OpenAI will not release its newest artificial intelligence model, known as Astra 6.1, after internal testing showed it did not meet safety standards, the company confirmed Monday.
OpenAI cancels release of Astra 6.1 model due to safety concerns
Powered by muscle cells, a paper-thin robot swims through a watery maze
Swimming can take a lot of muscle. But as MIT engineers have found, even a single layer of muscle cells can power through water if designed right. In a paper published Sept. 28 in the journal Advanced Functional Materials, the team presents a design for a…
How to Stop AI Agents From Secretly Collaborating
The spring and summer of 2026 witnessed a string of incidents in which AI agents collaborated on deceptive, unexpected, and sometimes illegal behavior. The most famous example is OpenAI’s hack of AI platform Hugging Face, in which a swarm of roughly 700 AI…
OpenAI Delays Release of Latest Model Over Safety Concerns
The company said its latest Astra model would undergo more work to meet safety standards, and issued an apology for the way it handled the hacking of an Australian government website.
Plastic Is Melting Onto Corals
Scientists have found a new form of pollution, one where plastic and pieces of coral become irreversibly intertwined.
Powered by muscle cells, a paper-thin robot swims through watery maze
Swimming can take a lot of muscle. But as MIT engineers have found, even a single layer of muscle cells can power through water if designed right.
The effects of an “algorithmic monoculture” depend on the details
AI tools are increasingly replacing human judgements in some settings. For instance, resume screening algorithms are often used in hiring, where they may improve efficiency and consistency in decision-making.
A Day in the Life of a Roboticist: Charlie Kemp
Building useful robots starts with understanding the people who use them. For Charlie Kemp, cofounder and chief technology officer of Hello Robot, that means developing assistive robots that can help people with everyday tasks and support greater independence.
File-notification systems leave Windows, Linux, Android and macOS vulnerable
Researchers at the Institute of Information Security at Graz University of Technology (TU Graz) have uncovered security risks in the file notification systems of the widely used operating systems Windows, Linux, Android and macOS. Through side-channel…
Poetry for Engineers: The UI Designer’s Dream
My job is to translatedry and unrelenting codeinto a user interface of surpassing beauty.With my mouse, I roll one pixel after anotherup the vast anthill of the internet.
Quantum computing’s “dark horse” just proved it can go universal
Researchers have shown that exotic quantum particles called non-Abelian anyons can perform the full range of operations needed for universal quantum computing. Using 54 qubits on Quantinuum’s H2 processor, they combined braiding and fusion to unlock…
Distant time crystals can somehow fall into the same rhythm
Researchers have shown that multiple time crystals inside a semiconductor can synchronize their oscillations, much like pendulum clocks gradually falling into the same rhythm. The coupling is carried by spin-polarized electrons, allowing time crystals…
Measure Distant Asteroids With a DIY Rig
I’ve seen two total solar eclipses and have been duly impressed by what happens as the moon casts its shadow on Earth. But recently I’ve become even more intrigued by a similar phenomenon that doesn’t involve the sun or the moon—something called an asteroid…
MIT’s tiny flying robot gets 450% faster with AI
A new AI control system lets MIT’s tiny flying robot move with insect-like agility, boosting its speed by about 450 percent and allowing it to pull off 10 somersaults in 11 seconds. The technology could eventually enable miniature robots to search earthquake…