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It is impressive how Generative AI can conjure a “day in the life” image of a Neanderthal in seconds. But a new study suggests those scenes often come with a dash of built-in time travel. Researchers comparing AI-created Neanderthal images and narratives to a century of scholarly writing found the outputs repeatedly echoed outdated ideas, missed key nuances in modern research, and reproduced familiar biases, concludes their study published in Advances in Archaeological Practice . The work, led by anthropologist Matthew Magnani ( University of Maine) and computational anthropologist Jon Clindaniel (University of Chicago), is being framed as a warning for anyone using AI to “illustrate” prehistory - whether in classrooms, museums, social media, or popular articles. As the University