This March, nearly 35,000 AI researchers, technologists, entrepreneurs, and concerned citizens signed an open letter from the nonprofit Future of Life Institute that called for a “pause” on AI development, due to the risks to humanity revealed in the capabilities of programs such as ChatGPT. “Contemporary AI systems are now becoming human-competitive at general tasks,… Continue reading A Letter Prompted Talk of AI Doomsday. Many Who Signed Weren’t Actually AI Doomers
Author: Wired Magazine
YouTube Music Adds a TikTok-Like Videofeed to Attract Gen Z
YouTube Music just announced Samples, a new in-app feature where users can scroll through short music video clips from their favorite artists and discover new songs. Welcome back to the short-form video wars. Yes, Silicon Valley remains hyperfixated on generative AI, but don’t forget one of its other, recent favorite trends: releasing features that vaguely… Continue reading YouTube Music Adds a TikTok-Like Videofeed to Attract Gen Z
3 Best Deals From Roborock’s Robot Vacuum Sale
Scan through our Best Robot Vacuums guide and you’ll see Roborock’s name come up a few times. The company makes a wide range of vacs that navigate all the trickiest areas of your house and keep them clean. Right now the company is hosting a back-to-school sale, so we’ve highlighted three of the best deals… Continue reading 3 Best Deals From Roborock’s Robot Vacuum Sale
TikTok Is Letting People Shut Off Its Infamous Algorithm—and Think for Themselves
TikTok recently announced that its users in the European Union will soon be able to switch off its infamously engaging content-selection algorithm. The EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA) is driving this change as part of the region’s broader effort to regulate AI and digital services in accordance with human rights and values. TikTok’s algorithm learns… Continue reading TikTok Is Letting People Shut Off Its Infamous Algorithm—and Think for Themselves
Injecting a Gene Into Monkeys’ Brains Curbed Their Alcohol Use
When they conducted postmortem examinations of the monkeys’ brains, the team also confirmed that the treated animals had replenished levels of dopamine. In the untreated animals, dopamine levels remained low. Donita Robinson, a professor of psychiatry and researcher at the University of North Carolina Bowles Center for Alcohol Studies, is impressed that the effects lasted… Continue reading Injecting a Gene Into Monkeys’ Brains Curbed Their Alcohol Use
Lectric XP Trike Review: Cheap Three-Wheeled Ebike
My car was at the auto shop. It was officially about to get junked (yay!), but I had to be there to hand it off to the folks taking it away. That’s more than a 15-mile roundtrip from my home in Brooklyn, so I figured it’d be a good test for the Lectric XP Trike,… Continue reading Lectric XP Trike Review: Cheap Three-Wheeled Ebike
An Apple Malware-Flagging Tool Is ‘Trivially’ Easy to Bypass
One of your Mac’s built-in malware detection tools may not be working quite as well as you think. At the Defcon hacker conference in Las Vegas, longtime Mac security researcher Patrick Wardle presented findings today about vulnerabilities in Apple’s macOS Background Task Management mechanism, which could be exploited to bypass and, therefore, defeat the company’s… Continue reading An Apple Malware-Flagging Tool Is ‘Trivially’ Easy to Bypass
Hip Hop 2073: A Vision of the Future, 50 Years From Now
Many talented artists are represented: a rapper with Trisomy-21 named Jirau (after a pioneering fashion model), who is an especially strong lyricist. In 2073, neurodiverse artists (many formerly known as “disabled”) are valued, as most AI algorithms had largely ignored them in their early training sets. Then there’s DJ Congolia, who made original beats exclusively… Continue reading Hip Hop 2073: A Vision of the Future, 50 Years From Now
GitHub’s Hardcore Plan to Roll Out Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)
You’ve heard the advice for years: Turn on two-factor authentication everywhere it’s offered. It’s long been clear that using only a username and password to secure digital accounts isn’t enough. But layering on an additional authentication “factor”—like a randomly generated code or a physical token—makes the keys to your kingdom much tougher to guess or… Continue reading GitHub’s Hardcore Plan to Roll Out Two-Factor Authentication (2FA)
Geoffrey Hinton, Godfather of AI, Has a Hopeful Plan for Keeping Future AI Friendly
That sounded to me like he was anthropomorphizing those artificial systems, something scientists constantly tell laypeople and journalists not to do. “Scientists do go out of their way not to do that, because anthropomorphizing most things is silly,” Hinton concedes. “But they’ll have learned those things from us, they’ll learn to behave just like us… Continue reading Geoffrey Hinton, Godfather of AI, Has a Hopeful Plan for Keeping Future AI Friendly