Author: zppiot

So when I learned that in parts of China, companies are putting hydrogen-powered bikes on the road for anyone to ride, it was a real “the future is here” moment for me. I looked deeper into it and wrote a story.  These bikes have water-bottle-sized hydrogen tanks, which can make them easier than regular bikes to ride, though the tanks have to be swapped out every 40 miles. But they haven’t exactly been getting rave reviews. One rider in Shanghai told me the speed boost from hydrogen felt lacking, and the user experience was hurt by hardware and software design…

Before they promoted bunk information on HIV and AIDS, Rogan, Kennedy, and Rodgers were spreading fringe theories about the coronavirus’s origins, as well as loudly questioning basic public health measures like vaccines, social distancing, and masks. All three men have also boosted the false idea that ivermectin, an antiparasitic drug, is a treatment or preventative for covid that is being kept from the American public for sinister reasons at the behest of Big Pharma.  “The AIDS denialists have come from the covid denialists,” says Tara Smith, an infectious-disease epidemiologist and a professor at Kent State University’s College of Public Health,…

Safeguarded AI’s goal is to build AI systems that can offer quantitative guarantees, such as a risk score, about their effect on the real world, says David “davidad” Dalrymple, the program director for Safeguarded AI at ARIA. The idea is to supplement human testing with mathematical analysis of new systems’ potential for harm.  The project aims to build AI safety mechanisms by combining scientific world models, which are essentially simulations of the world, with mathematical proofs. These proofs would include explanations of the AI’s work, and humans would be tasked with verifying whether the AI model’s safety checks are correct. …

Though terrible, Swift’s deepfakes did perhaps more than anything else to raise awareness about the risks and seem to have galvanized tech companies and lawmakers to do something.  “The screw has been turned,” says Henry Ajder, a generative AI expert who has studied deepfakes for nearly a decade. We are at an inflection point where the pressure from lawmakers and awareness among consumers is so great that tech companies can’t ignore the problem anymore, he says.  First, the good news. Last week Google said it is taking steps to keep explicit deepfakes from appearing in search results. The tech giant is making it…

Google loses antitrust case in landmark ruling – CBS News Watch CBS News A federal judge in Washington declared on Monday that Google has been operating as an illegal monopoly and violating antitrust laws. It’s a victory for the U.S. Department of Justice, which sued Google for illegally paying about $26 billion in 2021 to companies to make Google the default search engine on phones and computers, shutting down rivals. Google and its parent company, Alphabet, plan to appeal the landmark ruling. Be the first to know Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. Not Now…

Cooling represents 20% of global electricity demand in buildings, a share that’s expected to rise as the planet warms and more of the world turns to cooling technology. During peak demand hours, air conditioners can account for over half the total demand on the grid in some parts of the world today. In response, some inventors are creating versions that can store energy as well as use it. These technologies could help by charging themselves when renewable electricity is available and demand is low, and still providing cooling services when the grid is stressed. Read the full story. —Casey Crownhart…

As temperatures climb on hot days, many of us are quick to crank up our fans or air conditioners. These cooling systems can be a major stress on electrical grids, which has inspired some inventors to create versions that can store energy as well as use it. Cooling represents 20% of global electricity demand in buildings, a share that’s expected to rise as the planet warms and more of the world turns to cooling technology. During peak demand hours, air conditioners can account for over half the total demand on the grid in some parts of the world today. New…

Google’s ubiquitous search engine illegally exploits its preeminence to crush rivals and put a lid on innovation, a federal judge found on Monday in a ruling that deals a serious blow to the Alphabet-owned platform and delivers a major win for the Justice Department as it looks to strengthen high-tech industry competition. “This victory against Google is a historic win for the American people,” said Attorney General Merrick Garland. “No company — no matter how large or influential — is above the law. The Justice Department will continue to vigorously enforce our antitrust laws.”In 2021, Google paid roughly $26 billion to…

This is today’s edition of The Download, our weekday newsletter that provides a daily dose of what’s going on in the world of technology. We need to prepare for ‘addictive intelligence’ —By Robert Mahari, a joint JD-PhD candidate at the MIT Media Lab and Harvard Law School whose work focuses on computational law, and Pat Pataranutaporn, a researcher at the MIT Media Lab who studies human-AI interaction. Worries about AI often imagine doomsday scenarios where systems escape control or even understanding. But there are nearer-term harms we should take seriously: that AI could jeopardize public discourse; cement biases in loan decisions, judging…

While these prognostications may prove true, today’s businesses are finding major hurdles when they seek to graduate from pilots and experiments to enterprise-wide AI deployment. Just 5.4% of US businesses, for example, were using AI to produce a product or service in 2024. Moving from initial forays into AI use, such as code generation and customer service, to firm-wide integration depends on strategic and organizational transitions in infrastructure, data governance, and supplier ecosystems. As well, organizations must weigh uncertainties about developments in AI performance and how to measure return on investment. If organizations seek to scale AI across the business…

It’s a strategy that’s worked: These bikes have been more readily accepted by local governments. In 2022, Youon sold 2,000 of its hydrogen bikes to Lingang, a new high-tech district in Shanghai; in 2023, the company sold 500 hydrogen bikes to the Daxing district of Beijing. Today, its hydrogen bikes can be found in over six Chinese cities.  Youon has since doubled down on its investment in hydrogen. The company has launched a product that lets users generate hydrogen at home with solar power and water. It also worked with the local government of Jiangsu, where its headquarters are, to…

In lawsuit, Justice Department says TikTok collected data on children – CBS News Watch CBS News The Justice Department on Friday filed a federal lawsuit against TikTok and its parent company ByteDance, saying that the social media giant collected data on users under the age of 13 without getting the permission of their parents. Scott MacFarlane has details. Be the first to know Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. Not Now Turn On #lawsuit #Justice #Department #TikTok #collected #data #children

Washington — The Justice Department filed a federal lawsuit against TikTok and its parent company ByteDance on Friday, alleging that the social media platform violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act. In the suit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, the Justice Department alleged TikTok knowingly permitted children to create accounts and interact with adults on the platform since 2019. The company collected and retained personal information from the children without notifying or obtaining consent from their parents, the suit said.”For years, defendants have knowingly allowed children under 13 to create and use TikTok accounts without…

—Jessica Hamzelou This week, I’ve been working on a piece about an AI-based tool that could help guide end-of-life care. We’re talking about the kinds of life-and-death decisions that come up for very unwell people. Often, the patient isn’t able to make these decisions—instead, the task falls to a surrogate. It can be an extremely difficult and distressing experience.   A group of ethicists have an idea for an AI tool that they believe could help make things easier. The tool would be trained on information about the person, drawn from things like emails, social media activity, and browsing history. And…

Elon Musk moving SpaceX from California to Texas Elon Musk moving SpaceX from California to Texas 01:15 Don Lemon, a former CNN anchor, is suing Elon Musk and his social media network X, alleging fraud and breach of contract after the billionaire abruptly scrapped a content partnership between them in March.  The lawsuit, posted by Variety, which earlier reported on the legal claim, claims that Musk and X promised that Lemon would have “full authority and control over the work he produced even if disliked” by the Tesla CEO and his executives. Lemon also alleges he never received any pay…

Moore has worked as a clinical ethicist in hospitals in both Australia and the US, and she says she has noticed a difference between the two countries. “In Australia there’s more of a focus on what would benefit the surrogates and the family,” she says. And that’s a distinction between two English-speaking countries that are somewhat culturally similar. We might see greater differences in other places. Moore says her position is controversial. When I asked Georg Starke at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology Lausanne for his opinion, he told me that, generally speaking, “the only thing that should matter…