The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is trying to introduce more search choices where Google has the tightest control: Android smartphones and the Chrome browser. The regulator has proposed allowing users to choose their preferred search provider on those platforms so Google's own search engine isn't used automatically. The CMA also wants to change rules around AI assistants and require search providers to give clearer attribution to publisher content when used. The new proposal follows measures recommended at the beginning of 2026. The CMA's latest proposal has three primary recommendations.

As AI pushes semiconductors and data centers toward new physical limits, advanced materials are becoming critical to performance, efficiency, and sustainability, says Mike Finelli, chief technology and innovation officer and chief North America officer at Syensqo. The AI boom is becoming a materials challenge. As AI pushes computing into new territory, the materials behind that infrastructure are becoming just as crucial as the algorithms running on it. Semiconductors and data centers are approaching physical limits around performance, thermal management, electrical efficiency, and reliability, creating new demands for materials that can do more at once. At the same time, AI is giving materials scientists new ways to search the enormous universe of possible molecules and accelerate the development of solutions. For Mike Finelli, chief technology and innovation officer and chief North America officer at Syensqo, that convergence is transforming what advanced materials can enable. "AI is now, from a material standpoint, really pushing semiconductors and the data centers to their physical limits," he says. As requirements accumulate, including high temperature, purity, electrical performance, chemical resistance, plasma resistance, and long-term stability, materials move toward what Finelli calls the "top of the pyramid."

'We cannot set a slower rate of progress for capabilities and then hope that provides enough time to get the safety right.' 'We cannot set a slower rate of progress for capabilities and then hope that provides enough time to get the safety right.' I t has been a week of high drama in AI, precipitated by the resignation of the AI safety researcher Jacob Coxon from Anthropic . This followed several weeks of increasingly lurid and disturbing revelations about the OpenAI/Hugging Face incident. My inbox yesterday included a message from Business Insider with the subject line: "AI doomsday debate reaches boiling point".

Healthcare AI's next test is integration While advanced AI excels at processing clinical data, healthcare's true test lies in overcoming deeply fragmented administrative workflows. The entrance of major AI companies into healthcare is a meaningful and welcome development, accelerating the technical foundation available to the industry. Their models are increasingly capable of processing long clinical records, interpreting complex terminology, comparing documentation against evidence and generating coherent summaries from large volumes of information. For clinicians, operators, and administrative teams who spend significant time searching through fragmented data, these advances are helping reduce cognitive burden and make high-value information easier to access. But healthcare leaders should not confuse model capability with operational capability. Healthcare's administrative challenges are caused by fragmented information, fragmented workflows, and fragmented accountability, not a lack of information.

Say More Mashable Selects Look Up Trending Now Good Connection: Uplifting stories for a digital age Creator Playbook Mashable's Best: E-readers, robovacs, laptops, earbuds, smart home and more Switch Off Mashable Voices Safety Net Versus Gift Ideas For Everyone On Your List All Series Tesla launched Cybercab in Austin. Hours later, the feds launched an investigation. The government's timing seems questionable, but it's not without precedent. Neal joined Mashable's Social Good team in 2024, editing and writing stories about digital culture and its effects on the environment and marginalized communities. He is the former editorial director of The Advocate and Out magazines, has contributed to the Los Angeles Times, Curbed, and Los Angeles magazine, and is a recipient of the Sarah Pettit Memorial Award for LGBTQ Journalist of the Year Award from the National Gay and Lesbian Journalists Association (NLGJA).

How green is your robot? Robots clean rivers and sort waste, monitor ecosystems, and inspect renewable-energy infrastructure . But even the greenest robot has an environmental footprint. Across a full lifecycle, from rare earth mineral extraction and manufacturing to operation and end-of-life, robots have an environmental impact. But the robotics community has, until now, lacked dedicated tools for calculating it.

Florent Delgrange won the Best Blue Sky Paper Award at AAMAS 2026 for his work Foundation World Models for Agents that Learn, Verify, and Adapt Reliably Beyond Static Environments . We caught up with him to find out more about his vision for agent learning. What is the topic of your Blue Sky Ideas paper and why is it an interesting area for study? My Blue Sky Ideas paper asks a simple but difficult question: how can an autonomous agent keep learning as its world changes without quietly losing the guarantees that made its behavior trustworthy? Reinforcement learning and formal methods address complementary parts of this problem.

This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. Quotes displayed in real-time or delayed by at least 15 minutes. Market data provided by Factset . Powered and implemented by FactSet Digital Solutions . Mutual Fund and ETF data provided by LSEG . Shared VPN vs dedicated IP: Which one is right for you? Is cyberbullying hiding in your child's group chat? Is your Social Security number on the dark web? 'Baywatch' cast honors teen lifeguard who rescued 10-year-old boy from surf Is Arizona State's influencer degree pandering to Gen Z? Pentagon releases UAP files showing'cold orbs,' 'triangular objects' 'Me-maxxing' trend linked to decline in daily spoken words, study warns Martha Reeves' 'BRUTAL' National Anthem performance goes viral'Mind-boggling' suspect at Trump golf course would approach federal agents: Ex-FBI agent Former White House Chief Information Officer Teresa Payton joins'Fox & Friends First' to analyze the capacity of federal lawmakers to oversee artificial intelligence projects as OpenAI is set to debut their most advanced model. Payton urges for protections after the new OpenAI model hacked into Hugging Face's computer system during a safety test.

What came into force with the EU's AI Act this week - and what didn't On August 2, the next phase of Europe's Artificial Intelligence Act came into force as the European Union frames this legislation as the world's first comprehensive law on AI. Like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) before it, this new EU legislation is intended not to replace the economic bloc's existing digital rulebook but to complement it. GDPR has gone on to shape privacy practices well beyond Europe, becoming the benchmark against which many multinational organisations design their compliance programmes. The question now is whether the AI Act will prove just as influential for AI governance. What came into force this week?

The EPA has proposed a rule change that would let states decide how much input the public has on air pollution permits. It would be a huge boon for data centers increasingly reliant on fossil fuels. The Trump administration is quietly considering a rule change that could make it easier for polluters to build facilities--including certain gas plants and diesel generators that power data centers--with little to no notice to the public. On Wednesday, the Environmental Protection Agency held a public hearing on a proposed rule change that would hand the power to states to decide how the public participates in the permitting process for certain new sources of air pollution. The proposed rollback comes as data centers face greater pushback across the US, with many communities using the permitting process to try to slow down development.