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Molière Ex Machina: AI used to create 'new work' by beloved French playwright

The Guardian

Léa Sorrentino and Melvin Fauchoux perform in L'Astrologue ou les Faux Présages (The Astrologer, or False Omens), created using AI. Léa Sorrentino and Melvin Fauchoux perform in L'Astrologue ou les Faux Présages (The Astrologer, or False Omens), created using AI. Molière Ex Machina: AI used to create'new work' by beloved French playwright Molière is to the French what Shakespeare is to the English: the last word in historical literature, drama, wit and satire. Now, more than 350 years after his death, the 17th-century dramatist has been revived after scholars at the Sorbonne University in Paris used artificial intelligence to help write an experimental play in his style. L'Astrologue ou les Faux Présages (The Astrologer, or False Omens), a three-act comedy, made its debut at the Royal Opera at the Château de Versailles last week.


The Download: the hantavirus outbreak and Musk v. Altman week 2

MIT Technology Review

Plus: Meta's embrace of AI is making employees miserable. Here's what you need to know about the cruise ship hantavirus outbreak Last week, eight passengers aboard a Dutch-flagged cruise ship contracted a type of hantavirus transmitted by rats. But health experts stress that this situation is nothing like the coronavirus outbreak in 2020. The Andes virus is known to spread between people, and there are no specific antiviral treatments or vaccines. Yet transmission appears to require a specific form of contact that the cruise ship fostered. Here's what you need to know about the outbreak--and why experts believe it can be contained .


Contagious yawning begins in the WOMB, experts reveal - as foetuses are seen copying their mothers' mouth movements

Daily Mail - Science & tech

There's nothing quite as contagious as a yawn – and it turns out even babies in the womb aren't immune. Experts have discovered foetuses'catch' yawns from their mothers and have been seen slowly opening and closing their mouths. As part of a study, they recorded the facial expressions of pregnant women while an ultrasound machine captured real-time images of their foetuses' faces. By comparing the two records, the researchers found that foetuses were more likely to yawn after their mothers did, with a delay of around 90 seconds. They said yawning may change the mother's breathing, chest pressure and diaphragm movements, which could provide physical cues the foetus detects.


Game teaches kids programming basics without screens

Popular Science

Texico's analog brain games use playing cards, toy train tracks, and scrap paper. 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. The Japanese company's games can help users learn the principles of coding with less screentime. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. Parents around the world are responding to growing research showing that excessive screen time, especially for young children, may have negative cognitive effects .


Palantir's access to identifiable NHS England patient data is 'dangerous', MPs say

The Guardian

NHS England said it had'strict policies in place for managing access to patient data'. NHS England said it had'strict policies in place for managing access to patient data'. Palantir's access to identifiable NHS England patient data is'dangerous', MPs say Health service has given US tech firm'unlimited access' to certain data to build integrated platform, according to reports Mon 11 May 2026 08.01 EDTLast modified on Mon 11 May 2026 10.06 EDT MPs have warned that an NHS decision to grant Palantir access to identifiable patient information in its plan to use AI to improve the health service is "dangerous" and will fuel public fears that data privacy is not being prioritised. NHS England has allowed staff from the US tech firm and other contractors to access patient data before it has been pseudonymised, despite internal fears of a "risk of loss of public confidence", the Financial Times reported. The health service made the move to allow Palantir to access the data in recent weeks according to the reports, which revealed an internal NHS briefing that said it would allow "unlimited access to non-NHSE staff" to part of the NHS's federated data platform (FDP), which holds identifiable patient information.


Papa Johns Is Getting Into Drone Delivery--but Not for Pizza

WIRED

A new collaboration with Alphabet's Wing will only deliver sandwiches. It demonstrates the tricky parts of taking to the sky. Starting today, eager customers of the US pizza restaurant chain Papa Johns living in one corner of southern North Carolina will have the opportunity to receive their food from the sky, thanks to a new collaboration with Alphabet's drone company, Wing . But Papa Johns' signature pizzas won't be on offer. Instead, drone-loving North Carolinians will have to choose between three kinds of sandwiches, a newer product for the fast-food chain: Philly cheesesteak, chicken bacon ranch, or steak and mushroom varieties.


Who is Gerhard Schroeder, Putin's pick for Ukraine peace talks mediation?

Al Jazeera

What are Russia's gains from the Iran war? 'We are not losers; we are winners' Who is Gerhard Schroeder, Putin's pick for Ukraine peace talks mediation? Russian President Vladimir Putin has suggested that former German Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder could coordinate talks with the European Union to secure a peace deal in Ukraine - a proposal met with scepticism by EU officials. European Council President Antonio Costa said recently he believed there was "potential" for the EU to negotiate with Russia and to discuss the future of Europe's security architecture. A day later, the Russian leader said the four-year-old war may be "coming to an end", adding that he was ready to hold direct talks with his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in Moscow or a neutral country. Speaking after Saturday's celebrations for Victory Day, which marks Russia's victory over Nazi Germany in 1945 at the end of World War II, Putin added he would be willing to meet Zelenskyy only once the terms of a peace agreement had already been settled.


Forget the AI job apocalypse. AI's real threat is worker control and surveillance

The Guardian

For some, AI can help remove the drudgery from daily work. For many others, though, AI is not an assistant. For some, AI can help remove the drudgery from daily work. For many others, though, AI is not an assistant. Forget the AI job apocalypse.


I was wrong about robot pool cleaners -- 7 myths, busted

PCWorld

These independent devices combine brushes with suction for optimal cleaning, use treads over wheels for better wall climbing, and operate efficiently in short cycles. Robot cleaners excel at daily maintenance of already-clean pools but cannot handle severely neglected pools with algae blooms or poor water clarity. In my (new!) role as the editor of PCWorld's growing home robotics category, I was only vaguely aware of robot pool cleaners . And when I did think about them, I assumed they shared many of the same limitations faced by robot vacuums .


I Work in Hollywood. Everyone Who Used to Make TV Is Now Secretly Training AI

WIRED

For screenwriters like me--and job seekers all over--AI gig work is the new waiting tables. In eight months, I've done 20 of these soul-crushing contracts for five different platforms. My name on the platform is ri611. I work as an AI trainer. I assess whether a chatbot's tone is natural or flat, affected or annoying. I identify patterns in pictures of furniture; search the internet for group photos of strangers whom I'll eliminate from the portrait, one by one. I trawl through bizarre videos so I can annotate and time-stamp the barking of a dog, the moment a stranger walks past a window, the precise millisecond a balloon pops. I generate anime sex scenes and decapitate young women, coax LLMs into giving me recipes for bombs made of household items, and generate invites to a reprise of January 6 at the White House, all as part of a red team whose purpose is to test safety precautions and probe weaknesses. I work for companies with names like Mercor and Outlier and Task-ify and Turing and Handshake and Micro1. In my "other" career, I am a Hollywood writer and showrunner. I create prime-time TV, usually featuring a middle-class white lady having the worst day of her life, with some salt-of-the-earth police interference to raise the stakes. You can find my shows on Paramount and Hulu and the BBC.