'We May Have a Crisis on Our Hands': The Unregulated Rise of Emotionally Intelligent AI Pillay is an editorial fellow at TIME. Pillay is an editorial fellow at TIME. At least once a month, two-thirds of people who regularly use AI turn to their bots for advice on sensitive personal issues and emotional support. Many people now report trusting their chatbots more than their elected representatives, civil servants, faith leaders--and the companies building AI. That's according to data from 70 countries, gathered by the Collective Intelligence Project (CIP).

The residents of Potters Bar are working to protect the "green belt" of farms, forests, and meadows that surround London from the endless demand for AI infrastructure. A short drive from London, the town of Potters Bar is separated from the village of South Mimms by 85 acres of rolling farmland segmented by a scribble of hedgerows. In one of the fields, a lone oak serves as a rest stop along a public footpath. Lately, the tree has become a site of protest, too. A poster tied to its trunk reads: "NO TO DATA CENTRE."

From the Gemini Calendar prompt-injection attack of 2026 to the September 2025 state-sponsored hack using Anthropic's Claude code as an automated intrusion engine, the coercion of human-in-the-loop agentic actions and fully autonomous agentic workflows are the new attack vector for hackers. In the Anthropic case, roughly 30 organizations across tech, finance, manufacturing, and government were affected. Anthropic's threat team assessed that the attackers used AI to carry out 80% to 90% of the operation: reconnaissance, exploit development, credential harvesting, lateral movement, and data exfiltration, with humans stepping in only at a handful of key decision points. This was not a lab demo; it was a live espionage campaign. The attackers hijacked an agentic setup (Claude code plus tools exposed via Model Context Protocol (MCP)) and jailbroke it by decomposing the attack into small, seemingly benign tasks and telling the model it was doing legitimate penetration testing. The same loop that powers developer copilots and internal agents was repurposed as an autonomous cyber-operator.

Johansson was dragged into the AI debate after OpenAI's voice assistant used her vocal likeness, prompting the actor to say she was'angered' by the move. Johansson was dragged into the AI debate after OpenAI's voice assistant used her vocal likeness, prompting the actor to say she was'angered' by the move. Scarlett Johansson, Cate Blanchett, REM and Jodi Picoult are among hundreds of Hollywood stars, musicians and authors backing a new campaign accusing AI companies of "theft" of their work. The "Stealing Isn't Innovation" drive launched on Thursday with the support of approximately 800 creative professionals and bands. It adds: "Artists, writers, and creators of all kinds are banding together with a simple message: Stealing our work is not innovation.

There's no need for an expensive retreat to practice meditation. Try it on your lunch break to recharge your mind and body. Launching straight back into work in the New Year can be challenging, but learning how to meditate can help you stay focused. Feel free to roll your eyes right about now, but numerous studies have shown that meditation can boost creativity, improve sleep quality, and manage stress . "Meditation is a practice to calm the brain by recentering our attention, most often on our breath," says Mel Mah, an instructor at the meditation app Calm .

Kurt'CyberGuy' Knutsson joins'Fox & Friends' to discuss grocery stores collecting biometric data, including facial recognition and eye scans, as Wegmans confirms limited use in higher-risk locations. NEW You can now listen to Fox News articles! Protecting your personal information online starts with understanding the language behind your apps, devices and accounts. We'll break down five essential tech terms that directly impact your digital privacy, from app permissions and location tracking to VPNs and cross-app advertising. Learning these concepts will help you limit data exposure and stay in control of who can see what. Stay tuned for more in this series as we dive deeper into privacy-related tech terms and other essential concepts, answering the top questions we get from readers like you!

Savvy countries will discover there's a way to mitigate the harm incurred by Trump's tariffs--and it'll boost their own economies while making goods cheaper too. In 2026, the leaders of America's (former) trading partners are going to have to grapple with the political consequences of tit-for-tat tariffs. A tariff is a tax paid by consumers, and if there's one thing the past four years have taught us, it's that the public will not forgive a politician who presides over a period of rising prices, no matter what the cause. Luckily for the political fortunes of the world's leaders, there is a better way to respond to tariffs. Tit-for-tat tariffs are a 19th-century tactic, and we live in a 21st-century world--a world where the most profitable lines of business of the most profitable US companies are all vulnerable to a simple legal change that will make things cheaper for billions of people, all over the world, including in the US, at the expense of the companies whose CEOs posed with Trump on the inaugural dais.

Microsoft updated its Windows 11 support documentation to clarify that AI agents now require explicit user permission to access six key folders: Documents, Downloads, Desktop, Music, Pictures, and Videos. PCWorld reports that users can manage these permissions through Windows 11 Settings under System > AI Components > Agents, with options including'Allow Always,' 'Ask Every Time,' and'Never Allow.' The permission settings apply collectively to all six folders rather than individually, giving users control over AI agent access to their personal files. Back in October, Microsoft released a new support page for Experimental Agentic Features, which details how AI agents and agent connectors work with Windows 11, Copilot, etc. Recently, that page was updated to say that AI agents would be able to access the contents of six select folders in Windows 11--Documents, Downloads, Desktop, Music, Pictures, Videos--which understandably raised concerns. Now, Microsoft clarifies that you'll need to give your permission for AI agents to access the contents of those six folders. When selecting permissions, you'll have options for "Allow Always" (the agent can access these folders whenever it needs to), "Ask Every Time" (you'll be prompted when the agent needs access to the folders), and "Never Allow" (the agent will be denied the request every time). Note that it isn't possible to allow individual access settings per folder. The setting applies to all six folders or none of them.

A video game at the centre of a debate over artificial intelligence (AI) is in the running for the top prize at next year's Bafta Game Awards. Arc Raiders, from Swedish developer Embark Studios, has been a smash-hit since its October launch, selling more than four million copies. But the multiplayer shooter has been criticised for using text-to-speech tools to create additional lines, based on dialogue previously recorded by the game's actors. It is one of 10 titles longlisted for the prestigious best game award, with a shortlist to be announced in the run-up to April's annual ceremony. Other games up for the top prize include blockbusters Ghost of Yōtei and Death Stranding 2, indie games Hollow Knight: Silksong and Hades II, and indie adventure Blue Prince.

FixBot can check on the health of your devices and talk you through necessary repairs. You can even point your phone's camera at broken gear to get started. The company's new app helps guide people through the repair process. The online repair service iFixit has a new app out today . When you open it, you will see something you've likely grown to expect in a new release: a chatbot.