KU News Service

'What am I falling in love with?' Human-AI relationships are no longer just science fiction Since ChatGPT’s late 2022 launch, everyday people have formed emotional connections to chatbots, describing them as deep friendships and even life partnerships.

Key to friendship is asking questions, being responsive and showing enthusiasm for what someone is saying, according to
@universityofkansas.bsky.social expert Jeff Hall. “In that sense, AI is better (than people) on all of those things,” he tells
@cnbc.com.

www.cnbc.com/2025/08/01/h...
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Work by 18th-century Korean carpenter-monks bridged sacred, secular spaces Scholar delves deeply into work of artisans who built, decorated Buddhist temples in Chosŏn period

Maya Stiller, @universityofkansas.bsky.social art historian, explores how Korean Buddhist temple spaces were not just religious, but also cultural centers. “When I was doing fieldwork, I was just stunned by the energy of these places.”

news.ku.edu/news/article...

KU scientists took part in experiment that created gold in supercollider, briefly Click for more on experiments detailed in Physical Reviews.

Nuclear physicists working at the @cern.bsky.social Large Hadron Collider achieved the centuries-old dream of alchemists. For a fraction of a second, they transformed lead into gold — thanks to techniques honed by @universityofkansas.bsky.social scientists.

news.ku.edu/news/article...

Study finds high levels of social infrastructure lead to healthier communities KU study finds high levels of social capital lead to healthier cities

Communities with higher levels of social infrastructure have better health outcomes, according to @universityofkansas.bsky.social research. “Where you live, where you work, where you go to school all shape your health, and we’re finding cultural capital can as well.”

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“A lot of underwater landscapes have archaeological relevance, and this mapping gives scientists a better shot at finding them,” @universityofkansas.bsky.social researcher Jerome Dobson tells Discover Magazine. Dobson and colleagues mapped potential routes and settlements in Africa.

Scholar argues for move away from meritocracy in schools to redefine purpose of education Yong Zhao, an education scholar at the University of Kansas, argues in a new article that education should move away from the idea of meritocracy, which fosters unnatural competition among students an...

In a scholarly journal article, a @universityofkansas.bsky.social
education expert argues meritocracy fosters competition and ignores unique human differences, leading to unequal educational results and furthering stratification in society.

news.ku.edu/news/article...

Research shows freshwater fish like complicated shoreline environments, just as saltwater species do Latest experiment finds lake fish share ocean-going cousins’ preference for root-like structures

A @universityofkansas.bsky.social architect explores how attaching tangled faux-root structures to otherwise artificially smooth-sided waterways will attract wildlife, improving species diversity and water quality and thus benefiting the humans living on shore.

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IT-capable employees improve accuracy and timeliness of financial reporting, study finds A new study examines IT-capable employees’ role in the production process of financial information, deducing that enhanced management of raw data during this process decreases technical errors and inc...

Those who rely on financial statements are better served when that data is produced by IT-savvy colleagues, new @kubusiness.bsky.social research shows. Harnessing employees’ tech prowess decreases technical errors in reports and increases data processing speed.

news.ku.edu/news/article...

Study examines early sensory processing and development in autism Click for more on research appearing in Psychological Review

Researchers with @universityofkansas.bsky.social @kulifespan.bsky.social examined how systems for processing touch, vision and hearing start to develop as a way to understand where development may diverge in someone who goes on to have autism versus someone who doesn’t.

news.ku.edu/news/article...

Study finds cities with proactive, risk-tolerant governing styles most likely to have ambitious climate strategies A new study from KU has found that cities that base their governance style on a proactive, learning-oriented and risk-tolerant approach are the mostly likely to have implemented ambitious climate resi...

A @universityofkansas.bsky.social study finds that cities with proactive, learning-oriented and risk-tolerant governance styles are significantly more likely to implement ambitious climate resilience strategies.

news.ku.edu/news/article...

Women of color fare better in personal earnings where racial minority men struggle most, study finds A new study examines why the stronger the power of race in accounting for earnings inequality among men in a local labor market, the weaker double disadvantage married women of color experience.

According to a @universityofkansas.bsky.social study, women of color may not be so financially hindered by sex and race as might be assumed. “They tend to increase their labor supply in areas where men of color face severe disadvantages,” says professor ChangHwan Kim.

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Why South Korean young men and women are more politically divided than ever In South Korea, right-leaning young men are less likely to focus on North Korea than feminism, which — for them — has become a dirty word.

Today’s male backlash to contemporary feminism in South Korea has roots that go back to socioeconomic changes that began much earlier, @universityofkansas.bsky.social sociologist ChangHwan Kim tells @latimes.com reporter Max Kim.

www.latimes.com/world-nation...

A panel of movie critics including @universityofkansas.bsky.social film & media studies lecturer Jon Niccum is on @kcur.org this morning to discuss their picks of the best movies of this century. Prof. Niccum’s pick is “Whiplash.”

www.kcur.org/podcast/up-t...

Up To Date What Kansas City cares about. Up To Date brings people together for daily conversations about what’s happening in our region and how it affects our lives. Featuring interviews with artists, lawmakers,...

This morning, @universityofkansas.bsky.social scholar Jomella Watson-Thompson is on @kcur.org discussing ThrYve, a program she developed to address the problem of youth violence. She is joined by recent KU grad Barry Anderson, a member of the first ThrYve cohort.

www.kcur.org/podcast/up-t...

Research from the University of Kansas suppresses coronavirus by targeting Mac1 A study published in mBio details the vulnerability of coronaviruses to inhibitors of a small protein domain called Mac1, found in all coronaviruses such as SARS-CoV-2 and MERS-CoV. The findings point...

The research was led by Anthony Fehr, associate professor of molecular biosciences.

“As a university, our primary role is to provide knowledge and develop leaders … with expertise to advance infectious disease research nationwide.”

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Research funded in part by the National Institutes for Health led @universityofkansas.bsky.social scientists and colleagues to a discovery that points toward potential antiviral therapies to combat future coronavirus pandemics.

Silvia Park is not convinced we can handle artificial intelligence Silvia Park, author of ‘Luminous’, The Nod's first book club pick, on manga, reality vs dystopia, and publishing in the time of AI

Ruhi Gilder interviewed @universityofkansas.bsky.social writer Silvia Park about her book “Luminous” for The Nod magazine. “What I was particularly interested in is the most difficult aspect of replicating artificial intelligence, which is emotion,” Park says.

thenodmag.com/content/silv...

University of Kansas announces spring 2025 honor roll Nearly 8,700 undergraduate students at the University of Kansas earned honor roll distinction for the spring 2025 semester.

A big Rock Chalk to the nearly 8,700 @universityofkansas.bsky.social undergraduate students who earned honor roll distinction for the spring 2025 semester.

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Author follows Japanese bells under sea, around world in new book Specialist in Japanese Buddhist art puts tales of bells around, under water in historic context.

Bells are significant in Buddhism but are not part of the art-historical canon — an omission that led
@universityofkansas.bsky.social history of art professor Sherry Fowler to follow Japanese bells under the sea and around the world in a new book.

news.ku.edu/news/article...

Researchers unearth big possum that lived 60 million years ago in Texas Click for more on paper in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology

They say everything’s bigger in Texas. And that appears to be true, at least in the case of a species of ancient near-marsupials that @universityofkansas.bsky.social paleontologists described for the first time in the Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.

news.ku.edu/news/article...

Where is our tariff revenue going? The U.S. collects billions in tariff revenue each year and it all ends up with the U.S. Treasury.

Tariffs are generally considered regressive taxes because lower-income households are the ones who are least able to afford the goods we’re importing, @universityofkansas.bsky.social expert @tradewarlab.bsky.social tells @marketplace.org.

www.marketplace.org/story/2025/0...

KU drives $7.8 billion economic impact in Kansas, study shows The University of Kansas is a powerful engine of economic growth and job creation for the state of Kansas, according to a new study detailing the university’s impact.

One in every 23 Kansas jobs is supported by the
@universityofkansas.bsky.social, a new study has found. The study also shows that for every $1 invested in KU, taxpayers gain $2.90 in added tax revenue and public sector savings.

news.ku.edu/news/article...

This Sweet TikTok Trend Is Actually Helping People Deepen Their Friendships You might be really shocked to see what your friends' reactions are.

‪‪“Our research would suggest that if the ‘good night’ call comes as a positive surprise, it will be appreciated by the recipients, and more so than the callers would predict,” @kubusiness.bsky.social prof Lauren Min tells @monicatorrr.bsky.social of @huffpost.com.

www.huffpost.com/entry/good-n...

$10 million gift ensures construction of new entrepreneurship hub at KU The University of Kansas School of Business received a $10 million gift commitment from an anonymous donor that ensures the construction of a new entrepreneurship hub building that benefits the greate...

70% percent of @universityofkansas.bsky.social students in entrepreneurship initiatives come from outside of the
School of Business. A $10M gift via KU Endowment will provide a physical location for entrepreneurial students to concentrate, collaborate and create.

news.ku.edu/news/article...

Groundbreaking marks new era for Kansas Law Enforcement Training Center University of Kansas leadership broke ground on major renovations at the Kansas Law Enforcement Training Center near Hutchinson on May 23, part of a bold campus master plan to support its competency-b...

Major renovations at the @universityofkansas.bsky.social Kansas Law Enforcement Training Center will support competency-based curriculum and expand programs to train public safety officers who serve communities across the state.

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Funding to help expand program providing technology, career training to women leaving incarceration in Kansas, Missouri KU part of grant funding to help serve more women leaving incarceration with tech training.

With $1.5 million from the Ewing Marion Kauffman Foundation, the @kujmcschool.bsky.social-based program will provide courses in online security, avoiding online scams, basic coding, social media, career readiness and topics identified by previous participants.

news.ku.edu/news/article...

Professor Hyunjin Seo gives a presentation.

Since 2019, the Center for Digital Inclusion at the @universityofkansas.bsky.social and partners have provided training to nearly 1,500 women transitioning from incarceration in online job applications, professional development and other topics.

Illustration of dinosaur eating a watermelon

The closed forest canopies that followed the dinosaurs’ demise would have placed evolutionary pressure on plant seeds to get larger — changes reflected in fossil data,
@ku-eeb.bsky.social researcher Brian Atkinson tells
@gayoung.bsky.social.

www.scientificamerican.com/article/how-...

In new book, expert shows how genre is evolving to feature sentient zombies Korean shows make martial law, school bullies the villains, half-zombies the heroes

Korean thrillers about super-zombies taking revenge on bullies are about “the prospect of a government in South Korea actually taking on emergency powers and imposing martial law,” a @universityofkansas.bsky.social scholar writes in a @mcfarland.bsky.social book.

news.ku.edu/news/article...

STEM to STREAMS New book explores expanding STEM fields through STREAMS metaphor for fuller educational approach.

Two @universityofkansas.bsky.social scholars are exploring ways STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, math) education can be accessed by more students. “This takes STEAM a step further, adding reading and the social sciences to the mix.”

news.ku.edu/news/article...