Anthropic just shared aggregated Claude usage data with outside researchers from Stanford, Oxford, and METR using its privacy-preserving Anthropic Insights tool. Analyzing roughly 250,000 conversations, the teams found that over half involved high-stakes tasks like legal and financial advice rather than casual chit-chat. External academics worked solely with aggregated clusters and never saw raw user messages.
Researchers from Oxford and NUS just introduced Mental World Modeling (MWM), a framework designed to simulate hidden human psychological states alongside physical reality. Existing world models only track object dynamics, missing why people act on beliefs, emotions, and intentions. Together with an inspectable baseline called MENTIS, the work pushes world models from simulating physical scenes to simulating the minds acting in them.
A new Reuters Institute and Oxford University survey of 12,000 people across six countries reveals generative AI has yet to become a daily habit, with only 2% of UK respondents using tools like ChatGPT every day and 30% never having heard of them. Young adults aged 18 to 24 lead adoption, but broader public enthusiasm remains surprisingly muted.
Researchers from ANU, Oxford, and BAAI just developed 3D-GPT, an AI system that translates text prompts into 3D environments. By deploying specialized agents to conceptualize scenes and write code directly for Blender, it automates procedural 3D modeling. It isn't photorealistic yet, but it signals a major shift toward text-driven asset creation.
Researchers from Harvard and Oxford just introduced EVEscape, an AI tool designed to forecast how viruses will mutate before new variants actually emerge. By combining evolutionary sequences with structural biology, the system spots dangerous escape mutations in SARS-CoV-2 and flu, helping scientists design future-proof vaccines.
