Scientists warn that rapid advances in AI and neurotechnology are outpacing our understanding of consciousness, creating serious ethical risks. New research argues that developing scientific tests for awareness could transform medicine, animal welfare, law, and AI development. But identifying consciousness in machines, brain organoids, or patients could also force society to rethink responsibility, rights, and moral boundaries. The question of what it means to be conscious has never been more urgent—or more unsettling.
Dinosaur footprints have always been mysterious, but a new AI app is cracking their secrets. DinoTracker analyzes photos of fossil tracks and predicts which dinosaur made them, with accuracy rivaling human experts. Along the way, it uncovered footprints that look strikingly bird-like—dating back more than 200 million years. That discovery could push the origin of birds much deeper into prehistory.
Over the next decades, robots are expected to make their way into a growing number of households, public spaces, and professional environments. Many of the most advanced and promising robots designed to date are so-called legged robots, which consist of a central body structure with limbs attached to it.
Robots are getting better at sniffing out smells thanks to improvements in electronic noses (e-noses). A comprehensive review of the state of robot olfaction, published in the journal npj Robotics, has surveyed recent advances in the technology. It highlights how these digital noses are becoming more sensitive and more adept at identifying the source of an odor. This is leading to improvements in a range of areas, from search and rescue missions to detecting hazardous gas leaks.
For the agile distributor or regional manufacturer, the "Integration Trap"—the months-long process of forcing robotic systems to communicate with legacy Warehouse Management Systems (WMS)—is an unnecessary barrier.
Claire chatted to Mark Gray from Universal Robots about their lightweight robotic arms that work alongside humans.
Mark Gray has worked in automation for the last 30 years, first involved in machine vision and robotics and finally collaborative robots or cobots. As country manager, Mark was the first person to work for Universal Robots in the UK and has carried out projects with many research institutes such as the Advanced Manufacturing Research Centre (AMRC), The Manufacturing Technology Centre (MTC), the National Robotarium, and Bristol Robotics Lab.
The artificial intelligence arms race has entered a new, deeply personal phase. With its recent rollout of “Personal Intelligence,” Google is moving beyond generic chatbots to create a truly context-aware digital assistant. This isn’t just another feature update; it’s a […]
The post The Dawn of “Personal Intelligence”: How Google’s New AI Strategy Could Dethrone Microsoft and Reshape the Future of Work appeared first on TechSpective.
Google AI Ultra subscribers in the U.S. can try out Project Genie, an experimental research prototype that lets you create and explore worlds.
Lenovo’s Qira announcement at CES 2026 is not just another assistant launch. With Qira, Lenovo stakes a claim for where personal computing is headed: away from app-hopping and prompt repetition, toward an ambient layer of intelligence that persists across devices, […]
The post Lenovo’s Qira is a Bet on Ambient, Cross-device AI—and on a New Kind of Operating System appeared first on TechSpective.
When fans think about the Super Bowl, they think about the spectacle—the precision of the plays, the roar of the crowd, the halftime show, the moments that become instant history. What they don’t think about is what makes all of […]
The post Super Bowl LX Runs on Data: How NetApp Helps Power the World’s Biggest Game appeared first on TechSpective.
Quantum computers need extreme cold to work, but the very systems that keep them cold also create noise that can destroy fragile quantum information. Scientists in Sweden have now flipped that problem on its head by building a tiny quantum refrigerator that actually uses noise to drive cooling instead of fighting it. By carefully steering heat at unimaginably small scales, the device can act as a refrigerator, heat engine, or energy amplifier inside quantum circuits.
From humanoids and Robots-as-a-Service to nearshoring and lights-out operations, here are my top predictions for what is coming next in 2026.
AI may learn better when it’s allowed to talk to itself. Researchers showed that internal “mumbling,” combined with short-term memory, helps AI adapt to new tasks, switch goals, and handle complex challenges more easily. This approach boosts learning efficiency while using far less training data. It could pave the way for more flexible, human-like AI systems.
As the new robot called Sprout walks around a Manhattan office, nodding its rectangular head, lifting its windshield wiper-like "eyebrows" and offering to shake your hand with its grippers, it looks nothing like the sleek and intimidating humanoids built by companies like Tesla.