The 35th International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence and the 29th European Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJACI-ECAI 2026) is currently taking place in Bremen, Germany. The first couple of days saw the attendees enjoy some of the many tutorials and workshops on offer. The official opening ceremony took place yesterday morning (Monday 17 August). Find out what the participants have been getting up to so far. Toby Walsh, UNSW, IJCAI-ECAI 2026 Ethics Co-Chair, will deliver his AI Lecture, on Mon, Aug 17. Open to the general public, it offers a preview of themes explored in his forthcoming book, God AI: Boom or Doom?

German drone maker Helsing has enlisted Japanese e-commerce and finance firm Rakuten to help finalize a deal to sell its unmanned systems to Japan's army, a spokesperson for Rakuten said on Monday. Japan's Ground Self-Defense Force is currently testing Helsing's HX-2 strike drone, as Tokyo looks to modernize its military and counter an increasingly assertive China. The field tests will run until the end of September, the spokesperson said. Helsing struck an "initial agreement" for the Japanese government to use its systems earlier this year, a spokesperson for the Munich-based company said, adding that the move was made possible by an unnamed "local brokerage partner." Japan's Ground Self-Defense Force did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The 35th International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence and the 29th European Conference on Artificial Intelligence (IJACI-ECAI 2026) will be held from 15-21 August, in Bremen, Germany. The conference will feature workshops and tutorials, keynote and invited talks, technical presentations, posters, diversity and inclusion event, outreach, and more. Experts from research, practice, public institutions and civil society discuss how AI is changing key areas of everyday life in moderated panel discussions. The AI Lounges will be held in German. The tutorials will also take place from 15-17 August.

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Is the war entering a new phase? 'New level of danger': Drone incidents scare Europe amid Russia-Ukraine war A quadcopter drone with plastic explosives attached to it flew unnoticed past air defence installations at Germany's Leipzig/Halle Airport, a key NATO airlift hub, on August 4. The drone hit a Ukrainian cargo plane but failed to detonate. It fell onto the tarmac and was found four hours later by a bus driver who stepped on it and called security, German media reported. DNA traces linked the drone to a firebomb that was mailed to the same airport and set a freight container on fire in July 2024, the Bild tabloid reported.

From branding irons to iris scans, the ancient business of proving who you are has never been stranger--or more lucrative. There are now more bots online than people. The challenge used to be telling who was a person from who was a bot; today, the challenge is telling good bots and bad bots apart--with humanity in the lurch. Three summers ago, Sam Altman, the C.E.O. of OpenAI, posted on X a fifteen-second video of dozens of people--mostly young, veiled in face masks, and wearing super-hip, white-soled sneakers--waiting in a long, snaky line in the traffic-light-lit but otherwise dusky dark of an unnamed city that appears to have been Nagoya, Japan. "Crazy lines around the world," Altman wrote. "One person getting verified every 8 seconds now." In the video, the camera pans to the front of the line, where a woman is kneeling on the sidewalk as if in prayer, staring into a gleaming silver orb about the size of a volleyball that has been propped up on a stand about the height of an end table. It looks like the eyeball of a giant robot Cyclops. She is bowing before an artificially intelligent machine, seeking a certification that she is human. That eyeball, which is known as the Orb, was developed by Tools for Humanity, a San Francisco-and Munich-based tech company that Altman founded in 2019 with a twenty-five-year-old German physicist named Alex Blania, who is now its C.E.O.

Is the war entering a new phase? Germany warns of'daily hybrid warfare' after explosive-laden drone found Germany is facing daily "hybrid warfare" attacks from abroad, an official has said, days after an explosive-laden drone was discovered at Leipzig/Halle Airport. Interior Minister Alexander Dobrindt told the local newspaper Bild am Sonntag on Sunday that foreign powers wanted to subdue Germany politically and socially by stirring up fear. "Espionage, sabotage, cyberattacks, or covert operations by foreign powers aimed at destabilising Germany or inflicting direct harm are a constant reality." He did not identify any countries behind the alleged attacks.

More information Adding us as a Preferred Source in Google by using this link indicates that you would like to see more of our content in Google News results. Two bird figurines carved from ivory found at the site of Hohle Fels Cave, approximately 40,000 years old. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. By signing up, you confirm you are 16+, will receive newsletters and promotional content and agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy . For decades, the prehistoric Hohle Fels cave in Germany has been a treasure trove for archeologists .

Is the war entering a new phase? A drone has exploded in Bulgaria near the Trans-Balkan gas pipeline, the latest in a surge of unidentified unmanned aerial vehicles entering European territory as regional tensions escalate due to Russia's ongoing war in Ukraine. Bulgarian Prime Minister Rumen Radev said on Saturday the drone exploded near the Romanian border and the gas pipeline, which links Turkiye to Ukraine. "There were no casualties," Radev added. Separately, a spokesperson for Germany's armed forces said on Saturday that two drones were spotted at about 10pm (20:00 GMT) on Thursday at a military base in Mechernich in the state of North Rhine-Westphalia, some 35km (22 miles) from the Belgian border.

German airport drone-bomb: Could Russia be involved? As Germany investigates how a drone loaded with explosives reached a runway at Leipzig airport, there is renewed talk in Europe of hybrid war. The interior minister is warning of a new level of danger from an attack that may involve foreign powers. There is no proof at this stage to link the flying bomb directly to Russia, which denies any role. But as well as the means and the motive, Moscow does have form.