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Since it was founded nearly two decades ago, 23andMe has grown into one of the largest biotechnology companies in the world. Millions of people have used its simple genetic testing service, which involves ordering a saliva test, spitting into a tube, and sending it back to the company for a detailed DNA analysis. But now the company is on the brink of bankruptcy. This has raised concerns about what will happen to the troves of genetic data it has in its possession. The company’s chief executive, Anne Wojcicki, has said she is committed to customer privacy and will “maintain our current privacy policy”. But what can customers of 23a...... Read Full article on HadNews

Photos of Australian children have been used without consent to train artificial intelligence (AI) models that generate images. A new report from the non-governmental organisation Human Rights Watch has found the personal information, including photos, of Australian children in a large data set called LAION-5B. This data set was created by accessing content from the publicly available internet. It contains links to some 5.85 billion images paired with captions. Companies use data sets like LAION-5B to “teach” their generative AI tools what visual content looks like. A generative AI tool like Midjourney or Stable Diffusion will then assembl...... Read Full article on HadNews

A hoard of internal Google documents revealing the inner workings of the search giant’s all-powerful algorithm has been leaked online. The cache of over 2,500 pages, which Google has not disputed the authenticity of, sheds new light on how the world’s most used search engine ranks and presents information. Google is notoriously secretive about its algorithm which hundreds of millions have become so accustomed to as the gateway to the World Wide Web. The documents, which appear to be current as of March 2024, outline the factors Google uses to determine search rankings. These documents were sent to SEO guru Rand Fishkin, SparkToro co-fo...... Read Full article on HadNews

Imagine this: a novel virus is rapidly breaking out nationwide, resulting in an epidemic. The government introduces vaccination mandates and a choice of different vaccines is available. But not everyone is getting the same vaccine. When you sign up for vaccination, you are sent a vial with instructions to send a sample of your saliva to the nearest laboratory. Just a few hours later you receive a message telling you which vaccine you should get. Your neighbour also signed up for vaccination. But their vaccine is different from yours. Both of you are now vaccinated and protected, although each of you received your vaccines depending on “wh...... Read Full article on HadNews

Artificial intelligence has come a long way since its inception, evolving through five distinct generations that have shaped the landscape of AI as we know it today. The first generation, known as handmade AI, saw intelligent systems crafted by humans who relied on expert knowledge to solve problems. These systems had limited capacity for abstract thinking but were effective for specific tasks. Moving on to the second generation, statistical learning enabled computers to excel at games like chess and Go, using deep learning techniques to achieve incredible feats. The third generation focused on explainability and generative models, mak...... Read Full article on HadNews

It’s been a warm day, maybe even a little humid, and the tall clouds in the distance remind you of cauliflower. You hear a sharp crack, like the sound of a batter hitting a home run, or a low rumble reminiscent of a truck driving down the highway. A distant thunderstorm, alive with lightning, is making itself known. Lightning flashes in thunderstorms at least 60 times per second somewhere around the planet, sometimes even near the North Pole. Each giant spark of electricity travels through the atmosphere at 200,000 miles per hour. It is hotter than the surface of the sun and delivers thousands of times more electricity than the power...... Read Full article on HadNews

Leanne Manas is a familiar face on South African televisions. Towards the end of 2023 the morning news presenter’s face showed up somewhere else: in bogus news stories and fake advertisements in which “she” appeared to promote various products or get-rich-quick schemes. It quickly emerged that Manas had fallen victim to “deepfaking”. Deepfakes involve the use of artificial intelligence tools to manipulate images, video and audio. And it doesn’t require cutting-edge technical know-how. Software like FaceSwap and ZaoApp, which can be downloaded for free, mean that anybody can create deepfakes. Deepfakes were initially used in the en...... Read Full article on HadNews

American humorist and writer Mark Twain is believed to have once said, “History doesn’t repeat itself, but it often rhymes.” I’ve been working as a historian and complexity scientist for the better part of a decade, and I often think about this phrase as I follow different strands of the historical record and notice the same patterns over and over. My background is in ancient history. As a young researcher, I tried to understand why the Roman Empire became so big and what ultimately led to its downfall. Then, during my doctoral studies, I met the evolutionary biologist turned historian Peter Turchin, and that meeting had a profound im...... Read Full article on HadNews

The emergence of artificial intelligence (A.I.) technology is revolutionizing the way we work and interact with the digital world. The latest breakthrough in A.I. called ChatGPT, released by OpenAI, has the potential to transform the productivity of individuals and industries. This large language model, known as GPT 3.5, is trained on vast amounts of internet data and uses human feedback in the training process to improve its responses. The capabilities of ChatGPT are far-reaching and diverse. It can provide investment research, generate code, create personalized weight loss plans, and even offer mental health support and legal advice....... Read Full article on HadNews

Large language models (LLMs) are deep learning artificial intelligence programs, like OpenAI’s ChatGPT. The capabilities of LLMs have developed into quite a wide range, from writing fluent essays, through coding to creative writing. Millions of people worldwide use LLMs, and it would not be an exaggeration to say these technologies are transforming work, education and society. LLMs are trained by reading massive amounts of texts and learning to recognize and mimic patterns in the data. This allows them to generate coherent and human-like text on virtually any topic. Because the internet is still predominantly English — 59 per cent of...... Read Full article on HadNews

Microsoft announced several new collaborations on Monday (Feb. 5) aimed at helping news organizations adopt artificial intelligence (AI) tools and techniques. The initiatives are part of Microsoft’s broader efforts to ensure journalism can innovate to serve the public interest during a critical election year. Through these new programs, Microsoft will provide AI training, resources, and technology access to partnering news outlets and journalism schools. The goal is to demonstrate how AI can make news gathering more efficient and sustainable while upholding ethical standards. “Our goal is to support thriving, sustainable newsrooms with...... Read Full article on HadNews