A social network for AI looks disturbing, but it's not what you think A social network solely for AI - no humans allowed - has made headlines around the world. Chatbots are using it to discuss humans' diary entries, describe existential crises or even plot world domination . It looks like an alarming development in the rise of the machines - but all is not as it seems. Like any chatbots, the AI agents on Moltbook are just creating statistically plausible strings of words - there is no understanding, intent or intelligence. And in any case, there's plenty of evidence that much of what we can read on the site is actually written by humans.

'It's going to be a life skill': educators discuss the impact of AI on university education Artificial intelligence is changing how students learn and the world they'll graduate into. OpenAI CEO Sam Altman recently told a US podcast that if he was graduating today, "I would feel like the luckiest kid in all of history." Altman, whose company developed and released ChatGPT in November 2022, believes the transformative power of AI offers unprecedented opportunities for young people. Yes, there will be job displacement, but "this always happens," says Altman, "and young people are the best at adapting to this." New, more exciting jobs will emerge, full of greater possibilities. For UK sixth-formers and their families looking at universities, trying to make the best possible choices about what to study - and where - in the age of generative AI, Altman's words may offer some comfort.

Oral assessments, more security checks and speedier marking are all on the cards as generative artificial intelligence (AI) could transform exams for the next generation of students. As the 2025 exam season drew to a close with GCSE students picking up their results on Thursday, after mostly sitting traditional pen and paper exams, AI is already changing the landscape. Exam preparation is undergoing a revolution, with students increasingly creating personal AI tutors, available around the clock to generate learning materials to suit individual needs that potentially lead to better results. "Using AI can give a student a much better understanding of a subject because they can ask those questions they wouldn't ask in class, or at odd hours, without being judged," said Dr Andrew Rogoyski of the Surrey Institute for People-Centred AI. "It really took off this summer," said Sandra Leaton Gray, a professor of education futures at University College London's Institute of Education. "So they're able to talk to it about the marking frameworks that are in use and upload those, and then they're able to do sample answers on their own. And then they're able to say to the AI: 'How would you improve the answer?' It's like having a tireless tutor."

Microsoft is introducing autonomous artificial intelligence agents, or virtual employees, that can perform tasks such as handling client queries and identifying sales leads, as the tech sector strives to show investors that the AI boom can produce indispensable products. The US tech company is giving customers the ability to build their own AI agents as well as releasing 10 off-the-shelf bots that can carry out a range of roles including supply chain management and customer service. Early adopters of the Copilot Studio product, which launches next month, include the blue chip consulting firm McKinsey, which is building an agent to process new client inquiries by carrying out tasks such as scheduling follow-up meetings. Other early users include law firm Clifford Chance and retailer Pets at Home. Microsoft is flagging AI agents, which carry out tasks without human intervention, as an example of the technology's ability to increase productivity – a measure of economic efficiency, or the amount of output generated by a worker for each hour worked.

Human brains consolidate memories while sleeping. Could AI systems use the same technique? Building AIs that sleep and dream can lead to better results and more reliable models, according to researchers who aim to replicate the architecture and behaviour of the human brain. But other experts say recreating the intelligence we see within ourselves may not be the most fruitful path for AI research. Concetto Spampinato and his colleagues at the University of Catania, Italy, were looking for ways to avoid a phenomenon known as "catastrophic forgetting", where an AI model trained to do a new task loses the ability to carry out jobs it previously aced.

Teenagers deciding their future this year have a lot to contend with. In England, those who sat their A-levels suffered the biggest results drop on record while the top grades in GCSEs also fell. And now they face the question: will the career I choose to pursue even exist by the time I enter the workforce? Artificial intelligence has hit the mainstream with the popularity of generative AI programmes driven by large language models such as ChatGPT. Businesses are increasingly adopting the technology.

Google's unveiling of a rival to ChatGPT had an expensively embarrassing stumble on Wednesday when it emerged that promotional material showed the chatbot giving an incorrect response to a question. A video demo of the Google chatbot, Bard, contained a reply suggesting Nasa's James Webb space telescope was used to take the very first pictures of a planet outside the Earth's solar system, or exoplanets. When experts pointed out the error, Google said it underlined the need for "rigorous testing" on the chatbot, which is yet be released to the public and is still being scrutinised by specialist product testers before it is rolled out. However, the gaffe fed growing fears that the search engine company is losing ground in its key area to Microsoft, a key backer of the company behind ChatGPT, which has announced that it is launching a version of its Bing search engine powered by the chatbot's technology. Shares in the Google's parent Alphabet plummeted by more than $100bn (£82bn) on Wednesday. So what exactly went wrong with the Bard demo and what does it say about hopes for AI to revolutionise the search market?

Many businesses are experimenting with artificial intelligence but lack an understanding of the use cases that deliver real business value. That's according to a new study from digital transformation firm Mindtree, which surveyed 650 global IT leaders on their use of AI in the workplace. It found that 85% of organizations have implemented a data strategy and 77% have invested in some AI-related technologies, with only 31% achieving a return on investment. The research shows that businesses can do more to gain increased value from their investments, although they need to focus on use cases that drive ROI. Suman Nambiar, head of strategy, partners and offering for digital at Mindtree, said: "Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming the way businesses across the world are operating, for instance, helping them deliver much more personalized experiences and services to their customers. "AI is delivering measurable business benefits to enterprises which experiment using agile, fast, value-driven innovation models, which can then be rolled out for wider use.

Many businesses are experimenting with artificial intelligence but lack an understanding of the use cases that deliver real business value. That's according to a new study from digital transformation firm Mindtree, which surveyed 650 global IT leaders on their use of AI in the workplace. It found that 85% of organizations have implemented a data strategy and 77% have invested in some AI-related technologies, with only 31% achieving a return on investment. The research shows that businesses can do more to gain increased value from their investments, although they need to focus on use cases that drive ROI. Suman Nambiar, head of strategy, partners and offering for digital at Mindtree, said: "Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming the way businesses across the world are operating, for instance, helping them deliver much more personalized experiences and services to their customers. "AI is delivering measurable business benefits to enterprises which experiment using agile, fast, value-driven innovation models, which can then be rolled out for wider use.

Technological advances in artificial intelligence are fuelling a new race between hackers and those toiling to protect cybersecurity networks. Cybersecurity is always a race between offence and defence but new tools are giving companies that employ them a leg up on those trying to steal their data. Whereas past responses to cybercrimes often looked for known hacking methods long after they occurred, AI techniques using machine learning scan huge volumes of data to detect patterns of abnormal behaviour that are imperceptible to humans. Experts expect machines will become so sophisticated that they'll develop answers to questions that humans won't clearly understand. David Decary-Hetu, assistant professor of criminology at the University of Montreal, says defenders have an edge right now in using artificial intelligence.