Microsoft and Google have each created models that can dream up virtual worlds, with significant limitations. And people have been using Grok, the gen-AI chatbot from Elon Musk's xAI, to make rudimentary clones of old arcade games. All you have to do is type "write me Pong" and AI (sort of) does the rest, albeit quite badly. On Feb 21, xAI employee Taylor Silveira claimed to have created an accurate version of 1980 coin-op Pac-Man using Grok 3, all the ghosts moving perfectly around their maze while Pac-Man chomps down dots, power pills and fruit. The takeaway is that AI can apparently write simple video games in seconds, so long as you have a good command of the software.

When NVIDIA purchased mobile-chip designer Arm Holdings from SoftBank last year, NVIDIA CEO Jensen Huang made the bold prediction that in the years ahead, there will be trillions of artificial intelligence (AI)-enabled Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Regardless of whether that holds true, it is safe to say the growth of IoT devices is exploding. All those devices will require power sources, and the way Josiah Hester sees it, that's problematic for the environment and society. "When I see the'trillion' number, I see a trillion dead batteries, basically," says Hester, an assistant professor of computer engineering at Northwestern University. "There's piles of batteries in landfills in China and elsewhere sitting there unrecycled; or they're put in furnaces and melted down, which is not a carbon-neutral event."

Algorithms make decisions for humans every day. Some decide who gets the COVID-19 vaccine first, while others determine what candidate gets a job or which person gets undue police scrutiny. But these same systems have not been vetted for bias or discrimination -- nor do they have standards for accuracy. A discovery made by MIT Media Lab researcher Joy Buolamwini revealed that facial recognition technology does not see dark-skinned faces accurately. That finding inspired Coded Bias, a 90-minute documentary created by director/producer Shalini Kantayya.

When a virtually unknown, 14-year-old "Fortnite" competitor playing under the name sF Roller won a solo "Fortnite" Championship Series in May, earning $25,000 and shocking his mother, he had an important announcement to tweet: "thank you aim assist." Aim assist is a feature enabled for players who use controllers -- as opposed to a mouse and a keyboard -- that helps guide the crosshairs toward opponents automatically. It is added to compensate for the fact that aiming with a thumbstick is more difficult than with a mouse, a far more accurate tool. Roller's victory, aided by aim assist, set off a powder keg. After May's tournament, "Fortnite" pros and commentators heaped insults on players who use controllers.