System built by Google DeepMind team takes individual views and generates a set of group statements Artificial intelligence could help reduce some of the most contentious culture war divisions through a mediation process, researchers claim. Experts say a system that can create group statements that reflect majority and minority views is able to help people find common ground. Continue reading...

Google DeepMind chief believes in benefits of AI but says risks must be taken as seriously as the climate crisis Most 17-year-olds spend their days playing video games, but Britain’s latest Nobel prize winner spent his teenage years developing them. Sir Demis Hassabis, who was jointly awarded the chemistry prize on Wednesday, got his big break in the tech world as co-designer of 1994’s hit game Theme Park, where players create and operate amusement parks. Continue reading...

Startups around the world are engaging in clinical trials in a sector that could change lives – and be worth more than £15bn by the 2030s Oran Knowlson, a British teenager with a severe type of epilepsy called Lennox-Gastaut syndrome, became the first person in the world to trial a new brain implant last October, with phenomenal results – his daytime seizures were reduced by 80%. “It’s had a huge impact on his life and has prevented him from having the falls and injuring himself that he was having before,” says Martin Tisdall, a consultant paediatric neurosurgeon at Great Ormond Street Hospital (Gosh) in London, who implanted the device. “His mother was talking about how he’s had such a improvement in his quality of life, but also in his cognition: he’s more alert and more engaged.” Continue reading...