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For Star Trek fans and tech nerds, the holodeck concept is a form of geek grail. The idea is an entirely realistic simulated environment where just speaking the request (prompt) seemingly brings to life an immersive environment populated by role-playing AI-powered digital humans. As several Star Trek series envisioned, a multitude of scenes and narratives could be created, from New Orleans jazz clubs to private eye capers. Not only did this imagine an exciting future for technology, but it also delved into philosophical questions such as the humanity of digital beings.

Continue reading “How ChatGPT and generative AI could bring the Star Trek holodeck to life” »

Archaeologists and computer scientists have worked together to create an artificial intelligence (AI) program capable of translating ancient cuneiform texts. The researchers say their goal is for the program to form part of a “human-machine collaboration”, which will assist future scholars in their study of archaic languages.

Cuneiform is thought to be the oldest writing system in the world. Recorded by gouging symbols into clay tablets, it was originally developed by the Mesopotamians in what is now Iraq, where it started out as a way of keeping track of bread and beer rations. The system quickly spread throughout the ancient Middle East, where it remained in use continuously for over 3,000 years.

Thousands of documents, most written in either the Sumerian or Akkadian languages using the cuneiform script, survive to this day; but translating them can be a major headache. For one thing, there simply aren’t that many people with the necessary expertise. For another, the texts are often broken up into fragments.

Modern timber buildings can be cheap, green and fireproof | Science & technology.

If you want to become a leader, start yammering. It doesn’t even necessarily matter what you say. New research shows that groups without a leader can find one if somebody starts talking a lot.

This phenomenon, described by the “babble hypothesis” of leadership, depends neither on group member intelligence nor personality. Leaders emerge based on the quantity of speaking, not quality.

Continue reading “Babble hypothesis shows key factor to becoming a leader” »

Tesla is preparing to open to its previously exclusive Supercharger network via partnerships with Ford, GM, and Rivian. That could help EV adoption.

Launching today, AItopia will explore AI’s impact on design, architecture and humanity both today and in the future. Dezeen features editor Nat Barker introduces the series.

The future has arrived. Having been depicted countless times in sci-fi literature and cinema over the decades, machines that can think for themselves are becoming a reality.

Artificial intelligence (AI) – that is, computers or contraptions performing tasks that would usually require a human brain – is a concept that has captured the shared imagination in some form since ancient times. But it was the British polymath Alan Turing who first seriously addressed the matter in his seminal 1950 paper Computing Machinery and Intelligence. “I propose to consider the question, ‘Can machines think?’” Turing wrote.

Director and oceanographer James Cameron said Friday that the design of the imploded Titan submersible was “critically flawed,” calling the construction of the vessel an “insidious” mistake.

At 12,500 feet, every square inch of an object’s surface experiences the equivalent of 5,500 pounds of force.

One expert said implosion would have happened in a “thousandth of a second” — so fast that passengers didn’t have “time to realize what happened.”

For the first time, U.S. regulators on Wednesday approved the sale of chicken made from animal cells, allowing two California companies to offer “lab-grown” meat to the nation’s restaurant tables and eventually, supermarket shelves.

The Agriculture Department gave the green light to Upside Foods and Good Meat, firms that had been racing to be the first in the U.S. to sell meat that doesn’t come from slaughtered animals — what’s now being referred to as “cell-cultivated” or “cultured” meat as it emerges from the laboratory and arrives on dinner plates.

The move launches a new era of meat production aimed at eliminating harm to animals and drastically reducing the environmental impacts of grazing, growing feed for animals and animal waste.