Whether it’s athletes on a sporting field or celebrities in the jungle, nothing holds our attention like the drama of vying for a single prize. And when it comes to the evolution of artificial intelligence (AI), some of the most captivating moments have also been delivered in nailbiting finishes. In 1997,IBM’s Deep Bluechess computer was pitted against grandmaster and reigning world champion Garry Kasparov, having lost to him the previous year....

Another day, another problematic AI study. Today’s snake oil special comes via Tel Aviv University where a team of researchers have unveiled a so-called “lie-detection system.” Let’s be really clear right up front: AI can’t do anything a person, given an equivalent amount of time to work on the problem, couldn’t do themselves. And no human can tell if any given human is lying. Full stop. The simple fact of the matter is that some of us can tell when some people are lying some of the time....

I regularly fly with KLM from Minneapolis to New Delhi, and always stop over in Amsterdam. I am frequently in Minneapolis for research and this is my route to go home to take a break from work. I have done the journey so many times that I know almost all the shops at Schiphol inside out. However, one time in summer 2019, the predictability was broken when I missed my connecting flight to New Delhi....

Google’s AI ethics drama has taken another twist. Three groups working to promote diversity in AI say they will no longer accept funding from the search giant after a series of controversial firings at the company. Queer in AI, Black in AI, and Widening NLP cited the dismissals of Timnit Gebru and Margaret, the former co-leads of Google’s Ethical AI team, as well as recruiter April Christina Curley, as reasons for the decision....

AI has helped discover new insights about the authors of the ancient Dead Sea Scrolls. Researchers in the Netherlands used AI and pattern recognition to analyze the handwriting of the mysterious scribes. They found evidence that the manuscripts were penned by two different writers. Mladen Popović, professor of Hebrew Bible and Ancient Judaism at the University of Groningen, said the discovery has opened a new window on the ancient world:...