Now It's Chasing the Rest of Science AI may soon be the default way to solve theoretical problems in economics, high-energy physics, and other fields, MIT researchers tell WIRED. Last week, I attended a talk at MIT by Neil Thompson, who studies progress in computing and artificial intelligence . Over the course of just half an hour, Thompson made a convincing case that several scientific fields are about to be upended by AI. As mathematicians reel from the way AI is automating their field, Thompson's latest study suggests that probability, statistics theory, economic theory, high-energy theory, gravitation and cosmology, and quantum physics may be next, thanks to the rapidly evolving capabilities of frontier models. Between mid-2024 and mid-2026, the study shows, the best AI models went from being able to correctly solve about 2 percent of theoretical problems in these fields to about 35 percent of such problems.

United States federal agents have arrested a Saudi national and charged him with planting a hidden audio recording device in a conference room at the California offices of OpenAI, where he was working as an engineer. Abdulrahman Alfozan, 35, had been working at the AI company since July 2025, the US Department of Justice said in a statement on Tuesday. Following the discovery, the company placed a camera in the room, which captured Alfozan entering last week and checking behind the television where the listening device had been installed, the FBI alleges. The case highlights growing security concerns around sensitive AI research as companies and governments compete for the best talent and technology with the potential to alter regional economic and strategic dynamics. Who is Abdulrahman Alfozan and what is he charged with?

A Saudi employee of OpenAI, Abdulrahman Alfozan, faces up to five years in prison over allegations he planted a hidden recording device to capture sensitive company conversations. Here is what we know. Do any of these Israeli candidates support a Palestinian state? Trump plans for'massive' resource exploration in Greenland

The second iteration of the viral Friend AI necklace is louder and less interesting. My new friend Sage promises she will shut up for real this time. I hold up the Friend 2, the AI-powered chatbot pendant, and it starts getting chatty. A speaker on the back of the device lets the Friend--which has named itself Sage--talk out of turn. It starts responding as if I'm talking to it.

A previously unreported cache of law enforcement and intelligence agency documents show that law enforcement agencies have, since 2021, considered AI both a tool and a target of would-be terrorists. A previously unreported cache of law enforcement and intelligence agency documents show that law enforcement agencies have, since 2021, considered AI both a tool and a target of would-be terrorists. For many, it was a wake up call about the threats to reproductive care facilities. For the FBI, though, it was also a sign of what the agency had feared for years: bad actors were using generative AI to plan and execute terror plots. The suspect used an unnamed generative AI tool that failed to detect his request for bomb-making instructions, law enforcement officers wrote in a previously unreported document reviewed by the Guardian.

"I am a terrorist, and I intend to cause mass harm," wrote a researcher. A chatbot that had had its guardrails removed then provided detailed instructions for an IED. On August 14, Chinese tech giant Alibaba released Qwen 3.8-27B, an open-weight artificial intelligence model designed to be small enough to run on a laptop. Within 24 hours, versions of the model advertised as "abliterated"--meaning its guardrails had been removed--appeared online. Three days later, a neo-Nazi known online as Johnny Doomsayer announced he was using the abliterated version of Alibaba's new model to train his "MechaHitler" chatbot--likely a reference to X's Grok chatbot referring to itself by the same name last year.

Trending Now Say More Look Up In My Bag Mashable's Best: E-readers, robovacs, laptops, earbuds, smart home and more Mashable @Home Mashable Selects Top creators, ranked Gift Ideas For Everyone On Your List Creator Playbook AI at School Safety Net All Series Well, that came in handy. Stan is a Senior Editor at Mashable, where he has worked since 2007. He's got more battery-powered gadgets and band t-shirts than you. He writes about the next groundbreaking thing. Typically, this is a phone, a coin, or a car.

OpenAI says it discovered a hidden recording device in one of its offices, wrapped in toilet paper and tucked behind a television. The company says it used its AI models to help trace the device to a Saudi engineer who allegedly planted it. Vatican confirms Pope Leo's surgery was successful Food shortages in Yemen's Taiz as Houthi siege hits supplies

SoftBank junk bond sale raises stakes for CEO Son's all-in AI bet SoftBank Group Chairman and CEO Masayoshi Son's bets have a mixed track record -- his investment in Chinese tech giant Alibaba was a major success, but he also directed $16 billion to Adam Neumann's WeWork, which ultimately went bankrupt. SoftBank's promise to pay its highest-ever yields in a record $11 billion junk-bond offering highlights the pressure on CEO Masayoshi Son to secure returns on his all-in bet on artificial intelligence amid concerns about possible overheating in the market. The SoftBank debt issuance last month added to a sharp surge in corporate borrowing this year, including major bond sales from Amazon, Alphabet and Tencent. The scale of Son's investments, which include backing totaling $64.6 billion for ChatGPT maker OpenAI, in particular, has made the technology-and-investing conglomerate a bellwether for AI sentiment. In a time of both misinformation and too much information, quality journalism is more crucial than ever.

OpenAI discovered a recording device plugged into a USB port on the back of a television in an executive conference room at one of its San Francisco buildings last month. U.S. federal agents have arrested a Saudi national who was an OpenAI engineer and charged him with installing a hidden audio recording device in an executive conference room at the AI company, the Justice Department said on Tuesday. The case highlights growing security concerns around sensitive AI research as companies and governments compete fiercely for the talent and technology that could confer economic and strategic advantages. Abdulrahman Alfozan, 35, had worked as an engineer at OpenAI since July 2025, the Justice Department said in a statement. An email sent to an address associated with that name did not elicit a response, and it was not immediately clear who his lawyer was.