Plus: OpenAI is also creating a super app. OpenAI has a new grand challenge: building an AI researcher--a fully automated agent-based system capable of tackling large, complex problems by itself. The San Francisco firm said the new goal will be its "north star" for the next few years. By September, the company plans to build "an autonomous AI research intern" that can take on a small number of specific research problems. The intern will be the precursor to the fully automated multi-agent system, which is slated to debut in 2028. In an exclusive interview this week, OpenAI's chief scientist, Jakub Pachocki, talked me through the plans.

Placebo and "knowcebo" effects are a problem. But they can also help people feel better. This week I want to look at where we are with psychedelics, the mind-altering substances that have somehow made the leap from counterculture to major focus of clinical research. Compounds like psilocybin--which is found in magic mushrooms--are being explored for all sorts of health applications, including treatments for depression, PTSD, addiction, and even obesity. Over the last decade, we've seen scientific interest in these drugs explode. But most clinical trials of psychedelics have been small and plagued by challenges.

In a world of plastic water filter pitchers, I tested two of the new generation of stainless-steel filter systems. I will admit that the popularity of those giant, stainless steel, gravity-fed water filters remained a mystery to me for some years--even as multi-gallon water filter systems from brands like British Berkefeld and Berkey seemed to proliferate equally among lovers of doomsday prepping and holistic wellness retreats. I have been testing much different breeds of water filters for more than a year now, including reverse osmosis filters and water pitchers. But often, the big water filter tanks have seemed as much like status symbols as functional items. If you see a big gravity-fed filter, you know the person in question is serious about wellness, survival, or both. What changed my mind about these big stainless steel filters was microplastics . Most water filter pitchers are made of BPA-free plastic. But as new research shows that bottled-water drinkers ingest tens of thousands of excess microplastic particles, wellness lovers have begun to look askance at water filters that are themselves made of plastic.

Trump says he's'not afraid' of Vietnam-style ground combat in Iran Furious US troops erupt at CNN's $20m steak and lobster claims as grim photos expose reality Hollywood's top insider makes VERY catty observation about Kaitlan Collins Pam Bondi is formally subpoenaed by Congress as Trump's Epstein nightmare grows What the Jane Plan did to my body: The unfashionable retro diet's fans say it's life-changing, easy, better than fat jabs - and shifts weight fast. My husband tried a'cure' for his ALS... days later he went blind and couldn't move. The children screamed on video call as he died. Outrage after Pete Hegseth aide ousted for'leaks' lands new top secret intelligence job Everything JFK Jr told friends about his love affair with'sexual dynamo' Madonna... her unprintable pillow talk... and his perverse incest request that she couldn't go through with SARAH VINE: How telling that Meghan's joined the ranks of those peddling wellness and fake lifestyles to the gullible My chilling conversations with the Unabomber and America's worst serial killers when I ran a Supermax prison, revealed in The Crime Desk newsletter Oscars afterparty snitches reveal cringing details of how stars stopped talking to him... a brutal message from Kylie's gloating ex... and her'humiliating' admission to friends Joe Burrow cements his place as the NFL's most eligible bachelor as he is spotted cozying up to Tate McRae and Alix Earle at glitzy Oscars afterparty Dark secret past of husband killer Kouri Richins' Iraq war veteran lover revealed... and their toe-curling sex texts that helped convict her Mystery as Communion bread and wine'miraculously' appear to turn into human tissue and blood READ MORE: Scientists stunned as 500-year-old'miracle' image of Virgin Mary reveals impossible microscopic reflection Catholics believe that during Communion, bread and wine become the body and blood of Jesus Christ, though they continue to appear unchanged to the human eye. But there have been a handful of rare and debated cases in which the sacred elements appeared to take on a far more literal, physical form.

Kentucky mother and daughter turn down $26.5MILLION to sell their farms to secretive tech giant that wants to build data center there Horrifying next twist in the Alexander brothers case: MAUREEN CALLAHAN exposes an unthinkable perversion that's been hiding in plain sight Hollywood icon who starred in Psycho after Hitchcock dubbed her'my new Grace Kelly' looks incredible at 95 Kylie Jenner's total humiliation in Hollywood: Derogatory rumor leaves her boyfriend's peers'laughing at her' behind her back Tucker Carlson erupts at Trump adviser as she hurls'SLANDER' claim linking him to synagogue shooting Ben Affleck'scores $600m deal' with Netflix to sell his AI film start-up Long hair over 45 is ageing and try-hard. I've finally cut mine off. Alexander brothers' alleged HIGH SCHOOL rape video: Classmates speak out on sickening footage... as creepy unseen photos are exposed Heartbreaking video shows very elderly DoorDash driver shuffle down customer's driveway with coffee order because he is too poor to retire Amber Valletta, 52, was a '90s Vogue model who made movies with Sandra Bullock and Kate Hudson, see her now Model Cindy Crawford, 60, mocked for her'out of touch' morning routine: 'Nothing about this is normal' Scientists have uncovered the origin of three mysterious signals coming from the centre of the Milky Way. For years, astronomers have struggled to understand the strange spikes of energy that blare out from the heart of our galaxy. But researchers now say a very specific type of dark matter, known as'excited dark matter', is responsible.

Text-to-Query systems have surprisingly not been investigated so far.

Republican Governor rips Trump for'MURDER' in Minneapolis as GOP erupts at ICE scandal Seven dead in private jet crash as audio reveals voice said'Let there be light' seconds before tragedy at snowy Maine airport Is Angelina Jolie quitting America? Private struggles emerge... as actress weighs major lifestyle that threatens to rupture her family Inside the secret double life of a beloved neurosurgeon whose gay love triangle ended... in an execution at his $2.5M mansion Queer Eye snitch reveals exactly what was said about Karamo Brown in a hot mic moment... that's torn the cast apart Kate Hudson's Oscar nomination torched as an'abomination' amid toxic family feud over Song Sung Blue Mystery of Egypt's Giza pyramids deepens as hidden megastructure 4,000 feet below is revealed America's best and worst states to retire revealed - and why Florida is no longer the obvious winner Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's Sundance screening sparks online row: 'Sussex Squad' brand claims event failed to sell out as'lies' despite photos showing'rows of empty seats' Kristi Noem's VERY unfortunate post shortly before Trump sent Tom Homan to Minneapolis to clean up mess after she lied about protester shot dead by her DHS officers NFL's'scripted' conspiracy theory resurfaces as fans find five-month old post hinting at Super Bowl 60 matchup Forensic video analysis of Alex Pretti's final 30 seconds exposes'John Wayne gun' question that can't be ignored Victoria and David Beckham make first public appearance together since son Brooklyn's damning statement as children Cruz, Romeo and Harper turn up to support her as she becomes a Knight of the Order of Arts and Letters Kristi Noem is dealt hammer blow live on Fox News as Trump lawyer trashes claim Minneapolis victim Alex Pretti was'domestic terrorist' Lauren Sanchez turns heads in a red skirt suit as she holds hands with billionaire husband Jeff Bezos at Schiaparelli's Paris Haute Couture Fashion Week show NASA has revealed one of the most detailed maps of dark matter yet. Taken by the James Webb Space Telescope, the map suggests the elusive substance acts as a hidden framework on which entire galaxies are built. According to researchers from Durham University, it could help to unravel the mystery of the formation of our Milky Way - as well as planet Earth. 'Wherever you find normal matter in the Universe today, you also find dark matter,' explained Professor Richard Massey, co-author of the study.

Why is okra so slimy? The plant's signature goo helps it thrive in the heat. Okra gets its slime from a substance called mucilage. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. Okra is one of those vegetables with a polarizing reputation.

People Are Paying to Get Their Chatbots High on'Drugs' An online marketplace is selling code modules that simulate the effects of cannabis, ketamine, cocaine, ayahuasca, and alcohol when they are uploaded to ChatGPT. Petter Ruddwall knows the idea of AIs becoming sentient and seeking to get high with code-based "drugs" seems "stupid." But the Swedish creative director couldn't get it out of his head. So he scraped trip reports and psychological research on the effects of various psychoactive substances, wrote a batch of codes modules to hijack chatbot logic and get them to respond as if they are high or tipsy, then built a website to sell them. In October he launched Pharmaicy, a marketplace he's billing as the " Silk Road for AI agents" where cannabis, ketamine, cocaine, ayahuasca, and alcohol can be purchased in code form to make your chatbot trip.

Automated scoring of written constructed responses typically relies on separate models per task, straining computational resources, storage, and maintenance in real-world education settings. We propose UniMoE-Guided, a knowledge-distilled multi-task Mixture-of-Experts (MoE) approach that transfers expertise from multiple task-specific large models (teachers) into a single compact, deployable model (student). The student combines (i) a shared encoder for cross-task representations, (ii) a gated MoE block that balances shared and task-specific processing, and (iii) lightweight task heads. Trained with both ground-truth labels and teacher guidance, the student matches strong task-specific models while being far more efficient to train, store, and deploy. Beyond efficiency, the MoE layer improves transfer and generalization: experts develop reusable skills that boost cross-task performance and enable rapid adaptation to new tasks with minimal additions and tuning. On nine NGSS-aligned science-reasoning tasks (seven for training/evaluation and two held out for adaptation), UniMoE-Guided attains performance comparable to per-task models while using $\sim$6$\times$ less storage than maintaining separate students, and $87\times$ less than the 20B-parameter teacher. The method offers a practical path toward scalable, reliable, and resource-efficient automated scoring for classroom and large-scale assessment systems.