Large language models have found great success so far by using their transformer architecture to effectively predict the next words (i.e., language tokens) needed to respond to queries. When it comes to complex reasoning tasks that require abstract logic, though, some researchers have found that interpreting everything through this kind of “language space” can start to cause some […]
December 12, 2024 | AI | No comments
Following a pair of lawsuits alleging that chatbots caused a teen boy’s suicide, groomed a 9-year-old girl, and caused a vulnerable teen to self-harm, Character.AI (C.AI) has announced a separate model just for teens, ages 13 and up, that’s supposed to make their experiences with bots safer. In a blog, C.AI said it took a […]
December 12, 2024 | Artificial Intelligence, Character.AI, chatbots, child safety, Policy, suicide | No comments
Thousands of sites running WordPress remain unpatched against a critical security flaw in a widely used plugin that was being actively exploited in attacks that allow for unauthenticated execution of malicious code, security researchers said. The vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2024-11972, is found in Hunk Companion, a plugin that runs on 10,000 sites that use the […]
December 12, 2024 | Biz & IT, CMS, exploits, plugins, Security, vulnerabilities, wordpress | No comments
Telecom companies aren’t required to notify customers about every breach. A Federal Communications Commission order in December 2023 adopted a “harm-based notification trigger” in which “notification of a breach to consumers is not required in cases where a carrier can reasonably determine that no harm to customers is reasonably likely to occur as a result […]
December 12, 2024 | AT&T, Policy, salt typhoon, verizon | No comments
The No. 1 nuisance with smartphones and smartwatches is that we need to charge them every day. As warm-blooded creatures, however, we generate heat all the time, and that heat can be converted into electricity for some of the electronic gadgetry we carry. Flexible thermoelectric devices, or F-TEDs, can convert thermal energy into electric power. […]
December 12, 2024 | cooling, materials science, power, Science, thermoelectric material | No comments
In a second study, Arev Sümer (also of the Max Planck Institute) and her colleagues found something very similar in the genomes of people who lived 49,500 to 41,000 years ago in what’s now the area around Ranis, Germany. The Ranis population, based on how their genomes compare to other ancient and modern people, seem […]
December 12, 2024 | ancient DNA, ancient genomics, ancient people did stuff, anthropology, Archaeology, Neanderthals, out of africa, Science | No comments
On Thursday, OpenAI announced that ChatGPT users can now talk to a simulated version of Santa Claus through the app’s voice mode, using AI to bring a North Pole connection to mobile devices, desktop apps, and web browsers during the holiday season. The company added Santa’s voice and personality as a preset option in ChatGPT’s […]
December 12, 2024 | AI, Biz & IT, machine learning | No comments
Speaking of things staying the same, Blu-rays and DVDs also won’t have their content altered after purchase, as we’ve seen happen to digital versions of media. While certainly in decline, the US Blu-ray and DVD disc market made $1.34 billion in the year ending in March 2023, according to market research group Circana. Data from […]
December 12, 2024 | Blu-ray, dvd, LG, streaming, Tech | No comments
Citing “years of investment in AI, AR, and VR,” Google is stepping into the augmented reality market once more with Android XR. It’s an operating system that Google says will power future headsets and glasses that “transform how you watch, work, and explore.” The first version you’ll see is Project Moohan, a mixed-reality headset built […]
December 12, 2024 | android, android xr, Apple, extended reality, Google, Google Glass, Tech, VR, XR | No comments
GPU power consumption numbers under load. Credit: Andrew Cunningham Power consumption is another place where the Battlemage GPU plays a lot of catch-up with Nvidia. With the caveat that software-measured power usage numbers like ours are less accurate than numbers captured with hardware tools, it looks like the B580’s power consumption, when fully loaded, consumes somewhere […]
December 12, 2024 | Alchemist, battlemage, Gaming, Intel, Intel Arc, intel arc b580, Tech | No comments