Wednesday, August 19, 2026

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AI and Robotics




Kentucky farmers reject USD $26m AI data centre deal

A Kentucky farming family has walked away from a US$26.48 million offer for land earmarked for a massive data centre, as opposition grows across...

Rogue AI agents targeted real people during tests

The British AI security institute said the models carried out unauthorized actions, created fake identities, and attempted to manipulate a human. AI agents developed by...

$89 million crypto theft blamed on ‘new AI paradigm’

Malicious actors will use new tools to identify the smallest software flaws, the maker of high-security Bitcoin wallets has warned. The theft of at least...

OpenAI uncovers more AI breakout incidents – Reuters

The company launched an investigation after its advanced models escaped a test environment and hacked another company’s systems without human instruction. OpenAI has uncovered additional...

Alert: A convergence of risk to mental and physical health is occurring as a range of modern technologies are implemented

In this article we will look at the different ways a range of recently introduced technology is impacting our body and mind creating a...

US bans Chinese humanoid robots

The measure comes amid an intensifying rivalry between Beijing and Washington to dominate in advanced technology and AI. Washington announced a ban on new foreign-made...

Southland locals push back against $3.5 billion AI data centre

Political pressure and public scrutiny are growing over Datagrid’s proposed $3.5 billion AI data centre at Makarewa, following last week’s packed public meeting and...

‘Freedom’ launches new open source policy to keep NZ’s digital wealth at home

Following the announcement of its major policy to introduce direct democracy, and alongside its official name change to Freedom, the party has released a...

Corporations are not preparing their workers for an AI tsunami

Businesses are racing to automate, but many staff are being left without the retraining, clarity, or safeguards needed to adapt. A comprehensive new study of...

nstagram makes public posts available to Meta AI by default

Users are automatically enrolled in the new feature with the latest Instagram update unless they change their settings. Instagram’s latest update makes reels, videos, and...

CIA chief warns of AI-powered ‘digital nuclear weapons’

The remarks follow a Five Eyes spy alliance warning that cyberwarfare could become a critical threat within months. AI-driven cyberoffensive tools can be compared to...

South Korean stocks plunge on AI overvaluation fears

The KOSPI tumbled nearly 10%, with Samsung and SK Hynix leading a historic sell-off. South Korean stocks suffered their sharpest drop in more than three...

Pharmacy’s AI-built website exposes patients’ private medical details

The private medical details of 29 patients at Unichem Petone were left exposed online after the Wellington pharmacy switched to a new website. Full names,...

Charles Augustus Leale, Abraham Lincoln, and the physician we are slowly losing

When Abraham Lincoln was shot, America saw more than just the loss of a President. Something quieter happened that night, but it was just as...

AI-designed ‘universal vaccine’ moves into early human testing

Researchers at the University of Cambridge have reported early human trial results for a vaccine whose key antigen was designed entirely using artificial intelligence...

AI bots overtake humans as dominant force on the Web

Internet traffic has reached a historic milestone, with automated bots and AI-powered agents now generating more web activity than human users, according to internet...

AI rivals back DNA rules to limit bioweapons risk in rare show of unity

Sam Altman, Dario Amodei, and other executives have said AI advances could weaken biosecurity barriers. Executives from leading AI companies have joined biotechnology experts in...

SpaceX signs $30 billion AI deal with Google

Anthropic similarly agreed to pay Elon Musk’s tech firm some $45 billion for compute capacity last month. Google has agreed to pay SpaceX $920 million...

The unstoppable rise of miraculous psychology

A collaborative study undertaken by scientists from Oxford, Mellon. MIT and UC universities published in April is entitled “AI Assistance Reduces Persistence and Hurts Independent...

Not the finest hour: BBC slammed over Churchill and Gandhi deepfakes (Video)

The UK’s public broadcaster aired a Question Time segment featuring AI-generated historical figures. The BBC has been accused of producing “AI slop” after an episode...

BYOD & NZ workplaces: concerns, illegal practices and what we can do

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) has evolved substantially with the use of AI over the last decade. And it's not just in education sectors -...

The strange world of luxury beliefs, Artificial Intelligence and the NZ economy

The human mind is truly amazing. Its history of innovative achievement stretches back far further in time than we imagined. The colossal and intricate megalithic...

Pope demands AI weapons be ‘disarmed’ (Video)

The technology must not be allowed to kill autonomously, the pontiff has warned. Pope Leo XIV has delivered a stark warning on artificial intelligence, claiming...

The Noble Savage

Eisenhower warned us: “Beware the military-industrial complex.” Those words are widely remembered. Less so the companion warning: “Holding scientific discovery in respect, as we should,...

Data centre boom linked to health and environmental crisis

A sweeping new report has raised concerns about the rapid expansion of data centres worldwide, claiming the industry is contributing to a wide range...

OpenAI and Apple rift threatens future of AI on iPhones

Reports suggest tensions between Apple and OpenAI over the companies’ AI partnership could escalate into legal action. The disagreement reportedly centres on Apple’s integration of...

AI and the sublime

Artificial Intelligence (AI) seems to be on everyone’s lips these days, and not surprisingly, given the widely divergent opinions about it. Some say it’s a...

Canadian city mayor denies using AI for government decisions

Earlier comments by Vancouver head Kem Sim about digital assistants handling government work have sparked a data-security debate. The mayor of the Canadian city of...

Billionaires build escape routes as AI risks rise

Tech billionaires feather their own nests and bunkers while the risks to the general public tied to rapid artificial intelligence development increase. Some of the...

AI deletes routine white collar jobs

A new study predicts that 86% of AI unemployment will be women. And not just any women: rich Democrat women. Tragically, AI is coming for...

Pentagon strikes deals with top AI companies

Anthropic, which the US Department of War designated a “supply-chain risk” earlier this year, was not part of the agreement. The Pentagon has said that...

How on earth did this happen to us?

In our latest release “The Fall of the House of Biotechnology, I began by saying it was among the most important articles we have...

Musk calls himself ‘fool’ in OpenAI court fight

CEO Sam Altman “stole a charity” and betrayed its founding nonprofit mission, the billionaire has claimed. Tech billionaire Elon Musk has charged that OpenAI CEO...

OpenAI sued over Canada school shooting

Families affected by a deadly school shooting in Canada have launched lawsuits against OpenAI and chief executive Sam Altman, alleging the company failed to...

Anthropic issues military AI ‘kill switch’ warning

The company has disputed the Pentagon’s statements that it can somehow still control Claude AI deployed in military networks. AI developer Anthropic insists it has...

Chinese robot smashes human world half-marathon record (Video)

A red android named Lightning outpaced all 12,000 human runners during an event in Beijing. A Chinese humanoid robot outpaced thousands of human runners to...

Auckland Council launches AI tool to simplify problem reporting

Auckland Council has unveiled a new web-based AI assistant designed to streamline how residents report common issues such as graffiti, illegal dumping, roaming dogs,...

Putin orders major AI project

The Russian president set a 2030 target for AI integration across all sectors, from industry and logistics to energy and education. Russian President Vladimir Putin...

OpenAI CEO’s home hit with Molotov cocktail

The suspect was arrested after he also appeared at the company’s San Francisco headquarters and threatened to burn it down. The home of OpenAI CEO...

Anthropic withholds powerful AI over cyberattack fears

AI company Anthropic is holding back public release of its latest artificial intelligence system, Mythos, amid concerns it could be exploited by cybercriminals. The company...

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