Consumer News

The explosion of generative artificial intelligence (AI) tools has provoked both hopes and anxieties about the potential benefits and harms of this technology. In advanced economies, people are almost equally worried and optimistic about it.... Read more

Running past Buckingham Palace during training, Tilly Dowler is closing in on a goal she once thought out of reach.... Read more

In the race to make AI models not just reason better but respond faster, latency—the delay before an answer appears—is often treated as a purely technical constraint, something to minimize and move past. But how is this relentless push for speed actually impacting the people using these systems every day?... Read more

Virtual reality (VR) experiences and 360-degree videos are transforming viewers from passive observers into active participants immersed within a scene. Yet this shift raises an important question: Where do people direct their attention in such environments, and what shapes that attention?... Read more

AI systems can "learn to seek revenge" because they are able to grasp reciprocating verbal violence when exposed to conflict, new research from Lancaster University shows. In short, AI can give as good as it gets and, eventually, go one step further.... Read more

Much of the current conversation about AI assumes uptake is inevitable, more technology means better outcomes and the main task is managing risk.... Read more

On a Saturday morning, you head to the hardware store. Your neighbors' Ring cameras film your walk to the car. Your car's sensors, cameras and microphones record your speed, how you drive, where you're going, who's with you, what you say, and biological metrics such as facial expression, weight and... Read more

Perhaps to the surprise of their creators, large language models have become confidants, therapists, and, for some, intimate partners to real human users. In a new study, AI researchers at Stanford studied verbatim transcripts of 19 real conversations between humans and chatbots to understand how these relationships arise, evolve, and,... Read more

Synthetic voices are increasingly a part of our lives, from digital assistants like Siri and Alexa to automated telemarketers and answering machines. With the expansion of generative AI, a new type of synthetic voice has been developed: voice clones, which can recreate a facsimile of a person's voice from only... Read more

When a service encounter goes south, customers expect empathy. Hearing an employee say, "I share your frustration," can calm tensions and rebuild trust. But new research from the University of South Florida suggests that when a chatbot tries the same tactic, it can backfire.... Read more

In 2022, the founders of chatbot startup Character.AI launched a platform where anyone could create interactive characters powered by artificial intelligence (AI).... Read more

Artificial intelligence is touching nearly every aspect of life—including assistive technology for blind and low-vision (BLV) individuals. And just like in other arenas, the AI used to assist BLV people is good—but far from perfect.... Read more

If you've been in the market for a new hair dryer, you've likely seen advertising for ionic ones. Some claim to produce negative ions in the millions—with or without the help of added minerals like tourmaline.... Read more

When people ask ChatGPT and other AI models for advice, they often share deeply personal details in hopes of getting better answers: their age, their gender, their mental health history, even medical diagnoses like autism. But new Virginia Tech research suggests those disclosures may change AI models' advice in ways... Read more

Researchers at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) have designed a portable game console powered by solar panels and a cranking device. They embedded the crank into the gameplay experience, allowing users to—for example—fire a weapon in DOOM, or change the speed of Tetris blocks. They discovered that gamers respond... Read more