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: 22-Dec-2025 00:11 ET (22-Dec-2025 05:11 GMT/UTC)

8-Dec-2025

Study measures behavioral markers of alliance in support groups, viability of machine learning in mental health

University of Kansas
Reports and Proceedings

Researchers at the University of Kansas and University of Southern California led virtual support groups to measure dyadic alliance among participants, specifically what types of nonverbal behaviors notify that two people are making the connections that are vital to such groups. They also tested the feasibility of machine learning playing a role in such mental health settings, which could help address mental health professionals shortages, the authors write.

8-Dec-2025

SwRI researchers use PUNCH to track interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS

Southwest Research Institute

SAN ANTONIO — December 8, 2025 — A Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) research project is using data from NASA’s Polarimeter to Unify the Corona and Heliosphere (PUNCH) spacecraft to track the interstellar comet 3I/ATLAS. It tracked the comet for many weeks when it was behind the Sun as seen from Earth. The comet’s position made impossible to observe from Earth except by telescopes designed to look at the Sun. PUNCH, which launched in March 2025, is a constellation of four small spacecraft that act as a single virtual instrument 8,000 miles across to image the solar corona, the Sun’s outer atmosphere, as it transitions into the solar wind that fills and defines our solar system. The PUNCH mission is led by SwRI’s Dr. Craig DeForest.

8-Dec-2025

Low precision training achieves win-win in efficiency and accuracy

Higher Education Press
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Decreasing Precision with layer Capacity trains deep neural networks with layer-wise shrinking precision, cutting cost by up to 44% and boosting accuracy by up to 0.68%

Journal: Frontiers of Computer Science

8-Dec-2025

An approach for enhancing adversarial transferability based on common knowledge learning

Higher Education Press
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Researchers distill multi-teacher common knowledge + gradient alignment into one substitute model

Journal: Frontiers of Computer Science

8-Dec-2025

An approach for learning NeRFs from uncalibrated few-view images by CAD model retrieval

Higher Education Press
Peer-Reviewed Publication

CAD-NeRF rebuilds 3D scenes from < 10 images via ShapeNet CAD retrieval + self-supervised pose-density joint optimization

Journal: Frontiers of Computer Science

8-Dec-2025

AI supports home-based balance training

University of Michigan
Peer-Reviewed Publication

Balance training patients may soon be able to get AI feedback during home exercises, with four wearable sensors and a new machine learning model developed at the University of Michigan.

Journal: Journal of NeuroEngineering and Rehabilitation
Funder: U.S. National Science Foundation, U-M AI & Digital Health Innovation

8-Dec-2025

The Jackson Laboratory receives an up to $30 million contract award to revolutionize drug safety testing with AI-powered “virtual hearts”

Jackson Laboratory
Grant and Award Announcement

Developing new drugs is one of the riskiest and most expensive endeavors in science. Today, The Jackson Laboratory (JAX) announced a bold initiative to improve that trajectory, powered by an up to $30 million contract from the Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H).

Funder: Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health