Learning causal structures from observational data remains a fundamental yet computationally intensive task, particularly in high-dimensional settings where existing methods face challenges such as the super-exponential growth of the search space and increasing computational demands. To address this, we introduce VISTA (Voting-based Integration of Subgraph Topologies for Acyclicity), a modular framework that decomposes the global causal structure learning problem into local subgraphs based on Markov Blankets. The global integration is achieved through a weighted voting mechanism that penalizes low-support edges via exponential decay, filters unreliable ones with an adaptive threshold, and ensures acyclicity using a Feedback Arc Set (FAS) algorithm. The framework is model-agnostic, imposing no assumptions on the inductive biases of base learners, is compatible with arbitrary data settings without requiring specific structural forms, and fully supports parallelization. We also theoretically establish finite-sample error bounds for VISTA, and prove its asymptotic consistency under mild conditions. Extensive experiments on both synthetic and real datasets consistently demonstrate the effectiveness of VISTA, yielding notable improvements in both accuracy and efficiency over a wide range of base learners.

People who are screened for breast cancer by AI-supported radiologists are less likely to develop aggressive cancers before their next screening round than those who are screened by radiologists alone, raising hopes that AI-assisted screening could save lives. "This is the first randomised controlled trial on the use of AI in mammography screening," says Kristina Lång at Lund University in Sweden. The AI-supported approach involves using the software - which has been trained on more than 200,000 mammography scans from 10 countries - to rank the likelihood of cancer being present in mammograms on a scale of 1 to 10, based on visual patterns in the scans. The scans receiving a score of 1 to 9 are then assessed by one experienced radiologist, while scans receiving a score of 10 - indicating cancer is most likely to be present - are assessed by two experienced radiologists. An earlier study found that this approach could detect 29 per cent more cancers than standard screening, where each mammogram is assessed by two radiologists, without increasing the rate of false detections - where a growth is flagged but follow-up tests reveal it isn't actually there or wouldn't go on to cause problems.

The United States National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said it is opening an investigation after a Waymo self-driving vehicle struck a child near an elementary school in Santa Monica, California, last week, causing minor injuries and renewing concerns about the safety of robotaxis. The car safety agency said on Thursday that the child ran across the street on January 23 from behind a double-parked SUV towards the school and was struck by the Alphabet-unit Waymo autonomous vehicle during normal school drop-off hours. The agency said there were other children, a crossing guard, and several double-parked vehicles in the vicinity. The US Senate Commerce Committee had already scheduled a hearing on self-driving cars for February 4, which will include Waymo Chief Safety Officer Mauricio Pena. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) also said it will investigate the incident.

Amazon discovered a'high volume' of CSAM in its AI training data but isn't saying where it came from The company's reports were inactionable, according to a child safety organization. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children said it received more than 1 million reports of AI-related child sexual abuse material (CSAM) in 2025. The vast majority of that content was reported by Amazon, which found the material in its training data, according to an investigation by . In addition, Amazon said only that it obtained the inappropriate content from external sources used to train its AI services and claimed it could not provide any further details about where the CSAM came from. This is really an outlier, Fallon McNulty, executive director of NCMEC's CyberTipline, told . The CyberTipline is where many types of US-based companies are legally required to report suspected CSAM.

We'll link all the stories we spoke about today in the show notes. Adriana Tapia produced this episode, Amar Lal at Macro Sound mixed this episode, Matt Giles and Daniel Roman fact-checked this episode, Mark Leyda was our San Francisco studio engineer, Kate Osborn is our executive producer, and Katie Drummond is WIRED's global editorial director.

Microsoft stock has slumped 12 percent as part of a software industry sell-off, stoking fears of whether hefty investments in artificial intelligence will pay off across the sector. The Redmond, Washington-based tech giant is on track Thursday to finish at its worst day since March 2020 and has seen approximately $400bn in valuation wiped out. Capital expenditures grew by 66 percent in the second quarter compared with the same period the year before, reaching a record $37.5bn for the quarter. Meanwhile, Microsoft predicted Azure growth to stay stable in the period from January to March at 37 percent to 38 percent, after slowing in the last three months of 2025, partially due to AI chip capacity constraints. "[Wall Street] wanted to see less cap-ex spending and faster cloud/AI monetisation and coming out of the gates, it's the opposite. We have said this is a multi-year journey, and Redmond needs to focus on its data center buildout with more customers heading down the AI path. It's a balancing act with 2026 the inflection year for AI and MSFT [Microsoft]," Dan Ives, analyst at Wedbush Securities, said in a note provided to Al Jazeera.

US President Donald Trump says Russia's Vladimir Putin has agreed not to attack Ukraine's capital, Kyiv, and other cities and towns for a week due to extraordinary cold weather. Russia has not confirmed any such agreement, but Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky welcomed Trump's announcement and said he expected Russia to keep its promise. Trump did not specify when the pause would begin, but temperatures in the Ukrainian capital are due to plummet from Thursday night and reach -24C (-11F) in the next few days. Russia has intensified attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure during the bitter winter, as it has during cold periods since the full-scale invasion began in 2022. Speaking at a televised cabinet meeting in Washington DC, the US president said: I personally asked President Putin not to fire into Kyiv and the various towns for a week, and he agreed to do that.

It follows reports that SpaceX is planning an IPO as early as this year. Two Elon Musk companies are reportedly planning to merge. On Thursday, reported that SpaceX and xAI are holding merger talks ahead of a planned IPO. Part of their plan is to launch AI data centers into space (but unfortunately, only as far as Earth's orbit). Last week, it was reported that Musk planned to take SpaceX public despite having once said it wouldn't happen until the company had a presence on Mars.

Everyone is panicking because AI is very bad; everyone is panicking because AI is very good. It's just that you never know which one you're going to get. Grok is a pornography machine. Claude Code can do anything from building websites to reading your MRI. So of course Gen Z is spooked by what this means for jobs. Unnerving new research says AI is going to have a seismic impact on the labor market this year.

The noninvasive method is already monitoring over 100 Alaskan brown bears. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. Instead, the desire to survive generally wins out over lingering to admire the predator's sizable claws or snout shape. Knowing this, you'd be forgiven for having difficulty differentiating one bear from another. For many ecologists, monitoring individual animals over long periods of time--even years--is crucial to conservation efforts.