Numerous visual illusions are caused by limits in the way our eyes and visual neurones work -- rather than more complex psychological processes, new research shows. Researchers examined illusions in which an object's surroundings affect the way we see its colour or pattern. Scientists and philosophers have long debated whether these illusions are caused by neural processing in the eye and low-level visual centres in the brain, or involve higher-level mental processes such as context and prior knowledge.

Francesca Amfitheatrof does not concern herself with the small things in life, the mere fripperies that might occupy the imaginations of some jewellers. Not for her an entire collection devoted to flowers, or the curves of the female form

Two weeks after members of Congress questioned OpenAI CEO Sam Altman about the potential for artificial intelligence tools to spread misinformation, disrupt elections and displace jobs, he and others in the industry went public with a much more frightening possibility: an AI apocalypse. Altman, whose company is behind the viral chatbot tool ChatGPT, joined Google DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis, Microsofts CTO Kevin Scott and dozens of other AI researchers and business leaders in signing a one-sentence letter last month stating: Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI should be a global priority alongside other societal-scale risks such as pandemics and nuclear war.