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Alan Turing is widely revered as one of the most important scientific and technological figures in modern history. Following his work on cracking the Enigma Machine during the Second World War, Turing published his thoughts on the future of machine intelligence – and specifically on the pathway that we can one day take to achieve proficient AI.

Eating machines

Turing concluded his seminal 1950 study ' Computing Machinery and Intelligence ' with musings on how to fulfill what he saw as achieving the great promise of machine intelligence in the future.

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The pioneering mathematician and computer scientist suggested, in his concluding passage, that even though you may hold some vision for the future, or long-term ambitions, it's key to solve the immediate challenges you face now. True progress isn't achieved in one leap, but through a series of smaller and seemingly less significant steps.

In the context of his paper, Turing suggested that scientists in the future need not strive to achieve human-like intelligence in machines, but build the very first iterations of what he described as "thinking machines" so that this work can be iterated on in the future.

Beyond the Turing Test

When the study was published, the term "artificial intelligence" was not in widespread use , with scientists instead opting for terms like cybernetics or machine intelligence.

What followed over the next decades was a cascading series of breakthroughs – including the birth of neural networks in the 80s and the transformer architecture in 2017 – that have led to today's widely used large language models and generative AI services.

Although true human-like intelligence is still some distance away, we've advanced to such an extent that many have even claimed the Turing Test – where somebody cannot tell the difference between interacting with a human and AI – has already been beaten .

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Halloween might seem like a long way away, but it's never too early to start getting ready, and if you're anything like me, then you can't wait for the weather to start getting cooler, with crisp leaves underfoot and misty mornings. It seems the designers at IKEA agree, because they've already launched a whole set of Kustfyr Halloween decor so you can start preparing for spooky season now.

The new seasonal lights are particularly cute, and I defy anyone not to be charmed by the adorably spooky LED ghost table lamp with its arms raised mid-scare. Pair it with a set of ghostly battery-powered LED string lights for a full themed room.

It wouldn't be Halloween without pumpkins, and you can avoid the mess and hassle of carving a real gourd by picking up one of IKEA's fun pumpkin lamps. The globe-shaped LED pumpkin table lamp is a cute classic, while the matching battery-powered pendant lamp is safe to use outdoors, so you can hang it on your porch when it's time for trick-or-treating.

Want more creepy ways to decorate your home? Check out the full Kustfyr collection , which includes everything from plushies to plates.

Adorably spooky Halloween lights

IKEA

Kustfyr Battery LED Table Lamp - Ghost

IKEA

Kustfyr LED Table Lamp - Pumpkin

IKEA

Kustfyr Battery Pendant Lamp - Pumpkin

IKEA

Kustfyr Lantern for Pillar Candle - Black

IKEA

Kustfyr Battery LED Table Decoration - Pumpkin

IKEA

Kustfyr LED Lighting Chain With 32 Lights - Ghost

IKEA

Kustfyr LED String Light With 12 Lights - Ghost

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Smart has teased the production #2, ahead of its debut this fall.

Model closely echoes the concept, but has been toned down.

Slated to have a 35.7 kWh battery and around 186 miles of range.

The ForTwo used to define Smart , but it faded into the history books as the revamped brand decided to focus on crossovers and their first sedan. However, the company is finally returning to their roots with the electric #2.

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Set to drop at the Paris Motor Show in October, the two-seat city car was previewed by a concept earlier this year. The road-going model closely echoes the show car, but adopts a revised grille and vertical air curtains.

More: Smart’s Smallest EV Just Grew Almost A Foot And Mercedes Is To Blame

Further back, we can see more conventional mirrors and side skirts. They’re joined by traditional door handles and a larger charging port door.

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The rear end has been toned down a bit and there’s a new liftgate with a license plate recess. The production model also has a spoiler and a relatively plain rear bumper.

Smart noted the #2 is currently undergoing “rigorous pre-production testing and validation” to ensure the model offers “unmatched urban agility, driving stability, elevated NVH refinement, and uncompromising safety.” As part of this effort, prototypes have been subjected to a number of “real-world urban challenges,” while engineers have worked to continuously refine the model.

Smart also paid special attention to the tires, as they’ve tested multiple compounds on rough asphalt, grooved concrete, and high-speed straights. Their ultimate goal is to select a tire that has an “optimal balance between low rolling resistance for maximum range and exceptional noise reduction.”

The automaker has previously revealed the #2 will ride on the new Electric Compact Architecture, which has been developed specifically for the EV. The model is targeted to have a 35.7 kWh battery pack that provides around 186 miles (300 km) of range. When it’s low, a DC fast charger can take the battery from 10 to 80 percent in less than 20 minutes.

We also know that the #2 will measure 109.9 inches (2,792 mm) long and have a tight turning circle of 22.8 feet (6.95 meters). This means the new model will be 3.8 inches (97 mm) longer than the second-generation ForTwo.

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A common culprit behind severe gum disease may also stiffen and narrow the heart's aortic valve, preliminary research suggests. This may help explain links between gum problems and poor heart health.

Scientists have long linked severe gum disease to inflammation throughout the body and a higher risk of heart problems , including coronary artery disease , which can raise the risk of heart attack. Studies have also found that treating gum disease can improve blood-vessel health.

Now, researchers suggest that Porphyromonas gingivalis , one of the main bacteria involved in severe gum disease, may also contribute to calcific aortic valve disease (CAVD), a condition in which calcium builds up in the heart's aortic valve. The findings were presented in July at a meeting of the American Heart Association in Boston and have not been peer-reviewed yet.

Dr. Elena Aikawa , a professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School who was not involved in the study, said the findings "fit well with our current understanding of calcific aortic valve disease as an active, inflammation-driven disease rather than simply wear and tear of the valve."

Periodontal disease is likely just one contributor among many, rather than the sole cause of CAVD, she added. But the study does identify a biologically plausible pathway linking oral health to heart health that could open new opportunities for prevention and treatment.

How mouth bacteria harm the heart

CAVD affects millions of people worldwide , and there are no approved drugs that slow or stop its progression. As the disease worsens, people may develop fatigue, shortness of breath and chest pain, and in severe cases, they often require valve-replacement surgery .

Meanwhile, prior to the new research, it was known that bacteria and inflammatory signals from the mouth can sometimes enter the bloodstream and affect distant tissues, said Richard Lamont , chair of oral immunology and infectious diseases at the University of Louisville School of Dentistry, who was not involved in the study. Over time, these effects can accrue and gradually reshape how the immune system behaves, he said.

In CAVD, calcium builds up in the aortic valve, which connects the left side of the heart to the large artery that carries oxygen-rich blood to the body. (Image credit: Noctiluxx via Getty Images) P. gingivalis is known to be particularly destructive to gum tissue, causing lots of inflammation, and it's been tied to cardiovascular disease in the past. To see if the bacterium might be directly impacting heart health, researchers at Fuwai Hospital in Beijing looked for P. gingivalis in aortic valve tissue removed during valve-replacement surgery. They compared this diseased tissue to valves that weren't calcified.

The calcified valves contained much higher levels of P. gingivalis DNA and proteins made by the bacterium. " P. gingivalis was about 30 times more abundant in calcified valves than in non-calcified valves," study first author Dr. Chenyang Li , a doctoral candidate at Fuwai Hospital, told Live Science in an email.

To test whether the bacteria might directly contribute to valve damage, Li and colleagues injected live P. gingivalis into the bloodstreams of healthy lab mice. The bacteria reached the animals' aortic valves, triggering inflammation, calcium buildup and narrowing of the valve.

"We were surprised to see valve calcification even in mice without high cholesterol," Li said. "This suggests P. gingivalis may directly contribute to valve disease, beyond traditional cardiovascular risk factors."

A comparison group of mice was given antibiotics before the injection and had less bacteria in their aortic valves and slower disease progression. Meanwhile, mice injected with dead P. gingivalis bacteria did not show any changes in their aortic valves.

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The researchers traced the changes in the mice's hearts to interleukin-1 beta, a signalling molecule that normally helps the body fight infections. Exposure to P. gingivalis ramped up the production of this molecule, and in turn, the immune signal switched on genes that pushed healthy valve cells to behave more like bone-building cells, which is a hallmark of CAVD . This switch causes the cells to lay down calcium in the surrounding valve tissue.

When the scientists blocked interleukin-1 beta in some mice, the animals developed much less valve calcification even when the bacteria reached the valve. Lamont said that the mouse experiments strengthen the case that there's a biological mechanism directly linking gum and heart diseases. However, he cautioned that mice have very different oral microbiomes than humans, making it difficult to know whether the exact same process occurs in people.

That said, the team also saw the same pattern in human valve cells grown in the lab. Exposure to P. gingivalis increased inflammation and calcium buildup among the cells, while blocking interleukin-1 beta blunted those effects.

Both Aikawa and Lamont said more research is needed to confirm the relationship in humans. The findings give researchers a new pathway to explore for future treatments, raising questions of whether targeting inflammatory signals like interleukin-1 beta could help slow the progression of this widespread heart disease.

This article is for informational purposes only and is not meant to offer medical advice.

What do you know about the body's hardest-working muscle? Find out with our heart quiz!

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Less than a week after Ubisoft promised that a new Ghost Recon game is coming but probably not anytime soon , the company says it will mark the series' 25 th anniversary in August with some proper news on what's coming next.

"It’s been a while Ghosts!" the announcement excitedly states. "We know some of you saw some updates, we’ll have more to say on the 6th of August when we celebrate the 25th Anniversary of Ghost Recon. Intel coming soon."

My initial impression was that this is basically a scaled-down version of last week's big Bethesda blowout : A blast of the hype machine intended, at least in part, to help you forget about all the bad stuff going on, specifically the sweeping layoffs at Xbox that are putting thousands of people out of work.

Obviously an update on the Ghost Recon franchise, whose most recent game is now seven years old and was decidedly not great (although it has gotten better in the years since), doesn't have the hype heft of Fallout 5. But Ubisoft's condition is dire , and sometimes the best gun is the one you can reach.

My second and more lasting impression, however, is one of annoyance, and I'll tell you why. After a few seconds of pondering this Ghost Recon update, I thought to myself, perhaps there will also be news on Splinter Cell! After all, Tom Clancy is Tom Clancy, right? Hard men doing unpleasant things for freedom and stuff. The Ghosts, the Rainbows, the Echelons—it's all Clancyverse underneath, right? And if anyone in that gang is overdue for some attention, it's Team Splinter Cell.

Ah, but they are not all the same, at least not in the way that matters at the moment. I popped around to the Splinter Cell X account and found a Ubisoft 40 th anniversary retweet from earlier in July, a half-dozen 2025 posts (mostly about the Splinter Cell animated series on Netflix), one retweet from 2023, and a relative flurry activity from 2022. I thought for a second that would correspond to the announcement of the Splinter Cell remake, but no: That was actually announced in 2021, believe it or not. (Hint: Believe it .)

The 2022 activity marked the 20 th anniversary of the first Splinter Cell game; it was also the year that remake director David Grivel left Ubisoft for "a new adventure." He's had enough time since then to work on Battlefield 6, then return to Ubisoft and resume directorship on the Splinter Cell remake.

In that same stretch we've also seen Netflix make its Splinter Cell cartoon without Michael Ironside , the Splinter Cell movie starring Tom Hardy get cancelled , and Ubisoft making everyone mad by posting the wrong picture of Sam Fisher , which I genuinely think was intentional because at this point it's clear that Ubisoft just gets off on screwing with us.

Of course, this isn't a problem unique to Splinter Cell. Consider the Sands of Time remake, which was cancelled after six years of futility, or Skull and Bones, which came out six years late , or Beyond Good and Evil 2, which will soon celebrate 20 years of non-existence . Timeliness just isn't Ubisoft's strong suit, which is how we got here—"here" being the recent announcement of a "quieter year" in Ubisoft releases before things start happening in 2027-28—in the first place.

One possible spot of good news, relatively anyway: The 25 th anniversary of the first Splinter Cell game lands on November 18, 2027, about a year and a half from now. Maybe Ubisoft just really digs big anniversaries and has decided that at this point it might as well hold out for a good one before it drops any more Splinter Cell news. So there's something to look forward to. In the meantime, we'll let you know what's cooking in the world of Ghost Recon when it happens.

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FBI Director Kash Patel is planning to visit Russia later this year, likely in mid-October, according to a U.S. official and a person familiar with the situation.

It would be an unusual and sensitive trip for an FBI chief to one of America’s top adversaries. The plans come as Washington and Moscow continue to be at odds over the war in Ukraine, with U.S. lawmakers demanding the imposition of heavy new sanctions on Russia.

Patel has a history of involvement in controversial Russia-related matters dating to President Donald Trump’s first term, including trying to cast doubt on investigations into whether Trump colluded with Russia to help him win the 2016 election — an episode he now calls the “Russiagate hoax.” Patel also is developing a track record of taking eye-catching trips in his role atop the FBI, drawing scrutiny from Congress.

According to the U.S. official familiar with the travel plans, Patel is scheduled to visit Russia on Oct. 14-15, first stopping in Moscow and then St. Petersburg. His host is likely to be the FSB, the Russian security service that is heir to the Soviet-era KGB, the official said.

The person familiar with the situation confirmed that Patel is planning to visit Russia in the fall, including stops in Moscow and St. Petersburg.

Both people were granted anonymity to discuss sensitive travel plans.

It’s not clear if Patel will meet with Russian leader Vladimir Putin or any of his senior political aides. Also unclear is what is on his agenda for discussion.

As with any such plans by U.S. officials, they are tentative and subject to change.

Spokespeople for the White House referred a request for comment to the FBI. Spokespeople for the FBI and the Department of Justice did not respond to similar requests.

The last FBI director known to have visited Russia was Robert Mueller in 2013 . Mueller was later appointed as a special counsel to investigate ties between the 2016 Trump presidential campaign and Russia, as well as broader Russian efforts to interfere in U.S. elections.

U.S. intelligence officials have concluded for years that Moscow has been behind efforts to sow discord and interfere in U.S. elections, findings supported by documents Trump declassified last week ahead of a speech intended to bolster support for his long-shot effort to overhaul U.S. voting laws. The Kremlin has also been suspected to be behind major cybersecurity breaches of government agencies and private sector companies.

Patel rose to prominence as a result of the central role he played as a staffer to the House Intelligence Committee in 2017 and 2018, when the panel — led by then-Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) — investigated Russian interference in the 2016 election.

Although Republicans on the panel concluded that Russia mounted an influence operation to “undermine the U.S. liberal democratic order,” they rejected the intelligence community’s conclusion that Russia aspired to help Trump win the 2016 election. Late in Trump’s first term, Patel served on the National Security Council, where in 2020 he traveled secretly to meet with Syrian government officials in a bid to secure the release of two American hostages.

Patel spent the years between Trump’s terms amplifying doubts about the Russia probe’s origins and even writing children’s books that mock Democrats who spearheaded the investigation. He also faced questions about a $25,000 payment for his involvement in producing a film financed by a Kremlin-linked film company .

Patel’s past travel and spending decisions have blurred the lines between recreation and official business, prompting scrutiny across Capitol Hill and at times angering the White House .

The FBI director attended the gold medal men’s hockey final at the Winter Olympics in Italy, a trip he said was needed to extradite a Chinese hacker; went snorkeling last summer near a battleship sunk during the Japanese surprise attacks on Pearl Harbor; and has been accused of using a government jet to see his girlfriend, a country music singer, perform.

Earlier this month, the top Democrats on the House and Senate Judiciary committees launched a bicameral probe into Patel’s potential misuse of taxpayer-funded resources.

News of the trip also comes amid acting Attorney General Todd Blanche’s effort to win Senate confirmation and could prompt new questions from lawmakers about the Justice Department’s decision-making.

After the Kremlin launched a full-scale war on Ukraine in 2022, senior Biden administration officials steered clear of visiting Russia, although the U.S. kept open its embassy in Moscow.

Trump has sought to ease tensions with Putin. During his second term, his special envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner have visited Russia multiple times, including meeting with Putin, to discuss ending the Ukraine war.

Trump himself met with Putin in Anchorage last year.

And last month, Rodney Mims Cook Jr., who chairs the U.S. Commission of Fine Arts, attended the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum . Russian state media reported that he described his visit as a Washington “pivot” toward Russia.

U.S. lawmakers, on a bipartisan basis, remain wary of Russia. Some members of Congress are currently urging Trump to support a bill that uses steep new penalties , including tariffs, to punish Russian entities. Trump has recently said he wants the bill to also include sanctions on Iran .

Josh Gerstein contributed to this report.