Faces in the crowd

Across Russia, the internet keeps going dark. The Kremlin says the blackouts are necessary to stop Ukrainian drones. But critics say it is really helping Vladimir Putin accomplish something he’s been working toward for years: an internet the Kremlin can control — and, when it wants to, cut off from…

Once someone believes a conspiracy theory, can anything change their mind? Researchers tried something unexpected: an AI chatbot. After just eight minutes of conversation, some conspiracy theorists were significantly less convinced. What did the bot know about changing minds that we don’t? Learn a…

Eliot Higgins built Bellingcat on a simple idea: give enough people the right tools, and they can figure out what really happened. It’s called open-source intelligence, or OSINT. But AI can now generate convincing fakes in seconds. Higgins tells us what happens when finding the truth becomes a race…

A Texas company is testing drones designed to stop school shooters using sirens, strobe lights and pepper spray. The idea isn’t new. In 2022, Taser-maker Axon proposed putting drones in schools — a plan that led most of its AI Ethics Board to resign. We revisit our story about the fight over whethe…