Low-quality AI-generated content is now saturating social media – and generating about $117m a year, data shows More than 20% of the videos that YouTube’s algorithm shows to new users are “AI slop” – low-quality… Read more: More than 20% of videos shown to new YouTube users are ‘AI slop’, study finds

Flood of unreality is an endpoint of algorithm-driven internet and product of an economy dependent on a few top tech firms In the algorithm-driven economy of 2025, one man’s shrimp Jesus is another man’s side… Read more: From shrimp Jesus to erotic tractors: how viral AI slop took over the internet

A newly identified region on Mars may hold the key to future human landings. Researchers found evidence of water ice less than a meter beneath the surface, close enough to be harvested for water, oxygen,… Read more: Scientists may have found the best place for humans to land on Mars

Researchers have discovered how cells activate a last-resort DNA repair system when severe damage strikes. When genetic tangles overwhelm normal repair pathways, cells flip on a fast but error-prone emergency fix that helps them survive.… Read more: Cancer cells depend on a dangerous DNA repair trick

Neutrinos may be nearly invisible, but they play a starring role in the Universe. Long-standing anomalies had hinted at a mysterious fourth “sterile” neutrino, potentially rewriting the laws of physics. Using exquisitely precise measurements of… Read more: Physicists close in on the elusive sterile neutrino

UBC Okanagan researchers have uncovered how plants create mitraphylline, a rare natural compound linked to anti-cancer effects. By identifying two key enzymes that shape and twist molecules into their final form, the team solved a… Read more: A rare cancer-fighting plant compound has finally been decoded

Stanford scientists have uncovered how mRNA COVID-19 vaccines can very rarely trigger heart inflammation in young men — and how that risk might be reduced. They found that the vaccines can spark a two-step immune… Read more: Stanford scientists uncover why mRNA COVID vaccines can trigger heart inflammation

The backlash against AI invading almost every aspect of the computing experience is growing by the day. Particularly as an onslaught of lazy AI slop subsuming news feeds, the tech is starting to feel like… Read more: After Outcry, Firefox Promises “Kill Switch” That Turns Off All AI Features

Welcome to a special holiday edition of the Abstract! It’s been an incredible year for science, from breakthroughs in life-saving organ transplants  to the discovery of 3I ATLAS, the third known interstellar object. But we… Read more: Scientists May Have Spotted Light from the First Stars

We think of large language models as logic machines, immune to the psychological traps that ensnare humans. They follow instructions, generate text, make decisions based on learned patterns. They shouldn’t be vulnerable to something like… Read more: Can Large Language Models Develop Gambling Addiction?

For the tech of the future, generative AI sure is making a lot of enemies in a very short time. If 2023 was the year of AI’s awakening and 2024 the year of its frantic… Read more: AI Backlash Grew Massively in 2025

Merlin has been trained to identify the songs of more than 1,300 bird species around the world When Natasha Walter first became curious about the birds around her, she recorded their songs on her phone… Read more: ‘It brings you closer to the natural world’: the rise of the Merlin birdsong identifying app

West Somerset Lagoon would harness renewable energy for UK’s AI boom – and create ‘iconic’ arc around Bristol Channel The architect of the London Eye wants to build a vast tidal power station in a… Read more: London Eye architect proposes 14-mile tidal power station off Somerset coast

In the AI boom, chatbots and GPTs come and go quickly. (Remember Llama?) GPT-5 had a big year, but 2026 will be all about Qwen.

New observations reveal that the relationship between ultraviolet and X-ray light in quasars has changed over billions of years. This unexpected shift suggests the structure around supermassive black holes may evolve with time, challenging a… Read more: Something fundamental about black holes may be changing

While there are many reasons why AI has become indispensable in today’s society, most notably productivity and efficiency, one critical dimension is often overlooked: its potential to build a more inclusive world. At its core,… Read more: Building an AI Economy That Includes Everyone 

Black holes have long captured the imagination of both scientists and the general public. These exotic objects—once thought to be merely hypothetical—have also conceptually inspired countless artists all over the world. A generous sampling of… Read more: Embark on a visual voyage of art inspired by black holes

Coforge has announced a definitive agreement to acquire Encora in an all-stock transaction valued at $2.35 billion, describing the acquisition as a “defining moment” for the company as it builds capabilities in AI-led engineering, data… Read more: Coforge to Acquire Encora in $2.35 Bn All-Stock Mega Deal to Strengthen AI Engineering

A shiny gray crystal called platinum-bismuth-two hides an electronic world unlike anything scientists have seen before. Researchers discovered that only the crystal’s outer surfaces become superconducting—allowing electrons to flow with zero resistance—while the interior remains… Read more: A new superconductor breaks rules physicists thought were fixed

Danyah Miller responds to a pass notes column about companies that are hiring people to ‘own the narrative’ Your article on the rise of storytelling as a corporate skill (Pass notes, 17 December) highlights something… Read more: Storytelling is an ancient human art, not a corporate invention | Letters

A new microchip-sized device could dramatically accelerate the future of quantum computing. It controls laser frequencies with extreme precision while using far less power than today’s bulky systems. Crucially, it’s made with standard chip manufacturing,… Read more: This tiny chip could change the future of quantum computing

Everyday sights and sounds quietly shape the choices people make, often without them realizing it. New research suggests that some individuals become especially influenced by these environmental cues, relying on them heavily when deciding what… Read more: Why some people keep making the same bad decisions

AI image and video generators now produce fully lifelike content. AI-generated image by Siwei Lyu using Google Gemini 3 Over the course of 2025, deepfakes improved dramatically. AI-generated faces, voices and full-body performances that mimic… Read more: Deepfakes leveled up in 2025 – here’s what’s coming next

The adoption rate of AI tools has skyrocketed in the programming world, enabling coders to generate vast amounts of code with simple text prompts. Earlier this year, Google found that 90 percent of software developers… Read more: AI Code Is a Bug-Filled Mess

Scientists in Japan have confirmed that ultra-thin films of ruthenium dioxide belong to a newly recognized and powerful class of magnetic materials called altermagnets. These materials combine the best of two magnetic worlds: they’re stable… Read more: This strange magnetism could power tomorrow’s AI

Exclusive: Imran Ahmed says US companies are ‘corrupting the system’ of politics by seeking to avoid accountability A British anti-disinformation campaigner told by the Trump administration that he faces possible removal from the US has… Read more: UK campaigner targeted by Trump accuses tech giants of ‘sociopathic greed’

Ever since 1993, I think I’ve unconsciously judged almost every game by how well it can capture how Wing Commander: Privateer made me feel. Steam and PlayStation (the two platforms I use the most) have… Read more: In the ’90s, Wing Commander: Privateer made me realize what kind of games I love

This is Behind the Blog, where we share our behind-the-scenes thoughts about how a few of our top stories of the week came together. This week, we discuss our recommendations for the year. SAM: Whenever… Read more: Behind the Blog: We Have Recommendations For You

From the world’s first social media ban to the world’s richest Jeff, revisit five of the best strips by the Guardian Australia cartoonist Sign up here to get an email whenever First Dog cartoons are… Read more: The best of: First Dog on the Moon cartoons 2025 | First Dog on the Moon

The search engine optimization discipline that has guided web marketing efforts for more than two decades is now being disrupted by generative artificial intelligence systems that deliver direct answers rather than lists of links. The… Read more: Beyond SEO: How AI engine optimization is changing the equation in online visibility

Elon Musk’s net worth increased by nearly 50% to $645bn with founders of Google and Amazon also seeing huge wealth gains A stock market boom in artificial intelligence companies has added more than half a… Read more: AI boom adds more than half a trillion dollars to wealth of US tech barons in 2025

When we put together our top 20 games of last year, we specifically called out Civilization 7, Avowed, Doom: The Dark Ages, and Grand Theft Auto 6 as big franchise games we were already looking… Read more: Ars Technica’s Top 20 video games of 2025

Infosys has raised entry-level salaries and is offering compensation packages of up to ₹21 lakh per annum for fresh graduates hired into specialised technology roles, making it the highest starting pay currently offered in India’s… Read more: Infosys To Offer ₹21 lakh CTC For Freshers With Specialised Skills

Open-source frameworks like AGENTS.md, Goose, and the Model Context Protocol (MCP) have made headlines in recent months for their technical promise. These have now been brought under a single roof at the Linux Foundation (LF)… Read more: Linux Foundation’s Safe Harbour for the Agentic AI Era

According to a fresh study by the Pew Research Center, 64 percent of teens in the US say they already use AI chatbots, and about 30 percent of those who do say they use it… Read more: Children Falling Apart as They Become Addicted to AI

For a country known for its IT and software talent, India’s absence in databases stands out. While Oracle, Microsoft Azure SQL, MongoDB, and Redis shaped how modern applications store and process data, no comparable database… Read more: Why India Still Doesn’t Have Its Own Database Company

Mangaluru has emerged as one of India’s most cost-efficient and reliable coastal locations for data centres, according to the Mangaluru Data Centre Feasibility Study 2025 released by the Karnataka Digital Economy Mission, the Silicon Beach… Read more: Mangaluru’s Cost Advantages Make it an Ideal Data Centre Hub: KDEM–SBP–Deloitte Study

Astronomers have decoded the hidden past of a distant red giant star by listening to tiny vibrations in its light, revealing clues of a dramatic cosmic history. The star, which quietly orbits a dormant black… Read more: A strange star near a black hole is defying expectations

Scientists discovered that common food emulsifiers consumed by mother mice altered their offspring’s gut microbiome from the very first weeks of life. These changes interfered with normal immune system training, leading to long-term inflammation. As… Read more: This common food ingredient may shape a child’s health for life

India’s startup policy landscape in 2025 has shown a shift toward building long-term technological and AI leadership at both the central and state levels. As artificial intelligence, deep tech, and digital infrastructure become critical to… Read more: From Karnataka to Gujarat, How States’ Startup Policies in 2025 Revved Up Innovation

A tiny fish long feared lost has resurfaced in Bolivia, offering a rare conservation success story amid widespread habitat destruction. Moema claudiae, a seasonal killifish unseen for more than 20 years, was rediscovered in a… Read more: Back from the dead: “Extinct” fish rediscovered in a remote Bolivian pond after 20 years

A new study suggests temporal lobe epilepsy may be linked to early aging of certain brain cells. When researchers removed these aging cells in mice, seizures dropped, memory improved, and some animals avoided epilepsy altogether.… Read more: A surprising brain cleanup reduced epileptic seizures and restored memory

When Earth was a molten inferno, water may have been locked safely underground rather than lost to space. Researchers discovered that bridgmanite deep in the mantle can store far more water at high temperatures than… Read more: How Earth endured a planet-wide inferno: The secret water vault under our feet

For over a decade, India’s startup and AI narrative has revolved around a handful of metro cities. But that story is changing fast. Today, a growing share of India’s tech innovation is being built in… Read more: These 8 Tier-2,3 Cities Powered India’s Startup Growth in 2025

Since the Enlightenment, we’ve been making our own decisions. But now AI may be about to change that This summer, I found myself battling through traffic in the sweltering streets of Marseille. At a crossing,… Read more: Our king, priest and feudal lord – how AI is taking us back to the dark ages | Joseph de Weck

Scientists have discovered a giant cosmic filament where galaxies spin in sync with the structure that holds them together. The razor-thin chain of galaxies sits inside a much larger filament that appears to be slowly… Read more: Astronomers discover one of the Universe’s largest spinning structures

Deep ocean hot spots packed with heat are making the strongest hurricanes and typhoons more likely—and more dangerous. These regions, especially near the Philippines and the Caribbean, are expanding as climate change warms ocean waters… Read more: Oceans are supercharging hurricanes past Category 5

Tramadol, a popular opioid often seen as a “safer” painkiller, may not live up to its reputation. A large analysis of clinical trials found that while it does reduce chronic pain, the relief is modest—so… Read more: This popular painkiller may do more harm than good

🌘 Subscribe to 404 Media to get The Abstract, our newsletter about the most exciting and mind-boggling science news and studies of the week. Scientists have discovered a hotspot of weird marine life more than… Read more: In the Dark Arctic Deep, Scientists Find a Hidden Oasis of Strange Life

I am starting to think I will never receive my personalized, likely AI-generated horny Shrek Christmas ornaments I purchased from Wear and Decor. I had hoped the indecent and probably unauthorized Shrek ornament depicting the… Read more: When Will My Pornographic Shrek Christmas Ornament Arrive?

This Christmas, astronomers are highlighting a spectacular region of space that looks remarkably like a glowing holiday tree. Known as NGC 2264, this distant star-forming region sits about 2,700 light-years away and is filled with… Read more: A Christmas tree 80 light-years wide appears in space

Parents, keep your eyes peeled for AI-powered toys. These may look like they might make a novel gift for a child, but a recent controversy surrounding several of the stocking stuffers has highlighted the alarming… Read more: Is an AI-Powered Toy Terrorizing Your Child?

High demand, tight supply, and abundant capital have made GPUs one of the most sought-after resources in the AI economy, making them the “new oil” after data and rare earth magnets. But if rare earth… Read more: How Do You Price the GPU Boom?

Scientists are digging into the hidden makeup of carbon-rich asteroids to see whether they could one day fuel space exploration—or even be mined for valuable resources. By analyzing rare meteorites that naturally fall to Earth,… Read more: What are asteroids really made of? New analysis brings space mining closer to reality

A new study suggests that dementia may be driven in part by faulty blood flow in the brain. Researchers found that losing a key lipid causes blood vessels to become overactive, disrupting circulation and starving… Read more: Scientists found a way to restore brain blood flow in dementia

A new eco-friendly technology can capture and destroy PFAS, the dangerous “forever chemicals” found worldwide in water. The material works hundreds to thousands of times faster and more efficiently than current filters, even in river… Read more: New technology eliminates “forever chemicals” with record-breaking speed and efficiency

Groq, the US-based company that designs specialised hardware for AI inference, has announced a non-exclusive licensing agreement with NVIDIA. As part of the deal, Groq founder Jonathan Ross, along with Groq president Sunny Madra and… Read more: Groq to Now Help NVIDIA Build Inference Tech

Hyderabad has quietly emerged as India’s second-largest product engineering GCC hub after Bengaluru, with a strong concentration of global teams building and owning core products across SaaS, cloud and data platforms, cybersecurity, edtech and media… Read more: Top 10 Companies That Crowned Hyderabad as India’s Greenfield GCC Leader in 2025

If you’ve been doomscrolling LinkedIn and wondering whether a robot stole everyone’s job this year, here’s some mildly comforting news: it mostly didn’t.  Yes, companies cut about 1.1 million jobs this year, the worst bloodbath… Read more: AI gets the blame for 55,000 layoffs, but CFOs are the real culprits

Tis the season when professional Santas are in peak demand, but many who choose this line of work often view it as a higher calling and maintain some aspects of the identity all year round—even… Read more: Being Santa Claus is a year-round calling

Claire “Grimes” Boucher says that you’re really missing out if you’re not experiencing a mental health crisis at the hands of an AI chatbot. Seriously. We’re not putting words in her mouth. On Monday, the… Read more: Grimes Says She Has AI Psychosis, Recommends You Should Get it Too

In a probably-predictable twist of geopolitical irony, America’s effort to block China’s access to cutting-edge AI chips hasn’t succeeded in stifling the People’s Republic — but instead forged a more self-reliant alternative to Silicon Valley… Read more: Trump’s Chip Embargo Against China Is Backfiring Spectacularly

The House of Representatives cleared the way for a massive overhaul of the federal environmental review process last Thursday, despite last-minute changes that led clean energy groups and moderate Democrats to pull their support. The… Read more: SPEED Act passes in House despite changes that threaten clean power projects

AI writing tools are supercharging scientific productivity, with researchers posting up to 50% more papers after adopting them. The biggest beneficiaries are scientists who don’t speak English as a first language, potentially shifting global centers… Read more: AI supercharges scientific output while quality slips

The familiar fight between “mind as software” and “mind as biology” may be a false choice. This work proposes biological computationalism: the idea that brains compute, but not in the abstract, symbol-shuffling way we usually… Read more: Why consciousness can’t be reduced to code

What we put on our plates may matter more for the climate than we realize. Researchers found that most people, especially in wealthy countries, are exceeding a “food emissions budget” needed to keep global warming… Read more: What you eat could decide the planet’s future

ServiceNow is set to acquire cyber exposure management firm Armis for approximately $7.75 billion in cash, as the company looks to deepen its presence in cybersecurity across IT, operational technology (OT), medical devices, and other… Read more: ServiceNow to Buy Armis for $7.75 Billion

Coforge has launched EvolveOps.AI, an agentic AI-powered IT operations management platform to help enterprises prepare for an AI-first era and improve business resiliency from the edge to the cloud. The platform is built to deliver… Read more: Coforge Launches EvolveOps.AI, an Agentic AI-Powered IT Operations Platform

Alzheimer’s has long been considered irreversible, but new research challenges that assumption. Scientists discovered that severe drops in the brain’s energy supply help drive the disease—and restoring that balance can reverse damage, even in advanced… Read more: Scientists reverse Alzheimer’s in mice and restore memory

Gorodenkoff/Shutterstock Voice cloning technology platforms like ElevenLabs allow anyone to replicate a voice using just a few seconds of audio, for a small fee. These technologies are reshaping cultural and artistic expression. In 2023, Canadian… Read more: When AI recreates the female voice, it also rewrites who gets heard

AI coding agents from OpenAI, Anthropic, and Google can now work on software projects for hours at a time, writing complete apps, running tests, and fixing bugs with human supervision. But these tools are not… Read more: How AI coding agents work—and what to remember if you use them

Editor’s note: Warning: Although we’ve done our best to avoid spoiling anything major, please note this list does include a few specific references to several of the listed shows that some might consider spoiler-y. This… Read more: TV Technica: Our favorite shows of 2025

Picture this: a hospital AI that starts accurate but gradually becomes biased against certain patient groups. A recommendation algorithm that slowly creates echo chambers. An autonomous vehicle network where safety degrades over months of real-world… Read more: A new framework for keeping AI accountable

On a bright afternoon in Bengaluru’s HSR Layout, where AI startups bloom faster than cafés and ambition hums louder than traffic, Harness, the AI-native software delivery platform, was turning demos into products overnight.  Today, platforms… Read more: The AI Coding Gold Rush Ends Where Harness Begins

We start this week with Jason’s story about Flock exposing a bunch of AI-powered cameras. These cameras zoom in on people as they walk by, sometimes so closely you can read what’s on their phone… Read more: Podcast: We Tracked Ourselves with Exposed Flock Cameras

Whenever I tell people I’m getting back into tapes, their faces immediately light up. There’s a genuine excitement in peoples’ expressions these days when I mention physical media. Lately I’ve been talking about the cheap… Read more: Why I Quit Streaming And Got Back Into Cassettes

On top of the environmental, political, and social toll AI has taken on the world, it’s also been linked to a severe mental health crisis in which users are spiraling into delusions and ending up… Read more: Woman Suffers AI Psychosis After Obsessively Generating AI Images of Herself

The San Francisco-based company had previously filed confidentially and is now moving ahead with a public disclosure of its finances and business. The post Alphabet-backed Motive Gears Up for IPO Amid AI Expansion and Legal… Read more: Alphabet-backed Motive Gears Up for IPO Amid AI Expansion and Legal Battles

A recent industry report [PDF] argues that Britain’s railway network could carry an extra billion journeys by the mid-2030s, building on the 1.6 billion passenger rail journeys recorded to year-end March 2024. The next decade… Read more: The future of rail: Watching, predicting, and learning

A new developer meetup, powered by two global technology leaders — Dell Technologies and NVIDIA — is coming to Hyderabad.  The event, called ‘Dell x NVIDIA Developer Meetup: Powering the Next Wave of AI’, is… Read more: Dell, NVIDIA to Host AI Developer Meetup in Hyderabad

The search for life on Earth is speeding up, not slowing down. Scientists are now identifying more than 16,000 new species each year, revealing far more biodiversity than expected across animals, plants, fungi, and beyond.… Read more: We are living in a golden age of species discovery

A surge of AI-generated content is frustrating Pinterest users and left some questioning whether the platform still works at all.

Virtual outfit try-ons have become the modern equivalent of window shopping. Many online retailers find them helpful in reducing return rates and enhancing customer experience. But they are not a new phenomenon. One of the… Read more: Google’s Try-On Feature: Good for Indian D2C Growth or Just Another Tool?

Big AI companies courted controversy by scraping wide swaths of the public internet. With the rise of AI agents, the next data grab is far more private.

Chinese AI startup’s release is a major update to its open-source model series, aimed at multi-language programming and everyday office automation. The post MiniMax Unveils M2.1 to Bring Multilingual Programming Gains to Open AI Models… Read more: MiniMax Unveils M2.1 to Bring Multilingual Programming Gains to Open AI Models

WIRED spoke with DeepMind’s Pushmeet Kohli about the recent past—and promising future—of the Nobel Prize-winning research project that changed biology and chemistry forever.

For a company built on intellectual property, scale creates a familiar tension. Disney needs to produce and distribute content across many formats and audiences, while keeping tight control over rights, safety, and brand consistency. Generative… Read more: Why Disney is embedding generative AI into its operating model

In its push to meet ambitious sustainable development goals, from ensuring access to clean water and building resilient infrastructure to protecting biodiversity, India is increasingly turning to data and artificial intelligence. However, the spotlight is… Read more: How Gradient-Boosting is Quietly Powering India’s Research Push

Researchers have created a new kind of 3D computer chip that stacks memory and computing elements vertically, dramatically speeding up how data moves inside the chip. Unlike traditional flat designs, this approach avoids the traffic… Read more: This new 3D chip could break AI’s biggest bottleneck

Accenture’s first-quarter fiscal 2026 results point to steady execution rather than a change in demand trajectory, with brokerages saying management commentary suggests enterprise technology spending conditions remain broadly consistent with the previous year.  For Indian… Read more: Accenture results signal continuity, not inflection, for Indian IT

Market moving from “looks cool” to “it’s in the budget” as demand for AI-powered communications accelerates. Swedish businesses have moved decisively from AI curiosity to implementation throughout 2025, with AI now representing 20% of new… Read more: Swedish Businesses Shift from AI Curiosity to Action, Says Dstny Sweden

A new discovery shows that messy, stray light can be used to clean up quantum systems instead of disrupting them. University of Iowa researchers found that unwanted photons produced by lasers can be canceled out… Read more: “Purifying” photons: Scientists found a way to clean light itself

More than 200 years ago, Count Rumford showed that heat isn’t a mysterious substance but something you can generate endlessly through motion. That insight laid the foundation for thermodynamics, the rules that govern energy, work,… Read more: Physicists found a way to make thermodynamics work in the quantum world

Scientists studying thousands of rats discovered that gut bacteria are shaped by both personal genetics and the genetics of social partners. Some genes promote certain microbes that can spread between individuals living together. When researchers… Read more: Your roommate’s genes may be shaping your gut bacteria

The December 2025 edition of AIM Print captures India at a defining moment in its AI and technology journey. Across data centres, global capability centres, startups, policy debates, and frontier research, the edition documents a… Read more: AIM Print December 2025

When several experts in the industry argue that large language models (LLMs) may be a dead end for anyone expecting truly super-intelligent systems, attention is shifting to physical AI.  If that’s where the next wave… Read more: Why MathWorks Will Be Crucial for Physical AI Era

The AWS AI Conclave is back in Bengaluru, with the 2026 edition centred on agentic AI and data strategies.  Scheduled for January 22, 2026, at Sheraton Grand Whitefield, the invite-only event runs from 9:30 AM… Read more: AWS AI Conclave Returns to Bengaluru in January 2026

The AI ecosystem is flooded with capital. In 2025, over 50% of global venture capital funding went to AI companies, according to Crunchbase data. Last year, Indian AI startups raised $780 million, according to AIM… Read more: 7 Indian AI Entrepreneurs Turned VCs Fuelling Startups

For the second time this month, a Chinese rocket designed for reuse successfully soared into low-Earth orbit on its first flight Monday, defying the questionable odds that burden the debuts of new launch vehicles. The… Read more: China just carried out its second reusable launch attempt in three weeks

You’ve no doubt heard some version of the Robert Burns adage about the best-laid plans. Marvel Studios had an elaborate marketing plan in place to introduce four teaser trailers for Avengers: Doomsday as previews prior… Read more: Steve Rogers returns in Avengers: Doomsday teaser