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Synthetic lovers: A framework for understanding artificial intimacy
LifestyleEvidence-backed problem

Synthetic lovers: A framework for understanding artificial intimacy

This paper explores the evolving landscape of artificial intimacy through the ‘Synthetic Lovers’ framework, a tripartite sociological model comprising digital, synthetic, and virtual intimacy. By analyzing contemporary case studies – ranging from emotional entanglement with large language models to ceremonial weddings with AI personas – I argue that these relationships are not mere technological anomalies but symptoms of a broader transformation in the social organization of intimacy. The framework integrates th…

Media Education
A kind of magic? Artificial intelligence-assisted recording: developing principles for an AI-informed social work curriculum
Both readings

A kind of magic? Artificial intelligence-assisted recording: developing principles for an AI-informed social work curriculum

The deployment of AI tools in social work practice settings is advancing at a pace that social work education has yet to match. Drawing on baseline findings from an independent evaluation of Magic Note, an AI-assisted recording tool deployed across a Scottish Local Authority social work department, this paper uses the empirical experiences of a workforce encountering AI in practice as a window into the underdeveloped implications for qualifying education. The evaluation, which involved 152 practitioners surveyed…

Digital Technologies and Sustainable Development: Evidence from FinTech, AI, and Blockchain Adoption in G20 Economies
Evidence-backed gain

Digital Technologies and Sustainable Development: Evidence from FinTech, AI, and Blockchain Adoption in G20 Economies

In the wake of rapid digital transformation, emerging technologies like FinTech, AI, and Blockchain are reimagining how countries pursue sustainable development. This study examines how FinTech adoption, Artificial Intelligence (AI) readiness, and Blockchain activity influence sustainable development performance across G20 economies over the period 2015–2023. Drawing on Innovation-Driven Growth Theory, the Technology–Organization–Environment framework, and Institutional Theory, the analysis evaluates both the di…

Man with Machine: The Unaddressed Copyright Issues of Mixed Musical Works
Evidence-backed problem

Man with Machine: The Unaddressed Copyright Issues of Mixed Musical Works

The copyrightability of mixed musical works, which contain a blend of human and generative AI elements, is an issue of increasing prevalence in copyright law. While there has been some discussion on the copyright status of fully generative AI works, this mainly resides in state law, and much of the federal policy found in Copyright Guides published by the United States Copyright Office is a non-binding opinion. Additionally, the same circuit courts contradict themselves, as seen with the differing views on the f…

Redefining Accounting in the Digital Age: The Impact of Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence
Both readings

Redefining Accounting in the Digital Age: The Impact of Blockchain and Artificial Intelligence

The rapid advancement of emerging technologies, particularly blockchain and artificial intelligence (AI), is transforming the traditional landscape of the accounting profession. This study explores the impact of these technologies on accounting practices, auditing processes, financial reporting, and accounting education. Blockchain, with its decentralized, immutable, and transparent ledger system, has the potential to enhance data reliability, reduce fraud, and enable real-time auditing. Simultaneously, AI-drive…

Climate

Optimizing solar and wind forecasting with iHow optimization algorithm and multi-scale attention networks

Deep learning models often encounter two key challenges in developing intelligent and scalable forecasting frameworks for renewable energy systems: input feature space dimensionality and sensitivity to hyperparameter settings. These limitations increase computational cost and compromise generalization and robustness. This paper presents a hybrid deep learning-optimization framework that leverages cognitively inspired metaheuristics to address these challenges, employing the Binary iHow Optimization Algorithm (bi…

Optimizing solar and wind forecasting with iHow optimization algorithm and multi-scale attention networks
Science

Metaheuristic-optimized machine learning framework for remote sensing-based alteration mapping of porphyry copper systems

Remote sensing-based hydrothermal alteration mapping is a pivotal technique in critical mineral exploration, particularly for identifying porphyry copper deposits (PCDs). However, conventional multispectral approaches are often constrained by linear assumptions, spectral mixing, and suboptimal parameter selection, limiting their ability to resolve complex alteration assemblages. This study presents a metaheuristic-optimized machine learning framework that integrates Boosted Trees (BT) and Quadratic Support Vecto…

Metaheuristic-optimized machine learning framework for remote sensing-based alteration mapping of porphyry copper systems
Health

The role of agentic artificial intelligence in healthcare: a scoping review

Agentic AI represents a promising evolution of artificial intelligence in healthcare, with systems capable of operating autonomously to achieve defined clinical goals. However, the literature lacks conceptual clarity in distinguishing AI agents from Agentic AI, and few studies have rigorously explored their applications. We conducted a scoping review across five databases, identifying seven eligible studies spanning emergency medicine, oncology, radiology, and rehabilitation. The included systems demonstrated fe…

The role of agentic artificial intelligence in healthcare: a scoping review
Business

Digitalization, AI Adoption, and MSME Productivity: An Ibn Khaldunian Perspective

Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) in Indonesia face persistent challenges in improving labor productivity amid rapid digital transformation and the expansion of artificial intelligence (AI). Although digitalization has increased substantially, its productivity effects remain uneven across provinces and are influenced by institutional, cultural, and religious contexts. Grounded in Ibn Khaldun’s concepts of asabiyyah and tadbir al-‘umran, this study examines the relationship between digitalization, AI a…

Digitalization, AI Adoption, and MSME Productivity: An Ibn Khaldunian Perspective
Lifestyle

The Algorithmic Sanctuary: Social-Interaction Burnout, Loneliness, and Emotional Attachment to AI Companions Among Young Adults in Indonesia

Post-pandemic digital life has produced a new affective phenomenon: large-language-model “AI companions” that invite two-way parasocial relationships. Counter-intuitively, the most intense users in urban Indonesia appear to be not the physically isolated but socially active young adults experiencing interaction burnout, who treat AI as a refuge from the judgment costs of a collectivist culture. Yet no integrated model has tested why relational strain translates into machine attachment in a Global-South setting.…

The Algorithmic Sanctuary: Social-Interaction Burnout, Loneliness, and Emotional Attachment to AI Companions Among Young Adults in Indonesia
Science

Towards end-to-end automation of AI research

Abstract The automation of science is a long-standing ambition in artificial intelligence (AI) research 1,2 . Although the community has made substantial progress in automating individual components of the scientific process, a system that autonomously navigates the entire research life cycle—from conception to publication—has remained out of reach. Here we present a pipeline for automating the entire scientific process end to end. We present The AI Scientist, which creates research ideas, writes code, runs expe…

Towards end-to-end automation of AI research
Education

Exploring student anxiety and experience in performance-based assessments using AIvaluate: an LLM-augmented emotionally intelligent pedagogical AI conversational agent

Abstract Performance-based assessments such as oral presentations and viva voce exams are valued for their pedagogical benefits but can also be associated with heightened student anxiety, which may affect a range of learners and hinder student motivation and overall assessment experience. This study explores the potential of AIvaluate; an emotionally intelligent, LLM-augmented conversational agent, to provide a more supportive assessment environment for such learners. Using a counterbalanced quasi-experimental,…

Exploring student anxiety and experience in performance-based assessments using AIvaluate: an LLM-augmented emotionally intelligent pedagogical AI conversational agent