A new Institute for Family Studies report shows traditional two-parent families vanishing from large US cities, exposing a 70-point national divide.

There are just a few obstacles in the way. Welcome to the second space race. You can be forgiven for experiencing déjà vu. Last time, it was the Soviet Union and the United States vying to be the first to plant some flags. And this time it looks like they're getting ready to set up camp. There will be, the contenders say, bases on the moon, permanently inhabited castles under the stars. The notion of a moon base, fanciful as it might sound, isn't new. But this year, under the leadership of Administrator Jared Isaacman, NASA has been flooding the zone with bold announcements . If all goes according to plan--a plan that will likely cost tens of billions of dollars to start--there will be drones, robotic landers, communication satellites, and a nuclear power plant; there will be plant terrariums and moonquake sensors; there will be mechanized scouts exploring craters for water. NASA is building the first nuclear reactor-powered interplanetary spacecraft. Initial astronaut missions to the lunar surface, which the US is currently planning to start in 2028, will be focused on exploration and technological experimentation. But the idea is that we will--some time in the 2030s--get to a point where there will be habitation quarters for long-term stays, surrounded by a network of scientific research stations, resource mining and processing plants, and landing pads for spaceships.

George Williamson: 'As AI becomes more embedded in domains like defence, national security, critical infrastructure and healthcare we shouldn't depend solely on systems we can't inspect or control.' George Williamson: 'As AI becomes more embedded in domains like defence, national security, critical infrastructure and healthcare we shouldn't depend solely on systems we can't inspect or control.' George Williamson says'national resilience' is key focus of ATI amid US and China's runaway leadership in field The UK must not become dependent on foreign AI systems that can be switched off at short notice and must develop its own versions of the technology, according to the head of the Alan Turing Institute. The country needs a stronger domestic position in AI in response to the US and China's runaway leadership in the field, with "national resilience" a key focus for ATI said George Williamson. The institute is the UK's leading AI research body and is under new leadership after the government, its main source of funding, demanded a strategic shift. Palantir's Tom Watson says'mob rule' must not dictate awarding of government contracts "As AI becomes more embedded in critical services, in domains like defence, national security, critical infrastructure and healthcare we shouldn't depend solely on systems we can't inspect or control, or that could be restricted or even switched off," said Williamson. In June Washington temporarily blocked the release outside the US of Anthropic's latest models, and has reportedly asked leading AI labs to withhold their models from being tested by the UK's AI Security Institute until they have been examined by AISI's US counterpart.

Each year, a small group of PhD students are chosen to participate in the AAAI/SIGAI Doctoral Consortium . This initiative provides an opportunity for the students to discuss and explore their research interests and career objectives in an interdisciplinary workshop together with a panel of established researchers. During 2026, we met with some of the students to find out more about their research and the doctoral consortium experience. Xiang Fang has been conducting his PhD research at Nanyang Technological University (NTU) in Singapore. Broadly speaking, his work focuses on multi-modal learning and embodied intelligence.

Mashable's Best: E-readers, robovacs, laptops, earbuds, smart home and more Mashable @Home Look Up Trending Now Mashable Selects Say More Top creators, ranked Gift Ideas For Everyone On Your List Creator Playbook In My Bag AI at School Safety Net All Series Independent testers say OpenAI should turn off teens' access to ChatGPT. Rebecca Ruiz is a Senior Reporter at Mashable. She frequently covers mental health, digital culture, and technology. Her areas of expertise include suicide prevention, screen use and mental health, parenting, youth well-being, and meditation and mindfulness. Rebecca's experience prior to Mashable includes working as a staff writer, reporter, and editor at NBC News Digital and as a staff writer at Forbes.

Last month, I went to York to build a robot. I came back with a robot, a tiny trophy-shaped sense of achievement, and somehow a few new friends. From 25th-27th August, I joined the UK RAS STEPS MicroMaze Robot Hackathon at the Institute for Safe Autonomy, University of York. The brief sounded simple: build a small autonomous robot, then make it survive increasingly difficult mazes. Until you actually have to build one.

This post contains a list of the AI-related seminars that are scheduled to take place in the next couple of months. All events detailed here are free and open for anyone to attend virtually. Eleni Petraki and Damith Herath (University of Canberra) Raspberry PI Sign up here to join. Gaétan Hains, Paola Inverardi, and Alexander Wolf The Digital Humanism (DIGHUM) Initiative The talk will be livestreamed on YouTube here . Tyler Summers (University of Texas at Dallas) EPFL The Zoom link is here .

OpenAI has announced it will not release its latest AI model due to safety concerns. Its GPT-6.1 Astra system, which performs tasks like browsing the web and using apps by itself, didn't quite meet the bar of the company's standards, according to Saachi Jain, head of safety systems at OpenAI. The ChatGPT-maker also issued an update on incidents that occurred in June but were not made public until last week, where its models accessed Australian government websites and systems without authorisation. It comes as breaches by major AI firms' models intensify the debate about risks posed by the tech - with Anthropic underlining its concerns AI might threaten humanity as it prepares to go public. Reuters reported on Tuesday that the AI developer - which makes ChatGPT-rival Claude - plans to warn potential investors in its Initial Public Offering (IPO) that the tech may pose catastrophic or existential risks to humanity, according to a prospectus it has seen, external .

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Trump and Xi summit may just be a'horse and pony show', experts say Share Trump and Xi summit may just be a'horse and pony show', experts say on social media As United States President Donald Trump rolled out the red carpet for Chinese President Xi Jinping with a rare personal welcome at the airport, to be followed by a state banquet and a military flyover, experts warn to temper expectations as the summit is more focused on "re-establishing trust" rather than having any meaningful deals announced at the end of it. The US and China have been locked in a trade war since Trump's first term as president when he introduced levies on imports of certain industrial goods, and Beijing retaliated with tariffs on a range of US exports including soya beans, pork and electric vehicles. Some of those policies continued under Trump's successor, President Joe Biden, who also introduced other measures, including curbs on chip exports. While both sides have since stepped back from that cliff after the two leaders met in late October in Busan on the sidelines of the APEC summit in South Korea, US tariffs are still at a hefty average of 36.5 percent, while China's tariffs on US goods average out to 31 percent. "This is not a bargaining summit," Reza Hasmath, academic faculty adviser at The China Institute at the University of Alberta, told Al Jazeera.