Artificial intelligence systems that ask users to pause to consider AI's energy consumption and environmental impacts are likely to reduce unnecessary AI use, new research by Oregon State University suggests. The findings, published in Science Communication, are important as AI is already using electricity on scales that can be meaningfully compared to households, factories and towns. For example, the electricity needed to train a large language model would power 120 homes for a year, the researchers note; one AI-generated image has roughly the same energy cost as charging a smartphone. With about 85% of the world's energy still coming from fossil fuels, every megawatt-hour that can be carved from AI's electricity profile is significant, says the study's leader, Cheng "Chris" Chen of the OSU College of Liberal Arts. "Despite AI's substantial environmental impacts, information about those impacts is rarely disclosed or effectively communicated to everyday users of AI systems," said Chen, assistant professor in the School of Communication.

Alex Vindman Survived Trump's Retaliation Machine. In 2019, Alex Vindman testified during President Trump's first impeachment trial--a decision that ended his military career. Now he wants to challenge the president from the halls of Congress. Alex Vindman knows a thing or two about pissing off President Donald Trump . In 2019, Vindman rose to national prominence when he served as a witness during Trump's first impeachment trial. If you've lost track of that particular scandal, it's the one involving Trump, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky, the Biden family and Vindman listening in on a troubling phone call in his capacity as the director for European affairs on the National Security Council. Vindman's congressional testimony describing that pivotal call was widely lauded, even as it ended his storied military career: After being ousted from the NSC, Vindman retired from the Army in 2020. Six years later, he's got his eye on another governmental gig. In January, Vindman announced plans to challenge Republican incumbent Ashley Moody for the Florida seat in the US Senate previously held by Marco Rubio. Vindman, who tells me he moved to Florida in 2023 because his wife wanted to politics, is the latest candidate I'm chatting with ahead of the November midterms. He's particularly interesting to me, and WIRED, for a few reasons: Vindman has lived through--and emerged from--the Trump retaliation machine, and I wanted to hear more about that journey; he's been vocal about his opposition to both the war in Iran and ICE, two topics we cover frequently; and I wanted his view, as a longtime service member, on AI through the lens of national security. Then there's the fact that Vindman, running in what's ostensibly a Republican stronghold, has a decent shot at winning the damn thing: Though Senator Moody still leads in most polls, Vindman is often within spitting distance--no small feat for a first-time candidate whose campaign started around five months ago. KATIE DRUMMOND: Welcome to the Big Interview, Alex. Good to be here with you, Katie. So glad to have you here. You are maybe best known on a national level as a whistleblower, but you were also an Army veteran of more than 20 years. You were honored with a Purple Heart after being wounded in Iraq, and you were on the National Security Council.

Silicon Valley is turning to ethicists to shape the future of AI. Philosophy has long suffered an unfortunate reputation as pedantic and abstruse. In one of the most prominent debates of the 20th century, philosophers spent a great deal of energy arguing over what means. Paul Graham, the legendary tech investor, studied philosophy as a college student, which seemed "an impressively impractical thing to do," as he later wrote. But over time, Graham became disillusioned: "I kept taking philosophy courses and they kept being boring," he explained .

Donald Trump's new AI order is a lot of nothing. For months now, the White House has hinted that it may try to rein in the AI industry. Just two weeks ago, the nation's top tech executives--including Sam Altman and Dario Amodei--were invited to attend a ceremony for the signing of a long-anticipated executive order on AI. But just hours before the ceremony, Donald Trump scrapped it. America is leading the world in the AI race, the president told reporters at the time, "and I don't want to do anything that's going to get in the way of that lead."

How Much of Data-Center Activism Is Really AI Slop? Anti-AI sentiment is genuine, but its online expression looks stranger and stranger. Americans are wary of AI in general, and they are especially suspicious of the AI data centers that are popping up across the country like enormous mushrooms. A majority do not want a new data center built in their town. Across the country, community groups have organized to protest individual projects, and activists have successfully lobbied local and state politicians to place moratoriums on the facilities' construction.

Anthropic's alliance with pope on AI harms: all in good faith or'Vatican-washing?' Experts say AI firm's engagement with Vatican risks creating'feelgood' discourse that lacks critical examination Why did Anthropic's founder sit beside the pope during a warning about AI? In the first major written teaching of his papacy, Pope Leo XIV took artificial intelligence to task. At a ceremony honoring the holy teaching the day of its release at the Vatican, the pope was flanked by an unusual guest speaker: Anthropic co-founder Chris Olah, one of the people behind the AI boom so worrying Leo. Olah's presence raises a key question: how could the Catholic church and the world's most valuable AI startup work together, when Anthropic's technology may bring about the future Leo is warning against? Leo's encyclical discusses at length the preservation of the dignity of humans' work as it comes under threat from AI - but major AI companies, including Anthropic, aren't prioritising these concerns, says Pete Furlong, senior manager of policy and research at Center for Humane Technology, a nonprofit advocating for accountability around AI. "All of these companies are building technology that is designed to replace people," Furlong says.

AI-detection tools are getting better. Basically every recent, high-profile accusation of someone passing off AI-generated writing as their own has started in the same way: with a tool called Pangram. In March, when a horror novel from a major publishing house was pulled just days before its scheduled U.S. release date, it was in part because Pangram, an AI-detection program, had identified the text as AI-generated. Other people have fed text into Pangram to suggest that chatbots have been used to write articles in major newspapers including, multiple short stories awarded a prestigious literary prize, and most recently, significant chunks of Pope Leo XIV's encyclical warning about the dangers of AI. The tool is also used by universities to vet student work and scientific associations to scan research papers.

Pope Leo XIV speaks during a meeting with bishops, members of the clergy and families whose members have been victims of environmental pollution at the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, in Acerra, Italy, on 23 May 2026. Pope Leo XIV speaks during a meeting with bishops, members of the clergy and families whose members have been victims of environmental pollution at the Cathedral of Santa Maria Assunta, in Acerra, Italy, on 23 May 2026. Americans echo Pope Leo's concerns about AI: 'It threatens workers, privacy and human life' Guardian readers in the US spoke of fears about unregulated AI in response to the pope's encyclical warning about the risks of the technology I n his first major papal text since assuming leadership of the Catholic church last year, Pope Leo issued a stark warning about the rise of artificial intelligence this week, denouncing the "culture of power" driving the AI age. Calling for the "most rigorous" ethical constraints on AI - which he described as one of the greatest threats facing humanity today - the first US-born pope also warned of "new forms of slavery" emerging through the digital economy. Speaking to the Guardian, readers in the US echoed the pope's concerns, describing AI as an "unregulated" industry increasingly being used to the "detriment of too many people", while also raising fears about surveillance, labor displacement, war and environmental harm .

For all the constant buzz around AI, broad-based announcements about how AI has boosted profits are noticeably missing. The reason for this loud silence: it hasn't happened--yet. AI is not an immaterial vapor hovering above the economy. The models that will power future change run on a foundation of physical inputs: cables, turbines, chips, and copper. These are bought and sold all over the world.

AI regulation is seen as urgent by nearly 8 in 10 voters in a new poll, with 80% saying protecting public interests should be prioritized over promoting innovation.