Technology News Era

A man wading in a pool of his own consciousness, surrealistically draped in the hallucinations of an artificial intelligence, shouts at me about poetry. He contorts himself with passion as his rhetoric reaches its fever pitch — you might say he ‘peaks’ — and suddenly bursts into self-awareness like a phoenix, renewed. Finally, he shakes an iPhone at me, declaring it a monument to human ambition and actuation. After watching, I feel like I’m both a tiny worm on a big hook and the master of my own universe. These are some wonderfully weird videos. Describing Jason Silva’s latest project,… This story continues at The Next Web from The Next Web https://ift.tt/46qYR5I

A year after completing the first powered and controlled flight on another world, NASA’s Ingenuity helicopter is still setting records on Mars. The chopper recently hit a pair of new milestones: its farthest and fastest ever flights on the red planet. The rotorcraft traveled 704 meters at a speed of 19 kmph on its landmark 25th flight. That might not win a Grand Prix on Earth, but it’s pretty impressive on Mars. The red planet’s atmosphere is less than 1% as dense as ours, and its temperature can plunge to minus 130 degrees. NASA this week shared a black-and-white film… This story continues at The Next Web Or just read more coverage about: NASA from The Next Web https://ift.tt/R1cieXz

In the tropics, the deep sea is cold and the sea surface is very warm. That temperature difference can be harnessed and turned into electricity. If we can improve the technology, this method of producing power could be a godsend for island nations reliant on expensive and polluting diesel for their power. For more than a century, researchers have explored the idea of ocean thermal energy conversion. There’s nothing fundamentally new to the idea of extracting power from temperature differences. In fact, the underlying technology is similar to the way coal, gas and geothermal power plants create electricity, by using… This story continues at The Next Web from The Next Web https://ift.tt/Mv59JHh

Video games are increasingly incorporating blockchains, the decentralised databases that underpin cryptocurrencies, as well as NFTs and other “digital assets”. New games are emerging expressly to support blockchain technology, while traditional games are being updated to incorporate blockchains. As of October 2021, “crypto gaming” accounted for more than half of the blockchain activity over that quarter. At the same time, a treasury inquiry has led to consumer groups calling for regulation in the crypto market. Crypto evangelists say blockchains are the future of gaming, and crypto gaming is ushering in “Web3” – the so-called next iteration of the internet built… This story continues at The Next Web from The Next Web https://ift.tt/17TBcAP

Humanity is edging ever-closer to extinction, but don’t worry — the tech lords have deigned to save us. Elon Musk, for instance, wants to take us to a Martian colony. Sure, many will perish on the journey, but the survivors can enjoy a nightmarish existence, which they’ll fund through indentured labor on the hellscape. Yes. There will be a lot of jobs on Mars! — Elon Musk (@elonmusk) January 17, 2020 Peter Thiel, meanwhile, will extend children’s lives by giving them blood transfusions. Wait, that’s not quite right — he actually plans to inject himself with children’s blood. The kids… This story continues at The Next Web from The Next Web https://ift.tt/uFWD827

Turned into a pop-culture icon by the Back to the Future film franchise, the DeLorean is coming back to life after 39 long years! And the best part? It’s being reimagined as a whole new EV by the incarnated DMC, which was acquired by Stephen Wynne in 1995, after the original company declared bankruptcy. After months of anticipation since it was first teased, we finally get the first proper look of this unique vehicle. Meet the now-called Alpha5+: Credit: DMC Paying tribute to the 1981 DeLorean car, the Alpha5+ retains the sports coupé character, the turbine-style wheels, and the iconic… This story continues at The Next Web from The Next Web https://ift.tt/yT37HOU

Omnichannel’s steady march to ubiquity has continued over the past decade. It seems like literally every brand is now omnichannel. Or are they? According to a report by McKinsey&Company: We find that retailers are often swayed by new technologies that sound promising, but too often don’t deliver. In all the buzz, brands are struggling to be present everywhere, all the time. New platforms and tools are cropping up presenting new opportunities in both the digital and physical marketing space. So where can your brand add the most value in 2022? We listed a few of the most promising trends, and… This story continues at The Next Web from The Next Web https://ift.tt/Uk3Oz6R

When a company tells me it’s found a way to not only create a new form of public transport, but also make it financially viable without city funding, I’m skeptical. Silicon Valley company Glydways wants to turn conventional mass public transport on its head, by introducing small, electric automated vehicles or “pod cars” that can carry four people and operate on a network of specially built guideways. They run on-demand (instead of on a timetable) and travel point-to-point with no stops in between. In the future, they might even pick you up at your house. Sounds ambitious and a bit… This story continues at The Next Web from The Next Web https://ift.tt/IgMS5zQ

AI now guides numerous life-changing decisions, from assessing loan applications to determining prison sentences. Proponents of the approach argue that it can eliminate human prejudices, but critics warn that algorithms can amplify our biases — without even revealing how they reached the decision. This can result in AI systems leading to Black people being wrongfully arrested, or child services unfairly targeting poor families. The victims are frequently from groups that are already marginalized. Alejandro Saucedo, Chief Scientist at The Institute for Ethical AI and Engineering Director at ML startup Seldon, warns organizations to think carefully before deploying algorithms. He told… This story continues at The Next Web from The Next Web https://ift.tt/5dt23yv

It was the veritable search for a needle in a haystack. With drug-resistant bacteria on the rise, researchers at MIT were sifting through a database of more than 100 million molecules to identify a few that might have antibacterial properties. Fortunately, the search proved successful. But it wasn’t a human who found the promising molecules. It was a machine learning program. One compound has been patented under the name Halicin in homage to HAL, the artificial intelligence (AI) in Arthur C Clarke’s classic 2001: A Space Odyssey. Halicin works differently from existing antibiotics, disrupting the bacteria’s ability to access energy,… This story continues at The Next Web from The Next Web https://ift.tt/nmV0OXC

The USB-C standard has been long touted as a “one port to rule ‘em all” solution. Sure, it’s universal in the sense of the shape of the port. But the capabilities of a USB-C port and cable can vary widely. Last month, I wrote about why it’s so hard to differentiate one USB-C cable from another. Experts I talked to also noted that there are very few visual markers that tell you what a USB-C cable can do — charging, data transfer, audio, video, or all of them? We can certainly do better. And software can play a part too.… This story continues at The Next Web from The Next Web https://ift.tt/gQcHJwx

The first serious accident involving a self-driving car in Australia occurred in March this year. A pedestrian suffered life-threatening injuries when hit by a Tesla Model 3, which the driver claims was in “autopilot” mode. In the US, the highway safety regulator is investigating a series of accidents where Teslas on autopilot crashed into first-responder vehicles with flashing lights during traffic stops. A Tesla model 3 collides with a stationary emergency responder vehicle in the US. NBC / YouTube The decision-making processes of “self-driving” cars are often opaque and unpredictable (even to their manufacturers), so it can be hard to… This story continues at The Next Web from The Next Web https://ift.tt/eWC7sZ3

This article was originally published on .cult by Neil Green. .cult is a Berlin-based community platform for developers. We write about all things career-related, make original documentaries, and share heaps of other untold developer stories from around the world. It’s a waste of time to try to learn every new technology. Instead, focus on learning how to learn. The tech industry thrives on the insecurity of software developers. The less a software developer thinks they know, the easier it is to sell them new tech. Top companies like Facebook and Google thrive on this insecurity economy, as it maintains their… This story continues at The Next Web from The Next Web https://ift.tt/qU386uy

Let’s suppose you were an astronaut who just landed on the planet Mars. What would you need to survive? For starters, here’s a short list: Water, food, shelter – and oxygen. Oxygen is in the air we breathe here on Earth. Plants and some kinds of bacteria provide it for us. But oxygen is not the only gas in the Earth’s atmosphere. It’s not even the most abundant. In fact, only 21% of our air is made up of oxygen. Almost all the rest is nitrogen – about 78%. Now you might be wondering: If there’s more nitrogen in the… This story continues at The Next Web from The Next Web https://ift.tt/CwKL5l6

Voyager 1 is the farthest human-made object from Earth. After sweeping by Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, it is now almost 15 billion miles (24 billion kilometers) from Earth in interstellar space. Both Voyager 1 and its twin, Voyager 2, carry little pieces of humanity in the form of their Golden Records. These messages in a bottle include spoken greetings in 55 languages, sounds and images from nature, an album of recordings and images from numerous cultures, and a written message of welcome from Jimmy Carter, who was U.S. president when the spacecraft left Earth in 1977. The Golden Records were… This story continues at The Next Web from The Next Web https://ift.tt/zoYqdAX

On Sunday, popular American singer songwriter Halsey shared a video on TikTok with tinny music in the background, the on-screen text reading: Basically I have a song that I love that I wanna release ASAP but my record label won’t let me. I’ve been in this industry for 8 years and I’ve sold over 165 million records. And my record company is saying that I can’t release it unless they can fake a viral moment on TikTok. Everything is marketing. And they are doing this to basically every artist these days. I just wanna release music, man. And I deserve… This story continues at The Next Web from The Next Web https://ift.tt/fHv670Y

I tend to gravitate toward ebikes that are light and nimble. I like ebikes that feel more like regular bikes, especially those that use torque sensors for the smoothest pedaling experience. The Velotric Discover 1 isn’t quite that. But for an MSRP of $1,899 (currently on sale for $1,399), it’s a pretty sweet ride in an accessible form factor and a strong first entry for a new company entering a crowded ebike market. The Discover 1 doesn’t stand out in any single metric, but it comes together in a package that feels smartly put together. Let’s get the specs out… This story continues at The Next Web from The Next Web https://ift.tt/KkMZWzH

Jason Silva, futurist and host of National Geographic’s “Brain Games,” recently published a mind-bending YouTube video combining the technological prowess of AI with the artistic creativity of someone who believes in the power of psychoactive experiences. It’s called “Dreaming while awake: a journey into ourselves.” The description on Silva’s YouTube channel describes the video as: The first art piece of the singularity: born from a human-AI collaboration by Jason Silva, Hueman Instrument and digital intelligence. Personally, I’d describe it as a surrealistic experience that seems equal parts Ted Talk and Burning Man. And, I’d add, it makes me want to eat… This story continues at The Next Web from The Next Web https://ift.tt/pnRBxQI

This article is part of our coverage of the latest in AI research. If an adversary gives you a machine learning model and secretly plants a malicious backdoor in it, what are the chances that you can discover it? Very little, according to a new paper by researchers at UC Berkeley, MIT, and the Institute of Advanced Study. The security of machine learning is becoming increasingly critical as ML models find their way into a growing number of applications. The new study focuses on the security threats of delegating the training and development of machine learning models to third parties and service providers. With… This story continues at The Next Web from The Next Web https://ift.tt/3QWXt7p

If you want to find your dream job, you need to stand out from the crowd. It’s not enough to meet the job requirements, have a decent CV, and a few good references. In today’s competitive job market, job seekers need to go above and beyond to cut through the noise and kick off their career. One of the best ways to do this is to create an online portfolio. A good online portfolio will give you a clean and organized place to showcase your past work, talk about your experience, and share your favorite projects. Your portfolio should represent… This story continues at The Next Web from The Next Web https://ift.tt/cyMTS6p

Over the last few years, we’ve seen more and more new kinds of aviation vehicles come on the market, from flyboards to flying motorbikes to eVTOLs. So when we saw a video of a hoverboard being flown in Paris this week, we just knew we had to share it with you.  What’s a better fuck you to city traffic than whizzing through the air above it? A video on YouTube by Omni Hoverboard shows a man flying the hovercraft, using a handheld device to steer, over a large ornamental pond outside a city landmark (I suspect it’s an art gallery). … This story continues at The Next Web from The Next Web https://ift.tt/uvwTfjg

Sorry if this triggers your anxiety: remember how we once had to charge our phones overnight so they were ready for action the next day? It took hours to charge devices from 0 to 100%, and we would frantically look for chargers if the battery level went below a certain threshold. That has changed in the last couple of years, during which we’ve seen the evolution of charging tech that fully juices up phones in under half an hour. Phew. Good old days There’s also a fast-charging arms race going on with companies trying to push hundreds of watts into… This story continues at The Next Web from The Next Web https://ift.tt/Z5RmJ6z

Parks, small woodlands and even simple patches of grass not only keep a city attractive, but also help people find a sense of bliss in an otherwise bustling urban environment. With new technologies, we can plan and monitor these urban “green spaces” better than ever before. As several studies have highlighted, nature within urban settings plays a pivotal role in combating many of the global public health challenges commonly associated with urbanization. This includes maladies such as depression and high blood pressure. A 2022 study showed that trees actually have the ability to improve urban air quality as leaves and pine needles capture pollutants from the… This story continues at The Next Web from The Next Web https://ift.tt/s64gG0e

Omar Sultan Al Olama, the United Arab Emirates minister of artificial intelligence, yesterday told an audience at the World Economic forum in Davos that it’s his belief that people who commit “serious crimes” in the metaverse should be punished with real-world criminal consequences. Per an article by CNBC’s Sam Shead, the minister views this as a necessary measure to protect people’s mental health: If I send you a text on WhatsApp, it’s text right? It might terrorize you but to a certain degree it will not create the memories that you will have PTSD (post-traumatic stress disorder) from it. But… This story continues at The Next Web from The Next Web https://ift.tt/lenNZz7

DuckDuckGo’s reputation for protecting privacy has taken a hit after revelations emerged of a tracking deal with Microsoft. Security researcher Zack Edwards this week revealed that DuckDuckGo’s mobile browsers allow some Microsoft sites to bypass its block on trackers. While the browser blocks Facebook and Google trackers, DuckDuckGo makes an exception for Microsoft. Edwards found that the browsers allow allows data to be sent to Microsoft’s LinkedIn and Bing domains “You can capture data within the DuckDuckGo so-called private browser on a website like Facebook’s workplace.com and you’ll see that DDG does NOT stop data flows to Microsoft’s Linkedin domains… This story continues at The Next Web Or just read more coverage about: Microsoft from The Next Web https://ift.tt/8TjZEmq

Headphones don’t like my hair. That’s an unfortunate truth for someone who has spent half of his life being a little obsessed with headphones. Getting good sound quality out of most headphones requires a good seal, but years of testing headphones have shown most simply don’t try to account for more voluminous hairstyles like the fro I’ve been growing over the pandemic. People who wear glasses often face similar issues, as the glasses can interfere with the seal to a similar extent. It’s a bigger problem than you might think – and we can measure it. Good sound usually requires… This story continues at The Next Web from The Next Web https://ift.tt/4bBxk0v

Working as a tech journo, I meet many people with big, world-changing ideas. But despite the hyperbole, when I ask about how they are going to achieve their aims – or indeed if they are already up and running, who they have helped – the Zoom call often gets really quiet.  So when I meet someone who is making the lives of some of the most disadvantaged people in the world a better place, and they’re using tech to do so, I get wildly excited.  This week I had the pleasure of talking to Michael Schlein, President, and CEO at… This story continues at The Next Web Or just read more coverage about: Fintech from The Next Web https://ift.tt/vjF2R6V

Sails have propelled earthlings across the seas for millennia, but NASA believes their future is off-world. The space agency has unveiled plans to develop a new solar sail system for a demonstration mission. Dubbed Diffractive Solar Sailing, the project won Phase III of the NASA Innovative Advanced Concepts (NIAC) program, which supports visionary space technologies. Those picked for Phase III are the closest to becoming real — so a spacecraft powered by solar sails isn’t a quixotic prospect. Indeed, variations of the technique have already reaped results. In 2010, a Japanese probe called Ikaros became the first craft to successfully use the tech… This story continues at The Next Web Or just read more coverage about: NASA from The Next Web https://ift.tt/QraBC8N

Not a week goes by without seeing a video, news item, or tweet about a lithium-ion battery fire. Just over the weekend, there was news in Canada of a Tesla Model Y 2021 driver who had to break a window to escape after his car shut down and caught fire unexpectedly. The car lost power, locked him inside, and started filling up with smoke. The problem is big. Incidents range from exploding roadside mopeds to ebike batteries that catch fire while charging at home, to fires burning on cargo ships holding electric vehicles. And it’s getting worse as more and… This story continues at The Next Web from The Next Web https://ift.tt/NpJ4Kjg

The AI imagery competition is getting personal. Google this week unveiled a new challenger to OpenAI’s vaunted DALLE-2 text-to-image generator — and took shots at its rival’s efforts. Both models convert text prompts into pictures. But Google’s researchers claim their system provides “unprecedented photorealism and deep language understanding.” Human raters preferred Imagen over DALLE-2 for both sample quality and image-text alignment. Credit: Saharia et al.The cringingly-named Imagen system uses a large pre-trained language model as a text encoder. A cascade of diffusion models then turn the user’s words into pictures. In tests, the Google team said Imagen “significantly outperformed” DALL-E 2. Imagen particularly… This story continues at The Next Web Or just read more coverage about: Google from The Next Web https://ift.tt/US2oHts

Apple’s finally cracking down on apps that don’t easily let you delete your account and data when you want to leave their service. Starting June 30, the company will enforce a policy that apps that provide sign up (or account creation methods) features, will also need to make sure they allow users to delete their account through that interface. Here’s what the company says in its developer guidelines: If your app supports account creation, you must also offer account deletion within the app. Apps may not require users to enter personal information to function, except when directly relevant to the… This story continues at The Next Web Or just read more coverage about: Apple from The Next Web https://ift.tt/eX27LJV

Nobel laureate Otto Hahn is credited with the discovery of nuclear fission. Fission is one of the most important discoveries of the 20th century, yet Hahn considered something else to be his best scientific work. In 1921, he was studying radioactivity at the Kaiser Wilhelm Institute for Chemistry in Berlin, Germany, when he noticed something he could not explain. One of the elements he was working with wasn’t behaving as it should have. Hahn had unknowingly discovered the first nuclear isomer, an atomic nucleus whose protons and neutrons are arranged differently from the common form of the element, causing it… This story continues at The Next Web from The Next Web https://ift.tt/cQhM1WE

A team of researchers from Austria recently developed an AI-powered drone capable of tracking moving objects through dense foliage. So much for escaping to the woods and living off the land if the machines ever rise up against us. Per the team’s research paper: While detecting and tracking moving targets through foliage is difficult (and often even impossible) in regular aerial images or videos, it becomes practically feasible with image integration … This finding together with the implementation of an initial drone-operated camera array for parallel synthetic aperture aerial imaging allows presenting first results on tracking moving people through dense… This story continues at The Next Web from The Next Web https://ift.tt/9EHxPXf

While the real-life Delorean still can’t go back to the future, Google’s Street View vehicles can now transport us to the past. Historial images captured by the cars have been assembled in a tool that shows how places have changed over time. The feature was previously only available on the desktop version of Google Maps, but is now available on smartphones. “Street View is all about capturing the world as it changes, and it’s also a powerful way to reminisce about the past,” said Ethan Russell, senior director of product management for Google Maps, in a blogpost. “Starting today on… This story continues at The Next Web Or just read more coverage about: Google from The Next Web https://ift.tt/4BuFIH0

The World Health Organization (WHO) estimates that, worldwide, nearly one in three (27%) women aged 15-49 years have been subjected to some form of physical and/or emotional violence by their partners. Domestic violence hasn’t decreased in the digital era, as abusers often use technology to stalk, exploit, and control their victims. According to research, such technology-based abuse features everyday tools, from smart devices to online platforms and mobile apps. For example, abusers who have physical access to their partners’ devices (phone, laptops, and so on) can use the hardware to monitor, harass, and humiliate them. They can also use geolocation… This story continues at The Next Web from The Next Web https://ift.tt/D5ujnp8

Renault’s newest concept car isn’t just a looker — there’s a lot more to this prototype than just design. And yes, milk bottles are involved. Credit: Renault An unusual hybrid Called the Scenic Vision, the vehicle is a hybrid, but not in the usual sense. Its 215hp electric motor and 40kW battery are coupled with a 16kW hydrogen fuel cell. The car maker explains that by combining electric and hydrogen power, it can run a battery that’s twice as light, while offering the same range. And speaking of range, “once the network of hydrogen stations is large enough,” Renault says… This story continues at The Next Web from The Next Web https://ift.tt/wdsozqZ

Several companies, including Apple and Microsoft, are betting that the world of tomorrow will, at least in part, be carried out in the metaverse. To this end, Microsoft recently acquired the video game giant Activision Blizzard for US$68.7 billion. As more of our daily activities take place online, we believe it’s time to consider how this may eventually play out; if tomorrow’s city dwellers prefer the metaverse to brick-and-mortar stores and other urban amenities, what will it mean for cities and what purposes will cities ultimately serve? As professors in the departments of urban environment and digital culture we delve into this question… This story continues at The Next Web from The Next Web https://ift.tt/hXBcPuG

The United States Congress recently held a hearing into US government information pertaining to “unidentified aerial phenomena” (UAPs). The last investigation of this kind happened more than 50 years ago, as part of a US Air Force investigation called Project Blue Book, which examined reported sightings of unidentified flying objects (note the change in name). The current hearings are the result of a stipulation attached to a 2020 COVID-19 relief bill, which required US Intelligence agencies to produce a report on UAPs within 180 days. That report appeared in June last year. But why would governments be interested in UAPs?… This story continues at The Next Web from The Next Web https://ift.tt/9vb348o

In this episode of our video series Unwind With Boris — where TNW co-founder Boris Veldhuijzen van Zanten talks shop with Dutch entrepreneurs and innovators — Crisp co-founder Eric Klaassen discusses the future of online supermarkets. When online supermarket Crisp launched in 2018, it wasn’t as if the Dutch didn’t have any grocery stores to pick from. There are several big supermarket chains in the Netherlands, such as Jumbo and Albert Heijn, while organic, more high-end food had already found an outlet with Marqt. Despite this, Crisp proved to be one of the fastest-growing startups of the past decade. In… This story continues at The Next Web from The Next Web https://ift.tt/PiV3u6J

Once upon a time, 8 megapixels on a smartphone camera was a big deal. 50 megapixels used to be impressive. Then 100 MP phones arrived and that was neat too, I guess. But does anyone really want 200 megapixels? That’s what Motorola seems to be banking on with its upcoming flagship phones.  Lenovo’s general manager posted an image teasing a 200-megapixel smartphone on Weibo (Lenovo owns Motorola). The post didn’t reveal much about the device beyond a July release date, although a separate post did tease a foldable device (presumably the Razr 3) sporting the new Snapdragon 8+ Gen 1… This story continues at The Next Web Or just read more coverage about: Motorola from The Next Web https://ift.tt/fzOTkaW

MIT researchers recently made one of the boldest claims related to artificial intelligence we’ve seen yet: they believe they’ve built an AI that can identify a person’s race using only medical images. And, according to the popular media, they have no idea how it works! Sure. And I’d like to sell you an NFT of the Brooklyn Bridge. Let’s be clear up front, per the team’s paper, the model can predict a person’s self-reported race: In our study, we show that standard AI deep learning models can be trained to predict race from medical images with high performance across multiple… This story continues at The Next Web from The Next Web https://ift.tt/kb01Q5X

Everyone knows about recycling, from when you throw boxes in the paper bin to taking bottles back to the store in exchange for a deposit. But a growing movement now throws recycling on its head: circular design.  Circular design completely reimagines product design from the original blueprints to various product lifecycle stages and what happens to each product after it has fulfilled its original purpose. It’s a big deal in mobility and part of a broader circular economy. But I want to introduce you to some other amazing use cases. They showcase modularity, upcycling, and the sharing economy. Understanding circular design… This story continues at The Next Web from The Next Web https://ift.tt/lI1uEUc

On Friday, Nissan revealed its most affordable EV to date. The so-called Sakura is a cute electric minicar with a base price of just under $14,000 (2,333,100 yen). Destined for the Japanese market, where Kei city-driving cars are popular, the Sakura comes with some pretty top-notch features for its category. Meet the mini EV. Credit: Nissan Powered by a 20kW lithium-ion battery, the EV has a top speed of 130km/h and enough juice for 180km of range — just 60km less than the Nissan Leaf. On the inside, you’ll find that the car has enough space for four people, with… This story continues at The Next Web from The Next Web https://ift.tt/KTGAxMq

Imagine this: you’re having a nice day, the weather is great, you’ve enjoyed a brilliant breakfast… and suddenly your iPhone shows a photo memory with your ex to inadvertently ruin your day. Why, you ask, as you curse the heavens, does this have to happen to you? Well, Apple’s Photos app has a Memories feature that shows you algorithmically curated collections of photos and videos — based on different factors like dates, holidays, or places you visited. These memories can appear through a notification, or you can check some collections in the For You section of the Photos app. And… This story continues at The Next Web Or just read more coverage about: iOS from The Next Web https://ift.tt/J02HswY

What happens when you publish research about car emissions that manages to piss off not just ICE owners but those using electric vehicles? Well, people have a lot of feelings.  In 2020, UK independent emissions testing firm Emissions Analytics published a research paper claiming that tire particulate wear emissions were 1,000 times worse than exhaust emissions. It generated a huge amount of attention, with the story translated into over 40 languages worldwide.  During driving, the rubber from car tires wears down and flakes off into tiny airborne or roadside particles. These tire emissions can cause damage to people’s health as… This story continues at The Next Web from The Next Web https://ift.tt/QBNdqCE

This article is part of our coverage of the latest in AI research. For humans, working with deformable objects is not significantly more difficult than handling rigid objects. We learn naturally to shape them, fold them, and manipulate them in different ways and still recognize them. But for robots and artificial intelligence systems, manipulating deformable objects present a huge challenge. Consider the series of steps that a robot must take to shape a ball of dough into pizza crusts. It must keep track of the dough as it changes shape, and at the same time, it must choose the right… This story continues at The Next Web from The Next Web https://ift.tt/TyH6pB7

The European Central Bank and its counterparts in the UK, US, China, and India are exploring a new form of state-backed money built on similar online ledger technology to cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and ethereum. So-called central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) envision a future where we’ll all have our own digital wallets and transfer money between them at the touch of a button, with no need for high-street banks to be involved because it all happens on a blockchain. But CBDCs also present an opportunity that has gone unnoticed – to vastly reduce the exorbitant levels of public debt weighing… This story continues at The Next Web from The Next Web https://ift.tt/FbB0Thu

This article is part of our coverage of the latest in AI research. In early May, Meta released Open Pretrained Transformer (OPT-175B), a large language model (LLM) that can perform various tasks. Large language models have become one of the hottest areas of research in artificial intelligence in the past few years. OPT-175B is the latest entrant in the LLM arms race triggered by OpenAI’s GPT-3, a deep neural network with 175 billion parameters. GPT-3 showed that LLMs can perform many tasks without undergoing extra training and only seeing a few examples (zero- or few-shot learning). Microsoft later integrated GPT-3 into several of… This story continues at The Next Web from The Next Web https://ift.tt/rS4VUPu

There currently exists no machine capable of superhuman feats of intelligence. I’m sorry to be the one who bursts your bubble but, at least for the time being, that’s the way the universe works. It might seem like AI is smarter than humans in some ways. For example, the powerful neural networks used by big tech can sort through millions of files in a matter of seconds, a feat that would take humans more than a single lifetime. But that’s not a superhuman feat of intellect. It’s trading human attention for machine speed. On a file per file basis, there… This story continues at The Next Web from The Next Web https://ift.tt/bQBIHkx

Transport operators are always looking at ways to increase passenger levels. And making comfortable carriages that offer a great user experience is the way forward. This week German long-distance rail operator Deutsche-Bahn launched images of a new interior redesign, part of their goal to modernize and improve the passenger experience. There’s a lot of wood, warm, natural colors, and modern fabrics to help you pretend you aren’t sitting near other people. It looks pretty cool and I am feeling like a big old train nerd fangirling over some pretty sick features.  Let’s check it out:   The dining carriage Finally,… This story continues at The Next Web from The Next Web https://ift.tt/kvpLWoU