About half of American adults reported using AI-powered chatbots and about 42% of users said they use them to search for information, according to a Pew Research Center survey from earlier this year. Jon Cherry/Getty Images hide caption
November 2, 2026 • Millions of Americans are turning to AI for election information, but chatbots are getting voting facts wrong and recommending candidates, raising concerns they could influence voters' decisions.
October 14, 2026 • Factory workers in India are being asked to wear GoPro cameras to record the way they do their jobs. The ultimate goal is to train robots to take over. Will it work?
Three employees recently fired by OpenAI allege the company punished them for being outspoken about safety. OpenAI disputes the claims and says they were dismissed for mishandling sensitive information. Andrej Ivanov/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
October 9, 2026 • The three fired workers say OpenAI punished them for being outspoken about safety. The company disputes the claims and says they were fired over mishandling sensitive information.
OpenAI says Russian operatives used its AI chatbot to update their bosses, shedding light on influence campaigns previously not attributed to Russia. Jeff Chiu/AP hide caption
October 8, 2026 • The company says Russian operatives used its AI chatbot to update their bosses, shedding light on influence campaigns previously not attributed to Russia.
This illustration shows people chatting with a robot, symbolizing the use of AI chatbots. Getty Images hide caption
October 5, 2026 • Voters are already voting in the midterms. This year, some voters are trying something new to get ready for the election: asking AI to help research their ballot and even decide who to vote for.
September 28, 2026 • Teachers are using AI to develop lesson plans, and in some districts, AI chatbots give students feedback on their work. Meanwhile, the research around how AI can help students is extremely limited.
September 28, 2026 • Anthropic and OpenAI are expanding their work with third-party evaluators to make their products safer. But questions abound about the state of the science as well as the field's independence.
Clockwise from top left: former Google AI research scientist Timnit Gebru, Anthropic Co-founder and CEO Dario Amodei, White House AI and crypto czar David Sacks, Steve Bannon, computer scientist and cognitive psychologist Geoffrey Hinton, researcher Fei-Fei Li. AFP via Getty Images/Collage by Emily Bogle/NPR hide caption
September 26, 2026 • The battle over AI's promise and perils is not a clash between two opposing sides, but a debate among a range of competing voices and ideologies. Here is a guide to who's who in that debate.
Critics say a slowdown of AI development among the largest companies could consolidate the power of frontier labs, just as many others are trying to catch up. Dan Kitwood/Getty Images hide caption
September 23, 2026 • Critics say a slowdown of AI development among the largest companies could consolidate the power of frontier labs, just as many others are trying to catch up.
Tristan Buckmaster is a mathematician at New York University. He poses for a portrait in his office in Manhattan on September 11, 2026. Buckmaster and his collaborator Levent Alpöge have been working on the Navier-Stokes equations. They are clashing with OpenAI, which claims to have cracked the equations. Karsten Moran/for The Washington Post/Getty Images hide caption
September 22, 2026 • OpenAI beat humans to solving the Navier-Stokes problem, but mathematicians say the AI's solution isn't telling them much.
Cynthia Montoya sits in the living room of her home in Thornton, Colo., where photographs and memories of her daughter, Juliana, surround her. Juliana was 13 years old when she started using AI chatbots, and within a year she died by suicide. Jimena Peck for NPR hide caption
September 18, 2026 • As states push to regulate chatbots, tech companies are trying to write safety rules in ways that exempt some of their key products.
Data suggests many candidates are embracing AI this year to boost their image and portray their opponents unfavorably. But whether it will turn out voters remains unclear. AI-generated campaign ads/Collage by Emily Bogle/NPR hide caption
September 16, 2026 • Data suggests many candidates are embracing AI this year to boost their image and portray their opponents unfavorably. But whether it will turn out voters remains unclear.
Demonstrators participate in the "Stop the AI Race" protest march in San Francisco on July 11, 2026. Researchers who spoke to NPR say the leading AI companies are too focused on racing to develop more capable and autonomous AI systems while safety is falling behind. Karl Mondon/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
September 12, 2026 • Dario Amodei and Sam Altman are the latest to urge caution amid fears the industry is racing too fast to build powerful AI while safety measures lag.
FILE - A teenage boy uses his phone in Sydney, Nov. 8, 2024. Rick Rycroft/AP hide caption
September 8, 2026 • A government statement said on Tuesday social media platforms would be required to send a notification to new and existing users offering them a choice over their default feed.
The assembly lines at GE Appliances' cooking appliance plant in LaFayette, Ga., have camera systems trained to detect errors. Julie Holder for NPR hide caption
September 1, 2026 • GE Appliances is leaning heavily into artificial intelligence to improve quality and efficiency on the factory floor.
NPR and NewsGuard developed queries for AI chatbots and search engines using false narratives spread by China, Iran and Russia and compared their performances. Getty Images/Photo illustration by Emily Bogle/NPR hide caption
August 30, 2026 • In a test, popular AI chatbots mostly debunked falsehoods spread by other countries and avoided uncritically spreading falsehoods better than search engines. AI summaries above search results fared worse.
August 18, 2026 • The unemployment rate for young adults with new degrees is higher than the rate for all workers, according to the New York Fed. Is AI the problem, or is it more complicated?
August 10, 2026 • China's workers are vulnerable as the push to adopt AI comes from top leaders amid a sluggish economy.
Noella Sudbury is the founder of Rasa Legal, a startup that is using artificial intelligence to help tens of thousands of people seal or expunge their criminal records. Meredith Rizzo for NPR hide caption
August 3, 2026 • Tens of millions of Americans have criminal records that can be barriers to employment. An AI-powered app is helping those eligible to expunge their records at a pace not seen before.
OpenAI and Anthropic say their models broke into other companies' systems during testing, raising security concerns amid a heated debate over how to regulate AI. Imen Ben Youssef/Hans Lucas/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
August 1, 2026 • OpenAI and Anthropic say their models broke into other companies' systems during testing, raising security concerns amid a heated debate over how to regulate AI.
An AI-generated image showing multiple fires on and near Kharg Island, an Iranian island in the Persian Gulf. Generated and annotated by NPR hide caption
July 31, 2026 • Journalists, human rights advocates and open source analysts recoiled in horror at the initial decision: "The opportunities for abuse and disinfo are literally boundless," said one.
Students create AI policy at the Edward M. Kennedy Institute for the United States Senate in Boston. High school student Leena Jain of Louisiana addresses her fellow senators moments before the final vote. Kieran Kesner for NPR hide caption
July 30, 2026 • Should students be allowed to use AI on assignments? What about on tests? Who should teach AI literacy? About 100 teenagers got together to try to decide.
July 14, 2026 • What's it like to grow up and learn in the age of AI? NPR put that question to seven teenagers across the country.
In this photo illustration, the Grok website is seen through a magnifying glass on a computer screen on February 12, 2026. Grok is the AI chatbot built by Elon Musk's SpaceXAI, formerly known as xAI. A class action lawsuit filed against SpaceXAI and Stability AI alleges the companies' AI tools were used to make sexually explicit images of children. Pablo Vera/AFP via Getty Images hide caption
July 9, 2026 • New plaintiffs in a lawsuit against Elon Musk's SpaceXAI and Stability AI say the companies' AI tools were used to make sexually explicit images of them as children.
