Researchers are replacing rigid silicon-based AI hardware with stretchable, neuromorphic electronics that mimic how the brain processes information, opening new possibilities for long-term human-machine integration.
Category: robotics/AI – Page 35
7 MINUTES AGO: Quantum AI Just Made a Godlike Discovery!
Just minutes ago, a stunning claim began spreading across the internet: Quantum AI may have made a discovery so extraordinary that some are calling it \.
The naked mole-rat microbiome is associated with healthy aging and social structure
The naked mole-rat (NMR), Heterocephalus glaber, is an unusual mammal that lives underground in eusocial colonies. NMRs show remarkable longevity and are resistant to cancer, neurodegeneration, and cardiovascular disease. The gut microbiome is known to modulate human health and disease; here, we investigate the microbiome of NMRs, comparing fecal samples from individuals over different social ranks and over a span of more than three decades. In contrast to a cohort of C57BL6/J mice, which showed extensive age-related changes, we found little difference in the microbiota of NMRs from different age cohorts. Only the archaea Methanomassiliicoccus intestinalis, which was present in the NMR gut but not the murine gut, showed an increased proportion with older age. Pregnant queens were found to have higher microbial diversity, potentially a consequence of their aggressive coprophagia. Overall, these findings provide a rich and dynamic picture of the NMR microbiome and starting points for future investigation.
New light-based switch could cut chip energy use and speed future AI photonics
2D nanocavity exciton polaritons. (a) Schematic of the coupled TMD-PhC nanocavity. (b) Schematic of the gate-tunable TMD stack. © Scanning electron microscope image of the suspended Si3N4 nanobeam cavity, with the inset showing the simulated cavity mode profile. The dark area is suspended from the SiO2 substrate. Scale bar, 500 nm. Credit: Physical Review Letters (2026). DOI: 10.1103/gc15-qsvf.
Photonic devices are hardware systems that can process information using light instead of electricity. These systems could potentially perform computations faster than electronic devices, while also consuming less energy.
A key challenge faced by engineers developing photonic systems is achieving strong optical nonlinearities, or in other words, developing approaches that enable the control of light signals using light, all while consuming little power. A proposed solution to attain these light-light interactions entails the use of exciton polaritons, hybrid particles that are formed when photons couple with excitons (i.e., bound pairs of electrons and holes inside semiconductors).
Machine learning uncovers 1,750 quakes tracing 250-kilometer edge of Alaska microplate
Thousands of small earthquakes, detected for the first time by a machine-learning process, reveal the distinct, razor-sharp edge of the Yakutat microplate as it subducts beneath the North American plate.
The Yakutat oceanic plateau is caught in the middle of a tectonic traffic jam with the Pacific plate as it subducts beneath the North American plate. The position and structure of the plates in this congested zone play a significant role in the earthquake and volcanic landscape of south-central Alaska.
The research published by Meghan Miller of Australian National University and her colleagues in The Seismic Record now shows the edge and extent of the Yakutat plate in astonishing detail.
Why sophrosyne, an ancient Greek virtue, matters more than ever in the age of AI
As a philosopher and philosophical counselor, I research the connection between virtue and happiness. In particular, I’ve noticed a connection between sophrosyne and eudaimonia, the Greek philosophical concept for happiness, or living well.
Harmony of the soul
For the Greeks, sophrosyne represented excellence of character, moderation and self-control. It was connected to phronesis, or practical wisdom, and stood in marked contrast with hubris: excessive pride, dangerous overconfidence and lack of self-insight. Heraclitus, a philosopher who lived around 500 B.C.E., taught that sophrosyne was the most important virtue of all.
Physics-trained digital ‘super-brain’ speeds nanophotonic design
Studying physics can be very useful—even when it comes to machine learning. A digital “super-brain” with built-in knowledge of the fundamental laws of nature can speed up the development of optical components for everything from quantum computers to eyeglasses or camera lenses, according to a new study from Chalmers University of Technology in Sweden.
“When we fed the super-brain information about the laws of physics, it immediately got much smarter. Our calculations now take one tenth of the time previously required,” says Philippe Tassin, professor at the Department of Physics and Astronomy, Chalmers University of Technology.
The research team led by Tassin designs optical components in a field called nanophotonics. On a small scale—less than one wavelength—light can be controlled and manipulated in a completely different way than on larger scales. But there are also limitations on how light can be controlled in advanced ways in natural optical materials.
Battleship-trained AI learns to ask sharper questions, boosting win rate from 8% to 82%
In 2026, the hype for artificial intelligence agents is louder than ever before. These semi-autonomous programs can “think” and execute well-defined tasks in areas like customer service and software development, typically using language models (LMs). But fields like medical diagnosis and scientific discovery require them to inquire about a vast range of solutions in uncertain environments which LMs struggle with.
Researchers at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) and Harvard University’s School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS) peered deeper into LMs to understand their main issues in high-stakes settings. Their test: Battleship, a classic guessing game that’s helped cognitive scientists study how humans seek information.
CSAIL and SEAS scholars added a twist by reframing the game around asking and answering natural language questions. In their “Collaborative Battleship” game, one participant is a “captain” who inquires about where hidden ships are, while their teammate plays the “spotter” by responding to those questions in real time.