For more than a decade, researchers have wondered whether artificial intelligence could help predict what incapacitated patients might want when doctors must make life-or-death decisions on their behalf.

It remains one of the most high-stakes questions in health care AI today. But as AI improves, some experts increasingly see it as inevitable that digital “clones” of patients could one day aid family members, doctors, and ethics boards in making end-of-life decisions that are aligned with a patient’s values and goals.

Ars spoke with experts conducting or closely monitoring this research who confirmed that no hospital has yet deployed so-called “AI surrogates.” But AI researcher Muhammad Aurangzeb Ahmad is aiming to change that, taking the first steps toward piloting AI surrogates at a US medical facility.

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Even in my youth, I always loved the idea of point-and-click adventure games more than I did the reality. I appreciated how they transported me to other worlds, each with its own rules, histories, and interesting characters. However, like many people, I often ran up against the harsh reality of solving bizarre and obtuse puzzles in a time before Internet walkthroughs.

I almost never actually finished point-and-click adventure games for that reason—but there is one major exception: I completed Robert Williams’ The Colonel’s Bequest several times.

One of the last Sierra adventure games to still use a text parser, The Colonel’s Bequest follows a young woman named Laura Bow as she visits a mansion in the Southern US belonging to her college friend’s grandfather, Colonel Henri Dijon. While she’s there, a dispute breaks out over the colonel’s will, and it becomes clear a murderer is on the loose.

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Earlier this month, the Trump administration made nine elite universities an offer they couldn’t refuse : bring in more conservatives while shutting down “institutional units that purposefully punish, belittle, and even spark violence against conservative ideas,” give up control of admissions and hiring decisions, agree to “biological” definitions of sex and gender, don’t raise tuition for five years, clamp down on student protests, and stay institutionally “neutral” on current events. Do this and you won’t be cut off from “federal benefits,” which could include research funding, student loans, federal contracts, and even student and faculty immigration visas. Instead, you may gain “substantial and meaningful federal grants.”

But the universities are refusing. With the initial deadline of October 20 approaching, four of the nine universities—the University of Pennsylvania , Brown , University of Southern California , and MIT —that received the federal “compact” have announced that they will not sign it.

In addition, the American Council on Education, which represents more than 1,600 colleges and universities, today issued a statement calling for the compact to be completely withdrawn.

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For some cases of bacterial vaginosis, treatment should include a package deal, doctors now say.

The American College of Obstetricians & Gynecologists (ACOG) updated its clinical guidance Friday to fit with recent data indicating that treatment for recurring bacterial vaginosis (BV) in women is significantly more effective if their male partners are also treated at the same time—with both an oral antibiotic and an antibiotic cream directly onto the potentially offending member.

“Partner therapy offers us another avenue for hopefully preventing recurrence and helping people feel better faster,” Christopher Zahn, chief of clinical practice and health equity and quality at ACOG, said in a statement.

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Law enforcement agencies will soon have easier access to footage captured by Amazon’s Ring smart cameras. In a partnership announced this week, Amazon will allow approximately 5,000 local law enforcement agencies to request access to Ring camera footage via surveillance platforms from Flock Safety . Ring cooperating with law enforcement and the reported use of Flock technologies by federal agencies, including US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), has resurfaced privacy concerns that have followed the devices for years.

According to Flock’s announcement, its Ring partnership allows local law enforcement members to use Flock software “to send a direct post in the Ring Neighbors app with details about the investigation and request voluntary assistance.” Requests must include “specific location and timeframe of the incident, a unique investigation code, and details about what is being investigated,” and users can look at the requests anonymously, Flock said.

“Any footage a Ring customer chooses to submit will be securely packaged by Flock and shared directly with the requesting local public safety agency through the FlockOS or Flock Nova platform,” the announcement reads.

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In 1890, a German scientist named Robert Koch thought he’d invented a cure for tuberculosis, a substance derived from the infecting bacterium itself that he dubbed Tuberculin. His substance didn’t actually cure anyone, but it was eventually widely used as a diagnostic skin test . Koch’s successful failure is just one of the many colorful cases featured in Dead Ends! Flukes, Flops, and Failures that Sparked Medical Marvels , a new nonfiction illustrated children’s book by science historian Lindsey Fitzharris and her husband, cartoonist Adrian Teal.

A noted science communicator with a fondness for the medically macabre, Fitzharris published a biography of surgical pioneer Joseph Lister, The Butchering Art , in 2017—a great, if occasionally grisly, read. She followed up with 2022’s The Facemaker: A Visionary Surgeon’s Battle to Mend the Disfigured Soldiers of World War I , about a WWI surgeon named Harold Gillies who rebuilt the faces of injured soldiers.

And in 2020, she hosted a documentary for the Smithsonian Channel, The Curious Life and Death Of …, exploring famous deaths, ranging from drug lord Pablo Escobar to magician Harry Houdini. Fitzharris performed virtual autopsies, experimented with blood samples, interviewed witnesses, and conducted real-time demonstrations in hopes of gleaning fresh insights. For his part, Teal is a well-known caricaturist and illustrator, best known for his work on the British TV series Spitting Image . His work has also appeared in The Guardian and the Sunday Telegraph, among other outlets.

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The United States Grand Prix takes place this weekend at the Circuit of the Americas in Texas, and this morning, Formula 1 used the occasion to announce a new broadcast deal for the sport in the US. Starting next year, F1 will no longer be broadcast on ESPN—it’s moving to Apple TV in a five-year, $750 million deal.

Apple boss Tim Cook has been seen at F1 races in the past, and earlier this year, Apple released F1: The Movie , starring Brad Pitt as a 50-something racing driver who improbably gets a second bite at the cherry 30 years after a brutal crash seemingly ended his F1 career.

But securing the rights to the sport itself means Apple has snagged a very fast-growing series, with races almost every other week—currently, the sport has expanded to 24 races a year.

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Porsche provided flights from Washington to Atlanta and accommodation so Ars could attend Petit Le Mans. Ars does not accept paid editorial content.

The car world has long had a thing about numbers. Engine outputs. Top speeds. Zero-to-60 times. Displacement. But the numbers go beyond bench racing specs. Some cars have numbers for names, and few more memorably than Porsche. Its most famous model shares its appellation with the emergency services here in North America; although the car should accurately be “nine-11,” you call it “nine-one-one.”

Some numbers are less well-known, but perhaps more special to Porsche’s fans, especially those who like racing. 908. 917. 956. 962. 919. But how about 963?

That’s Porsche’s current sports prototype, a 670-hp (500 kW) hybrid that for the last three years has battled against rivals in what is starting to look like, if not a golden era for endurance racing, then at least a very purple patch. And the 963 has done well, racing here in IMSA’s WeatherTech Sportscar Championship and around the globe in the FIA World Endurance Championship.

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When teachers rely on commonly used artificial intelligence chatbots to devise lesson plans, it does not result in more engaging, immersive, or effective learning experiences compared with existing techniques, we found in our recent study . The AI-generated civics lesson plans we analyzed also left out opportunities for students to explore the stories and experiences of traditionally marginalized people.

The allure of generative AI as a teaching aid has caught the attention of educators. A Gallup survey from September 2025 found that 60 percent of K-12 teachers are already using AI in their work , with the most common reported use being teaching preparation and lesson planning.

Without the assistance of AI, teachers might spend hours every week crafting lessons for their students. With AI, time-stretched teachers can generate detailed lesson plans featuring learning objectives, materials, activities, assessments, extension activities, and homework tasks in a matter of seconds.

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