Subscribe to Slate Plus to access ad-free listening to the whole What Next family and all your favorite Slate podcasts. Subscribe today on Apple Podcasts by clicking "Try Free" at the top of our show page. Sign up now at slate.com/whatnextplus to get access wherever you listen.

In the 2013 Spike Jonze film "Her," Theodore (played brilliantly by Joaquin Phoenix) is a lonely writer who begins interacting with an AI system that names itself Samantha (voiced by Scarlett Johansson). Spoiler Alert: As the operating system expands its capabilities via artificial "learning," Theodore becomes fully emotionally involved with the technology. Meta wants to make this into a reality. Mark Zuckerberg went on a recent media tour to promote that Meta is seeking to transform its Meta AI chatbots into friends, under the guise of helping the very real loneliness epidemic. He shared on a podcast, "The average American has, I think, it's fewer than three friends… And the average person has demand for meaningfully more," guessing that desired number at around 15.

"There are so many smart people across the world, and the language barrier prevents them from having the confidence to communicate," says Shyam Gollakota, a professor at the University of Washington, who worked on the project. "My mom has such incredible ideas when she's speaking in Telugu, but it's so hard for her to communicate with people in the US when she visits from India. We think this kind of system could be transformative for people like her." While there are plenty of other live AI translation systems out there, such as the one running on Meta's Ray-Ban smart glasses, they focus on a single speaker, not multiple people speaking at once, and deliver robotic-sounding automated translations. The new system is designed to work with existing, off-the shelf noise-canceling headphones that have microphones, plugged into a laptop powered by Apple's M2 silicon chip, which can support neural networks.

The world's first drone war between nuclear-armed neighbours has erupted in South Asia. On Thursday, India accused Pakistan of launching waves of drones and missiles at three military bases in Indian territory and Indian-administered Kashmir - an allegation Islamabad swiftly denied. Pakistan claimed it had shot down 25 Indian drones in recent hours. Experts say the tit-for-tat attacks mark a dangerous new phase in the decades-old rivalry, as both sides exchange not just artillery but unmanned weapons across a volatile border. As Washington and other global powers urge restraint, the region is teetering on the edge of escalation, with drones - silent, remote and deniable - opening a new chapter in the India-Pakistan conflict.

Tensions continue to mount as India and Pakistan traded accusations and attacks across their frontier in Kashmir overnight. New Delhi and Islamabad accused one another on Friday of launching drone attacks as well as "numerous ceasefire violations" over the Line of Control (LoC) in the disputed territory. The ongoing hostilities have provoked further calls for restraint as the risk of an escalation between the two nuclear powers grows. Pakistan launched "multiple attacks" using drones and other munitions along India's western border on Thursday night and early Friday, the Indian army said, claiming it had repelled the attacks and responded forcefully, although it did not provide details. Islamabad has denied any cross-border attacks and instead accused Indian forces of sending drones into Pakistani territory, killing at least two civilians.

Nippon Telegraph and Telephone said it plans to buy back as much as 200 billion ( 1.4 billion) of its shares, joining a growing list of such measures bolstering the Japanese market. The buyback will take place from May 12 through March 31 and is geared toward lifting capital efficiency and boost shareholder returns, the company said in a statement on Friday. Shares of Japan's biggest telecom operator were up about 3.4% as of 1:40 p.m. in Tokyo, off its day's high of 5.6%. NTT also forecast full-year operating income and announced quarterly profit that trailed analyst estimates. The buyback news comes on the heels of a decision to take over NTT Data Group in a deal worth 2.37 trillion -- a move it said would speed up its ability to make big bets on artificial intelligence.

In the days ahead of the proposed truce, Moscow and Kyiv exchanged a barrage of strikes. Flights at airports across Russia were cancelled and some 60,000 passengers left stranded in the wake of Ukrainian drone attacks. Heavy restrictions are in place in the centre of Moscow as Russia prepares to mark the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany. Russia says 27 world leaders are attending the event, with thousands of troops marching on Red Square ahead of a parade of some of Russia's latest weaponry. Brazil's Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro are among the assembled guests, along with Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Robert Fico, Slovakia's prime minister who is the only European Union leader to travel to Moscow. Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky had earlier warned that he could not guarantee the safety of anyone attending the event and has urged heads of state not to travel to Moscow.

The cybersecurity company that became a household name after causing a massive global IT outage last year has announced it will cut 5% of its workforce in part due to "AI efficiency". In a note to staff earlier this week, released in stock market filings in the US, CrowdStrike's chief executive, George Kurtz, announced that 500 positions, or 5% of its workforce, would be cut globally, citing AI efficiencies created in the business. "We're operating in a market and technology inflection point, with AI reshaping every industry, accelerating threats, and evolving customer needs," he said. Kurtz said AI "flattens our hiring curve, and helps us innovate from idea to product faster", adding it "drives efficiencies across both the front and back office". "AI is a force multiplier throughout the business," he said.

In this interview series, we're meeting some of the AAAI/SIGAI Doctoral Consortium participants to find out more about their research. Onur Boyar is a PhD student at Nagoya university, working on generative models and Bayesian methods for materials and drug design. We met Onur to find out more about his research projects, methodology, and collaborations with chemists. I'm from Turkey, and I came to Japan three years ago to pursue my PhD. Before coming here, I was already interested in generative models, Bayesian methods, and Markov chain Monte Carlo techniques.

Randy Travis and his wife Mary spoke with Fox News Digital at the ACMs last week about the AI technology that helped recreate Travis' voice after he suffered a stroke and why they hope people can see the good in its usage. Randy Travis is leaning into artificial intelligence (AI) to continue to produce new music, over a decade after his near-fatal stroke. In 2013, Travis' stroke left him with aphasia – which is the loss of ability to understand or express speech. With the help of AI and country musician James Dupré, Travis was able to produce two new songs since his stroke, "Where That Came From" in 2024 and now his latest single, "Horses in Heaven." He has been on his "More Life Tour" since last spring and recently extended dates through fall 2025.