The recent blocking of social media platform X in Brazil has stirred up a heated debate among users and politicians regarding the legitimacy of the ban. This action has left many Brazilians feeling lost and confused as they struggle to navigate other social media platforms in the absence of X. The shutdown of Elon Musk’s
Technology
Generative AI tools are believed to revolutionize business operations, saving companies significant time and money. However, Microsoft vice president Vik Singh highlights a critical flaw in current generative AI models – the inability to admit when they do not know what to do. Singh emphasizes the importance of a model raising its metaphorical hand and
Artificial intelligence researchers have recently come under fire for inadvertently including links to suspected child sexual abuse imagery in their dataset used to train popular AI image-generator tools. The LAION research dataset, a massive index of online images and captions utilized by leading AI image-making tools like Stable Diffusion and Midjourney, was found to contain
Virtual and augmented reality (VR and AR) technologies have become increasingly popular in various industries for training purposes. A recent study conducted by researchers at the University of Toronto has shed light on the effects of using VR and AR on real-world performance. The study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, revealed some surprising findings
In a recent study published in the journal Nature, a team of AI researchers from the Allen Institute for AI, Stanford University, and the University of Chicago discovered that widely used Language Models (LLMs) exhibit covert racism towards individuals who speak African American English (AAE). This revelation sheds light on the inherent biases present in
Ethiopia recently announced that it has more than doubled electricity production from the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the Blue Nile. With two additional turbines starting operations, the controversial mega-dam is now generating 1,550 megawatts of electricity. This development marks a significant milestone for the project, which has long been a source of tensions
Robots are becoming more ingrained in our daily lives, making it essential for them to be capable of effectively manipulating various objects. The development of cost-effective robotic grippers is crucial in enabling robots to perform dexterous object manipulation tasks. Recently, researchers at the Improbable AI Lab and Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) unveiled a new
The world of rechargeable batteries has been dominated by lithium-ion batteries, particularly in the electric vehicle sector where high energy and low-cost solutions are necessary. With the increasing demand for electric vehicles, researchers have been exploring the use of manganese-based materials as a sustainable alternative to nickel and cobalt. The potential of lithium/manganese-based batteries was
The recent cybersecurity incident involving CrowdStrike, a US-based cybersecurity technology company, has prompted the Association for Computing Machinery’s US Technology Policy Committee (USTPC) to release a statement calling for improved international cooperation and coordination. The incident, which occurred on July 18, 2024, resulted in a global outage affecting an estimated 8.5 million computers across various
The prevalence of social media platforms has increased exponentially in recent years, providing users with the ability to share content, opinions, and ideas online. However, the unrestricted nature of social media has also led to the proliferation of hate speech – offensive or threatening language targeting individuals based on characteristics such as ethnicity, religion, and