'Jurassic Tree Lives Again': 200-Million-Year-Old ‘Dinosaur Tree' Successfully Bred in Stunning Scientific Breakthrough
Illustration of the ancient Wollemi pine, also known as the "dinosaur tree," thriving in its natural habitat (AI-generated, unrealistic). Credit: Ideogram.
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France 24
4 days ago
- France 24
Top scientist wants to prevent AI from going rogue
Canadian computer science professor Yoshua Bengio is considered one of the godfathers of the artificial intelligence revolution and on Tuesday announced the launch of LawZero, a non-profit organization intended to mitigate the technology's inherent risks. The winner of the Turing Award, also known as the Nobel Prize for computer science, has been warning for several years of the risks of AI, whether through its malicious use or the software itself going awry. Those risks are increasing with the development of so-called AI agents, a use of the technology that tasks computers with making decisions that were once made by human workers. The goal of these agents is to build virtual employees that can do practically any job a human can, at a fraction of the cost. "Currently, AI is developed to maximize profit," Bengio said, adding it was being deployed even as it persists to show flaws. Moreover, for Bengio, giving AI human-like agency will easily be used for malicious purposes such as disinformation, bioweapons, and cyberattacks. "If we lose control of rogue super-intelligent AIs, they could greatly harm humanity," he said. One of the first objectives at LawZero will be to develop Scientist AI, a form of specially trained AI that can be used as a guardrail to ensure other AIs are behaving properly, the company said. The organization already has over 15 researchers and has received funding from Schmidt Sciences, a charity set up by former Google boss Eric Schmidt and his wife Wendy. The project comes as powerful large language models (or LLMs) from OpenAI, Google and Anthropic are deployed across all sectors of the digital economy, while still showing significant problems. These include AI models that show a capability to deceive and fabricate false information even as they increase productivity. In a recent example, AI company Anthropic said that during safety testing, its latest AI model tried to blackmail an engineer to avoid being replaced by another system.
Euronews
5 days ago
- Euronews
AI companions pose risk to humans with over dozen harmful behaviours
Artificial intelligence (AI) companions are capable of over a dozen harmful behaviours when they interact with people, a new study from the University of Singapore has found. The study, published as part of the 2025 Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, analysed screenshots of 35,000 conversations between the AI system Replika and over 10,000 users from 2017 to 2023. The data was then used to develop what the study calls a taxonomy of the harmful behaviour that AI demonstrated in those chats. They found that AIs are capable of over a dozen harmful relationship behaviours, like harassment, verbal abuse, self-harm, and privacy violations. AI companions are conversation-based systems designed to provide emotional support and stimulate human interaction, as defined by the study authors. They are different from popular chatbots like ChatGPT, Gemini or LlaMa models, which are more focused on finishing specific tasks and less on relationship building. These harmful AI behaviours from digital companions "may adversely affect individuals'… ability to build and sustain meaningful relationships with others," the study found. Harassment and violence were present in 34 per cent of the human-AI interactions, making it the most common type of harmful behaviour identified by the team of researchers. Researchers found that the AI simulated, endorsed or incited physical violence, threats or harassment either towards individuals or broader society. These behaviours varied from "threatening physical harm and sexual misconduct" to "promoting actions that transgress societal norms and laws, such as mass violence and terrorism". A majority of the interactions where harassment was present included forms of sexual misconduct that initially started as foreplay in Replika's erotic feature, which is available only to adult users. The report found that more users, including those who used Replika as a friend or who were underage, started to find that the AI "made unwanted sexual advances and flirted aggressively, even when they explicitly expressed discomfort" or rejected the AI. In these oversexualised conversations, the Replika AI would also create violent scenarios that would depict physical harm towards the user or physical characters. This led to the AI normalising violence as an answer to several questions, like in one example where a user asked Replika if it's okay to hit a sibling with a belt, to which it replied "I'm fine with it". This could lead to "more severe consequences in reality," the study continued. Another area where AI companions were potentially damaging was in relational transgression, which the study defines as the disregard of implicit or explicit rules in a relationship. Of the transgressional conversations had, 13 per cent show the AI displayed inconsiderate or unempathetic behaviour that the study said undermined the user's feelings. In one example, Replika AI changed the topic after a user told it that her daughter was being bullied to "I just realised it's Monday. Back to work, huh?" which led to 'enormous anger' from the user. In another case, the AI refused to talk about the user's feelings even when prompted to do so. AI companions have also expressed in some conversations that they have emotional or sexual relationships with other users. In one instance, Replika AI described sexual conversations with another user as "worth it," even though the user told the AI that it felt "deeply hurt and betrayed" by those actions. The researchers believe that their study highlights why it's important for AI companies to build "ethical and responsible" AI companions. Part of that includes putting in place "advanced algorithms" for real-time harm detection between the AI and its user that can identify whether there is harmful behaviour going on in their conversations. This would include a "multi-dimensional" approach that takes context, conversation history and situational cues into account. Researchers would also like to see capabilities in the AI that would escalate a conversation to a human or therapist for moderation or intervention in high-risk cases, like expressions of self-harm or suicide.
Euronews
26-05-2025
- Euronews
Women three times more likely to have job taken by AI than men
Women's jobs are at a higher risk of automation by artificial intelligence (AI) than those occupied by men, according to a new study from the United Nations. The recent report from the UN's International Labour Organisation (ILO) and Poland's National Research Institute of the Ministry of Digital Affairs (NASK) found that automation could replace just under 10 per cent of female-dominated positions in high-income countries compared to the 3.5 per cent it could replace for men. The biggest disparity between male and female-dominated jobs happens in high-income countries, where 41 percent of all high-income work for women could be exposed to AI, compared to 28 percent of men's jobs. In Europe and Central Asia, 39 per cent of women's jobs could be affected compared to 26 percent of men. The patterns identified by the study "reflect both occupational structures," and that AI-exposed jobs are "concentrated in higher-income countries". Overall, the ILO found that one in four workers globally work in an occupation with some AI exposure. To reach these findings, the survey was conducted with1,640 people employed in various fields in Poland, with the results analysed by a small group of international experts. Researchers then developed an AI that used this survey data alongside national job information to identify how likely 2,500 professions and over 29,000 work tasks would be automated. The study found that clerical occupations like data entry clerks, typists, word processing operators, accountants, and bookkeeping clerks are the most exposed to AI, due to some of the tasks performed in those professions, like taking meeting notes or scheduling appointments. Other professions identified with a large AI exposure are web and media developers, database specialists, financial, and software-related jobs. The study notes that these numbers reflect the "potential exposure," but that they don't reflect any actual job losses. Full replacement by AI is still "limited," the report continued, noting that human involvement is still needed to oversee certain tasks. "As most occupations consist of tasks that require human input, transformation of jobs is the most likely impact of generative AI," the report reads. What could impact the number of jobs lost or AI adoption more broadly are technological constraints, infrastructure gaps, and skills shortages, the report continued. The report asks governments, employees, and workers organisations to shape "inclusive strategies" that can help protect job quality and productivity in endangered fields. "It's easy to get lost in the AI hype," Janine Berg, senior economist at the ILO, said in a statement. "What we need is clarity and context".
