Mathematicians put AI to work on Fermat's last theorem At an event in London, mathematicians have made unexpectedly fast progress on formalising Fermat's last theorem using AI In the lobby of a central London hotel, tourists are bracing themselves for a day of sightseeing in a heatwave. Meanwhile, staff are resetting the dining room after breakfast. And in a windowless meeting room, assembled academics are contemplating whether humans have a role to play in the future of mathematics, now that AI can prove theorems by itself. The general mood in the room is one of bewilderment at the recent jump in computer intelligence and excitement about the potential it unlocks - and perhaps a slight unease about what the future holds for them personally. Twenty-five researchers from diverse fields and countries are here to spend a week working on formalising Fermat's last theorem with cutting-edge AI models.

From AI with Hannah Fry to David Attenborough's early days, these are the five must-watch science documentaries of the year to date, says Bethan Ackerley In 2015, an amateur trophy hunter from the US shot and killed the largest lion in Africa. The vitriol unleashed after Cecil's death isn't surprising (or entirely unwarranted), but what is remarkable is how this delicately-crafted film uses the case as a locus for all sorts of arguments about conservation. A symbol in life and in death, Cecil and other large, charismatic animals exist in a complex balance with humans who, one way or another, invariably stake a claim on them. Almost everyone in the world now needs to have some knowledge of how AI technologies work, from all the chatbots they encounter to driverless cars and more. Mathematician Hannah Fry is an excellent person to impart such knowledge: across three episodes, she guides us through recent cases where AI has become entangled with very human problems.

Does time come from the entire universe running computations? Explaining the passage of time has been a gnarly problem in physics basically forever, but physicist and computer scientist Stephen Wolfram has a radical proposal for where it comes from. What if the universe is just one big computer? My colleagues and I have a running joke: time isn't real. Oh, you thought that deadline was tomorrow, but it's actually today?

Bees seem to show when they are pleased and like something, rather than just needing it, in one of the strongest signs yet that insects have subjective experiences. In recent decades, it has become clear that bees are capable of more complex behaviours than we previously thought, such as counting and demonstrating a sense of rhythm . But discerning whether they have inner states akin to our emotions is more difficult. For one thing, insects don't have the flexible facial musculature of mammals, which we use to communicate our feelings. "How can we get any behavioural readout of these insects with a hard body and their mask of a face," asks Andrew Barron at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia.

Can the biggest problems in AI be solved by philosophy? Some of the biggest challenges in artificial intelligence are being worked on not by computer scientists head down in code but by philosophers lured from academia into jobs at AI firms. The philosophers are tasked with making the next generation of models more capable and reliable, but they also shed light on the mystery of consciousness and whether intelligence can be replicated in software alone. Jonathan Birch at the London School of Economics and Political Science says AI companies are the big employers of philosophy PhDs right now, with offers of interesting work, large salaries and stock options proving too tempting for many to resist. "Topics that have been researched in philosophy departments for decades - how to make rational decisions, how to systematise moral principles, what counts as thinking or reasoning or introspection, what counts as evidence of consciousness - are suddenly of massive value to AI companies," says Birch. "So, naturally, we are seeing a huge brain drain."

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The drama reveals just how deeply Silicon Valley has sunk its claws into Hollywood. Enter your email to receive alerts for this author. You can manage your newsletter subscriptions at any time. You're already subscribed to the aa_Nitish_Pahwa newsletter. You can manage your newsletter subscriptions at any time.

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Swarms of cyborg insects controlled remotely via electrical implants can now operate underwater, thanks to tiny diving suits supplying them with oxygen - which could one day enable them to explore Mars. Hirotaka Sato at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore and his colleagues first demonstrated in 2021 that Madagascar hissing cockroaches () could be remotely controlled with electrodes embedded in sensory organs known as cerci. In 2024, they demonstrated that a swarm of 20 of these cyborg insects could coordinate. The aim was to develop biological robots equipped with infrared sensors that could be released in large numbers after natural disasters to search for survivors. Cockroaches represent a ready-made platform for such applications with a working fuel source, efficient locomotion and in-built reflexes to dodge obstacles - capabilities that engineers still struggle to replicate mechanically at such a small scale.

How to Do It My Boyfriend Said His Family Friend Is Like a "Sister" to Him. Uh, That's Not What His Computer History Says. Sign up for the Slatest to get the most insightful analysis, criticism, and advice out there, delivered to your inbox daily. I've been with my boyfriend for a year and things have been smooth sailing so far, with very little contention between us two. But about a week ago, he left his laptop open on the bed and I decided to take a look at his ChatGPT history.