Tech
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Artificial Intelligence
Does the AI industry operate like a modern colonial empire?
In Empire of AI, journalist Karen Hao investigates OpenAI and the social and environmental costs of a multinational tech arms race.
- Artificial Intelligence
How much energy does your AI prompt use? It depends
AI models such as ChatGPT consume serious power. Experts break down where that energy goes, and what you can do to help.
- Tech
A new ‘eye’ may radically change how robots see
The system contains a sensor, chip and tiny AI model inspired by biological eyes and brains and uses a tenth of the energy of a camera-based system.
- Psychology
AI can measure our cultural history. But is it accurate?
Art and literature hint at past people’s psyches. Now computers can identify patterns in those cognitive fossils, but human expertise remains crucial.
- Computing
There’s no cheating this random number generator
From jury duty to tax audits, randomness plays a big role. Scientists used quantum physics to build a system that ensures those number draws can’t be gamed.
- Artificial Intelligence
A new AI-based weather tool surpasses current forecasts
The AI tool used machine learning to outperform current weather simulations, offering faster, cheaper, more accurate forecasts.
- Tech
New audio tech could let you listen privately without headphones
Private listening out in the open is possible thanks to acoustic metasurfaces that precisely bend and direct sound waves.
- Tech
A new 3-D display lets you reach in and touch virtual objects
These hands-on displays might be used to create more immersive video games, educational tools and museum exhibits.
- Artificial Intelligence
Tech billionaires’ vision of an AI-dominated future is flawed — and dangerous
Adam Becker’s new book, More Everything Forever, investigates the dangers of a billionaire-driven tomorrow, in which trillions of humans live in space, served by AI.
- Artificial Intelligence
Spotting climate misinformation with AI requires expertly trained models
When classifying climate misinformation, general-purpose large language models lag behind models trained on expert-curated climate data.
- Computing
New computer chips do math with light
Two companies have announced photonic devices that could solve specific real-world problems faster and with less energy than conventional computers.
- Earth
The ozone layer shields life on Earth. We’ll soon lose a key way to monitor its health
Imminent loss of NASA's Aura and Canada's SCISAT will severely diminish scientists’ ability to monitor ozone-depleting substances in the stratosphere.
