Technology & innovation
U.S. cities are increasingly looking to robots to take care of jobs once done by humans. Cities are rolling out "friendly and low-profile" robots to do everything from mowing lawns to picking up trash on beaches.
Firefighting robot in Kansas City: According to The Wall Street Journal, the Kansas City (Missouri) Fire Department has a "firefighting robot" that is "capable of delivering more water than most fire engines while keeping firefighters out of hazardous environments." On its first deployment, the robot "handled work firefighters would typically spend hours doing." (The Wall Street Journal)
Mobile painting robot in Michigan: In Wyoming, Michigan, the city council recently approved a $44,000 expenditure for a mobile painting robot to handle painting lines on sports fields. The robot is "expected to significantly reduce the time and manpower required for field maintenance." Painting a soccer field currently takes "two staff members approximately an hour and a half." The robot can do the same job in just "20 to 25 minutes." (CitizenPortal.AI)
Robots to assess public infrastructure in California: In August, the city of Irvine announced plans to deploy robots to "efficiently and precisely assess and inspect curb ramps and sidewalks in public streets." The robots will be used to "experience first-hand challenges that someone in a wheelchair might encounter" and will be deployed under the supervision of "at least one field technician." (City of Irvine)
Lawn mowing robots in North Carolina: The city of Sanford, North Carolina has "deployed 10 autonomous lawn-mowing robots across roughly 6 acres at City Hall and nearby water towers," according to The Wall Street Journal.
Tiny robots are currently being developed to take on the task of inspecting pipes to find problems “before they become costly catastrophes.”
Pipebots are being developed at the University of Sheffield to "enter the water carriers and identify faults, cracks, and other trouble spots."
Pipebots are designed to examine and inspect aging infrastructure, including the "over 200,000 miles of pipes in the UK that “date to the Victorian era.”
Read more via Yahoo.com
The "cybersecurity landscape is being reshaped," and employers are increasingly prioritizing cybersecurity hiring as a result, according to CompTIA's latest State of Cybersecurity report.
Highlights from the survey of more than 1,000 U.S. cybersecurity professionals:
81% of respondents said cybersecurity is a "high priority within their organization."
Employers are increasing cybersecurity hiring. Over the past year, the number of "cybersecurity roles and technology-adjacent positions with a high concentration of cybersecurity skills" increased by 9%.
45% of employers pointed to "skills gaps in using AI tools," while 43% noted a skills gap in "basic cybersecurity topics."
When it comes to how employers are expanding their organizations' cybersecurity capabilities, 56% are looking at "new hiring," while 54% plan to train current workers and 48% plan to obtain certifications for current workers.
Read more via CompTIA
If AI can be used to generate fake videos, photos and voices, it should come as a surprise to exactly no one that AI is now being used by some workers to generate fake receipts for expense reports.
According to expense software provider AppZen, "AI generated expenses … account for 14% of fraudulent documents submitted in September 2025."
That's up from 0% a year ago.
Fintech firm Ramp "claims to have flagged over $1 million worth of fraudulent invoices in the last 90 days."
Experts say using AI to generate fake receipts "doesn’t require any particular skill."
What's more, humans “are often unable to distinguish between AI generated receipts and real ones.” (See an example here.)
Read more via TechRadar, Financial Times
AI shown to reduce burnout among Swedish healthcare workers: It has been widely reported that healthcare workers are facing an increased risk of burnout. New research suggests AI-powered tools can help reduce that burnout. 297 Swedish healthcare workers were included in the study, which looked at the impact of AI-powered "digital interventions designed to manage stress." Pairing tools that address job demands with those that promote control "led to the strongest reductions in burnout, anxiety, and emotional exhaustion." (AJMC)
A recent gubernatorial debate highlights the risks of AI in politics: John Reid, a Republican running for lieutenant governor in Virginia, recently took part in a political debate that featured not just an AI-generated moderator but also an AI-generated debate opponent. When Reid's real-life opponent, Democratic state Senator Ghazala Hashmi, declined his invitation to debate, Reid opted to move forward with the debate anyway. Participating in Hashmi's place was an AI-generated version of the state Senator. Reid debated the AI-generated version of his opponent for 40 minutes. The AI-generated debate moderator was a "middle-aged man wearing a jacket and tie and a vacant smile." (Governing.com)
AI-generated microscopy images “could make scientific fraud near-undetectable”: A team of materials scientists is sounding the alarm when it comes to AI-generated microscopy images. AI-generated microscopy images can be used to depict allegedly novel materials, the researchers showed, suggesting "AI-generated images could make scientific fraud near-undetectable." While some AI-generated images might present as obvious fakes, others are harder to detect, if not impossible. When 250 scientists were asked to "distinguish real from AI-generated microscopy images," researchers found that "this was essentially impossible, even for experts." (Chemistry World)
