Study lead author Dr Maria Randazzo, an academic from CDU’s School of Law, found the technology was reshaping Western legal and ethical landscapes at unprecedented speed but was undermining democratic values and deepening systemic biases.

Dr Randazzo said current regulation failed to prioritize fundamental human rights and freedoms such as privacy, anti-discrimination, user autonomy, and intellectual property rights – mainly thanks to the untraceable nature of many algorithmic models.

Calling this lack of transparency a “black box problem,” Dr Randazzo said decisions made by deep-learning or machine-learning processes were impossible for humans to trace, making it difficult for users to determine if and why an AI model has violated their rights and dignity and seek justice where necessary.

“This is a very significant issue that is only going to get worse without adequate regulation,” Dr Randazzo said.

“AI is not intelligent in any human sense at all. It is a triumph in engineering, not in cognitive behavior.

“It has no clue what it’s doing or why – there’s no thought process as a human would understand it, just pattern recognition stripped of embodiment, memory, empathy, or wisdom.”

Currently, the world’s three dominant digital powers – the United States, China, and the European Union – are taking markedly different approaches to AI, leaning on market-centric, state-centric, and human-centric models respectively.

Dr Randazzo said the EU’s human-centric approach is the preferred path to protect human dignity but without a global commitment to this goal, even that approach falls short.

“Globally, if we don’t anchor AI development to what makes us human – our capacity to choose, to feel, to reason with care, to empathy and compassion – we risk creating systems that devalue and flatten humanity into data points, rather than improve the human condition,” she said.

“Humankind must not be treated as a means to an end.”

“Human dignity in the age of Artificial Intelligence: an overview of legal issues and regulatory regimes” was published in the Australian Journal of Human Rights.

The paper is the first in a trilogy Dr Randazzo will produce on the topic.

A new discovery by Van Andel Institute scientists reveals that glucose, an essential cellular fuel that powers immune cells, also aids in T cells’ internal communication and boosts their cancer-fighting properties. The findings may help optimize T cells’ ability to combat cancer and other diseases.

A study describing the work published on September 2 in Cell Metabolism.

“Immune cells are highly influenced by their environment” said Joseph Longo, Ph.D., the study’s first author and a postdoctoral fellow in the lab of Russell Jones, Ph.D. “We knew that T cells need access to glucose to function, but we didn’t know exactly why. It was previously thought that T cells mainly break down glucose for energy, but our new work shows that T cells use glucose as a building block for other molecules that are necessary to support T cells’ anti-cancer properties.”

The findings reveal that T cells allocate significant portions of glucose to build large molecules called glycosphingolipids (GSLs). These sugar-fat compounds are essential for T cell growth and making proteins that T cells use to combat cancer.

GSLs help form fat-rich structures on T cell surfaces called lipid rafts, which bring together cell signaling proteins that instruct the T cell to kill cancer cells. Without GSLs, these signals are weaker, making T cells less effective at destroying tumors.

“Both T cells and cancer cells leverage different nutrients to support varying aspects of their function,” Jones said. “The more we know about these different fuel sources, the better we can support T cells’ innate cancer-fighting abilities while also developing ways to possibly make cancer cells more vulnerable to immune attack.”

Other authors include Lisa M. DeCamp, Brandon M. Oswald, Ph.D., Robert Teis, Alfredo Reyes-Oliveras, Ph.D., Michael S. Dahabieh, Ph.D., Abigail E. Ellis, Michael P. Vincent, Ph.D., Hannah Damico, M.B., Kristin L. Gallik, Ph.D., Nicole M. Foy, Shelby E. Compton, Ph.D., Colt D. Capan, M.S., Kelsey S. Williams, Ph.D., Corinne R. Esquibel, Ph.D., Zachary B. Madaj, M.S., Hyoungjoo Lee, Ph.D., Connie Krawczyk, Ph.D., Brian B. Haab, Ph.D., and Ryan D. Sheldon, Ph.D., of VAI; and Dominic G. Roy, Ph.D., of Université de Montréal.

Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases of the National Institutes of Health under award no. R01AI165722 (Jones). The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.

How did massive dinosaurs live during the Jurassic period? What did they eat, how did they share their habitats – and did they perhaps migrate seasonally? These questions have been explored by an international team of researchers led by Dr Daniela E. Winkler, a postdoctoral researcher at Kiel University, Dr Emanuel Tschopp, visiting scientist at the LIB and research associate at Freie Universität Berlin, and André Saleiro, PhD student at NOVA University Lisbon. Their new study employs an unusual method: using wear marks on fossilised teeth as a window into the past.

“I still find it fascinating that microscopic scratches on fossil teeth can tell us so much about diet and even behavior,” says Winkler, an expert in the applied methodology. The technique, known as Dental Microwear Texture Analysis (DMTA), was originally developed by a research group led by LIB scientist Professor Thomas Kaiser for studying mammals. The current study, published in Nature Ecology and Evolution, marks the first systematic application of the method to sauropods. The analyses were carried out in the laboratories of the LIB.

Tooth Enamel as an Environmental Archive

The team analyzed 322 high-resolution 3D scans of tooth surfaces from three geological formations that are famous for their dinosaur fossils: the Lourinhã Formation in Portugal, the Morrison Formation in the USA, and the Tendaguru Formation in Tanzania. All the teeth came from a total of 39 individuals. Samples were taken directly from original teeth or from high-resolution silicone molds. “We’re talking about structures at the micrometer scale,” Winkler explains. “These tiny wear marks results from the interaction between tooth and food – they reveal what the animals had eaten in the last days or weeks of their lives.”

Surprising Differences between Species and Regions

The statistical analyses revealed clear differences between various sauropod groups and their localities oder geographic regions. Particularly striking was the high variability in wear patterns among the flagellicaudatans – a group of long-tailed sauropods that includes the well-known Diplodocus. This heterogeneity suggests that these animals had access to a variety of food sources and displayed generalist feeding behavior.

A particular surprise was that Camarasaurus specimens from both Portugal and the USA had highly uniform wear patterns. Such consistency in microwear is unlikely to be explained solely by uniform plant availability – rather, it indicates that these dinosaurs deliberately sought out the same preferred food sources throughout the year. “The climate at the time in both Portugal and the USA was highly seasonal, so certain plants likely weren’t available year-round,” explains Emanuel Tschopp. “The consistency in Camarasaurus tooth wear suggests they may have migrated seasonally to access the same resources.”

Things were different with the titanosauriforms from Tanzania, whose teeth showed significantly more intense and complex wear. The researchers interpret this as a result of specific environmental conditions: the Tendaguru Formation featured tropical to semi-arid climates and nearby was a large desert belt, from where quartz sand was probably often blown onto plants these sauropods ate. This sand-contaminated diet likely caused the highly abrasive wear patterns seen on the teeth.

Climate, Not Plant Variety, as the Key Factor

There were also clear differences between the regions themselves: teeth from Tanzania were consistently more heavily worn than those from Portugal or the USA. The crucial influencing factor? Climate.

“One of the most interesting aspects of this work is that we were able to relate differences in dental wear patterns to palaeogeography and the habitat preferences of different sauropod faunas,” concludes André Saleiro. These findings also guide his future research: “The study showed me how to approach my ongoing work on niche partitioning in herbivorous dinosaurs – by focusing on specific palaeo-environments to better understand the ecological relationships within species groups, and how these differences evolved across ecosystems.”

For Emanuel Tschopp, this is also one of the most exciting elements of the research: “With these microscopic traces, we can suddenly make behavioral statements about these enormous extinct animals. Migration, specialization, niche use – it all becomes tangible.” Another notable aspect: wear patterns differed depending on the area of the tooth – on the side (buccal) or on the chewing surface (occlusal). These differences were accounted for in the analysis to avoid distortion.

Relevance for Biodiversity Research

This study provides not only new insights into the lives of individual dinosaur species but also contributes to a broader understanding of paleoecological relationships. Niche partitioning, climate-driven adaptations, and potential competition avoidance can thus be identified even in fossilized ecosystems.

“We demonstrate that ecological principles like niche formation and migration behavior were important not just today, but already 150 million years ago,” says Winkler. Tschopp adds: “The sauropods of the Morrison Formation show enormous species diversity – and that diversity was only possible because the species behaved differently and occupied different dietary niches.”

Looking Ahead: More Teeth, More Knowledge

The research is far from over. Future studies aim to explore whether juvenile and adult sauropods differed in their diets, or how dwarf species such as Europasaurus from Lower Saxony adapted to their specific island environment. Saleiro is already working on an expanded dataset for the Portuguese fauna, including other herbivorous dinosaurs.

“What excites me is that we can keep refining this method – and every new sample adds another piece to the puzzle,” says Winkler. “Our tools are getting better – and so is our understanding of what life back then was really like.” Tschopp agrees: “We’re still at the beginning with this method – but combining paleontology, modern technology and interdisciplinary collaboration opens up fascinating insights into ancient worlds.”