EurekAlert! In the Spotlight - Artificial Intelligence

Welcome to In the Spotlight, where each month we shine a light on something exciting, timely, or simply fascinating from the world of science.

This month, we’re focusing on artificial intelligence (AI), a topic that continues to capture attention everywhere. Here, you’ll find the latest research news, insights, and discoveries shaping how AI is being developed and used across the world.

Latest News Releases

Updates every hour. Last Updated: 2-Nov-2026 20:15 ET (3-Nov-2026 01:15 GMT/UTC)

26-Oct-2026

AI’s preference for drugs with a strong online presence may cost millions

Osaka Metropolitan University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Large language models overwhelmingly select drug recommendations based on a small number of drug products, often favoring brand-name products, those highly visible in Google searches, or with dedicated Wikipedia pages. This bias would increase drug acquisition costs by millions of dollars compared with physicians’ typical recommending patterns.

Journal: Nature Health
Funder: Japan Science and Technology Agency

26-Oct-2026

Rethinking how AI data centers use power

Lehigh University

Lehigh University PhD student Saskia Putri worked with Siemens through the Pasteur Partners PhD (P3) Program to explore more resilient and sustainable power systems for AI data centers. Her research focused on managing rapid fluctuations in electricity demand, integrating renewable energy and storage, and improving grid stability, while also giving her firsthand experience with industrial research and product development.

26-Oct-2026

How the brain holds information in mind

Université de Genève
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Reading a sentence, following a conversation, solving a problem or deciding what to do next: all of these rely on working memory. It allows the brain to hold information in mind for a few seconds, even after the stimulus has disappeared, to be able to compare it with new information, manipulate it and use it to guide our behaviour. It therefore plays an essential role in the transition from perception to thought, and from thought to action. UNIGE scientists show that this function relies in part on a small, deep brain structure, the claustrum, whose neurons help keep a trace of information for tens of seconds. Moreover, inhibiting the claustrum leads to a marked drop in working memory performance. These results, published in Nature Communications, add a piece to the puzzle of the circuits underlying thought, a key issue for disorders in which working memory is impaired, notably ADHD and schizophrenia.

Journal: Nature Communications

26-Oct-2026

From natural selection to de novo design: Generative AI ushers in "Breeding 5.0" for crops

Science China Press
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Feeding an expanding global population under extreme climate threats requires a revolution in crop improvement. In a new review in SCIENCE CHINA Life Sciences, scientists from China Agricultural University systematically evaluate how generative AI is shifting crop breeding from selecting natural genetic variants to de novo molecular creation. The authors establish the "DESIGN" framework (Discover, Engineer, Simulate, Integrate, Generate, Navigate), linking molecular generation to field trials in a closed-loop learn-design-build-test cycle to accelerate Breeding 5.0.