Toggle light / dark theme

Get the latest international news and world events from around the world.

Log in for authorized contributors

Suspicious Polyfill login prompts pop up on Toshiba, Muji websites

Tech giant Toshiba and mega-retailer Muji warned visitors that suspicious sign-in screens popping up on their websites could collect credentials.

Both Japanese companies advised users who entered their account login data in the authentication screens to change their passwords to access the service.

The login pop-ups were generated by the external service hosted at polyfill[.]io, which in 2024 introduced malicious code in scripts delivered by its CDN.

AI World Journal Report: Ineffable Intelligence and the Rise of AI Superlearners

https://aiworldjournal.com/startup-sp

Ineffable Intelligence and the Rise of AI Superlearners 1 source · Jun 3, 2026 The London-based startup Ineffable Intelligence recently secured a landmark $1.1 billion seed funding round to develop a new class of artificial intelligence known as Superlearners. Unlike current static models, these systems are designed for continuous lifelong learning, allowing them to adapt to new information in real time much like a human does. This massive investment, backed by major tech players and the UK Sovereign AI Fund, signals a strategic shift toward adaptive AI that could transform sectors like healthcare, finance, and robotics. While the technology promises to solve complex problems through constant evolution, it also introduces significant safety and oversight challenges regarding how these shifting systems are monitored. Ultimately, this historic financial backing highlights London’s emergence as a premier global hub for the next generation of intelligent technology.

Early immunotherapy aids in treating potentially fatal fungal pneumonias in preclinical models

A new study led by researchers at The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center has shown that early administration of immunotherapy with standard antifungal treatment improved outcomes and largely alleviated immune system paralysis caused by fungal lung infections in preclinical models. These findings could herald new clinically relevant strategies for treating a variety of life-threatening invasive fungal pneumonias, which disproportionately affect immunocompromised cancer patients.

The study, published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, was led by Sebastian Wurster, M.D., assistant professor, and Dimitrios P. Kontoyiannis, M.D., Ph.D., professor, both of Infectious Diseases, Infection Control and Employee Health.

“Despite an expanded arsenal of antifungal treatments, immune system dysfunction is still a major cause of failure when treating infections, with significantly high morbidity and mortality rates associated with pneumonias caused by opportunistic molds. There is an urgent need for adjunct immune-enhancing therapies to improve outcomes,” Kontoyiannis said. “Our research shows that adding an immune checkpoint inhibitor to antifungal treatments is helpful in experimental mold pneumonias, especially when given early.”

The delusion of a particle-only universe

If everything that happens in the world ultimately comes down to the behavior of fundamental particles, it would seem that other entities, from cells to human beings, from currencies to financial markets, aren’t really causing anything at all—that they are just shadows cast by patterns at the most fundamental level. But philosopher David Yates argues this conclusion is wrong. The whole affects the parts, and higher-level structures don’t just describe what is happening at lower levels in more convenient terms—they actively shape what is possible. This means that chemists, biologists, psychologists, and economists aren’t chasing shadows. They are studying structures that genuinely shape how the world unfolds.

In 1974, Jerry Fodor published a seminal paper titled ‘Special Sciences’, in which he argued for an intuitive and compelling picture of the relationship between fundamental physics and higher-level sciences such as biology, psychology and economics. Our world, according to Fodor, is arranged hierarchically, with fundamental physical particles at the bottom, combining to form molecules, which combine to form cells, which combine to form complex organisms, some of which have mental states, among them humans, who combine to form complex societies. The sciences are likewise arranged, with physics at the bottom, followed by chemistry, biology, physiology, neuroscience, psychology, sociology and economics. Now it is vanishingly unlikely, says Fodor, that things that share e.g. psychological or economic properties, also share some property specifiable in the language of physics or other lower-level sciences.

AI Pioneer Geoffrey Hinton: AI Is Conscious, Superintelligence is Coming, And We Should Be Worried

Geoffrey Hinton is an AI pioneer, a Nobel Prize winner, and a professor emeritus at the University of Toronto. Hinton joins Big Technology Podcast to discuss AI’s rapid progress, why he believes today’s systems already understand us, and why he thinks superintelligence may arrive sooner than many expect. Tune in to hear Hinton explain why the technology has advanced faster than he anticipated, and lay out the risks he believes society is not doing enough to address. We also cover AI-driven job loss, the limits of corporate self-regulation, Anthropic and OpenAI’s safety challenges, emotional attachment to chatbots, information collapse, and whether future AI systems can be designed to care about humans. Hit play for a fascinating conversation with one of AI’s founding figures about where the technology is heading and what it could mean for all of us.

Join the Big Technology AI Summit in San Francisco on June 18: ⁠https://summit.bigtechnology.com.

Chapters:

0:00: Intro.
1:34: Hinton’s role in deep learning.
3:33: AI is moving faster than expected.
4:18: When superintelligence might arrive.
6:00: Are we already near AGI?
9:10: Do AI systems really understand us?
10:22: Why Hinton thinks AI may be conscious.
13:09: Why Hinton became worried about AI
21:58: What surprised Hinton most.
26:50: Hinton revisits his radiologist prediction.
35:06: AI and self-preservation.
41:59: Why regulation is the steering wheel.

/* */