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Aisha is a consumer news reporter at TechCrunch. Prior to joining the publication in 2021, she was a telecom reporter at MobileSyrup. Aisha holds an honours bachelor’s degree from University of Toronto and a master’s degree in journalism from Western University. You can contact or verify outreach from Aisha by emailing [email protected] or via encrypted message at aisha_malik.01 on Signal.
is The Verge’s senior AI reporter. An AI beat reporter for more than five years, her work has also appeared in CNBC, MIT Technology Review, Wired UK, and other outlets. Posts from this author will be added to your daily email digest and your homepage feed. Can AI help “smooth over” discussion on abortion, racism, immigration, or Israel-Palestine? Columbia University sure hopes so. The Verge has learned that the university recently began testing Sway, an AI debate program currently in beta. De
NPR > Education Classes began this week for students at the University at Buffalo, a public research university in western New York, but there were about 750 fewer international students on campus than expected. The new students who did make it gathered for a welcome from the school's dean of students. "We know you have had to overcome hurdles to be here – especially this summer, with visas," Tomás Aguirre told the assembled students, representing more than 100 countries. "And I just wanted yo
A self-proclaimed leader of an online group linked to the violent extremist network The Com tells WIRED he is responsible for the flurry of hoax active-shooter alerts at universities across the US in recent days as students return to school. Known online as Gores, the person says he coleads a group called Purgatory, which is offering its followers a menu of services, including hoax threats against schools—known as swatting—for just $20, while faked threats against hospitals, businesses, and air
This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies . Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Researchers recently realized the first de Gennes' superconducting switch where superconductivity is completely suppressed. Credit: University of Jyväskylä The University of Jyväskylä, Finland, has been involved as part of an international collaboration that has identified a way to completely suppress superconductiv
Image by Getty / Futurism Mental Health "Go outside" or "touch grass" are common rejoinders deployed in online arguments these days. And, at least for those of us whose brains have probably melted from spending too much time on an app where said arguments take place, it turns out it's pretty sound advice. As the New York Times reports, there's a growing body of evidence suggesting that simply spending time in nature can instantly boost your algorithm-addled brain's attention span. It's part of
Stanford University has confirmed its admissions policies for fall 2026 will continue considering legacy status, a decision that could influence access to one of Silicon Valley’s most important talent pipelines. Stanford is also ending its test-optional policy, requiring SAT or ACT scores for the first time since 2021. According to the Stanford Daily, the university is so committed to keeping legacy preferences that it’s withdrawing from California’s Cal Grant program, forgoing state financial
An unknown threat actor has stolen the sensitive personal, financial, and health information of nearly 870,000 Columbia University current and former students and employees after breaching the university's network in May. Established in 1767 as King's College, Columbia University is a private Ivy League research university with a budget of $6.6 billion in 2024, over 20,000 employees, including 4,700 academic staff, and over 35,000 enrolled students across 19 schools and special programs. The
Choose wisely! The correct answer, the explanation, and an intriguing story await. Correct Answer: AMD When Verizon bought AOL in 2015, how many people were still paying for dial-up Internet? Long before Nvidia became a global leader in AI and computing, Jensen Huang was already making his mark in the semiconductor industry. After beginning his studies at Oregon State University at just 16 years old, Jensen graduated in 1984 with a degree in electrical engineering. He began his journey as a
Sir William Hamilton was the British ambassador to the court of Naples and Sicily from 1765 to 1800, as well as a passionate volcanologist. During his time in Italy he must have seen Mount Vesuvius erupt a number of times—certainly enough to leave a lasting impression. So much so that in 1775 he designed a rotating device that, with mechanical movement and light, could bring to life the fiery magma depicted in Pietro Fabris’ 1771 watercolor, “Night view of a current of lava.” While experts aren
Scientists are racing to find potential ways to slow down global warming, going far as to investigate ways to dim the Sun. The concept, known as solar geoengineering, has proven incredibly controversial in the past, with critics arguing that we simply don't know enough about the risks, including the environmental and societal impacts of tinkering with the climate. Proponents don't necessarily disagree, but they say the situation is already so bad that we need to consider drastic action, even if
However, there’s a crucial difference. While many educators in the West see AI as a threat they have to manage, more Chinese classrooms are treating it as a skill to be mastered. In fact, as the Chinese-developed model DeepSeek gains in popularity globally, people increasingly see it as a source of national pride. The conversation in Chinese universities has gradually shifted from worrying about the implications for academic integrity to encouraging literacy, productivity, and staying ahead. Th
An interview with Yonghong Tian, recipient of the 2025 Hans Karlsson Standards Award Yonghong Tian stands as a global authority in the field of artificial intelligence and multimedia systems. Formerly serving as the Dean of the School of Electronics and Computer Engineering, now Vice-Dean of Peking University Shenzhen Graduate School and Dean of the new School of Science and Intelligence, and a Boya Distinguished Professor at Peking University, China, Professor Tian has made groundbreaking co
Here’s something that will make you lose just a bit more faith in humanity—or at least reach for some hand wipes. New research shows that even in hospitals, a substantial number of people aren’t bothering to wash their hands. Scientists from the University of Surrey in England led the study, installing sensors near hospital toilet and sink pipes to keep track of people’s handwashing. Nearly half of toilet users skipped the sink after flushing, they found. The researchers say more effective stra
is a reporter who writes about tech, money, and human behavior. She joined The Verge in 2014 as science editor. Previously, she was a reporter at Bloomberg. The ultimate source for The New York Times’ story about Zohran Mamdani’s college application is an open secret. It’s an anime-loving neo-Nazi whose hobbies include furry drawings, posting fan art of a video game character, and hacking universities. On X, the alleged hacker is followed by New York Times freelancer Benjamin Ryan, who was the
If you were alive in 1800 and someone asked you about the future of research, it wouldn’t occur to you to mention the university. Real scholarship happened in new, modern, enlightened institutions like the British Royal Society or the French Académie des sciences. Universities were a medieval relic. And nowhere was it more medieval, hidebound, and generally dysfunctional than in the German-speaking world. But something happened to German universities at the turn of the 19th century — they develo
All authors are affiliates of the Population Wellbeing Initiative at UT Austin. This paper subsumes the working paper “Population Decline: Too Small and Too Slow to Influence Climate Change” by the same authors. We thank Jared Bernstein, Maya Eden, Frank Errickson, Jim Feyrer, Chad Jones, Peter Kruse-Andersen, Kyle Meng, Marta Prato, John Podesta, Noah Scovronick, Robert Socolow, Phil Trammell, Sam Trejo, David Weil, Anson Zhou, Stéphane Zuber, Valeria Zurla and participants at the NBER’s confer
An interview with Gurindar Sohi, recipient of the 2025 Computer Pioneer Award Gurindar (Guri) Sohi, Vilas Research Professor, John P. Morgridge Professor, and E. David Cronon Professor of Computer Sciences, Computer Science Department, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Madison, Wis., U.S.A., has remained in the same office at the university since 1987 – almost 40 years. He jokes that it even still has some of its original furnishings, like the carpet. But what he does not make light of is the
Experimental archaeologist Greer Jarrett of Lund University in Sweden has been sailing in the footsteps of Vikings for the last three years. If you want to learn more about how and where the Vikings sailed, making the journey through the fjords yourself in replica boats is a practical, hands-on approach to achieving that end. Greer Jarrett, an archaeologist at Lund University in Sweden, has spent the last three years doing just that, sailing more than 5,000 kilometers along known Viking trade r
New South Wales police in Australia have arrested a 27-year-old former Western Sydney University (WSU) student for allegedly hacking into the University's systems on multiple occasions, starting with a scheme to obtain cheaper parking. Specifically, the woman, identified by local media reports as Birdie Kingston, is accused of unauthorized access, data theft, and compromising university infrastructure since 2021, affecting hundreds of staff and students. "Since 2021, Western Sydney University
Jordan Lloyd had been praying for something big to happen. The 35-year-old screenwriter was quarantining in her apartment in North Hollywood in June 2020. Without any work projects to fill her days, she picked up the novel Roots, by Alex Haley, to reread. The novel tells the story of Kunta Kinte, Haley’s ancestor, who is captured and sold into slavery in the Gambia and then brought to Virginia, where he is forced to labor on a plantation. It was adapted into an Emmy-award winning television ser
Experimental archaeologist Greer Jarrett of Lund University in Sweden has been sailing in the footsteps of Vikings for the last three years. If you want to learn more about how and where the Vikings sailed, making the journey through the fjords yourself in replica boats is a practical, hands-on approach to achieving that end. Greer Jarrett, an archaeologist at Lund University in Sweden, has spent the last three years doing just that, sailing more than 5,000 kilometers along known Viking trade r
Experimental archaeologist Greer Jarrett of Lund University in Sweden has been sailing in the footsteps of Vikings for the last three years. If you want to learn more about how and where the Vikings sailed, making the journey through the fjords yourself in replica boats is a practical, hands-on approach to achieving that end. Greer Jarrett, an archaeologist at Lund University in Sweden, has spent the last three years doing just that, sailing more than 5,000 kilometers along known Viking trade r
Earlier this year, a biomedical researcher at the University of Michigan received an update from the National Institutes of Health. The federal agency, which funds a large swath of the country’s medical science, had given the green light to begin releasing funding for the upcoming year on the researcher’s multi-year grant. Not long after, the researcher learned that the university had placed the grant on hold. The school’s lawyers, it turned out, were wrestling with a difficult question: whethe
In early June 2005, Steve Jobs emailed his friend Michael Hawley a draft of a speech he had agreed to deliver to Stanford University’s graduating class in a few days. “It’s embarrassing,” he wrote. “I'm just not good at this sort of speech. I never do it. I'll send you something, but please don't puke.” The notes that he sent contained the bones of what would become one of the most famous commencement addresses of all time. It has been viewed over 120 million times and is quoted to this day. Pr
In medieval Europe, kings wore diamonds to absorb the gemstone’s purported powers of strength and invincibility. Today, researchers are seeking to harness those same storied powers to fuel quantum computing’s next leap. Among those researchers: Harini Hapuarachichi, a computational physicist and postdoctoral research fellow at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (RMIT)—and one of Computing’s Top 30 Early Career Professionals for 2024. In the following Q&A, Hapuarachichi discusses her g
What happens inside your brain when you hear a steady rhythm or musical tone? According to a new study from Aarhus University and the University of Oxford, your brain doesn't just hear it -- it reorganizes itself in real time. Every beep, tone and new sound you hear travels from the ear to registering in your brain. But what actually happens in your brain when you listen to a continuous stream of sounds? A new study from Aarhus University and University of Oxford published in Advanced Science r