AI News - May 2026

An overview of interesting AI News for the Yate and Sodbury U3A's monthly AI News meeting held on May 14th 2026 (meetings are second Thursday of month, 1400-1500, St John's Church Centre, Wickwar Road, Chipping Sodbury, UK - all welcome). Note that this is a summary to act as background as the topics are discussed in detail at the meeting itself. We sometimes have extended meetings where we demonstrate other AI products and services.

The 'Introduction to AI' course we run in Chipping Sodbury now uses these News sessions to replace the original classes 5 and 6 as the topics in them (humanoid robots, self driving cars, ethics, futures) are now 'news' not 'distant futures'.

Also of interest

Our own international music artist Naida Puebla, here on YouTube channel for Naida Puebla music superstar and rising talent or on her own website www.naidapuebla.com

Meanwhile here is the latest graph showing whether Claude Code can pick winners. As you see, it can go down as well as up.

Latest Claude Code raceing returns


[1a] Claude Mythos looks powerful

[1a] Claude Mythos was announced a few weeks ago and was said by Anthropic to be dangerously good in its ability to break into online systems. Here is one early proof after it was given to companies first to strengthen their software.

[1b] Claude Mythos does 16 hour tasks

The METR benchmark measures how complex a task can be handled. The measure allows for some failures so gives an indication of comparison with previous models. This was impressive and the doubling time is now running at about 105 days!


[2] Low cost AI Video generation breeding creating

There are now many tools available. This is said to be made by using RunwayML. Notice that the voices and lip-sync are improving all of the time.


[3a] Key moment from the DeepMind documentary

How DeepMind came to release for free protein folding. An interesting associated question - the body itself manages to fold proteins reliably. Is there a deeper logic that we may discover and can we do that by looking inside AI models to see what they have discovered implicitly?


[3b] Now London based Isomorphic Labs gets big funding

They plan to solve all disease.


[4a] Robot dexterity demonstration on the piano

From Genesis AI using realtime AI control.

[4b] Robot dexterity in the kitchen, laboratory and keyboard

Another impressive demo - this time from GENE-26.5

[4c] A robot in every home

The best video I have seen yet showing how a robot might integrate into family life.


[5] Stephen Wolfram on human and AI consciousness

Asking the question about whether we are so very different.


[6a] Machine Learning method 3D Gaussian splat to market houses

Providing a quick transformation from simple camera shots to web based walk throughs.

[6b] 3D Gaussian splat to market shops

Another example of creating a 3D virtual tour easy to view in a web browser


[7a] You are never too old for a self-driving car

Coming to Europe and hopefully the UK soon.

[7b] Self-driving cars for the disabled

Story of the driver born without arms, now with a Tesla in the USA.


[8] Yamanaka factors and solving human ageing

A good video on the first human treatment that attempts a cure through age reversal.


[9] Google Gemini AI interpreting your mouse pointer

Lots is possible once you give AI total access to your computer input.


[10a] Humanoid Robots enter German manufacturing

"Going live in Germany before the end of 2026 with concept of Robot-as-a-Service (RaaS)."

[10b] Humanoid Robots on postal flowline

Initial applications will typically be like this. A simple but repetitive task requiring dexterity.


[11a] Drones bring advertising into the air above you

Expert advertising drones to fill the skies until legislation brings them under control.

[11b] Drones bring the police into the space above the streets

Expect this use of drones for traffic control everywhere.


[12a] Humanoid robots becoming more lifelike

Not long until you need to check carefully who you are speaking to.

[12b] Metropolis 1927

Since the earliest days of fiction there has been a desire to make humanoids attractive.


[14] Intensive use of AI Agents

Impressively manic and increasingly full of swearing, but informative on where AI Agent use is going for small business