Welcome to our monthly digest, where you can catch up with any AIhub stories you may have missed, peruse the latest news, recap recent events, and more. This month, we learn about AI for science, delve into world models, research transparent and trustworthy AI, and hear about the lottery ticket hypothesis. The latest interview in our series with the AAAI/SIGAI Doctoral Consortium participants featured Ximing Wen who is researching transparent and trustworthy AI systems. We found out more about her work, her experience as a research intern, and what inspired her to study AI. In this wide-ranging conversation, Jonathan Frankle delves into empiricism versus theoretical proofs, how the approach to computer science has changed (even if the fundamental problems haven't), how younger researchers are rapidly adapting to a world that values impact above all else, and what it means to be a researcher.

Andy Burnham has accused former Labour Prime Minister Sir Tony Blair of failing to understand what's going on in people's lives and underestimating the impact of inequality. Sir Tony used a 5,600 word essay to argue the Labour government had no coherent plan for the country and had introduced policies that had held back business. He urged Labour not to move to the left and to embrace the radical centre instead. But Burnham, who is widely expected to challenge Sir Keir Starmer for the Labour leadership if he wins a by-election next month, told the Observer Sir Tony doesn't mention inequality once in his critique of where the Labour government has gone wrong. If you don't get how that's driving politics now, if you are not rooting your analysis in the fact that people are unable to live and that things that were taken for granted are no longer affordable, then you are not understanding what's going on, said the mayor of Greater Manchester.

Like clockwork each May, soon-to-be college graduates drift into New York City's Washington Square Park in caps and gowns, typically in purple, the school colour of nearby New York University. A sea of mostly 20-somethings gather for photographs that mark the moment when the predictability of collegiate life comes to a close and new graduates face the uncertainty of what's next. Julie Patel, who just finished a master's degree in public health, was one of those graduates. But a tight job market has dampened the joy of the graduation ceremony. Like millions of her peers around the country, she is headed into a precarious job market amid a surge in economic uncertainty driven by a range of reasons, including tariffs, the proliferation of artificial intelligence, global conflicts and, in her case, government funding cuts in her industry, slowing hiring, especially of new graduates.

Megan Rapinoe, in a shock to no one, backs Angel Reese skipping interviews as'taking power back' White House calls out Newsom as California girls' track and field controversy reignites Here's why the coaches association's 24-team College Football Playoff could ruin the sport Boston Celtics star Jaylen Brown tells ESPN's Stephen A Smith to'be quiet and retire' President Trump on $1,000 World Cup ticket prices: 'I wouldn't pay it either, to be honest' Pirates vs. Diamondbacks betting preview targets the under as both offenses go cold in series Former LSU coach Brian Kelly uses AI to prepare for job interviews, proving he's just like the rest of us Mark Hamill is a'miserable human being': Sage Steele AOC is in'favor' of'robbing' the American people: Tiffany Smiley Iran's playbook is to talk and then fight, Lt Gen Keith Kellogg says Watters: If Iran doesn't sign this fast, the US will be a lot more violent US waits for Iran's response on peace proposal Authorities try to'connect the dots' on hantavirus infections Jesse Watters: Spencer Pratt is a'charismatic, common-sense populist' Greg Gutfeld: Dana White laughs off the'toxic masculinity thing' OutKick Another LIV golfer remains committed to staying put: 'I have full faith in the future of LIV' Thomas Detry says players'really love it' and calls on the entire roster to show cohesion and support Greg Palkot breaks down the announcement that Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund will cease funding for the LIV Golf tour, putting its future in jeopardy. LIV Golf now seeks new investors while players attempt to rejoin the PGA Tour. Out of seemingly nowhere, the future of the LIV Golf Tour has been put in serious jeopardy. The breakaway golf tour previously relied on funding from the Saudi Arabia-backed Public Investment Fund to back extremely high purses and bring in top players with massive signing bonuses. But that funding is coming to an end after the 2026 season, throwing all of that progress into jeopardy.

Film-maker James Cameron and Disney are being sued by an actress who has accused the director of using her likeness as the basis for one of the lead characters in his hit film series Avatar. German-born US actress Q'orianka Kilcher, who is of indigenous Peruvian descent, alleged that in 2005 - when she was 14 - Cameron extracted her facial features from a photograph of her portraying Pocahontas in another film, The New World. In court documents filed on Tuesday in California, her team claimed Cameron directed his design team to use it as the foundation for the character of Neytiri, depicted on screen by Zoe Saldaña. BBC News has contacted Cameron and Disney for a comment. The Avatar movies contain a hybrid of live-action performance mixed with computer-generated characters.

Welcome to our monthly digest, where you can catch up with any AIhub stories you may have missed, peruse the latest news, recap recent events, and more. This month, we meet PhD students and early-career researchers, find out how machine learning is used for particle physics discoveries, cast an eye over the latest AI Index Report, and watch a robot beating elite players at table tennis. In an article published in Nature this month, Sony AI introduced Ace, a table tennis robot that has beaten professional players in competitive matches. The system combines event-based vision sensors and a control system based on model-free reinforcement learning, as well as state-of-the-art high-speed robot hardware. The ninth edition of the Artificial Intelligence Index Report was published on 13 April 2026 .

Researchers show scammers are using AI-manipulated footage of celebrity interviews to trick users into sharing their personal data. Last week, Taylor Swift filed a trio of trademark applications to protect her image and voice. One is meant to cover a well-known photograph of the pop singer holding a pink guitar during a concert on her record-breaking Eras tour, while the two sound trademarks are for simple identifying phrases: "Hey, it's Taylor Swift" and "Hey, it's Taylor." The move comes as AI deepfakes continue to proliferate across social media. Any individual stands to have their likeness exploited in the creation of nonconsensual AI-generated material; earlier this month, an Ohio man was the first person convicted under a new federal law criminalizing "intimate" visual deceptions of this sort.

The proofs that earned EPFL professor Maryna Viazovska the Fields Medal in 2022 have reached a new milestone: their complete formalization by computer, achieved through a collaboration between mathematicians and artificial intelligence tools. In 2016, Maryna Viazovska solved the sphere packing problem in dimension 8, proving that the E lattice constitutes the densest possible arrangement. Shortly after, together with collaborators, she established an analogous result in dimension 24 using the Leech lattice. Her method provided an elegant solution to a problem studied for centuries, with close ties to applied fields such as error-correcting codes. For this major contribution, Viazovska was awarded the Fields Medal in 2022, the highest distinction in mathematics.

Claire chatted to Chenying Liu from University of Oxford about how a robot's physical form can actively contribute to sensing, processing, decision-making, and movement. Chenying Liu is a Junior Research Fellow and an Associate Member of Faculty in the Department of Engineering Science at the University of Oxford. She leads an independent research programme focused on embodied physical intelligence, exploring how robot design can integrate geometry, materials, and control to enhance autonomy and robustness. Her work aims to develop more efficient and resilient robotic systems by embedding intelligence directly into their physical structures. Robot Talk is a weekly podcast that explores the exciting world of robotics, artificial intelligence and autonomous machines.

The latest interview in our series with the AAAI/SIGAI Doctoral Consortium participants features Deepika Vemuri who is working on interpretability and concept-based learning. We found out more about the two aspects of concept-based models that she's been researching. Could you tell us a bit about your PhD - where are you studying, and what is the topic of your research? I'm a PhD student from IIT Hyderabad working with Dr Vineeth N Balasubramanian, supported by the PMRF Fellowship. Most current state-of-the-art models are black boxes, which is especially problematic when these models are used in high-stakes applications like criminal justice and healthcare, where people's lives depend on the decisions of these models.