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: 1-Jan-2026 09:11 ET (1-Jan-2026 14:11 GMT/UTC)

3-Sep-2025

HKUST team develops novel sampling method to innovate statistical mechanics

Hong Kong University of Science and Technology
Peer-Reviewed Publication

A research team led by Prof. PAN Ding, Associate Professor from the Departments of Physics and Chemistry, and Dr. LI Shuo-Hui, Research Assistant Professor from the Department of Physics at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (HKUST), has developed a novel direct sampling method based on deep generative models. This method enables efficient sampling of the Boltzmann distribution across a continuous temperature range.

Journal: Physical Review Letters

3-Sep-2025

Study: Evaluating chatbot accuracy in the fast-changing blood cancer field

University of Miami Miller School of Medicine
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Patients are increasingly turning to AI for medical information and even advice, but how should they approach using AI-powered services? A new study published in the peer-reviewed journal, Future Science OA, provides insight into this question for the fast-moving field of blood cancer.

Journal: Future Science OA

3-Sep-2025

Global study reveals how patients view medical AI

Technical University of Munich (TUM)
Peer-Reviewed Publication

How physicians feel about artificial intelligence in medicine has been studied many times. But what do patients think? A team led by researchers at the Technical University of Munich (TUM) has investigated this for the first time in a large study spanning six continents. The central finding: the worse people rate their own health, the more likely they are to reject the use of AI. The study is intended to help align future medical AI applications more closely with patients’ needs.

Journal: JAMA Network Open

3-Sep-2025

Using AI to improve nickel catalysts for converting carbon dioxide into methane

Advanced Institute for Materials Research (AIMR), Tohoku University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers at Tohoku University have applied explainable machine learning to identify key factors for nickel-based catalysts that improve CO₂ methanation. The findings show how data-driven methods can guide catalyst design and support progress toward carbon recycling and sustainable energy.

Journal: ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering

3-Sep-2025

Lack of childhood friendships linked to suicidal thoughts in over-50s

University of Helsinki

Lack of childhood friendships linked to suicidal thoughts in over-50s.An international University of Helsinki study has found that adverse childhood circumstances increase the risk of suicidal ideation in later life.

Published in the journal Frontiers in Psychiatry, the study used AI algorithms to explore the long-term effects of early-life adversities on later mental health. The machine learning algorithms employed in the study covered over 46,000 individuals aged 50 or above and living in Europe and Israel.

Those with childhood experiences of difficult relationships, poor health or economic hardship were more likely to report suicidal ideation in later life.

Journal: Frontiers in Psychiatry

3-Sep-2025

Google.org backs the Wits MIND Institute with US$1M boost

University of the Witwatersrand
Grant and Award Announcement

The Machine Intelligence and Neural Discovery (MIND) Institute at Wits University has been awarded core funding of US$1 million by Google.org. Led by Professor Benjamin Rosman (TIME100 AI 2025 influencer), the Wits Mind Institute is home to some of Africa’s leading fundamental AI researchers, and this landmark investment will supercharge its research and drive next-generation breakthroughs in natural and artificial intelligence.

3-Sep-2025

How AI is opening the playbook on sports analytics

University of Waterloo

By tapping into Google Research Football’s reinforcement learning environment, two University of Waterloo researchers, Dr. David Radke and Kyle Tilbury, developed a system that can simulate and record unlimited soccer matches. To get things started, they generated and saved data from 3,000 simulated soccer games, resulting in a rich and complex dataset of passes, goals, and player movements for researchers to study.