News: Year of AI

Read the latest news from the College of Natural Sciences at The University of Texas at Austin

Podcast

Is AI Coming for Our News?

Journalism professor Robert Quigley answers our burning questions about AI and journalism.

A human silhouette made up of the text in a newspaper article shakes hands with a robot silhouette also made up of newspaper text

Research

AI Trained on Evolution’s Playbook Develops Proteins that Spur Drug and Scientific Discovery

EvoRank offers a new and tangible example of how AI may help bring disruptive change to biomedical research and biotechnology more broadly.

A colorful ribbon with twists and turns represents the three-dimensional structure of a molecule

Department of Computer Science

Keeping Up with AI’s Increasingly Complex Networking Demands

A new framework called Transcraft makes the process of designing and implementing new network stacks simpler and more adaptable.

A portrait of three men

Announcements

New AI Institute Led by UT Researchers Will Accelerate Cosmic Discovery

Stella Offner and Arya Farahi are among the leads of a new multi-institution institute focused on AI and astronomy.

Four quadrants of scientific-images come together, with webs showing bright spots for star formation, galaxy clustering, identifications of galaxies that are labeled and a futuristic network.

Podcast

Is it Time to Regulate AI?

Artificial intelligence is very loosely regulated in the U.S. What kinds of laws would help make AI safer and more useful for everyone?

A statue of a blindfolded woman in a toga holding a scale in one hand and a sword in the other, representing the legal system

UT News

UT Launches Nation’s First Robotics Program for Freshman Applicants

Robotics honors students will pursue degrees in computer science or various types of engineering, while also earning a minor in robotics.

Three students look at a handheld computer tablet with a yellow robot in the foreground

Podcast

Can We Trust AI to Make Big Decisions?

Craig Watkins addresses the challenges of making artificial intelligence systems that are truly fair.

A signpost pointing in two directions, one reads "Nope" the other reads "Yup"

Podcast

The Algorithm Will See You Now

Scott Graham helps tease apart the hype and the reality around artificial intelligence and healthcare.

A man looks at his wristwatch and a ghostly hologram of a robot emerges, wearing a stethoscope

Podcast

How AI is Accelerating Discovery

AI is transforming how scientists design cancer drugs and vaccines, study star formation and understand the brain.

A woman in a white lab coat and gloves holds up a molecule that has been magnified to the size of her head

UT News

Astronomers Use AI to Find Elusive Stars 'Gobbling Up' Planets

The work reveals what planets outside our solar system are made of.

A bright star surrouned by rocky debris from a destroyed planet