Category: News

Apple Ghosts the Generative AI Revolution

After years of anticipation and contributions from thousands of people, Apple Vision Pro made its debut yesterday, promising immersion in apps, games, movies, and the workplace. With more than 20 cameras, sensors, and microphones, two processing chips, and even an external battery you carry in your pocket, it’s packed full of world-class tech, but missing an element that seems to be everywhere else right now:...

The Quest for a Switch to Turn on Hunger

Putting something electric into the wet and sticky environment of the stomach proved quite the design task. According to James McRae, a graduate student in Traverso’s lab and another coauthor on the study, the electrodes needed to stick to the mucus lining of the stomach to successfully pass electric stimuli. The problem is that the mucus lining secretes large amounts of fluid, forming a...

Sequoia splits into three entities

Sequoia splits into three entities

Sequoia is splitting into three entities — Sequoia Capital in U.S. and European businesses, Peak XY Partners in India and Southeast Asia, and HongShan in China — as the storied venture firm scrambles to assess the increasing complex of managing a decentralized operation.  The split comes amid the growing geopolitical tension between China and the U.S., the world’s two largest economies. The India and...

Europe’s under-the-radar gay hotspot

Once a poor fishing town, Torremolinos became an unlikely LGBTQ+ haven in the midst of a fascist regime. The walkway outside Mariquita Copas, a hole-in-the-wall bar in Torremolinos’ main “gaybourhood”, La Nogalera, glowed blue. The makeshift drinking terrace I was sitting at was surrounded by palm-filled squares in the heart of southern Spain’s Costa del Sol, a few blocks up from the Mediterranean. As...

Tonga Eruption Triggered Massive ‘Equatorial Plasma Bubble’

The eruption of Tonga’s Hunga Tonga-Hunga Ha’apai underwater volcano on January 15, 2022, which produced a massive plume of smoke, is captured in this image provided by NOAA’s GOES-West satellite. Tsunami warnings stretched across the Pacific Ocean and as far east as the coastline of the continental United States. Credit: NOAA Photo/UPI/Alamy Live News Advertisement

Paul Oakenfold: DJ denies sexual harassment claim

Paul Oakenfold: DJ denies sexual harassment claim

Getty Images DJ Paul Oakenfold has “categorically” denied accusations of sexual harassment after being sued by a former employee. The woman filed a lawsuit in California against the British DJ and producer and his management company last week alleging harassment and wrongful termination. On Monday, he called it an attempt to ruin his reputation and extort him. “Let me be absolutely clear: I categorically...

Europe wants platforms to label AI-generated content to fight disinformation

Europe wants platforms to label AI-generated content to fight disinformation

The European Union is leaning on signatories to its Code of Practice on Online Disinformation to label deepfakes and other AI-generated content. In remarks yesterday following a meeting with the 40+ signatories to the Code, the EU’s values and transparency commissioner, Vera Jourova, said those signed up to combat disinformation should put in place technology to recognize AI content and clearly label it to...

Streaming service to detect ‘deepfake’ AI songs

Streaming service to detect ‘deepfake’ AI songs

Getty Images By Mark Savage BBC Music Correspondent Streaming service Deezer says it has developed technology that allows it to identify and potentially delete songs that clone pop stars’ voices. The French company says it wants to “weed out illegal and fraudulent content” to protect artists. “We need to take a stand now,” CEO Jeronimo Folgueira told the BBC. “We are at a pivotal...

Massive Turing test shows we can only just tell AIs apart from humans

Who are you talking to? IR Stone/Shutterstock People can only tell apart artificial intelligences from humans around 60 per cent of the time, according to a test taken by more than 1.5 million people. The results raise questions about whether the new generation of AIs should have to identify themselves in conversation, say researchers. Computer scientist Alan Turing first proposed a test for machine...