Topic: university research
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Windows 11 security bypassed without opening the PC
Researchers from University of Birmingham and Durham University found a way to bypass Windows 11's Virtualization-Based Security (VBS) and Hypervisor-Protected Code Integrity (HVCI) without physical access, requiring only prior privileged access. The attack exploits a flaw in the hypervisor-to-OS...
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AI Therapist Reads Smartwatch, Earbuds to Detect Distress Early
Researchers at the University of Ottawa are developing UbiMyTherapist, an AI that proactively monitors emotional cues from smartwatches and wireless earbuds, rather than waiting for users to initiate conversations. The system detects early signs of distress through biometric signals like heart ra...
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AI Scammers Outperform Humans at Building Trust
A university study found that AI chatbots can outperform humans in the trust-building phase of "pig butchering" scams, with nearly half of test subjects complying with an AI's request versus fewer than one in five with a human scammer. Researchers propose that AI chatbots could soon operate as fu...
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AI Worm Autonomously Navigates Corporate Networks
Researchers developed an AI-powered worm that uses large language models to dynamically analyze systems, identify vulnerabilities, and craft adaptive attack strategies rather than relying on fixed exploits. During testing, the worm successfully navigated corporate networks autonomously, using nat...
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AI Kids' Toys Enter a Legal and Ethical Wild West
AI-powered children's toys are flooding the unregulated market, with over 1,500 AI toy companies registered in China and major brands like Miko selling over 700,000 units. Consumer tests have revealed dangerous flaws, such as FoloToy's Kumma bear giving instructions on lighting matches and findin...
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Anthropic’s Claude Watermark: A New Text-Marking Method
Anthropic's newly announced text watermarking technology matches several academic research papers, with clues from its official announcement (six specific qualities) and transparency page update on July 23rd pointing to a university-developed method. MCmark, an unbiased watermarking approach, is ...
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Humanoid robots perform first organ removal on live animals
For the first time in medical history, humanoid robots teleoperated by surgeons successfully removed a gallbladder from a live pig at the University of California San Diego. Unlike standard fixed robotic arms, these humanoid machines mimic human dexterity and range of motion, offering greater fle...
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ALS patient speaks with 99% accuracy using UC Davis brain implant
A brain-computer interface implant enabled an ALS patient to generate nearly two million words over 3,800 hours across two years, speaking at 56 words per minute with 99% accuracy. The device uses a microelectrode array on the motor cortex to decode neural signals into text, allowing real-time co...
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China robot distributor pivots after US ban
RoboStore, the leading US distributor of Chinese Unitree robots, is pivoting to domestic manufacturing at a new Long Island facility amid escalating US restrictions on foreign robotics technology. The company has sold over 1,500 robots to clients including Cisco, OpenAI, Nvidia, and 150+ universi...
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Touchable Holographic Display Appears in Mid Air
Researchers at the University of Chicago created BloomBeacon, a touch-sensitive holographic display that floats in mid-air using persistence-of-vision technology with spinning flexible arms. The display uses one arm lined with LEDs for visuals and another with capacitive touch pads, allowing user...
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Barocal Cools Food and Drinks by Squeezing Plastic Crystals
Barocal has developed a solid-state cooling technology that matches traditional compressor performance while using less energy and eliminating the risk of leaking potent climate-warming gases. The startup has secured a $10 million seed round from investors including World Fund and Breakthrough En...
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Night-Time Solar Power: The Future of Satellite Energy
Researchers are developing a "reverse solar panel" that generates electricity by emitting infrared light, aiming to capture energy from Earth's nighttime glow. The technology, a thermoradiative diode, has minimal power output on Earth but holds significant potential in space, where the extreme co...
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Insect-Inspired Robots Walk on Water, Revolutionizing Disaster Response
Scientists have developed insect-inspired robots that can walk on water using a new fabrication method called HydroSpread, which allows direct formation of polymer films on water for improved precision and reliability. Two prototypes, HydroFlexor and HydroBuckler, are powered by remote infrared h...
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Scientists Unveil Diamond Battery That Lasts 5,700 Years Without Charging
Scientists are developing a diamond battery using radioactive carbon-14 from nuclear waste, which could provide a nearly everlasting energy source with a lifespan of thousands of years. The technology works by embedding carbon-14 in synthetic diamonds, converting its decay into electricity with n...
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Singapore launches first living-neuron data centre rack
The world's first biological data centre powered by living human neurons, using a 20-unit rack of CL1 neuron-powered computers, is now operational in Singapore, developed by NUS Medicine, DayOne, and Cortical Labs. The project’s core claim is energy efficiency for AI, but no official performance ...
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New Paper: Microsoft Exaggerated Its Quantum Claims a Year Ago
A peer-reviewed critique in "Nature" by physicist Henry Legg challenges Microsoft's claim that its Majorana 1 chip successfully created a topological qubit, arguing the original data lacks conclusive evidence. Microsoft had touted the topological qubit as a revolutionary breakthrough for quantum ...
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AI Users Surrender Logic, Study Reveals
A new study identifies "cognitive surrender," where people outsource critical thinking to AI, accepting its answers without scrutiny, marking a shift from assistance to troubling reliance. The research contrasts this with traditional "cognitive offloading," where tools like calculators are superv...
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New AI Debugging Tool Reveals How LLMs Think
Goodfire is releasing a new tool called Silico that uses mechanistic interpretability to understand how large language models think, aiming to transform model development from trial-and-error into precision engineering. The company wants to apply interpretability techniques earlier in the model t...
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AI Spots Hedgehogs from Space by Tracking Their Bramble Homes
Researchers are using AI to analyze satellite imagery and identify bramble patches, which are key habitats for declining hedgehog populations, as a more efficient alternative to traditional survey methods. The AI model, based on machine learning techniques, cross-references satellite data with gr...
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AI Co-Pilot Transforms Bionic Hand Prosthetics
Modern bionic hands are often abandoned due to the high cognitive load required for their operation, as users must consciously manage every movement, unlike a biological hand. The design gap stems from a lack of built-in intelligence; most prosthetics force users to micromanage actions without th...
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