Stories by Lauren Leffer

Engineers and paleontologists teamed up to reconstruct an ancestor of starfish from the Paleozoic era and figure out how it moved

Virtual meetings and video calls don’t quite stack up to in-person interaction—and a new study proves it

A new executive order signed this week sets the stage for federal AI standards and requirements and moves beyond previous voluntary agreements with AI companies

To improve machine learning, the answer might be taking a different approach to robot education rather than just feeding models more data

People may learn from and replicate the skewed perspective of an artificial intelligence algorithm, and they carry this bias beyond their interactions with the AI

In the rush to build and train ever larger AI models, developers have swept up much of the searchable Internet, quite possibly including some of your own public data—and potentially some of your private data as well.

Companies are training their generative AI models on vast swathes of the Internet—and there’s no real way to stop them

Powering artificial intelligence models takes a lot of energy. A new analysis demonstrates just how big the problem could become

New “multimodal” AI programs can do much more than respond to text—they also analyze images and chat aloud

We present the latest updates on ChatGPT, Bard and other competitors in the artificial intelligence arms race.

Rapid advances in generative artificial intelligence have prompted big questions about the future of work and even human creativity. Experts have suggestions for how to manage all these unknowns

Controversial policy proposals such as the Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA) are making headway across the country, but there are other ways to help protect young people in the digital world

Here’s why disasters like Libya’s dam collapses happen and how to prevent them

Drivers may sacrifice safety and privacy in exchange for the advanced tech features in their “smart” cars

Self-driving cars are expanding their ranges in a handful of U.S. cities, but the reality doesn’t yet match the hype

Standard AC units cool buildings but contribute to global warming. New technology aims to change that

AI can generate clear, concise text—but people still need to learn how to write

One of the most in-depth catalogs of an animal’s brain-body connections ever compiled ties neural activity to roundworm behavior

The rise and fall of LK-99 offers a lesson on how to consider technology’s role in urgently needed energy transitions

From college plagiarism to cybercrime scams, generative AI is eroding trust in online content. Digital watermarking is no quick fix for the problem

More training and more data can have unintended consequences for machine-learning models such as GPT-4

Motion capture and detailed face scans allow TV and film production teams to replicate a performer’s likeness. Generative AI is making the process faster and easier