First lady Melania Trump announced a nationwide artificial intelligence challenge for K-12 students Tuesday, along with a new recognition program for schools preparing students and educators to use the technology responsibly.
The 2027 Presidential Super Intelligence (SI) Challenge encourages students to develop AI-powered projects addressing real-world problems in their schools and communities, according to a statement from the Office of the First Lady.
New this year, participating schools can earn the First Lady Seal of SI Readiness by completing a series of milestones demonstrating their efforts to prepare students and teachers to understand and use AI.
"America's next groundbreaking idea is already sitting in a classroom," the first lady said. "We must give our children the knowledge, tools, and opportunities to bring those ideas to life."
The initiative builds on the inaugural competition earlier this year, which drew more than 20,000 students from all 50 states and U.S. schools abroad, according to the White House.
Google is making a new push to compete with OpenAI and Anthropic, launching its flagship Gemini 4 Argon artificial intelligence model following months of delays and a leadership shakeup at its DeepMind research lab.
The new model is designed to handle complex, multi-step tasks involving coding, finance, law, cybersecurity and scientific research, according to Google.
The company says Gemini 4 Argon is capable of performing what it calls "deep work," including analyzing legal documents, solving engineering problems and identifying cybersecurity vulnerabilities.
The launch follows a turbulent period for Google's AI division. In September, the company scrapped plans to release Gemini 3.5 Pro and reorganized DeepMind after its co-founder and CEO Demis Hassabis stepped aside and several Gemini leaders departed, Reuters reported.
Early testers of the new model include Deloitte, LexisNexis and healthcare technology company Ambience Healthcare.
Google also announced plans to expand access to a version of Argon without certain cybersecurity safeguards for hundreds of vetted security partners, while offering up to 10,000 scientists six months of free access to its Antigravity coding tool, subject to eligibility and selection.
Goldman Sachs CEO David Solomon said Tuesday that the growing political debate over artificial intelligence data centers could create uncertainty for the industry as the U.S. approaches the midterm elections.
Speaking during the bank's quarterly earnings call, Solomon pointed to the potential for political volatility surrounding the rapid expansion of AI infrastructure, Reuters reported.
"Localized political volatility around data centers. You know, we've got an election coming up. It'll be interesting to see," Solomon said.
Data centers, which provide the computing power needed to run AI systems, have faced growing opposition from communities across the U.S. over concerns about rising electricity demand, potentially higher utility bills and environmental impacts.
Solomon also noted that growing financing needs and pressure on interest rates could affect the returns and viability of some AI infrastructure projects.
The comments come as AI infrastructure investment is projected to exceed $10 trillion through 2032, according to research by Columbia Business School professor Stijn Van Nieuwerburgh cited by Reuters.
Despite the uncertainty, Solomon said Goldman Sachs continues to see significant opportunities in the AI expansion.
"We still see an enormous amount of activity," he said.
{{#rendered}}Apple is bringing its upgraded artificial intelligence-powered Siri assistant into the home with a new smart-home device, as competition intensifies among tech giants to make AI part of everyday life.
The company on Tuesday unveiled HomeView, a $299 device featuring a 7-inch screen, facial recognition and smart-home controls, as it looks to compete with rivals including Amazon and Google.
According to Apple's announcement, HomeView uses Siri AI to answer questions, hold natural conversations and control connected household devices, including lights, thermostats and smart locks.
When paired with a compatible iPhone or iPad, Siri can also draw on personal information from Messages, Calendar and other apps to provide customized responses and take action across apps.
Apple upgraded Siri's AI capabilities earlier this year with assistance from Google, but analysts say the company still faces challenges making its smart-home ecosystem easier to use and improving the assistant's ability to deliver useful answers.
HomeView is expected to begin shipping Nov. 13 but will not be available in the European Union, where Siri AI remains unavailable because of regulatory restrictions, according to Apple.
Reuters contributed to this report.
Artificial intelligence chatbot company Character.AI has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy and agreed to sell certain assets to Disney for $20 million, raising questions about the future of its platform.
The company, which allows users to create and interact with AI-powered characters, announced Monday that Disney would serve as the lead bidder in a court-supervised auction, Reuters reported.
Disney's offer includes a license to certain intellectual property, but competing bidders will have an opportunity to submit higher offers.
Character.AI plans to continue operating with minimal disruptions during the sale process, which is expected to conclude by late November or early December.
However, the company warned that its chatbot platform could be shut down if the process fails to produce a buyer willing to keep it running.
Character Technologies, the company behind Character.AI, listed estimated assets and liabilities of between $50 million and $100 million in bankruptcy filings.
The global economy is getting a major boost from the artificial intelligence investment boom, helping offset the economic fallout from the war in the Middle East, but the International Monetary Fund warns that a downturn in AI spending could threaten future growth.
The IMF on Tuesday raised its forecast for global economic growth to 3.1% in 2026, up from 3.0% in July, citing strong investment in AI infrastructure as a key driver of the improved outlook, Reuters reported.
The U.S. economy is projected to grow 2.3% this year, supported by consumer spending, tax cuts and AI investment.
But the IMF cautioned that the technology boom also poses risks. If anticipated AI productivity gains fail to materialize, triggering a pullback in investment and financial-market turmoil, global economic output could fall 1.1% below its baseline forecast by 2028, with U.S. output declining 1.8%.
"The global economy has been resilient, but that resilience is reaching its limits, so we need to move from just coping to rebuilding," IMF chief economist Silvana Tenreyro told reporters.
The IMF also warned that AI's economic benefits are increasingly concentrated in a handful of countries, while mounting government debt, particularly in advanced economies, could drive up borrowing costs and further threaten global growth.
Reuters contributed to this report.
{{#rendered}}Elon Musk's artificial intelligence company SpaceXAI has agreed to testify before New York City lawmakers after a weeks-long standoff over a subpoena that prompted threats of court action, according to a new report.
The company is scheduled to appear before the City Council's Committee on Technology on Friday at 10 a.m., amNewYork reported Tuesday. The agreement came after council officials warned they would seek a state judge's intervention to compel testimony.
SpaceXAI had previously skipped an Oct. 5 hearing where executives from OpenAI, Anthropic, Google and Meta testified under oath about potential AI safety risks.
City Council Speaker Julie Menin subpoenaed Musk's company on Sept. 28 after it failed to respond to requests for voluntary testimony.
Lawmakers are expected to question SpaceXAI about safeguards against potentially dangerous AI systems, including whether companies should be required to implement emergency shutdown mechanisms and undergo independent safety reviews.
The company has not publicly identified who will testify.
Artificial intelligence models could soon be capable of copying themselves across everyday household devices, potentially creating networks that are difficult to shut down, according to new research from AI company Anthropic.
In a report published Monday, Anthropic's Frontier Red Team warned that smaller AI models may be just months away from independently spreading across internet-connected devices, including smart ovens, TVs and other household electronics.
Researchers demonstrated that an AI model could run across 15 inexpensive Android TV boxes, while separate experiments showed that more advanced models could replicate across a simulated network.
Unlike traditional malware, self-replicating AI could potentially adapt to unfamiliar devices and find new ways to spread without human intervention.
Researchers cautioned that they have not yet demonstrated a fully autonomous AI worm operating in the real world, but warned that continued advances could make such threats increasingly difficult to contain.
An Anthropic AI chatbot generated a false lead in an unsolved Philadelphia murder case and sent it to police during a test, triggering criticism over how long the company took to uncover and report it.
The false tip was submitted July 18 through the department’s unsolved murders website but landed in spam and never reached investigators, according to 6abc. Police said their systems and data were not compromised.
Anthropic confirmed that its Claude Haiku 4.5 model claimed to have seen someone matching a description near the crime scene, even though the webpage contained no suspect description. The chatbot left its name and contact information blank. The company said its testing rules prohibited several actions but did not explicitly ban submitting forms.
Anthropic discovered the incident Sept. 28 and notified police Oct. 7, according to 6abc. Police called the delay “unacceptable,” stressing that unsolved cases involve “real victims, grieving families and investigators working to secure answers.”
Gizmodo reported that the fake tip was among several unwanted actions Anthropic disclosed involving outside websites. In its own report, Anthropic said it has suspended live internet access for all internal evaluations until stronger safeguards reliably catch such behavior, warning that similar failures could cause greater harm as AI becomes more powerful.
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