185654154
submission
fjo3 writes:
China’s top spy chief has warned that artificial intelligence could pose a direct threat to the Chinese Communist Party’s hold on power, in what is the highest-level and most detailed articulation yet of how Beijing sees the technology’s security risks.
The unusually blunt assessment by Chen Yixin, the head of China’s Ministry of State Security, is in contrast to the warnings dominating the AI debate in the United States, which have focused on the possibility that AI could slip out of human control or pose a threat to humanity itself.
In an article published Sunday in the state-run magazine China Cyberspace, Chen called for more party control over AI and stricter government oversight. This, he said, was necessary to protect political stability at home; to defend against increasingly sophisticated cyberattacks and misinformation campaigns from “hostile forces”; and to compete militarily with countries like the United States.
185640134
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fjo3 writes:
As of July 7, all new passenger vehicles sold in the E.U. had to come equipped with "advanced driver distraction warning" systems that watch for signs of "distraction" and, upon detecting them, issue a visual and an audio or tactile warning. Cars will warn drivers whose gaze drifts for more than three to six seconds, depending on their speed.
To comply with this mandate, cars will have to fix cameras on drivers' faces at all times, turning private motor vehicles into efficient surveillance systems. The equipment is supposed to operate as a "closed-loop system," meaning it "shall only continuously record and retain data necessary for the system to function and operate." But it is not clear how that rule will be enforced.
Beyond privacy concerns, some critics worry that the system itself will become a dangerous distraction, issuing warnings every time a driver changes the radio station or glances at a passenger. Others have complained that the requirement will increase auto costs.
185573832
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fjo3 writes:
A skin condition caused by a reaction to heat from electronic devices is on the rise in children, doctors have said.
Erythema ab igne (EAI) – also known as toasted skin syndrome – is a rash caused by long-term exposure to low-level heat.
It is usually found in adults who regularly use hot water bottles or heated pads, but is becoming increasingly common among children who use electronic devices.
Doctors have shed light on the surge of cases in children after a boy was diagnosed with EAI after resting his laptop on his stomach for up to eight hours a day.
185152658
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fjo3 writes:
In the event we turn all arable land on this planet into a barren heath incapable of growing food, humankind may have to resort to reaping what we sowed by eating our own plastic pollution.
A team of researchers at Southern Illinois University Carbondale just demonstrated that this was possible by using specially engineered yeast to create tasty — and yes, edible — cookies which they 3D printed out of plastic waste.
The yeast breaks down the components of plastic compounds and agricultural byproducts like discarded plant stalks into proteins, fats, acids, and flavorings that we can eat. When these are combined together, the mixture is fed into a 3D printer that spits out cookies of any desired shape.
185140426
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fjo3 writes:
Everyone has seen them out at restaurants: the "iPad babies" and zoned-out families. Parents letting their children, some quite young, stare at phones or tablets throughout the meal, sometimes while mom and dad also look at screens.
It's easy to judge those families, though I try to remind myself that we, as casual onlookers, never know the full story. Maybe this almost never happens but tonight the parent has a crucial work deadline. Maybe it's been that rare kind of extraordinarily stressful day. Maybe that boy has developmental issues and this is the only way he can get through a restaurant meal, which the family needs to do because they're traveling. Maybe, whatever the reason, this is an anomaly and not the mealtime norm.
But screen time during meals may be the norm for many families, according to some new research published in JAMA Pediatrics.
Hold up, though—before you call in Jonathan Haidt (or Josh Hawley, or Jean Twenge, or whoever your favorite tech-panic evangelist might be), take a closer look at what sorts of screens that kids are using. The most common form of mealtime media consumption for kids in this study was "watching content on a large-screen device." That is, a TV, or something akin to a TV.
185104732
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fjo3 writes:
A robot named Lightning has run the 100m in 9.32 seconds, beating the human world record, China’s state broadcaster has reported.
The humanoid, developed by the Chinese smartphone manufacturer Honor, reached a peak speed of 14.5 metres per second during a test event for the second World Humanoid Robot Games, which began on Saturday. The performance surpassed the 9.58sec men’s 100m world record set by Usain Bolt 17 years ago at the World Athletics Championships in Berlin.
185090174
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fjo3 writes:
The San Francisco Bay Area, epicenter of the artificial intelligence boom, is home to a massive amount of tech workers employed by some of the world's most valuable companies, from Apple to Nvidia.
But for the first time, New York has eclipsed the Bay Area as the home of the largest "tech talent workforce," a report by real estate and investment firm CBRE shows. The firm has published the annual report for 13 years.
Last year, the New York Metro Area's tech talent workforce reached 394,300, surpassing the Bay Area's 375,730, according to the report. Fueled by mass layoffs, the Bay Area's tech talent workforce dropped by 6% from 2022 to 2025. New York's tech talent workforce, on the other hand, grew by more than 8% during that period
185053520
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fjo3 writes:
Vehicle surveillance giant Flock Safety has told the public for years that its technology “cannot recognize, identify, or track individuals.” It has now built a system that does both, an artificial intelligence tool for police that can identify drivers and track vehicles by their patterns of movement alone, WIRED has learned.
185006058
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fjo3 writes:
I teach mathematics at UC Berkeley. Three days a week, I stand in front of lecture halls with 500 to 1,400 students. By the second week of the semester, I already know who is in trouble. Some students are five to eight years behind in mathematics. Office hours that should be spent discussing integrals instead become lessons on fractions and basic algebra you would expect students to learn in middle school.
That is why this spring and summer, thousands of faculty members across all 10 UC campuses — including more than two-thirds of UC’s mathematics faculty — signed open letters(opens in new tab) urging the system to restore the SAT and ACT in admissions. Five Nobel laureates joined us, along with professors from across the university, including Beatriz Manz, Berkeley’s first Latina full professor.
184957167
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fjo3 writes:
Enterprising scientists have been conducting research in Moab Khotsong for many years, but the mine became particularly valuable to biologists after an earthquake struck nearby in 2014. A group of Japanese geoscientists soon started drilling toward the fault line under the shaft. After half a mile, extremely salty radioactive water started flowing out of the borehole. This water, in turn, attracted researchers who investigate the deep biosphere—the poorly understood microbial ecosystems in the earth’s crust—which has been estimated to contain ten to fifty per cent of the biomass on Earth. Tullis C. Onstott, the late Princeton geobiologist who authored “Deep Life: The Hunt for the Hidden Biology of Earth, Mars, and Beyond,” told colleagues that he’d spent twenty-five years searching for water like what was found in Moab Khotsong. “It’s totally separate from the surface world,” Thomas Kieft, a microbiologist who worked with Onstott, told me. “It’s totally separate from photosynthesis.”
184928680
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fjo3 writes:
Last month, the Federal Communications Commission approved an experimental and controversial new satellite being developed by venture Reflect Orbital to reflect sunlight down onto the Earth to illuminate patches of it at night for paying customers.
The purported goal is to allow solar farms to continue generating electricity even after nightfall and provide illumination during emergencies. Those may sound like noble ideas on the surface, but the concept comes with major downsides as well.
One is that such bright satellites could easily wreck deep space observations. Astronomers were appalled at the news, with the FCC receiving nearly nearly 2,000 public comments criticizing the proposal, as Wired reported at the time.
And it’s not just professional astronomers that could be affected, as experts told The Verge. Amateur astronomers gazing up at the prototype mirror satellite, dubbed Eärendil-1 — continuing Silicon Valley’s obsession with borrowing names from JRR Tolkien’s “Lord of the Rings” — could easily be blinded. Even looking through a 12-inch telescope, a common type used by enthusiasts, could result in permanent eye damage.
184901330
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fjo3 writes:
The Saharan Air Layer, often referred to as Saharan dust, is a 2.5-mile thick “layer cake” that starts about a mile up in the atmosphere, explained Jason Dunion, a University of Miami meteorologist who works closely with NOAA’s Hurricane Research Division.
“They roll off of Africa in the summertime every three to five days, and they’re huge. They’re about the size of the lower 48 states as they cross the Atlantic,” Dunion said.
The Saharan dust season usually peaks between mid-June and mid-August and it’s currently impacting weather around the U.S. in ways you may not have even realized. The layer of warm, dry, dusty air tends to break up the development of thunderstorms and hurricanes.
184894226
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fjo3 writes:
U.S. startups are finally delivering something researchers have been working on for decades: a battery in which rare, hard-to-get elements are replaced with the same stuff found in ordinary table salt.
This tech has the potential to help every country on earth break its dependence on China for batteries, and the critical minerals that go into them.
Like any other battery, sodium-ion cells can store and release energy. They are initially being deployed where they’re needed most, in America’s power grid and fast-expanding crop of data centers. As in our homes, giving the grid or other infrastructure the ability to stockpile energy when it is cheap and plentiful, and discharge it when it is scarce, can increase reliability and lower the cost of electricity.
184891676
submission
fjo3 writes:
If you call 911 in New Orleans, you may hear the sound of an artificial intelligence (AI) agent answering your call instead of a human voice.
The Orleans Parish Communication District (OPCD) is changing the way dispatch calls are handled in New Orleans with the implementation of new technology.
184882880
submission
fjo3 writes:
Artificial Intelligence has been used to design brand new viruses that are fully functional and can replicate in the laboratory, say US researchers.
It is the first time whole genomes have been successfully designed by AI.
The resulting 16 novel viruses were created to infect bacteria and pose no threat to people.
The breakthrough has been labelled a "very significant turning point" in science that could unlock a new era for treating disease. But experts have also warned AI-designed viruses raise "urgent" safety and security concerns.
