Manchester City is giving fans a unique chance to shape the team’s future look. The club, in collaboration with Puma and AI company DeepObjects, has launched a competition allowing supporters to design its official third kit for the 2026-27 season. Using the Puma AI Creator tool, fans can generate and customise jersey designs with styles like ‘abstract’ and ‘dream visions.’ The winning uniform will not only be worn by players but also sold to fans.
Participants must create an account and use 15 credits provided to craft their designs, though only two entries can be submitted for the contest, which ends on 20 December. A combination of fan votes and input from Manchester City and Puma experts will determine the winning kit. The competition follows an earlier initiative where City players used the AI tool to design a goalkeeper kit, reportedly inspired by the net of a soccer goal.
The move represents the first AI-generated soccer uniform to grace the pitch, marking an innovative step in the sport’s use of technology. Despite the excitement, Manchester City faces external challenges, including a Premier League financial investigation, adding complexity to its current moment in the spotlight. The fan-designed AI project, however, offers a creative distraction and a glimpse into the future of sports design.
Google’s DeepMind has introduced GenCast, a cutting-edge AI weather prediction model that outperforms the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts’ (ECMWF) ENS, widely regarded as the global leader in operational forecasting. A study in Nature highlighted GenCast’s superior accuracy, predicting weather more effectively 97.2% of the time during a comparative analysis of 2019 data.
Unlike earlier deterministic models, GenCast creates a complex probability distribution of potential weather scenarios by generating 50 or more forecasts per instance. This ensemble approach provides a nuanced understanding of weather trajectories, elevating predictive reliability.
Google is integrating GenCast into its platforms like Search and Maps, while also planning to make real-time and historical AI powered forecasts accessible for public and research use. With this advancement, the tech giant aims to revolutionise weather forecasting and its applications worldwide.
Elon Musk’s social media platform X has introduced Aurora, an advanced image generation tool integrated into its Grok AI assistant. Aurora allows users to create photorealistic visuals and explore imaginative concepts. However, some users noted the tool briefly disappeared after its launch.
Aurora, accessible through X’s mobile and web apps, appears to have minimal content restrictions. It can generate images of public and copyrighted figures, though explicit and graphic content is reportedly limited. The tool is still in beta, with Musk promising rapid improvements. While Aurora excels in landscapes and still-life depictions, it struggles with more complex details, like human hands, a common challenge for AI-generated visuals.
The release follows X’s decision to make Grok free for all users, enabling broader access to AI-driven features. Meanwhile, Musk’s xAI team, which developed Aurora, recently secured $6B in funding and is working on further innovations, including Grok 3 and a standalone app.
UCLA is breaking new ground with an AI-developed comparative literature course set to launch in winter 2025. The class, covering literature from the Middle Ages to the 17th century, will feature a textbook, assignments, and teaching assistant (TA) resources generated by Kudu, an AI-powered platform founded by UCLA physics professor Alexander Kusenko. This initiative marks the first use of AI-generated materials in UCLA’s humanities division.
Professor Zrinka Stahuljak, who designed the course, collaborated with Kudu by providing lecture notes, PowerPoint slides, and videos from previous classes. The AI system produced the materials within three to four months, requiring just 20 hours of professor involvement. Kudu’s platform allows students to interact with course content through questions answered strictly within the provided material, ensuring focused and accurate responses.
By streamlining material creation, the approach frees up professors and TAs to engage more closely with students while maintaining consistency in course delivery. UCLA hopes this innovative method will enhance the learning experience and redefine education in the humanities.
The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) has introduced principles for using AI in its operations, aiming to harness the technology’s benefits while protecting vulnerable populations. The guidelines, unveiled in late November, reflect the organisation’s cautious approach amid growing interest in generative AI, such as ChatGPT, across various sectors.
ICRC delegate Philippe Stoll emphasised the importance of ensuring AI tools are robust and reliable to avoid unintended harm in high-stakes humanitarian contexts. The ICRC defines AI broadly as systems that perform tasks requiring human-like cognition and reasoning, extending beyond popular large language models.
Guided by its core principles of humanity, neutrality, and independence, the ICRC prioritises data protection and insists that AI tools address real needs rather than seeking problems to solve. That approach stems from the risks posed by deploying technologies in regions poorly represented in AI training data, as highlighted by a 2022 cyberattack that exposed sensitive beneficiary information.
Collaboration with academia is central to the ICRC’s strategy. Partnerships like the Meditron project with Switzerland’s EPFL focus on AI for clinical decision-making and logistics. These initiatives aim to improve supply chain management and enhance field operations while aligning with the organisation’s principles.
Despite interest in AI’s potential, Stoll cautioned against using off-the-shelf tools unsuited to specific local challenges, underscoring the need for adaptability and responsible innovation in humanitarian work.
Meta Platforms has partnered with Invenergy to purchase green energy credits from four large solar projects in the United States, supporting its goal to power operations with 100% clean energy. These projects, generating 760 megawatts—enough to power approximately 130,000 homes—will be located in Ohio, Texas, New Mexico, and Arkansas and are expected to connect to the grid between 2024 and 2027.
The deal is part of Meta‘s broader strategy to meet the energy demands of its data centres sustainably, including prior agreements with geothermal and solar initiatives. While Meta won’t directly use the power, the credits will offset its energy footprint.
Urvi Parekh, Meta’s head of global energy, stated the projects reaffirm Meta’s commitment to environmental sustainability. The move comes amid rising energy demands from the company’s expanding global operations.
Amazon has successfully conducted its first drone delivery test in Italy, marking the country as its initial European market for this innovative service. The trial took place on 4 December in San Salvo, Abruzzo, using Amazon‘s new MK-30 drone equipped with advanced computer vision for obstacle detection and safety.
The e-commerce giant aims to launch Prime Air drone deliveries in Italy and the United Kingdom by late 2024, subject to regulatory approvals. The service is already operational in select areas of Texas and Arizona, with plans for expansion.
Italy joins the UK as a focal point for Amazon’s European drone delivery ambitions, supported by local aviation regulators. Amazon’s technology promises safer, more efficient package delivery while navigating complex airspaces.
OpenAI is working to integrate AI into e-learning through customisable GPT tools, potentially revolutionising how students interact with academic content. According to Siya Raj Purohit of OpenAI‘s education team, professors are already using AI to create tailored course models, allowing students to engage with focused material. These tools could become staples in education, enabling personalised, lifelong learning.
The initiative complements OpenAI’s broader push into education, marked by the launch of ChatGPT Edu for universities and the hiring of former Coursera executive Leah Belsky. Despite these efforts, challenges remain as many educators express reservations about AI’s role in teaching. Tools like Khanmigo, developed with OpenAI, demonstrate AI’s potential but also reveal its current limitations, including accuracy issues.
With the education AI market expected to reach $88.2 billion, OpenAI is committed to refining its tools and addressing educators’ concerns to drive adoption in this burgeoning sector.
Google’s newest AI, the PaliGemma 2 model, has drawn attention for its ability to interpret emotions in images, a feature unveiled in a recent blog post. Unlike basic image recognition, PaliGemma 2 offers detailed captions and insights about people and scenes. However, its emotion detection capability has sparked heated debates about ethical implications and scientific validity.
Critics argue that emotion recognition is fundamentally flawed, relying on outdated psychological theories and subjective visual cues that fail to account for cultural and individual differences. Studies have shown that such systems often exhibit biases, with one report highlighting how similar models assign negative emotions more frequently to certain racial groups. Google says it performed extensive testing on PaliGemma 2 for demographic biases, but details of these evaluations remain sparse.
Experts also worry about the risks of releasing this AI technology to the public, citing potential misuse in areas like law enforcement, hiring, and border control. While Google emphasises its commitment to responsible innovation, critics like Oxford’s Sandra Wachter caution that without robust safeguards, tools like PaliGemma 2 could reinforce harmful stereotypes and discriminatory practices. The debate underscores the need for a careful balance between technological advancement and ethical responsibility
Scientists at Monash University in Australia have unveiled the groundbreaking ‘Gennaris Bionic Vision System,’ a revolutionary technology to restore sight for millions of blind individuals. Unlike traditional treatments, the system bypasses damaged optic nerves, directly sending visual signals to the brain’s vision centre.
A compact camera worn by the user works in tandem with up to 11 tiny wireless implants placed on the brain’s surface. The implants stimulate brain cells with minute electrical pulses, allowing users to perceive basic shapes and outlines, offering a 100-degree field of view for a more natural visual experience.
The innovation follows nearly a decade of research and has shown promising results in animal studies. Human trials are now set to begin in Melbourne, Australia, marking a critical milestone in blindness treatment. If successful, the Gennaris Bionic Vision System could redefine possibilities for those living without sight, bringing a transformative medical advancement closer to reality.
