Author: zppiot
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. Is this the end of animal testing? Animal studies are notoriously bad at identifying human treatments. Around 95% of the drugs developed through animal research fail in people, but until recently there was no other option.Now organs on chips, also known as microphysiological systems, may offer a truly viable alternative. They’re triumphs of bioengineering, intricate constructions furrowed with tiny channels that are lined with living human tissues that expand and contract with the flow of fluid and air,…
Shuler had hoped to develop a computer model of a multi-organ system, but there were too many unknowns. The living cell culture system he dreamed up was his bid to fill in the blanks. For a while he played with the concept, but the materials simply weren’t good enough to build what he imagined. “You can force mice to menstruate, but it’s not really menstruation. You need the human being.” Linda Griffith, founding professor of biological engineering at MIT and a 2006 recipient of a MacArthur “genius grant” He wasn’t the only one working on the problem. Linda Griffith, a…
Other studies have found that social media has no effect on mental health. In a study published last year, Plackett and her colleagues surveyed 3,228 children in the UK to see how their social media use and mental well-being changed over time. The children were first surveyed when they were aged between 12 and 13, and again when they were 14 to 15 years old. Plackett expected to find that social media use would harm the young participants. But when she conducted the second round of questionnaires, she found that was not the case. “Time spent on social media was…
New York governor signs law restricting social media from targeting kids with “addictive feeds” – CBS News Watch CBS News New York Gov. Kathy Hochul signed a new law Thursday that restricts social media companies from using “addictive” algorithms in feeds targeting children. She spoke with Jo Ling Kent about what she hopes the new law accomplishes. Be the first to know Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting. Not Now Turn On #York #governor #signs #law #restricting #social #media #targeting #kids #addictive #feeds
What’s next for TikTok users? Legal analyst explains ban bill What’s next for TikTok users? Legal analyst explains ban bill 03:37 A new law signed by President Joe Biden that could lead to a ban of TikTok next year is unconstitutional and should be overturned, the social media platform alleged Thursday in new legal filings. TikTok, which is owned by the Chinese company ByteDance, argued that the potential ban amounts to a “radical departure” from the U.S. supporting an open internet, setting a “dangerous precedent.” The rebuttal comes after Biden signed the law in April, which requires ByteDance to either divest…
The report’s authors detail a number of ways that use of drones in any South China Sea conflict would differ starkly from current practices, most notably in the war in Ukraine, often called the first full-scale drone war. Differences from the Ukrainian battlefield Since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022, drones have been aiding in what military experts describe as the first three steps of the “kill chain”—finding, targeting, and tracking a target—as well as in delivering explosives. The drones have a short life span, since they are often shot down or made useless by frequency jamming devices that prevent pilots…
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said Thursday that social media algorithms have negatively affected children and teens, saying “our kids are in distress” as she is set to sign into law a bill aimed at protecting kids online. “They’re not living carefree lives because they are being held captive to powerful forces outside their own control — algorithms that are intentionally addictive, intended to pull them in and keep their attention,” Hochul told CBS News in an exclusive interview. The “Safe for Kids Act,” which Hochul is set to sign Thursday, requires social media companies to restrict “addictive feeds” for social…
To make them feel alive, open-world games like Red Dead Redemption 2 are inhabited by vast crowds of computer-controlled characters. These animated people—called NPCs, for “nonplayer characters”—make these virtual worlds feel lived in and full. Often—but not always—you can talk to them. After a while, however, the repetitive chitchat (or threats) of a passing stranger forces you to bump up against the truth: This is just a game. It’s still fun, but the illusion starts to weaken when you poke at it. It’s only natural. Video games are carefully crafted objects, part of a multibillion-dollar industry, that are designed to…
Inworld wants to make this type of interaction more polished. It’s offering a product for AAA game studios in which developers can create the brains of an AI NPC that can be then imported into their game. Developers use the company’s “Inworld Studio” to generate their NPC. For example, they can fill out a core description that sketches the character’s personality, including likes and dislikes, motivations, or useful backstory. Sliders let you set levels of traits such as introversion or extroversion, insecurity or confidence. And you can also use free text to make the character drunk, aggressive, prone to exaggeration—pretty…
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. I tested out a buzzy new text-to-video AI model from China You may not be familiar with Kuaishou, but this Chinese company just hit a major milestone: It’s released the first ever text-to-video generative AI model that’s freely available for the public to test. The short-video platform, which has over 600 million active users, announced the new tool, called Kling, on June 6. Like OpenAI’s Sora model, Kling is able to generate videos up to two minutes long…
Pneumatic tubes were touted as something that would revolutionize the world. In science fiction, they were envisioned as a fundamental part of the future—even in dystopias like George Orwell’s 1984, where the main character, Winston Smith, sits in a room peppered with pneumatic tubes that spit out orders for him to alter previously published news stories and historical records to fit the ruling party’s changing narrative. Abandoned by most industries at midcentury, pneumatic tube systems have become ubiquitous in hospitals.ALAMY In real life, the tubes were expected to transform several industries in the late 19th century through the mid-20th.…
The short-video platform, which has over 600 million active users, announced the new tool on June 6. It’s called Kling. Like OpenAI’s Sora model, Kling is able to generate videos “up to two minutes long with a frame rate of 30fps and video resolution up to 1080p,” the company says on its website. But unlike Sora, which still remains inaccessible to the public four months after OpenAI trialed it, Kling soon started letting people try the model themselves. I was one of them. I got access to it after downloading Kuaishou’s video-editing tool, signing up with a Chinese number, getting…
LAUSD considering ban on cellphone usage on school campuses LAUSD considering ban on cellphone usage on school campuses 02:14 The Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education voted Tuesday to ban student cellphone usage on campuses during school hours, joining a growing number of school boards to take such action and becoming the largest district in the U.S. to do so.The ban’s purpose is to prevent the potentially negative impact that phones have on the mental health and well-being of students.The vote, however, doesn’t automatically mean the ban will be implemented as staff is still consulting with stakeholders and…
Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang on the AI future | 60 Minutes Jensen Huang: from Denny’s dishwasher to CEO of Nvidia | 60 Minutes 13:23 Nvidia on Tuesday vaulted past Microsoft to become the most valuable publicly listed company in the world, highlighting its place at the forefront of Big Tech.Nvidia’s stock price rose nearly $5, or 3.7%, to $135.77, valuing the AI chip maker at $3.33 trillion, compared with $3.31 trillion for Microsoft and $3.29 trillion for Apple, which boasted the largest market capitalization until being surpassed by Microsoft earlier this year. A year ago, Nvidia’s market capitalization had just crossed…
However, there are some big caveats. Meta says it has no plans yet to apply the watermarks to AI-generated audio created using its tools. Audio watermarks are not yet adopted widely, and there is no single agreed industry standard for them. And watermarks for AI-generated content tend to be easy to tamper with—for example, by removing or forging them. Fast detection, and the ability to pinpoint which elements of an audio file are AI-generated, will be critical to making the system useful, says Elsahar. He says the team achieved between 90% and 100% accuracy in detecting the watermarks, much better…
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. Why does AI hallucinate? The World Health Organization’s new chatbot launched on April 2 with the best of intentions. The virtual avatar named SARAH, was designed to dispense health tips about how to eat well, quit smoking, de-stress, and more, for millions around the world. But like all chatbots, SARAH can flub its answers. It was quickly found to give out incorrect information. In one case, it came up with a list of fake names and addresses for…