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New iPhone And Android AI Tools Help Block Robocalls Automatically

• Written by Kiara Fabbri Former Tech News Writer
• Fact-Checked by Sarah Frazier Former Content Manager

Users can now access free call screening and robocall blocking tools through their iPhone and Android devices.

In a rush? Here are the quick facts:

• iOS 26 introduces a free call-screening tool for unknown numbers.
• Call-screening tools help block robocallers who “spoof” phone numbers.
• Users can type follow-up questions or reject calls during AI screening.

The system lets virtual assistants detect unfamiliar callers and stop potential scams from reaching your phone before it rings, as first reported by The New York Times .

Brian X. Chen, The Times’s lead consumer technology writer, said he tested Apple’s tool in iOS 26 and found it effective. “I didn’t have to pick up the phone to find out it was a robocaller impersonating a utility company with an offer to reduce my bill,” he wrote.

The AI assistant functions as a dual-purpose tool during the call by both recording the conversation and allowing users to submit new inquiries or end the call.

Android users with Google Pixel phones can do the same. The system detects unknown phone numbers automatically, and the assistant will ask for information from callers who also have the option to mark calls as spam. Google recently expanded this tool to more countries, including Australia, Canada, and Ireland.

The new call-screening tools improve on past solutions that relied on databases of known scam numbers, which scammers easily bypassed.

Chen explained, “Robocallers have used internet apps to ‘spoof’ calls, manipulating phone networks to place calls from numbers they weren’t really calling from.” Previous carrier attempts at stopping robocalls through Stir/Shaken verification of phone numbers failed to eliminate spoofed robocall problems.

The iPhone tool activation process begins with iOS 26 installation, followed by Settings > Phone selection, and then choosing “Ask Reason for Calling.” To activate automatic call screening on Android, users need to access the Phone app, then navigate to Settings > Call Screen and enable the feature.

The tools have certain restrictions according to Chen. Some real callers may be annoyed when a robot answers, but the moderate approach is useful for most people.

Both Apple and Google also filter scam text messages, moving them into a spam folder. Chen explained that this capability remains vital because scammers now use text messages to pretend to be bank representatives, recruiters, and delivery service personnel.

Image by Karsten Winegeart, from Unsplash

AI Helps Solve Decades-Old Mystery Of Holocaust Massacre Image

• Written by Kiara Fabbri Former Tech News Writer
• Fact-Checked by Sarah Frazier Former Content Manager

Historian Jürgen Matthäus has used AI to identify Nazi soldier Jakobus Onnen in a notorious 1941 Holocaust photo from Berdychiv.

In a rush? Here are the quick facts:

• AI compared historical photos to identify the suspected killer, Jakobus Onnen.
• The AI produced an “unusually high” match despite the historical photo’s age.
• Historical letters and photographs were digitized to aid AI-assisted identification.

A historian employed artificial intelligence technology to resolve a long-standing enigma about one of the most well-known Holocaust photographs from history.

The image shows a bespectacled Nazi soldier aiming a pistol at the head of a kneeling man beside a pit of corpses, while German troops look on. For years, the photo was wrongly known as ‘The Last Jew in Vinnitsa’.

The Guardian , who first reported the story, says that Jürgen Matthäus who works as a German historian in the United States has dedicated multiple years to study the image.

Now, with the help of AI and volunteers from the open-source group Bellingcat, he believes he has identified the killer as Jakobus Onnen, a teacher from northern Germany, as reported by The Guardian.

According to Matthäus’s findings, published in Zeitschrift für Geschichtswissenschaft, the massacre took place on 28 July 1941 in the citadel of Berdychiv, Ukraine, carried out by SS unit Einsatzgruppe C. The city had long been a thriving Jewish center. Of the estimated 20,000 Jews there at the time, only 15 survived by early 1944.

AI analysis compared Onnen’s photos to the image which resulted in a match that Matthäus described as “unusually high”. He cautioned that the technology is not definitive but provides strong evidence when combined with archival research.

“The match, from everything I hear from the technical experts, is unusually high in terms of the percentage the algorithm throws out there,” he said, as reported by The Guardian.

Matthäus stressed that AI is only one part of the process. “This is clearly not the silver bullet – this is one tool among many. The human element continues to be the most important aspect.’’

Onnen became a member of the Nazi party when he joined in 1933 but lost his life during combat in 1943. Matthäus said the image should be seen as a crucial reminder of the Holocaust’s brutality, as reported by The Guardian..

“I think this image should be just as important as the image of the gate in Auschwitz, because it shows us the hands-on nature, the direct confrontation between killer and person to be killed.’’