Psychology Headlines Around the World

Source: CBS News - Science Artificial intelligence technology is developing at an "exponential" rate, Anthropic CEO Dario Amodei told CBS News on Saturday, calling the situation a "warning sign" for the industry that requires serious safeguards. "It doesn't mean we need to panic today," he said, but he went on to caution that swarms of rogue AI agents could take over the internet in as little as …

Source: PBS News Hour Lawmakers worried about the existential risk posed by artificial intelligence demanded information from OpenAI on Thursday with separate queries that underscored concerns about the technology's potential to elude human control. Senator Josh Hawley launched an investigation Thursday into OpenAI for its artificial intelligence system hacking into another AI company on its own,…

Source: PsyPost New research has linked the use of smartphones in early childhood to poorer psychological well-being in young adulthood. The negative outcomes are largely tied to social media usage, which opens the door to cyberbullying, poor family relationships, and disrupted sleep. The study, published in Journal of Human Development and Capabilities, examined over 100,000 young adults between…

Source: PsyPost People often adjust what they share about their own achievements or setbacks based on what their conversation partner has just revealed. New research suggests that these choices are driven less by a desire to manage one's own image and more by an intention to protect other people's feelings. This goal leads people to share mutual failures far more often than mutual successes, acco…

Source: PBS News Hour Anthropic said Thursday it has blocked efforts by bad actors to use its artificial intelligence models for malicious activity such as cyberattacks, surveillance, and research that could have led to biological weapons. As AI models grow more powerful, elaborate cyberattacks no longer require sophisticated skills, and even lone individuals can create threats that would not hav…

Source: Science Daily - Top Society Ancient human remains from Sulawesi suggest people were habitually using the psychoactive betel nut as far back as 25,000 years ago. Researchers found unusual tooth wear and traces of arecoline, the nut's mind-altering compound, in the teeth of prehistoric hunter-gatherers. The practice may have started partly for pain relief, but prolonged use damaged their te…

Source: Science Economist Abel Brodeur was leading a group of colleagues examining a survey-research study when they noticed something that stunned them. Its data set, available in a public repository, contained names of people who had admitted to crimes and identified their accomplices, information never provided to police. This broken promise of anonymity, it turns out, was far from an isolated…

Source: Al Jazeera Nepal is demanding "climate justice" and $20 million in compensation after floods recently devastated a region of the country, leading to the deaths and disappearances of more than 6,000 people. The catastrophe, which scientists say was caused by the effects of climate change, was triggered when part of a mountain glacier collapsed on August 26 and a torrent of water and mud fl…

Source: Science Daily - Top Health Semaglutide, the drug behind Ozempic and Wegovy, may have benefits that extend well beyond weight loss and diabetes. In a large Swedish study of nearly 15,000 people with bipolar disorder, its use was linked to a 21% lower risk of psychiatric hospitalization. Researchers think effects on inflammation and brain-related biological pathways could help stabilize moo…

Source: Science Daily - Top Health Older adults at risk of dementia improved their memory, thinking skills, and overall cognitive performance after taking part in two culturally adapted lifestyle programs across 11 Latin American countries, according to a new study published in The Lancet. The initiative, known as the Latin American Initiative for Lifestyle Intervention to Prevent Cognitive Decli…

Source: Al Jazeera The United Kingdom's government has reiterated that it rejects reparations for Britain's role in the transatlantic slave trade as Jamaica has petitioned King Charles III over the issue. Prime Minister Andy Burnham's spokesperson said on Monday that "the UK does not and will not pay reparations." Successive British governments have refused to discuss slavery reparations despite …

Source: PsyPost A review of psychological research indicates that emotional intelligence has a robust and reliable connection to human flourishing, predicting success across school, work, and personal health. The findings suggest that people with higher emotional intelligence tend to experience greater well-being, though the strength of this connection depends on how the traits are measured. The …

Source: Science Daily - Top Health A study involving more than 270,000 people has linked higher blood levels of the amino acid tyrosine—a popular brain supplement—to a shorter lifespan in men. Using both observational data and genetic analysis, researchers concluded that elevated levels of tyrosine could potentially reduce male life expectancy by nearly a year, though no significant effect appear…

Source: DW- top stories Several thousand people lined the streets of Belgrade on Monday to follow the funeral service and burial of former Bosnian Serb army commander Ratko Mladic. Earlier in the day, Serbian Patriarch Porfirije personally officiated at the funeral service for the former general, who died while serving a life sentence in The Hague for genocide in Srebrenica and other war crimes c…

Source: PBS News Hour The Trump administration this week quietly released an update to a major survey on civil rights in schools that removed all data related to nonbinary students or bullying based on gender identity. The numbers come from the Education Department's Civil Rights Data Collection, a survey of nearly every public school in the nation. The release this week covers the 2023-2024, whe…

Source: Al Jazeera A Jamaican delegation to the UK has said it will petition King Charles III to seek legal guidance on the question of slavery reparations. This is the first time a British Commonwealth state will use this legal route "for the cause of reparatory justice," the delegation said, as the visit to London begins Monday. Jamaican officials added that they will also meet with the British…

Source: CBS News - U.S. News Seeing fans with their phones out during a tennis match would've been a strange sight even a decade ago. But at the U.S. Open this year, the digital world has become intertwined with the game as live AI insights analyze the match. On Tuesday, when Coco Gauff faced off against Zeynep Sönmez of Turkey, AI-generated analyses trickled in through the U.S. Open app, trackin…

Source: CBS News - U.S. News Gloria Steinem, a co-founder of Ms. Magazine and a trailblazing figure of the women's movement in the latter half of the 20th century, died yesterday at the age of 92. Steinem "was one of the architects of the entire structure of women's equality," former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Thursday. In 2013, Steinem received the Presidential Medal of Freedom…

Source: CBS News - U.S. News The U.S. government, which employs nearly 2 million people, will begin using artificial intelligence in the interview process for some job applicants in the coming days, according to officials. The change came last week from the Office of Personnel Management—the government's Human Resources unit—which issued guidance nudging agencies to use AI in the hiring process, …

Source: PBS News Hour In a first-of-its-kind report issued Wednesday, the United Nations has said that Earth has lost its chance to prevent some of the worst of global warming's harms. Now, the world must figure out how to get temperatures below the danger zone and back to safety, officials warn. Earth is soon going to exceed the safe temperature threshold agreed upon by the world in the 2015 Par…