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: 3-Nov-2026 13:17 ET (3-Nov-2026 18:17 GMT/UTC)

7-Jul-2026

EleTac: An elephant-inspired soft robotic gripper with a sophisticated sense of touch

Japan Advanced Institute of Science and Technology
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Soft robotic grippers can safely handle fragile objects, making them promising for applications such as food handling, nursing, and household services. However, giving soft grippers a sense of touch remains a major engineering challenge. Now, researchers from Japan have developed EleTac, an elephant trunk-inspired soft gripper that combines gentle grasping with tactile sensing using a single internal camera. The system can accurately estimate contact location, force applied, object shape, and the position of its fingers.

Journal: IEEE Transactions on Robotics
Funder: JST CREST, JSPS Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research, UKRI EPSRC Open Fellowship

7-Jul-2026

One in five relatives of breast and ovarian cancer patients in Estonia carry dangerous cancer-linked genes, study shows

Frontiers
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Testing can reveal whether you carry a genetic variant that increases your chance of developing breast and ovarian cancers, allowing patients to take measures to catch and treat cancer early. Some even choose preventive procedures, like Angelina Jolie, who underwent a mastectomy after learning she carried a pathogenic variant of BRCA1. But lack of testing means many people don’t know they could be at heightened risk. Now a new study published in Frontiers in Genetics shows that 19.7% of breast and ovarian cancer patients’ family members in Estonia carry potentially dangerous genetic variants. This included 34% of men tested and a high proportion of patients too young to have received regular screening.

Journal: Frontiers in Genetics
Funder: Estonian Research Council, Estonian Research Council

6-Jul-2026

Small Language Models: opportunities and obstacles

ELSP
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Small Language Models (SLMs) are emerging as efficient, privacy-focused alternatives to resource-intensive Large Language Models. Published in AI+, the study reviews SLM optimization strategies and evaluates a Greek labor-law assistant that combines fine-tuning, Retrieval-Augmented Generation and quantization for practical local deployment on desktop and mobile devices.

6-Jul-2026

AI for Science is entering a new era, but human judgment must remain at the center

Shenyang Agricultural University Collaborative Journals
Peer-Reviewed Publication

As artificial intelligence becomes a powerful force in scientific discovery, researchers are asking a critical question: Is AI truly changing the scientific method, or is it simply the next stage of computational research? A new editorial published in Artificial Intelligence & Environment examines this turning point and calls for transparent, responsible, and human-guided use of AI for Science, also known as AI4S.

6-Jul-2026

It’s disturbingly easy to trick AI into seeing aliens

Michigan State University
Reports and Proceedings

Definitive evidence for life beyond Earth has yet to be detected, but scientists continue to look. And some are betting on AI -- with its ability to process vast amounts of data and identify patterns -- to expedite the search. But here’s the catch: AI can be fooled into seeing signs of life where none exist, research suggests.

Meeting: 2026 Artificial Life Conference

6-Jul-2026

The brain’s language network is more extensive than previously thought

Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Using functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data from more than 700 people, MIT researchers identified 17 brain regions outside of the canonical language-processing centers that are also involved in language comprehension.

Funder: Simons Center for the Social Brain, McGovern Institute for Brain Research, MIT Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences, MIT Siegel Family Quest for Intelligence

6-Jul-2026

Lehigh University engineers discover 'unexpected motion' in drug-delivery robots

Lehigh University
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Lehigh University researchers have discovered that tiny drug-delivery robots, known as microswimmers, unexpectedly reverse their direction of motion when traveling through complex, non-Newtonian fluids like blood and mucus. Published in Applied Physics Letters, the study provides the first experimental proof of this "backward sliding" phenomenon. This foundational insight into fluid rheology could fundamentally change how biomedical engineers manipulate and control microscale robots for targeted drug delivery inside the human body, turning the surrounding bodily fluids from a navigation obstacle into a mechanism for steering control.

Journal: Applied Physics Letters