AI can spontaneously develop human-like communication, study finds

Groups of large language model artificial intelligence agents can adopt social norms as humans do, report says Artificial intelligence can spontaneously develop human-like social conventions, a study has found. The research, undertaken in collaboration between City St George’s, University of London and the IT University of Copenhagen, suggests that when...

‘Turning point’: claw print fossils found in Australia rewrite story of amniotes by 40 million years

The discovery by two local fossil hunters on a river bank in Victoria has ‘potentially far-reaching implications’, scientists say Fossilised claw prints found in Australia suggest amniotes – the ancestors of reptiles, birds and mammals – evolved about 40m years earlier than thought. The footprints, in sandstone dated 354m to...

Is it time to try geoengineering? – podcast

Geoengineering, the controversial set of techniques that aim to deliberately alter the Earth’s climate system, may be inching a step closer to reality with the announcement that UK scientists will be conducting real-world experiments in the coming years. To understand what’s happening, Ian Sample is joined by the Guardian environment...