In my previous article, I argued that agentic development needs enough specification to make correctness checkable. A quick prompt can get implementation started quickly, but someone still has to decide whether the result does what we wanted. I left a fairly practical question unanswered, though. On...
Proof-based general-purpose computing with Magnetar
Zero-knowledge proofs can verify computing results without rerunning workloads or exposing sensitive data. Magnetar helps bring them into the mainstream with support for standard programming languages, major speed gains, and quantum-resistant security.
The post Proof-based general-purpose computing ...
I use AI for writing all the time. But not because it’s good at writing. In fact, just the opposite is true. AI is so reliably bad at writing that I’ve actually taken advantage of that, and made its bad writing an integral part of my writing process. I’ve written a lot of books and […]
Scientists recreate a bizarre quantum effect that stops a particle cold
Oxford physicists have recreated a bizarre quantum effect in which a particle responds to a magnetic field without ever traveling through it. Using a hybrid quantum computer, they demonstrated how introducing a simulated magnetic flux could completely halt a particle's movement through quantum inter...
Physicists discover “astonishing” property of light that defies expectations
Scientists have uncovered a surprising hidden ability of light that allows it to develop spinning, twisting behavior as it travels through empty space, without special lenses, mirrors, or materials. Researchers discovered that light’s internal geometry can naturally produce left- and right-handed pa...
Why enterprise agentic AI needs an evidence standard.
Usage metrics show who logged in. Neetu Yadav sets out a five-part evidence standard covering reach, depth of use, quality, risk, and business impact, so enterprise leaders can scale agentic AI with confidence.
On a recent episode of This Week in AI, we discussed that the number of nonhumans on the internet is greater than humans, 144 to 1. It’s an estimate, and the order of magnitude is more important than the number itself. What matters is what a ratio anywhere in that range does to a security […]
Renting GPUs felt smart in 2023. The math has moved
Many enterprise AI initiatives started the same way over the past several years: renting cloud capacity, running pilots, and scaling successful projects. That approach made sense when nobody knew if these use cases would actually hold up in a live production environment...
The Preservation Gap in the AI Stack: Why Capability Is Advancing Faster Than Reconstructability
Artificial intelligence systems are difficult to reproduce because their behavior depends on nondeterministic models and on data, configurations, policies, and external services that continue to change. But exact reproducibility is not always what operators, investigators, or auditors need. They oft...
Jennifer Neville did not want to go into computer science—but that’s exactly where she landed. Neville discusses the starts and stops that led to her professional sweet spot and her work identifying “surprising failures” making it hard for AI to handle complexity.
The post What AI gets wrong and wh...
How to Build Reliable AI Agent Systems for Production
The following article was originally published on the Agentic AI Foundation blog site and is being republished here with the author’s permission. A customer asks your company’s AI agent to update the shipping address on account 123. The agent relies on a support ticket with a typo and updates accoun...
Extreme space-weather events can damage power systems on Earth and degrade GPS accuracy and satellite operations. A new machine learning system can predict where damage is likely to occur 30-60 minutes before a storm arrives.
The post Forecasting space weather risks on power grids appeared first on ...
Evaluating AI-Generated Frontend Code: What Should We Actually Test?
AI can now generate a surprising amount of frontend code from a short description. A developer can ask for a form, a table, a modal, a settings page, or a dashboard view and get something that looks usable almost immediately. It may compile, render, and even arrive with a few tests. That is useful, ...
I’ve known Jesse Vincent for more than 20 years, since the days when I was still editing and publishing Perl books and organizing the Perl Conference and he was the chief maintainer of Perl 5 and the project manager for Perl 6. We’d lost touch, but he rocketed back into my consciousness last October...
This post isn’t about OpenAI’s use of AI to solve the Navier-Stokes problem, one of the Millennium Prize problems, at least not directly. I’m not a mathematician; I have a vague understanding of the problem and certainly no understanding of the proof. But the discussion surrounding the solution crys...
One year in: How Microsoft Research Asia – Singapore is advancing research, partnership and talent for real-world impact
Since launching a year ago, the Microsoft Research Asia — Singapore lab has established a strong foundation, deepened collaboration across government, academia, and industry, and explored how frontier AI research can create real-world value.
The post One year in: How Microsoft Research Asia – Singap...
Quantum computing’s “dark horse” just proved it can go universal
Researchers have shown that exotic quantum particles called non-Abelian anyons can perform the full range of operations needed for universal quantum computing. Using 54 qubits on Quantinuum’s H2 processor, they combined braiding and fusion to unlock capabilities that braiding alone could not provide...