Archives: Briefs

Bearded neanderthal man sits by fire in cave at night, caveman and bonfire on dark background. Concept of Homo sapiens, prehistoric era, primitive, ancient, Stone Age

^{Type
brief

Denyse O'Leary
Date
May 6, 2025

Categorized
Paleontology, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Bob Yirka, Kiona N. Smith, Liubov V. Golovanova et al, Neanderthal technology}

Study: Neanderthals invented their own tech, didn’t copy others

_{Denyse O'Leary
May 6, 2025

3

Paleontology, Philosophy of Mind}

The team suggests that their find shows that Neanderthals were able to plan ahead, not only in making the tool, but in the way it was used. Read More ›

Giant african pouched rat in a garden with pansies

^{Type
brief

News
Date
May 6, 2025

Categorized
Animal mind

Tagged
Apopo, HeroRATs, Landmines, Ronin (rat), Rupendra Brahambhatt}

Hero rat finds 109 landmines, breaking record

_{News
May 6, 2025

2

Animal mind}

Human-rat partnership projects take advantage of the human’s ability to gain the trust of the rat along with the rat’s very acute sense of smell. Read More ›

Digital chatbots on smartphones access data and information in online networks. Robot Applications and Global Connectivity AI Artificial Intelligence innovation and technology

^{Type
brief

News
Date
May 6, 2025

Categorized
Large Language Models (LLMs)

Tagged
Gary Marcus, Gary Oswalt, Hallucination in Large Language Models (LLMs)}

Insights into why chatbots hallucinate, spewing false information

_{News
May 6, 2025

3

Large Language Models (LLMs)}

They hallucinate because the statistical approximation they use lacks reliability and nothing gets fact-checked. This is a built-in problem. Read More ›

White chatbot robot leading robots group on dark bluish reddish background 3D rendering

^{Type
brief

News
Date
May 6, 2025

Categorized
Large Language Models (LLMs), Mental health

Tagged
Chatbots and delusions, Miles Klee, Nate Sharadin}

AI “friends” promote disturbing delusions in vulnerable users

_{News
May 6, 2025

3

Large Language Models (LLMs), Mental health}

To no one’s surprise, surely, bad actors are exploiting this trait. It will probably have to end in a serious tragedy before enough people start paying attention. Read More ›

^{Type
brief

News
Date
May 1, 2025

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Medicine and Health

Tagged
AI companions, Maggie Harrison Dupré}

AI researchers: Chatbot companions are a no-no for kids

_{News
May 1, 2025

3

Artificial Intelligence, Medicine and Health}

Their screenshots show how vulnerable teens could get into real trouble with this kind of thing. Read More ›

^{Type
brief

News
Date
April 30, 2025

Categorized
Physics

Tagged
Erwin Schrödinger, Jim Baggott, Quantum Mechanics, Schrödinger’s cat}

A new interpretation for the alive-and-dead quantum cat

_{News
April 30, 2025

3

Physics}

Maybe quantum theory is merely symbolic or incomplete, as Baggott suggests. But maybe reality is simply more complex than classical physics assumes. Read More ›

journalist, reporter, dedicated storytellers of world, news and information, era of rapid media evolution, well-informed, microphone TV television press communication role online.

^{Type
brief

Denyse O'Leary
Date
April 30, 2025

Categorized
Business and Finance, Media

Tagged
Hamish McKenzie, Substack}

Old-fashioned journalists aren’t dead; they’re on Substack

_{Denyse O'Leary
April 30, 2025

2

Business and Finance, Media}

There is no turning back. The historically Democrat-leaning legacy media are losing voters even among young Democrats. Read More ›

Illustration of basic physics and mathematics formulas and galaxy in universe

^{Type
brief

News
Date
April 30, 2025

Categorized
Human exceptionalism, Mathematics

Tagged
Aaryan Shukla, Human calculators, Mandish Pandey, Neelakantha Bhanu Prakash, Rupendra Brahambhatt}

Indian teen can multiply five-digit numbers in his head

_{News
April 30, 2025

3

Human exceptionalism, Mathematics}

It's not a genetic endowment and can't simply be the outcome of practice so how some people can do this remains a mystery. Read More ›

^{Type
brief

Denyse O'Leary
Date
April 23, 2025

Categorized
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Abortion, Hatty Willmoth, Joel Frohlich, Prenatal consciousness, Tim Bayne}

Consciousness in unborn children: Touching the third rail

_{Denyse O'Leary
April 23, 2025

3

Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind}

When it comes to honest enquiry about early human consciousness, the third rail of abortion may derail the research train. Read More ›

An internet email symbol and a group of people are separated by a red prohibitory symbol No. restrictions on access to the global Internet. Censorship. Information control, society isolation policy

^{Type
brief

News
Date
April 23, 2025

Categorized
Censorship, Social Media

Tagged
Gabe Kaminsky, Global Engagement Center, Marco Rubio, Noah Shachtman, Twitter FIles}

U.S. government’s Global Engagement Center is shuttered

_{News
April 23, 2025

2

Censorship, Social Media}

The GEC's mandate was to work overseas but it ended up doing a great deal of censorship in the United States. Read More ›

Roboter auf Tastatur, Methapher für Chatbot / Socialbot, Algorithmen und künstliche Intelligenz

^{Type
brief

News
Date
April 23, 2025

Categorized
Large Language Models (LLMs)

Tagged
Aaron J. Snoswell, Digital fossil, Isaac Schultz, Kevin Witzenberger, Rayane El Masri, vegetative electron microscopy}

A brand new type of glitch: Errors that only AI can introduce…

_{News
April 23, 2025

2

Large Language Models (LLMs)}

And replicate indefinitely. It’s called a “digital fossil” and it is very hard to just remove from the database, due to large-scale use of chatbots (LLMs). Read More ›

^{Type
brief

Denyse O'Leary
Date
April 21, 2025

Categorized
Medicine and Health

Tagged
COVID-19, Gain-of-function viruses, M. Anthony Mills, Trust in science}

A sober assessment of the deadly gain-of-function virus debate

_{Denyse O'Leary
April 21, 2025

3

Medicine and Health}

It’s no use demanding that the public trust scientists if they do nothing to deserve trust. Read More ›

^{Type
brief

News
Date
April 9, 2025

Categorized
Artificial general intelligence (AGI), Business and Finance, Large Language Models (LLMs)

Tagged
Gary Marcus, Jeffrey Funk, LLama 4}

Hype despite ongoing failure to build human-like AI = “scandal”

_{News
April 9, 2025

3

Artificial general intelligence (AGI), Business and Finance, Large Language Models (LLMs)}

Even if the LLMs could think like humans, they might not be thinking like productive humans. No wonder Big Tech is slow to admit the problem. Read More ›

^{Type
brief

News
Date
April 9, 2025}

Can AI really decode dead languages? Or is it too late?

_{News
April 9, 2025

3

Uncategorized}

It might help. And deciphered writing is one of the few things that can build bridges for our thoughts across time. Read More ›

brain wave on electroencephalogram, EEG for epilepsy, illustration

^{Type
brief

Denyse O'Leary
Date
April 9, 2025

Categorized
Free will, Medicine and Health

Tagged
epilepsy, Webb Wright}

Journalist: Seizures gave me a healthy respect for the brain

_{Denyse O'Leary
April 9, 2025

3

Free will, Medicine and Health}

Wright learned to see himself not as the conductor, nor as the orchestra, but the music itself, which gave him the confidence he needed to move on with life. Read More ›

^{Type
brief

Denyse O'Leary
Date
April 4, 2025

Categorized
Paleontology

Tagged
Alexandra Gerea, Ben Marwick, Neanderthals in China, Quina tools}

Chinese Neanderthal technology raises some interesting questions

_{Denyse O'Leary
April 4, 2025

3

Paleontology}

The groups that made the distinctive Quina tools lived 7 to 8 thousand kilometers apart. Did they ever meet? Read More ›

Photo editor user interface on tablet computer : Generative AI

^{Type
brief

News
Date
April 3, 2025

Categorized
Peer Review, Science

Tagged
Phill Jones, Photoshopping science images}

Science publishers start tackling the photoshopping problem

_{News
April 3, 2025

3

Peer Review, Science}

It’s telling that criminal justice methods should be necessary in a scholarly science system but that at least protects the honest majority of researchers. Read More ›

Empty Podium in White House Press Briefing Room

^{Type
brief

Denyse O'Leary
Date
April 3, 2025

Categorized
Media, Politics, Social Media

Tagged
Max Tani, White House briefing room seating}

White House media discusses sit-in against seating changes

_{Denyse O'Leary
April 3, 2025

2

Media, Politics, Social Media}

You know that the media landscape is changing irrevocably when journalists threaten a sit-in against their subjects. Read More ›

^{Type
brief

Denyse O'Leary
Date
April 1, 2025

Categorized
Human exceptionalism, Neuroscience

Tagged
Featured, Human-chimp differences, Rogier Mars, Tom Howarth}

Study: Human brains differ more from chimps’ than once thought

_{Denyse O'Leary
April 1, 2025

3

Human exceptionalism, Neuroscience}

Discarding decades of pop science, science writer Tom Howarth doubts that there is a single defining switch or pivotal evolutionary event that makes us human. Read More ›

Two Scientists in the Brain Research Laboratory work on a Project, Using Personal Computer with MRI Scans Show Brain Anomalies. Neuroscientists at Work.

^{Type
brief

News
Date
April 1, 2025}

Science journals report on limited tests with paid peer review

_{News
April 1, 2025

2

Uncategorized}

It speeded up the process somewhat without affecting the quality. An even more controversial alternative is to try getting a machine to do it. Read More ›