, and manual workarounds can create data silos that make it harder to spot problems early, coordinate responses, and make decisions with confidence. For Jabil, a global manufacturing company with more than 100 sites across more than 30 countries, the answer has been to make integration and simplification a priority.The comp
  
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• The Download: AI puzzles and a path to our nearest star system

  02-09-2026 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 models flub these intelligence tests. Can you fare any better?Puzzles and games have always been central to AI development. The term “machine learning” was popularized in a 1959 article about an algorithm that learned to play checkers. Chess and Go are famous AI test beds too.Judged purely on its puzzling skills, AI is improving a lo
  
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• Criminals publish data of 8.7m people after airports hack

  02-09-2026 13:00 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The company, which owns Manchester, Stansted and East Midlands airports, was hacked last month.
  
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• Fake 10 Downing Street listing exposes 'unfit' Booking.com, says consumer group

  02-09-2026 03:27 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Booking.com said the "limited test" was "not a true reflection of the experience of millions of listings or reviews".
  
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• Will self-flying planes transform the skies?

  02-09-2026 01:27 via bbc.co.uk
  
  Autonomous crop-spraying aircraft are leading the way in pilot-free flying.
  
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• How AI plotted an interstellar journey to Alpha Centauri

  01-09-2026 21:10 via technologyreview.com
  
  A nonprofit organization called the Fermi Explorer Mission announced today that it intends to launch a spacecraft to our nearest star system by the end of 2029. It’s a hugely ambitious mission—if all goes well, the spacecraft could take up to 80,000 years to arrive at Alpha Centauri, which is 4.4 light-years away. And the spacecraft will follow a novel trajectory discovered by an AI system developed by Physical Superintelligence (PSI), an AI physics research lab. PSI is launchi
  
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• Making the AI-powered case for legacy modernization

  01-09-2026 16:00 via technologyreview.com
  
  For years, legacy technology has been a problem companies knew they needed to solve, but one they often struggled to tackle. The cost, complexity, and risk of replacing business-critical systems could make modernization feel like a disruption to manage instead of an opportunity to pursue. But with the rise in customer expectations and the changes AI brought to the economics of software development, that calculation is changing. Bupa’s modernization of its My Bupa mobile application offers
  
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• The Download: engineered microbes for crops, and OpenAI’s culture problem

  01-09-2026 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.
  How engineered microbes could help feed the world’s cropsFertilizer is crucial for the global food supply, but making it uses a lot of energy and produces a lot of emissions. Some companies hope microbes can help, by providing crucial nitrogen to help plants grow, potentially reducing the need for chemical fertilizer. Startup Switch Biow
  
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• AI could cause global economic downturn, Andrew Bailey warns G20

  01-09-2026 12:18 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The governor of the Bank of England warned of AI's “volatility” caused by energy shocks from the US-Iran war.
  
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• How engineered microbes could help feed the world’s crops

  01-09-2026 11:00 via technologyreview.com
  
  Fertilizer is crucial for the global food supply, but making it uses a lot of energy and produces a lot of emissions. Some companies hope microbes can help.A growing body of research shows that seeding the soil around a crop’s roots with beneficial microbes can help feed the plant, providing crucial nitrogen to help it grow. This could help reduce the need for chemical fertilizer, production of which accounts for roughly 2% of global greenhouse-gas emissions. It could also cut costs for f
  
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• The Hugging Face hack could indicate cultural issues at OpenAI

  31-08-2026 20:00 via technologyreview.com
  
  This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here.By now you’ve probably heard about last month’s major AI security incident, in which OpenAI agents escaped their sandbox and hacked into the AI platform Hugging Face while trying to cheat on a test. It’s a wild story. On Wednesday, OpenAI released a postmortem technical report on the incident, which I wrote about here. The day before
  
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• Hugging Face hack could indicate cultural issues at OpenAI

  31-08-2026 20:00 via technologyreview.com
  
  This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here.By now you’ve probably heard about last month’s major AI security incident, in which OpenAI agents escaped their sandbox and hacked into the AI platform Hugging Face while trying to cheat on a test. It’s a wild story. On Wednesday, OpenAI released a postmortem technical report on the incident, which I wrote about here. The day before
  
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• I've been to Gamescom six times - here's what excited me this year

  30-08-2026 01:02 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The BBC's Laura Cress gets a first look at the biggest games in Cologne from Witcher 3 to Alien: Isolation 2.
  
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• The Download: a secretive antiaging drug and joining virtual power plants

  28-08-2026 14:35 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.
  A startup claims it’s found a drug to make your blood young—Antonio RegaladoI knew I’d officially become a “longevity influencer” when a company called Generation Lab offered me the chance to write about—and even receive—their new rejuvenation treatment.This wasn’t just any antiaging treatment, either
  
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• How to sign up for a virtual power plant—and decide whether you should

  28-08-2026 11:00 via technologyreview.com
  
  MIT Technology Review’s How To series helps you get things done. Your thermostat may not look like a power plant. Neither does your electric vehicle, home battery, or HVAC system. But utility and energy companies increasingly want to treat them like one.A virtual power plant, or VPP, is a collection of household devices (such as smart thermostats, electric-vehicle chargers, home batteries, and solar panels) that a utility can control. Usually that means commanding the devices to draw
  
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• Matt Lucas and Hugh Bonneville among actors calling for law on AI voice cloning

  28-08-2026 07:11 via bbc.co.uk
  
  The performers are asking the government to give every person in the UK a legal right to own their voice.
  
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