Study: Human brains differ more from chimps’ than once thought
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.
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Science journals report on limited tests with paid peer review
It speeded up the process somewhat without affecting the quality. An even more controversial alternative is to try getting a machine to do it.
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Are chatbots starting to write literature?
Of course, the critical question is, how much does the audience actually want originality and how much does it want the old familiar storyline?
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Hot Valley genetics unicorn, 23andMe, seeks bankruptcy protection
One issue that led to conflict with government was 23andMe’s controversial attempt to use consumer genetic data to predict health risks.
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Tech writer: Chatbots are trained on a trove of pirated books
If they often sound literate, there’s a good reason. The programmers may be pirating name authors’ works. A current court case sheds some light.
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Why don’t we remember being babies? Researchers challenge theory
Their brain imaging research suggests that infants do remember things but the memories are not accessed later in life.
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Legal group probes universities’ role in the censorship industry
Alliance Defending Freedom wants to see public records of the payments to top universities for developing AI tools for online censorship.
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Is Roomba heading into the sunset along with the corn broom?
So what went wrong? Walker, who studies brands and culture, thinks iRobot went into too many product lines that didn’t catch on like Roomba did.
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AI researchers: Chatbots are spouting Russian, Chinese propaganda
The main point is that, for a free society, digital literacy matters more than ever.
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New Angel Studios documentary: Live Not by Lies
The four-part series discusses the way that the totalitarianism that Soviet dissidents warned about is emerging in Western society today.
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Facebook (Meta) tries censoring exposé — its popularity explodes
Not many news stories have a moral but this is an exception: The reading public is not governed by White House-directed Facebook mods.
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Anniversary of Terry Schiavo’s court-ordered starvation death
On the 20th anniversary, Terri’s brother, Bobby Schindler, has done a podcast with Wesley J. Smith on the fallout from the widely publicized case.
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Jay Bhattacharya thinks science can accommodate reasoned dissent
But former NIH head Francis Collins was a highlight of a recent “Stand Up for Science” rally that seems to want the old regime back again.
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NR editors decry the residential schools “mass graves” claims
They are right to call the whole episode disgraceful. But they should not assume that private truth hysteria can strike only in Canada.
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Princeton scholars discuss Covid failures honestly in new book
One author tells an interviewer that there hasn’t been much discussion of the failures because “people on the progressive side supported” the extreme measures.
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Testing an AI “reasoning” model on a divisive public issue
The authors of Soulless Intelligence try ChatGPTo3 mini on the abortion issue and… well, read the rest; it’s not long.
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When end-of-life lucidity struggles with delirium…
Curiously, Erard’s own grandmother’s last contact with him did not seem so much to be delirium as simply a different cultural understanding from his.
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Chatbot offers info on a legal case — too bad it’s mostly fiction
After the test, West cautioned that those who don’t know that AI-based services can be even more biased and inaccurate than other sources are asking for trouble
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The U.S. government has been funding European journalism too
If the U.S. funds Moldova’s media instead of Russia, the basic problem remains: A foreign government is funding the public news service.
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How NASA might change under the new U.S. Administration
Coming to terms with NASA’s problems means tough decisions and some wrong calls. But the former editor of Popular Mechanics remains optimistic.
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