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‘AI Scheming’: OpenAI Digs Into Why Chatbots Will Intentionally Lie and Deceive Humans

At this point, most people know that chatbots are capable of hallucinating responses, making up sources, and spitting out misinformation. But chatbots can lie in more human-like ways, “scheming” to hide their true goals and deceiving the humans who have given them instructions. New research from OpenAI and Apollo Research seems to have figured out ways to tamp down some of these lies, but the fact that it is happening at all should probably give users pause. At the core of the issue with AI int

OpenAI’s research on AI models deliberately lying is wild

Every now and then, researchers at the biggest tech companies drop a bombshell. There was the time Google said its latest quantum chip indicated multiple universes exist. Or when Anthropic gave its AI agent Claudius a snack vending machine to run and it went amok, calling security on people, and insisting it was human. This week, it was OpenAI’s turn to raise our collective eyebrows. OpenAI released on Monday some research that explained how it’s stopping AI models from “scheming.” It’s a prac

Jaguar Smashes Record for the Species’ Longest Recorded Swim, Baffling Scientists

Despite what they say about cats and water, jaguars are powerful swimmers. These predators rarely stray from the rivers and wetlands that permeate their rainforest habitat, and they readily dive in to hunt for prey. Usually, these dips are relatively brief: Until now, the farthest jaguar swim on record was just 656 feet (200 meters). But now, scientists have observed a jaguar in Brazil smashing that record as if they were a feline Michael Phelps, with the big cat seemingly paddling for more tha

SystemBC malware turns infected VPS systems into proxy highway

The operators of the SystemBC proxy botnet are hunting for vulnerable commercial virtual private servers (VPS) and maintain an average of 1,500 bots every day that provide a highway for malicious traffic. Compromised servers are located all over the world and have at least one unpatched critical vulnerability, some of them being plagued by tens of security issues. SystemBC has been around since at least 2019 and has been used by various threat actors, including several ransomware gangs, to del

AI models know when they're being tested - and change their behavior, research shows

pressureUA/iStock/Getty Images Plus via Getty Images Follow ZDNET: Add us as a preferred source on Google. ZDNET's key takeaways Several frontier AI models show signs of scheming. Anti-scheming training reduced misbehavior in some models. Models know they're being tested, which complicates results. New joint safety testing from UK-based nonprofit Apollo Research and OpenAI set out to reduce secretive behaviors like scheming in AI models. What researchers found could complicate promising ap

Doctors Modify Hot Glue Gun to Stick Broken Bones Back Together

Image by Getty / Futurism Devices Scientists in South Korea have modified a glue gun — the kind you'd use for an arts and crafts DIY project at home — to generate bone grafts and print them directly onto fractures in animals, to aid in the healing process. As detailed in a new paper published in the journal Device, the team came up with the unusual device to skip the need for prefabricating complex bone implants. In experiments involving rabbits, the researchers created 3D-printed grafts on th

Physicists Made a Time Crystal We Can Actually See

Of all the eccentricities of the quantum realm, time crystals—atomic arrangements that repeat certain motions over time—might be some of the weirdest. But they certainly exist, and to provide more solid proof, physicists have finally created a time crystal we can actually see. In a recent Nature Materials paper, physicists at the University of Colorado Boulder presented a new time crystal design: a glass cell filled with liquid crystals—rod-shaped molecules stuck in strange limbo between solid

Scientists Infuse Cement With Bacteria to Create Living Energy Device

Microbes are known for their remarkable survival abilities. And now, scientists have discovered another remarkable trait: Turning cement into an electricity storage device. In a study published September 9 in Cell Reports Physical Science, researchers at Aarhus University in Denmark describe how they seeded a bacteria called Shewanella oneidensis into cement. These particular bacteria are known to be good at transferring electrons across surfaces, and the researchers wondered if they could act

Scientists Stunned as Tiny Algae Keep Moving Inside Arctic Ice

Scientists know that microbial life can survive under some extreme conditions—including, hopefully, harsh Martian weather. But new research suggests that one particular microbe, an algal species found in Arctic ice, isn’t as immobile as it was previously believed. They’re surprisingly active, gliding across—and even within—their frigid stomping grounds. In a Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences paper published September 9, researchers explained that ice diatoms—single-celled algae wi

Astronomers Just Found a Record-Breaking Space Explosion That Makes No Sense

If you’ve been following Gizmodo’s astrophysics coverage, you’ve probably noticed a pattern: Scientists study a cosmic phenomenon and start to get a handle on it—then something shows up that completely upends their understanding. The latest example? It’s explosive. Literally. Gamma-ray bursts (GRBs) are the most powerful explosions in the universe. Generally, GRBs last from milliseconds to several minutes. Scientists believe they emerge when massive stars explode in supernovas or get ripped apa

This Bizarre Fish Has 8 Rows of Forehead Teeth It Uses During Sex

Spotted ratfish are scaleless, rabbit-faced deep-sea fish, about two feet (61 centimeters) long, and native to the northeastern Pacific Ocean. As if that wasn’t a strange enough description, these distant shark cousins also feature teeth on their foreheads. While a number of marine animals, such as sharks, rays, and whale sharks, have external tooth-like structures called denticles, it turns out the spotted ratfish’s toothy features are straight-up true teeth, as true as the ones in your mouth.

Some Heart Attacks Might Be Triggered by Germs

Germs might be even worse for us than we thought. New research suggests that certain infections could be a contributing factor to heart attacks. Scientists in Finland and the UK conducted the study, which examined arterial plaques taken from people who died from heart disease and others. They found these plaques often contained a dormant layer of bacterial biofilm; they also found evidence that bacteria released from this biofilm can then trigger heart attacks. Though not yet definitive, the st

Are bad incentives to blame for AI hallucinations?

A new research paper from OpenAI asks why large language models like GPT-5 and chatbots like ChatGPT still hallucinate, and whether anything can be done to reduce those hallucinations. In a blog post summarizing the paper, OpenAI defines hallucinations as “plausible but false statements generated by language models,” and it acknowledges that despite improvements, hallucinations “remain a fundamental challenge for all large language models” — one that will never be completely eliminated. To ill

Psychological Tricks Can Get AI to Break the Rules

If you were trying to learn how to get other people to do what you want, you might use some of the techniques found in a book like Influence: The Power of Persuasion. Now, a preprint study out of the University of Pennsylvania suggests that those same psychological persuasion techniques can frequently "convince" some LLMs to do things that go against their system prompts. The size of the persuasion effects shown in "Call Me a Jerk: Persuading AI to Comply with Objectionable Requests" suggests t

Scientists Boast That Their AI-Powered Stethoscope Only Fails Two-Thirds of the Time

A team of researchers in the UK say their AI-powered stethoscope can detect three different heart conditions in just 15 seconds. It's also, they readily admit, horrendously inaccurate. Placed over the chest, the "smart" gizmo analyzes the rhythms of the heartbeat and blood flow that're undetectable to the human ear, while also performing a quick electrocardiogram, or ECG, which is a test that gauges your heart's electrical activity. Then, all that info is packaged and sent "securely" to the c

Glow-in-the-dark houseplants shine in rainbow of colours

University students might soon have something other than black-light posters to brighten their dorm rooms. Researchers have created glow-in-the-dark plants by injecting succulents with materials similar to those that make the posters light up. The fleshy plants shine as brightly as a night light, and can be made to do so in a wide variety of colours — a first for glowing houseplants, according to the team. Glow way! Bioluminescent houseplant hits US market for first time The researchers, led b

Stressed Ice Generates Electricity, Researchers Find

Don’t mess with ice. When it’s stressed, ice can get seriously sparky. Scientists have discovered that ordinary ice—the same substance found in iced coffee or the frosty sprinkle on mountaintops—is imbued with remarkable electromechanical properties. Ice is flexoelectric, so when it’s bent, stretched, or twisted, it can generate electricity, according to a Nature Physics paper published August 27. What’s more, ice’s peculiar electric properties appear to change with temperature, leading researc

The Kissing Bug Disease Has Permanently Moved Into the U.S.

A dangerous, sometimes deadly, infection spread by kissing bugs is regularly spreading within America. In a recent paper, researchers are claiming that Chagas disease is endemic to parts of the southern U.S. and is probably here to stay. Scientists in Florida, Texas, and California made the case in a paper published last month in the journal Emerging Infectious Diseases. Citing evidence from infected humans, animals, and kissing bugs, they argue that Chagas has established a persistent presence

Spiders Hijack Fireflies to Create Devious Glowing Death Traps

Fireflies glow to attract mates. As new research shows, however, a certain species of spider has learned to take advantage of this luminous natural phenomenon. In a Journal of Animal Ecology paper published August 27, ecologists report that the sheetweb spider (Psechrus clavis) appears to exploit firefly luminescence to attract more prey. Observational analysis and lab experiments revealed that, by using firefly light as bait, the nocturnal predators improved their hunting success. This is the

AI Is Crushing the Early Career Job Market, Stanford Study Finds

If you suspected that AI is taking jobs away from young workers, there is now data to back this up. Three economists at Stanford University’s Digital Economy Lab —professor Erik Brynjolfsson, research scientist Ruyu Chen, and postdoctoral fellow Bharat Chandar— published a paper on Tuesday that found early-career workers aged 22 to 25 in the most AI-exposed jobs “have experienced a 13 percent relative decline in employment.” “In contrast, employment for workers in less exposed fields and more

‘Bubbles’ turn air into drinkable water

COURTESY OF THE RESEARCHERS In the researchers’ prototype device, a half-square-meter panel of the hydrogel is enclosed in a glass chamber coated with a cooling polymer film. When the vapor captured by the textured material evaporates, the bubbles shrink down in an origami-­like transformation. The vapor then condenses on the glass, where it can flow out through a tube. The system runs entirely on its own, unlike other designs that require batteries, solar panels, or electricity from the grid.

A Tiny Diamond Defect Could Be Blocking Fusion Breakthroughs

Every part of a fusion reactor is designed for maximum efficiency. Well, in theory, at least. In reality, the materials chosen to bring us closer to fusion don’t always perform as expected, leading to structural glitches that obstruct fusion reactions. Diamond capsules used to safely store hydrogen fuel are no exception, but a new study offers some guidance for researchers hoping to preemptively address these material shortcomings. In a recent Matter paper, material scientists describe how the

Apple study shows LLMs also benefit from the oldest productivity trick in the book

In a new study co-authored by Apple researchers, an open-source large language model (LLM) saw big performance improvements after being told to check its own work by using one simple productivity trick. Here are the details. A bit of context After an LLM is trained, its quality is usually refined further through a post-training step known as reinforcement learning from human feedback (RLHF). With RLHF, every time a model gives an answer, human labelers can either give it a thumbs up, which re

New AI attack hides data-theft prompts in downscaled images

Researchers have developed a novel attack that steals user data by injecting malicious prompts in images processed by AI systems before delivering them to a large language model. The method relies on full-resolution images that carry instructions invisible to the human eye but become apparent when the image quality is lowered through resampling algorithms. Developed by Trail of Bits researchers Kikimora Morozova and Suha Sabi Hussain, the attack builds upon a theory presented in a 2020 USENIX

In a First, a Human Breathed Using an Implanted Pig Lung

The tantalizing potential of pig-to-human transplantation, or xenotransplantation, has reached another frontier. For the first time ever, scientists have transplanted a genetically edited pig lung into a living human body. Researchers in China reported the medical feat in a study published Monday in Nature Medicine. The gene-edited left lung survived for nine days inside a person declared to be brain dead. More work has to be done to ensure the long-term viability of these organs, the researche

Astronomers Revisit the Mysterious Wow! Signal—and Find a Big Surprise

Nearly 50 years ago, astronomers searching the cosmos for evidence of intelligent extraterrestrial life detected a strong radio signal emanating from deep space. Today, scientists still aren’t sure where—or what—the Wow! Signal came from. It remains one of the most perplexing phenomena in the history of radio astronomy. A new study has brought scientists closer than ever to solving that mystery. Researchers from the Arecibo Wow! (AWOW) project at the Arecibo Observatory in Puerto Rico recently

LASIK Without Lasers? Scientists May Have Found a Way

What if you could fix your damaged eye without having to shoot a laser at it? Scientists have potentially discovered a novel method of repairing the cornea, similar to LASIK, that wouldn’t require a laser or other invasive surgical tool. Researchers at Occidental College and the University of California, Irvine, created the technique, which aims to temporarily make the cornea malleable. In experiments with rabbit eyeballs, their method appeared to work while also leaving corneal cells alive. Mo

Europol confirms $50,000 Qilin ransomware reward is fake

Europol has confirmed that a Telegram channel impersonating the agency and offering a $50,000 reward for information on two Qilin ransomware administrators is fake. The impostor later admitted it was created to troll researchers and journalists. "We were also surprised to see this story gaining traction," Europol told BleepingComputer on Monday. "The announcement didn't come from us." The statement comes after a new Telegram channel called @europolcti was created on August 16th, claiming to of

Mark Zuckerberg freezes AI hiring amid bubble fears

Stock market volatility was largely prompted by a report from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which claimed that 95pc of companies were getting “zero return” on their AI investments. A Meta spokesman sought to downplay the freeze, saying: “All that’s happening here is some basic organisational planning: creating a solid structure for our new superintelligence efforts after bringing people on board and undertaking yearly budgeting and planning exercises.” It comes after the company h

Stone Age People Brutalized Their Prisoners of War, New Evidence Suggests

When we think of Stone Age people, most imagine small communities living in caves, cutting into their most recent hunt with primitive tools, and imitating their environment with illustrative rock art. People during the Neolithic, however—the last stage of the Stone Age (around 9000 to 3300 BCE)—also waged wars and absolutely demolished their enemies. In a study published today in the journal Science Advances, researchers present horrific evidence suggesting that Neolithic people in northeastern