More than 1.5 billion people worldwide are expected to watch the 2026 World Cup finals. With that many fans scrutinizing every pass, touch and goal, FIFA is leaning on advanced computer vision technology to help referees make faster, more accurate calls on the way to crowning this year's victors.

Clarkson University researchers have developed a new mathematical tool that could make artificial intelligence systems more accurate, controllable and useful across applications ranging from image editing to drug discovery.

Combining ideas inspired by ant colonies and flocks of birds may hold the key to unlocking more effective artificial intelligence, according to a researcher at Missouri S&T. "With the way AI algorithms are currently structured, they sometimes settle on an answer that seems good enough and stop searching before finding one that may be much better," says Dr. Donald Wunsch, director of Missouri S&T's Kummer Institute Center for AI and Autonomous Systems. "It's important that we find ways to help these algorithms keep searching instead of stopping too soon. When AI is used in areas that affect people's health, safety or cost of living, the difference between good enough and great can have significant implications."