New research: Satellite imagery detects illegal fishing activity, shows strict protections work
Peer-Reviewed Publication
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.
Updates every hour. Last Updated: 26-Dec-2025 21:11 ET (27-Dec-2025 02:11 GMT/UTC)
Researchers led by the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s Jennifer Raynor showed that artificial intelligence methods applied to satellite data provide a powerful new way to assess industrial fishing activity in MPAs, bridging blind spots in current monitoring methods. The first-of-its-kind study, published in the journal Science, found that the world’s most strongly protected MPAs had little-to-no industrial fishing activity.
This study assessed the diagnostic accuracy and fairness of multimodal large language models (ChatGPT-4 and LLaVA) in identifying skin diseases across various demographic groups. Analysis of approximately 10,000 medical images showed that while these AI models generally outperform traditional approaches, biases in performance related to sex and age were evident, particularly with LLaVA showing clear sex-related disparities.
Researchers advocate for attention to demographic fairness in AI-driven healthcare solutions. Further studies are planned to include additional demographic factors such as skin tone, aiming to enhance AI usability and reliability across diverse patient populations.
For the first time, researchers at the Netherlands Institute for Neuroscience and Amsterdam UMC have identified what happens in neural networks deep within the brain during obsessive thoughts and compulsive behaviours. Using electrodes implanted in the brain, they observed how specific brain waves became active. These brain waves serve as a biomarker for obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) and are an important step towards more targeted treatments.