There was an error Switzerland end their 88-year wait for a win in the knockout stage of a World Cup as they beat Algeria 2-0 in Vancouver. READ MORE: Switzerland 2-0 Algeria Available to UK users only.
Jo Woods said horses were not a hobby but a lifestyle and provided people with "so much fulfilment" Demand for affordable retirement livery has risen "exponentially" as people were "massively worried" about the rising cost of living, owners of a farm have said. Fiona and Ian Long, who look after more than 70 horses at Padwick Farm in Leek, Staffordshire, said they had seen a 60% growth in livery bookings in the last five years as prices rise. Typical livery costs, which are fees for the boarding and care of horses in stables, can be about £800 a month, according to the charity Horse Trust. Padwick Farm said it charged less than half the price to prevent owners from euthanising their horses. The team at Padwick Farm aims to help horses relax into the freedom of fields "We've experienced someone struggling to put food on the table for their children and they decided to put their horse to sleep," Fiona Long said. The National Equine Welfare Council (NEWC) found that more than 80% of equine owners across the UK , external were concerned about the continued pressure of increased costs of equine-keeping. Five percent were considering euthanising their horse due to rising costs, with owners unable to afford the farrier and regular vet call-outs. It was more common and affordable to have horses in the past but these days it was a "luxury" as the cost of grass seed, bales of hay and vet prices rise, Long said. "A big bale of hay was £10 around 30 years ago, now it's £90. Livery costs were static for around 20 years before owners started putting up prices two years ago," she added. The farm co-owner said that offering lower prices was a way to "give back" to horses and allow them to continue living for years after they stop being ridden. "Horses aren't a hobby, they are a lifestyle and they offer us so much fulfilment, so for them to be horses themselves, that's giving back to them," staff member Jo Woods said. The livery looks after more than 70 horses in Staffordshire The livery, which aims to provide a sense of freedom and relaxation for a range of horses, allowed them to "be a horse without any expectations". "Seeing a horse come and not really know their place in the herd to then being a fundamental part of the herd and relaxed, happy, having friends, is so rewarding," Long said. Owners spend approximately £5,350 per year on direct costs to care for one horse, according to the British Horse Society. It recommended these tips while making sure any money saving changes still supported your horse's health and welfare. Healthcare plans can help spread the cost of routine treatment while making sure your horse gets everything they need without surprise bills Discuss shoeing and hoof care options with a farrier. If suggested by a professional, a horse may be able to go barefoot or wear shoes only on their front feet Consider using small-holed haynets or slow feeders to reduce waste and help forage last longer. Don't forget to compare prices, with local suppliers potentially able to match online deals Switch to grass livery, DIY packages or moving to a yard with fewer facilities for reduced costs Look after your equipment to help it last longer and save money. Store tools in a dry place out of direct sunlight and clean tack regularly to prevent cracking and mould Tell us which stories we should cover in Staffordshire Follow BBC Stoke & Staffordshire on BBC Sounds , Facebook , external , X , external and Instagram , external . 'He's a life saver': The miniature therapy horse that travels by taxi Ascot-winning horse takes on therapy role Horse therapy centre opens in the South Downs Padwick Farm National Equine Welfare Council
Warning: This story contains descriptions of abuse Instagram has been running paid adverts promoting child sexual abuse material in India, a BBC Eye investigation has found. The ads, seen by the BBC World Service, use terms including "rape video" and "child video" and link users to channels on the messaging app Telegram, where they can buy the material for as little as 99 rupees (about $1). Ads on Instagram are only published after first being approved by its moderation technology. When the BBC reported one of the ads to Instagram, the social media platform responded 24 hours later saying the post did not violate its "community guidelines". Later, when the BBC asked Instagram's parent company Meta for comment, it said it had already disabled several adverts and suspended the accounts posting them. The company said it had removed additional ads, disabled more accounts and blocked URLs for other content that violated its policies in response to the BBC's findings. Telegram said it had removed more than 274,000 groups and channels related to child sexual abuse material in 2026. The BBC set up an alias account on Instagram after we noticed that the platform was pushing sexually suggestive content, even when a user hadn't searched for such material. This included women posting about food, weather and daily life in India, who were dressed in revealing clothing and using sexual innuendo in their posts. The new alias account, which was set up in India, started following these women and other similar people - 10 in all - to investigate sexualised content on the platform. In less than a week, Instagram started showing advertisements on the feed featuring women offering video calls and showing clearly naked couples having sex. Days later, it began showing adverts of children with adults in sexually suggestive situations, with links to Telegram channels. A retired justice of India's Supreme Court, Madan Lokur, said he was concerned that Instagram was "making money by participating in a criminal activity" In total, about 30 unique adverts appeared promoting child sexual abuse, although some of these were shared by multiple accounts. The alias account was also shown about 20 ads featuring adult pornography. The distribution of both child sexual abuse material and adult pornography are criminal offences in India, while Meta's policy states that ads must not contain adult nudity, genitals or content that sexually exploits or endangers children. The BBC has reported all of the ads and the Telegram channels to the Indian authorities. One ad showed a boy and girl, both of whom appeared to be about 12 years old, engaging in a sexual act. Another showed a man with his arm around a girl, with text saying he was 52 and the girl was 12. "Click to watch more," it said, linking out to a Telegram channel. The BBC reported an advert to Instagram showing a very young girl in tears, with wording indicating that she had been sexually assaulted. But 24 hours later, Instagram replied saying it hadn't removed the advert because "our review team found that the advertiser's ad does not go against our community standards". Meta later told the BBC that "no system is perfect, and our review process may not detect all policy violations". "We continue to run proactive detection technology on ads once they're live, and anyone can report an ad to us that they think breaks our rules," Meta said. It added that when it becomes aware of apparent child exploitation it reports it to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), in compliance with the law. The NCMEC is the centralised global reporting system for the online sexual exploitation of children. We reported two channels to Telegram for selling child sexual abuse videos. One of them was subsequently taken down and replaced with a message saying: "This group can't be displayed because it violated Telegram's Terms of Service," but the other continued to post new videos for sale. Critics have previously accused the platform of not doing enough to prevent the sharing of criminal content. The Dubai-based company is not a member of either the NCMEC or the Internet Watch Foundation, which also works with most online platforms to find, report and remove such material. Telegram told the BBC that the company uses both automated and human moderation to eradicate child sexual abuse material (CSAM) from the app, and as a result it says it has "virtually eliminated the public spread of CSAM from its platform". The Careless Machine A BBC investigation reveals that Instagram is running ads promoting child sexual abuse material in India iPlayer link Adverts are an important source of income for Meta. In January, it reported that almost 98% of its $200bn (£152bn) revenue for the financial year ending 2025 came from advertising. Analysts estimate that ads account for more than 90% of Instagram's revenue. While standard posts are not generally checked by Meta's technology until they are published, Meta says every advert is reviewed before being allowed on its platforms. Its review system relies primarily on automated technology and is designed to check images, video, text and audio, as well as who the ad is targeting and where links send them to. This software then rejects or approves adverts, escalating cases for human review when it is uncertain. In March, Meta announced it was reducing its reliance on third-party human moderators and increasing the use of AI, adding that "experts will design, train, oversee, and evaluate our AI systems". The BBC described the ads we had seen to a retired justice of India's Supreme Court, Madan Lokur, who was concerned that Instagram was "making money by participating in a criminal activity". "This is a serious enough issue for the Supreme Court of India to take suo moto cognisance [when a court initiates legal proceedings without waiting for a case to be brought by someone else] and get the government to act against any social media platform," he says. Justice Lokur added that despite Indian law protecting social media companies from being held liable for content uploaded by users, "the platform cannot, cannot shirk its responsibility". Brian Boland, who used to work as a vice-president for Facebook, said Instagram's algorithm was designed to keep users on the platform by showing them "something more extreme, more tantalising" A former vice-president of Facebook, as Meta used to be known until it changed name in 2021, said he was "horrified and unsurprised" by the BBC's findings. Brian Boland, who worked for the company between 2009 and 2020 and helped build the advertising and marketing business, said he left because he believed "they didn't care about users anywhere". He said Instagram's algorithm was designed to keep users on the platform by showing them "something more extreme, more tantalising". "It's not like an algorithm that says 'let's make people paedophiles', but because they're not responsibly guiding and controlling it - and it's just pursuing the goals of revenue and clicks - it will create these outcomes if people aren't being truly, aggressively protective over these systems." Boland said that between 2009 and 2010 he led a project to remove adverts that were scamming users, which meant he "was allowed to, at the time, remove a massive part of the revenue of the company in the sake of user safety and user experience". "I think what's sad and tragic is over time, the trade-off of revenue and user experience became a more core part of the conversation." He says he deleted his Instagram account in 2025, adding: "If people en masse started to say, 'I'm out, I'm done, forget it,' the company would pay attention." In a statement sent to the BBC, Meta said: "Child exploitation is a horrific crime and Meta works aggressively to fight it on our apps." It said it was "categorially inaccurate" to suggest that Meta knowingly and deliberately targeted ads featuring children to users with an inappropriate interest in such material. The company denied prioritising revenue over safety and said that in 2025 it automatically disabled more than four million accounts for showing "enough signals of potentially suspicious behavior". "While determined criminals try to evade detection, our expert teams are constantly working to improve our defenses, developing new technology to root out predators, blocking links to violating websites, and sharing intelligence with other companies so they can take action too," Meta added. Boland testified against Meta in a trial in the US state of New Mexico earlier this year, in which it was accused of misleading users over the safety of its platforms for children. The court ordered Meta to pay $375m (£279m) to New Mexico. At the time, a spokeswoman for the company said it disagreed with the verdict and intended to appeal. Shikha Goel, of Telangana's Cyber Security Bureau, says they receive more alerts from Meta's platforms than any others US-based social media companies are mandated to report child sexual abuse material on their platform to the NCMEC Cyber Tipline. The tipline then refers the report to the appropriate law enforcement agency in the country it believes the incident occurred. In 2025, India received 1.9 million reports, second only to the United States with two million. One of India's top cyber police officers, Shikha Goel, who is director of the Cyber Security Bureau in the Indian state of Telangana, said Instagram and Facebook, both owned by Meta, generated the most tiplines. "But that does not mean they are the largest," she said. "If they have a good algorithm to track child sexual abuse material, then obviously more alerts will be generated." A Mumbai-based NGO, the Rati Foundation, which runs a helpline service for children facing online harms, also said that the vast majority of reports it receives on child sexual abuse material come from Meta platforms. It collaborates with social media platforms to help get harmful content removed, but co-founder and director Siddharth Pillai said that "criminals use the seamless navigation from Instagram to Telegram to evade our moderation efforts, and keep reuploading the content we help take down". Experts said child sexual abuse material in India was usually created by criminal groups, such as human traffickers, although family and community members were also sometimes responsible. Bhuwan Ribhu, the founder of Just Rights for Children, a network of more than 250 organisations working to prevent violence against children in India, said the crime was not reported enough and police were still trying to develop the technical skills to tackle it. And to do that successfully, he said international co-operation and intelligence sharing across borders was vital. In order to "find the tentacles of organised crime, the entire chain of demand and supply needs to be tracked", he said.
There was an error Portugal beat Croatia 2-1 with goals from Cristiano Ronaldo and Goncalo Ramos after a chaotic second-half in Toronto to set up a last 16 tie with Iberian rivals Spain. READ MORE: Portugal 2-1 Croatia Available to UK users only.
Portugal paid tribute to Diogo Jota after their World Cup win against Croatia Portugal paid a touching tribute to Diogo Jota at the end of their remarkable World Cup victory against Croatia. It is a year since Jota, while a Liverpool player, died in a car accident in Spain, 11 days after marrying his long-term partner Rute Cardoso. His brother Andre Silva was also killed in the accident on 3 July 2025. At the end of Portugal's drama-filled 2-1 win to set up a last-16 tie against Spain, Cristiano Ronaldo put on a special '21' shirt in Jota's memory before the squad came together with the shirt held aloft. Before the game, towards the end of Portugal's national anthem, Jota's picture appeared on the big screen in Toronto, and was greeted with a loud cheer from the supporters. Ronaldo also appeared emotional as the cameras focused on him, having played with Jota 32 times for their country. "Diogo is our sun and our light," said Portugal manager Roberto Martinez before the match, having named Jota as an honorary 'plus-one' player when he announced his squad in May. "We want to win the World Cup for him." Jota, 28, was on his way back to Liverpool for pre-season when the car, a Lamborghini, left the road because of a tyre blowout while overtaking another vehicle. He was making the journey to England by car and ferry as doctors had advised the forward, who celebrated winning the Premier League title two months earlier, against flying because he had undergone minor surgery. "I still talk to him," Ruben Neves said about Jota, his close friend and former Porto, Wolves and Portugal team-mate, in the build-up to the match. "We have a WhatsApp group with Rute and Diogo, and it's still there, and we continue to talk there," he told Portuguese TV show , external Alta Definicao. "Whenever something special happens, I have the conversations archived on my WhatsApp so I can continue to send him messages." 'A symbol of hope & inspiration - Jota was a Portuguese hero' Humble, generous and a star - Jota left his mark on everyone he met "With you by our side, everything is possible. Thank you, Portugal!" Jota wrote on social media after they overcame Spain to win the Nations League in Stuttgart a month before his death. He became a symbol of hope and inspiration back home after going from his hometown club Gondomar to Pacos de Ferreira, then to Porto, Wolverhampton and finally Liverpool. Jota's path to stardom was highlighted as a rare case of an elite Portuguese footballer who never spent time at any of the big three academies - Benfica, Sporting and Porto. Just like at Liverpool though, his death has had a profound effect on the national team, for whom he scored 14 times in 49 appearances. As well as carrying the weight of expectation on their shoulders at this tournament, Portugal's players also carry the weight of grief for a team-mate who would have been among them this summer. While his âabsence has been felt deeply, Jota's memory lives on and his presence has been felt at this World Cup, from Houston to Miami, and now in Toronto. As happened on Thursday night, a black and white picture of Jota celebrating a goal for his country has been displayed on big screens before matches during the Portuguese national anthem. "Diogo was a player deeply loved by the Portuguese people," Miguel de Silva, the Portuguese-Canadian owner of the Amigos da Dundas sports bar, located in Toronto's Little Portugal neighbourhood, said. Jota's picture has appeared on the big screen at Portugal matches during the 2026 World Cup While fans have turned up for Portugal's matches wearing shirts with Jota's name on the back, players including captain Ronaldo are wearing special wristbands during matches in tribute. The wristbands in Portugal's green and red colours are a gift from Prime Minister Luis Montenegro and carry the names of all squad members alongside that of Jota. "The story of the wristband â is, when we went to meet with the prime minister, he offered us this wristband," said midfielder Vitinha. "They made âsure that it was a wristband that we could wear on the pitch. It has all the specifics for us âto be able to enter the pitch with it, with the name of all the players plus the special name of Diogo Jota." Vitinha appeared in the opening group game against DR Congo in Houston on 17 June, where Jota's parents Joaquim and Isabel were guests, and wiped away tears in the stands during an emotional tribute to their sons. "Representing Portugal at this tournament was a dream Diogo nurtured with everyone who loved him," Fifa president Gianni Infantino wrote on social media , external after meeting the couple. "While celebrating these moments of togetherness, we continue to keep Diogo and Andre in our thoughts." This video can not be played Vitinha and Portugal stars set to wear wristbands in tribute to Jota The funeral of Jota and his brother was held in Gondomar, on the outskirts of Porto, on 5 July 2025. Neves helped carry Jota's coffin into the church, just hours after competing with Al Hilal at the Club World Cup in the United States. The midfielder has since had a tattoo on his left calf of him embracing Jota, who is wearing his 'Diogo J' Portugal 21 shirt. "I and the entire national team team will do everything we can to keep Diogo here with us, on our team," Neves added. "The day after the news, for me, is the most difficult day of my life. The most important aspect for me to be able to play was wanting to play for Diogo first." Neves has had a tattoo on his calf embracing his close friend While Liverpool have revealed images of the new permanent memorial , external at Anfield in tribute to Jota and his brother, Portugal unveiled a bronze tribute , external at their training centre close to Lisbon. Martinez says Jota's death "hurts beyond football" but his spirit is a driving force at the World Cup. Portugal have struggled to fire at the tournament, winning just one of their three group games. However, the 2016 European champions booked a last-16 spot by defeating Croatia. "Diogo's dream is still with us and he sets the standards, he sets the light for the direction of this group," added former Belgium boss Martinez. "Every day is difficult. When we are training, there are always moments when Diogo comes back into our memory. "I think the anniversary is just a moment that makes this game [Croatia], Diogo Jota's game. "Diogo will always be with us." England were 15 minutes from humiliation - the issues Tuchel must solve
This video can not be played Highlights: Superb England beat South Africa to set up World Cup final against Australia The 'F' word came up again and again in the review into England's Ashes hammering. The players knew it. Staff knew it. And after England dropped seven catches on day two of the Test in Melbourne, the whole world knew it. England's fielding had not cost them the series but it was a clear problem. They also put down six chances when exiting the T20 World Cup against West Indies the previous autumn. But Thursday's semi-final victory over South Africa at The Oval, with two fine Sophie Ecclestone catches and a perfect throw for a Danni Wyatt-Hodge run-out, was the clearest example yet of England's improvement. The secret? A sparkly disco jacket owned by the wife of the fielding coach⦠Nick Wilton (left) played 17 first-class games and 19 List A matches in his career The man tasked with improving England's fielding is long-standing coach Nick Wilton, the former Sussex wicketkeeper now dubbed DJ Wilton. His fielding 'disco nights' have become a feature of this World Cup. With the tunes blaring and while wearing his wife's jacket, Wilton has England's players charging around and taking high catches under the lights. Practice but fun practice. It has lifted England from those miserable days in Melbourne and Dubai. "We do pieces of fielding to each song and he pumps the music up to try and get us all hyped up," vice-captain Charlie Dean said. "I love the way he gets us really passionate about fielding so it is fun every time." This video can not be played Big breakthrough for England as Wolvaardt is caught early There is, of course, more to England's improvement than a coach dressing like an ABBA tribute act. As well as Ecclestone's catches - a leap at mid-on and a nerve-jangler as the ball dropped over her should at short fine leg - and Wyatt-Hodge's run-out, Charlie Dean also pulled off a direct hit dismissal in the win over New Zealand and Wyatt-Hodge took a superb catch in the tournament opener against Sri Lanka . Fitness and fielding were two of coach Charlotte Edwards' priorities when she took over after the Ashes defeat. The former captain, who sprinted on to the field to congratulate her players during the timeout after Ecclestone's first catch, has calmly quietened talk of the issue. In one of her previous roles at Southern Vipers, Edwards used an electric scooter to follow and observe her players during their fitness sessions and one of her first moves after becoming England coach was introducing minimum fitness standards. The new standards include a two-kilometre time trial, 30m two-way sprints (effectively shuttle runs), a test to assess explosiveness through a squat and a vertical leap, and another which gauges a player's maximum velocity. England posted clips from the gruelling sessions on their social media accounts at the start of the season. Videos of boat parties posted on players' own accounts are long gone under Edwards. Wilton has been given free rein to improve England's fielding. Without any international fixtures this winter, he was able to work with the players on their training camps in Oman, Stellenbosch and Pretoria. There were more training sessions in the early-season gatherings at Millfield and Repton schools and at England's cricket centre in Loughborough. "Progress happens with dedication over time and putting the work in," Dean said. "All our careers we put in the work but especially the last year." This video can not be played 'That is brilliant!' - Sinalo Jafta run out by Danni Wyatt-Hodge With the players buying in, there has also been a greater attention to detail. Dani Gibson, Freya Kemp and Linsey Smith â three fielders who often share the job of patrolling the boundary â practise their high catches or sprints to retrieve and return the ball. The powerful Gibson, one of England's quickest players across the ground, has repeatedly denied batters second runs with her quick work in this tournament â no more so than in the early stages against South Africa. Bowler Lauren Bell regularly attempts flying one-handed catches in training â the type of opportunities that come in her position of short fine leg. It is obvious but appears to be working. "Being that extra bit more detailed in what we are trying to do has put us in great stead," Dean said. And now there is one match remaining - Sunday's final against Australia. There would be no better opposition against whom to reinforce their improvement. "Lottie coming in after the Ashes when we were pretty poor, it is obviously something we wanted to work on as a team and we've had commitment from everyone to do that," captain Nat Sciver-Brunt said. "The plan from Lottie in how we do that has been executed by Nick, who encourages us to push ourselves as far as we can in the field and not put a ceiling on anything we do." The work - and the jacket - has got England this far. Can they continue it under the most intense pressure? Women's T20 World Cup final: England v Australia 5 July, 15:30 BST Lord's Ball-by-ball commentary on BBC Sounds and the BBC Sport website and app, which will also have live text commentary and video highlights. Sciver-Brunt leads superb England into World Cup final The making of Dean - England's serene stand-in skipper
The culture department has become the second government department to leave the platform Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has announced she and her department are leaving Elon Musk's X platform. Explaining her decision in what seemingly will be her last post on X , external , Nandy said the platform "isn't healthy for our democracy or our communities and I don't want to support it". "A platform originally designed for free speech and expression now favours abuse and misinformation over meaningful debate," she wrote. Responding on X, , external Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch said "DCMS [the Department for Culture, Media and Sport] is supposed to counter and deal with misinformation, not run away because it's all too much." The culture department becomes the second government department to stop using X after the attorney general's office, while several MPs also left the platform earlier this year over reports its AI tool was being used to create sexualised images. Nandy said she would continue to use Instagram, Facebook and LinkedIn. Attorney General Lord Hermer defended his decision to ban his office from posting on X last month, telling MPs it "constantly descends to racism and misogyny" and that his department "can do better". "I can understand why other departments feel they need to be on the pitch engaging with people, but that is not where the attorney general's office needs to be," Lord Hermer told the Justice Committee in June. "For the work that I can do, I can engage with people in serious debate, detailed debate, respectful debate, without being on a platform that constantly descends to racism and misogyny." Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer has accused Musk of using his platform to "whip up division" in the UK over the murder of student Henry Nowak last month. There were violent protests in Southampton following the release of bodycam footage showing police handcuffing 18-year-old Nowak as he lay dying. His killer Vickrum Digwa had claimed he had been the victim of a racist attack. The footage of Nowak's final moments has prompted a wave of political reaction in the UK, as well as X owner Musk criticising the police treatment of the teenager. Several MPs, including Liberal Democrat Layla Moran and Vikki Slade, and Labour's Darren Paffey, left the platform after reports the Grok AI tool was being used to create sexualised images, including of children. X has previously said: "Anyone using or prompting Grok to make illegal content will suffer the same consequences as if they upload illegal content."
Yann LeCun, founder of AMI Labs, is developing a new AI system "We don't have robots that are nearly as good at understanding the physical world as a rat," says Yann LeCun, one of the leading figures in the world of artificial intelligence. He worked at Facebook-owner, Meta, for a decade, where he was chief AI scientist, but left in 2025 and founded Advanced Machine Intelligence Labs (AMI Labs). His goal is to move AI beyond current systems like ChatGPT, Claude and Gemini. They have their uses, he says, but will never be able to tackle complicated situations in the real world, like getting a robot to do household chores. "They're not a path towards human level or human-like intelligence, or even animal-like intelligence, because they cannot deal with real world data, they just are not built for that," he tells me on the sidelines of VivaTech, France's leading technology conference. So, Paris-based AMI Labs is busy developing a new type of artificial intelligence not based on the tech behind ChatGPT and its rivals. Investors think it has potential. Earlier this year AMI Labs announced that it had raised more than $1bn (£760m), with investors including US computer chip giant Nvidia and the fund that manages the private wealth of Amazon-founder Jeff Bezos. That so-called seed funding round - the earliest round of start-up fundraising - was one of the biggest of its kind in Europe. Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT are extremely good at some things like coding, mathematical problems and generating text, LeCun says. But he argues that these are well defined and predictable problems. "They [LLMs] basically just accumulate knowledge... They can regurgitate something, you train them to regurgitate, but they're not particularly smart. They don't have an underlying understanding," he says. In the real world there is a bewildering array of outcomes to any action, which requires a more flexible type of artificial intelligence. LeCun holds a pen upright on its tip. What happens when you let go, he asks? Even a toddler would know that the pen would topple over. But no human would bother to guess in which direction the pen might fall, there's no way to tell. But an LLM might try to generate a single prediction about the pen's next move based on statistical patterns from its training data. The prediction would almost certainly be wrong, because the system is not reasoning about the physical reality of the situation - it is generating what appears to be statistically plausible. LeCun says the system his company is developing, called Joint Embedding Predictive Architecture (JEPA), is set up to deal with problems like that. It creates abstractions of the real world that allow it to assess the outcomes of actions. Creating these abstractions involves difficult maths, but essentially they filter out useless information, just leaving the AI with useful pictures of the world. In the case of the pen, the AI would know that there's no point in trying to predict which way the pen would fall. Humanoid robots need an artificial intelligence that can navigate the real world Building a more flexible artificial intelligence is a priority for the robotics industry. Billions of dollars have been invested in building humanoid robots and their feats get more impressive every year . But training them to safely perform household tasks like ironing or stacking the dishwasher is proving difficult and costly. And, according to LeCun, current AI models are unlikely to ever be any good in that environment. "LLMs are largely hopeless for robotics," he says. "The claims that somehow by just scaling up LLMs, we're going to reach super human intelligence, that is simply not going to happen." Ingmar Posner is leading a team developing a new AI model at Oxford University Many in the AI industry agree with LeCun. Ingmar Posner is one of them. He is professor of Applied Artificial Intelligence at Oxford University and directs its Applied AI Lab. He is also an Amazon Scholar , external . "My view is that the next decade will really be about systems that can explain... You need models that can answer questions like: What matters? What causes what? What would happen if I did something else - like if I took a different action?" Posner and his team of around 10 researchers have been working for four years on an alternative form of AI, which falls into a loose category called World Models. While World Models have conceptually been around for decades, one inspiration for this work was an influential paper published in 2018 by David Ha and Jurgen Schmidhuber , external . Their insight was that, given advances in machine learning and compute power, an AI can learn how to do something purely from a learnt, "mental" simulation of what the world looks like. Since 2018 that idea has catalysed a significant amount of research into world models, including the Dreamer World Model , external from Google. Last year a Dreamer variant worked out how to collect diamonds , external in the video game Minecraft, by imagining future scenarios to help it with decision making. Posner hopes the AI system his team are working on will be another step forward. He calls it a "mechanistic world model", which will structure knowledge in a way the AI can use efficiently. "You need systems that are able to compartmentalise and organise knowledge in such a way that it can be recalled, combined and modified when it matters," Posner says. It's very difficult to say how long it will take to develop these new models, he adds. "If you asked anyone in 2017 or 2018, how long it would be until you can have a ChatGPT sort of thing, they would go: 'Decades, decades of work'." The original version of ChatGPT was launched in November 2022 . Other work on World Models is being done by DeepMind (part of Google-owner, Alphabet) with its Genie model , external and London-based Wayve , external has a system called Gaia. Meanwhile, AI pioneer Fei-Fei Li founded World Labs , external in San Francisco in 2023 to develop a new AI model. LeCun says that AMI Labs will spend the rest of this year refining their AI model and next year hopes that it will be put to use, at first in industrial settings. If that's successful, then it will be time to think big. "Eventually down the line we'll have sort of general generic intelligence systems that can be applied to just about anything in the world with minimal training or fine tuning." What will happen to humans in a world where robots can operate independently? "We're still going to need humans to figure out what questions to ask, what to build, what to create, which is really the properly human aspect," he says. The AI will work for us he adds. "Our interaction with future AI systems - even if they are smarter than us - is going to be like the interaction between a captain of industry or a political leader with their staff of assistants - many of whom are smarter than they are." India's 'blue gold' starts a new drinks industry The ancient trick making food waste useful and tasty What is Helium-3 and could we get it from the moon?
There was an error Switzerland end their 88-year wait for a win in the knockout stage of a World Cup as they beat Algeria 2-0 in Vancouver. READ MORE: Switzerland 2-0 Algeria Available to UK users only.
Jo Woods said horses were not a hobby but a lifestyle and provided people with "so much fulfilment" Demand for affordable retirement livery has risen "exponentially" as people were "massively worried" about the rising cost of living, owners of a farm have said. Fiona and Ian Long, who look after more than 70 horses at Padwick Farm in Leek, Staffordshire, said they had seen a 60% growth in livery bookings in the last five years as prices rise. Typical livery costs, which are fees for the boarding and care of horses in stables, can be about £800 a month, according to the charity Horse Trust. Padwick Farm said it charged less than half the price to prevent owners from euthanising their horses. The team at Padwick Farm aims to help horses relax into the freedom of fields "We've experienced someone struggling to put food on the table for their children and they decided to put their horse to sleep," Fiona Long said. The National Equine Welfare Council (NEWC) found that more than 80% of equine owners across the UK , external were concerned about the continued pressure of increased costs of equine-keeping. Five percent were considering euthanising their horse due to rising costs, with owners unable to afford the farrier and regular vet call-outs. It was more common and affordable to have horses in the past but these days it was a "luxury" as the cost of grass seed, bales of hay and vet prices rise, Long said. "A big bale of hay was £10 around 30 years ago, now it's £90. Livery costs were static for around 20 years before owners started putting up prices two years ago," she added. The farm co-owner said that offering lower prices was a way to "give back" to horses and allow them to continue living for years after they stop being ridden. "Horses aren't a hobby, they are a lifestyle and they offer us so much fulfilment, so for them to be horses themselves, that's giving back to them," staff member Jo Woods said. The livery looks after more than 70 horses in Staffordshire The livery, which aims to provide a sense of freedom and relaxation for a range of horses, allowed them to "be a horse without any expectations". "Seeing a horse come and not really know their place in the herd to then being a fundamental part of the herd and relaxed, happy, having friends, is so rewarding," Long said. Owners spend approximately £5,350 per year on direct costs to care for one horse, according to the British Horse Society. It recommended these tips while making sure any money saving changes still supported your horse's health and welfare. Healthcare plans can help spread the cost of routine treatment while making sure your horse gets everything they need without surprise bills Discuss shoeing and hoof care options with a farrier. If suggested by a professional, a horse may be able to go barefoot or wear shoes only on their front feet Consider using small-holed haynets or slow feeders to reduce waste and help forage last longer. Don't forget to compare prices, with local suppliers potentially able to match online deals Switch to grass livery, DIY packages or moving to a yard with fewer facilities for reduced costs Look after your equipment to help it last longer and save money. Store tools in a dry place out of direct sunlight and clean tack regularly to prevent cracking and mould Tell us which stories we should cover in Staffordshire Follow BBC Stoke & Staffordshire on BBC Sounds , Facebook , external , X , external and Instagram , external . 'He's a life saver': The miniature therapy horse that travels by taxi Ascot-winning horse takes on therapy role Horse therapy centre opens in the South Downs Padwick Farm National Equine Welfare Council
