Category: Technology

The head of the artificial intelligence company that makes ChatGPT told U.S. Congress on Tuesday that government intervention "will be critical to mitigate the risks of increasingly powerful" AI systems. "As this technology advances, we understand that people are anxious about how it could change the way we live. We are too," OpenAI CEO Sam Altman testified at a Senate hearing Tuesday. His San Francisco-based startup rocketed to public attention after it released ChatGPT late last year. ChatGPT is a free chatbot tool that answers questions with convincingly human-like responses. What started out as a panic among educators about ChatGPT's use to cheat on homework assignments has expanded to broader concerns about the ability of the latest crop of "generative AI" tools to mislead people, spread falsehoods, violate copyright protections…

Studying science, technology, engineering, and math — or STEM — can be a challenge for girls in rural Africa, especially those with disabilities. In Kenya, an aid group called The Action Foundation is helping to change that by providing remote STEM courses for girls with hearing, visual and physical impairments. Ahmed Hussein reports from Wajir County, Kenya. Camera: Ahmed Hussein ...

On a recent, cold morning, Dr. Carlos Ortuño hopped into a tiny electric car to go check on a patient in the outskirts of Bolivia's capital of La Paz, unsure if the vehicle would be able to handle the steep, winding streets of the high-altitude city.  "I thought that because of the city's topography it was going to struggle, but it's a great climber," said Ortuño about his experience driving a Quantum, the first EV to have ever been made in Bolivia. "The difference from a gasoline-powered vehicle is huge."  Ortuño's home visit aboard a car the size of a golf cart was part of a government-sponsored program that brings doctors to patients living in neighborhoods far from the city center. The "Doctor in your house" program was launched last…

Computer engineers and tech-inclined political scientists have warned for years that cheap, powerful artificial intelligence tools would soon allow anyone to create fake images, video and audio that was realistic enough to fool voters and perhaps sway an election.  The synthetic images that emerged were often crude, unconvincing and costly to produce, especially when other kinds of misinformation were so inexpensive and easy to spread on social media. The threat posed by AI and so-called deepfakes always seemed a year or two away.  No more.  Sophisticated generative AI tools can now create cloned human voices and hyper-realistic images, videos and audio in seconds, at minimal cost. When strapped to powerful social media algorithms, this fake and digitally created content can spread far and fast and target highly specific audiences, potentially…

Holed up at home during the pandemic lockdown three years ago, 13-year-old Shreya Nallamothu was scrolling through social media when she noticed a pattern: Children even younger than her were the stars — dancing, cracking one-liners and being generally adorable.  "It seemed innocuous to me at first," Nallamothu said.  But as she watched more and more posts of kids pushing products or their mishaps going viral, she started to wonder: Who is looking out for them?  "I realized that there's a lot of exploitation that can happen within the world of 'kidfluencing,'" said Nallamothu, referring to the monetization of social media content featuring children. "And I realized that there was absolutely zero legislation in place to protect them."  Illinois lawmakers aim to change that by making their state what they…

Banned from using popular Western apps, Iranians have been left with little choice but to take up state-backed alternatives, as the authorities tighten internet restrictions for security reasons following months of protests. Iranians are accustomed to using virtual private networks, or VPNs, to evade restrictions and access prohibited websites or apps, including the U.S.-based Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. The authorities went as far as imposing total internet blackouts during the protests that erupted after the September death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, following her arrest for an alleged breach of the Islamic republic's dress code for women. Connections are back up and running again, and even those who are tech-savvy are being corralled into using the apps approved by the authorities such as Neshan for navigation and Snapp! to hail a…

As Tamar Ana Jawa wove a red sarong in the fading sunlight, her neighbor switched on a light bulb dangling from the sloping tin roof. It was just one bulb powered by a small solar panel, but in this remote village that means a lot. In some of the world's most remote places, off-grid solar systems are bringing villagers like Jawa more hours in the day, more money and more social gatherings. Before electricity came to the village, a little less than two years ago, the day ended when the sun went down. Villagers in Laindeha, on the island of Sumba in eastern Indonesia, would set aside the mats they were weaving or coffee they were sorting to sell at the market as the light faded. A few families who…

As people brace for the disruptive impact of artificial intelligence on jobs and everyday living, those in the world of audio books say their field is already being transformed. AI has the ability to create human-sounding recordings -- at assembly-line speed -- while bypassing at least part of the services of the human professionals who for years have made a living with their voices. Many of them are already seeing a sharp drop off in business. Tanya Eby has been a full-time voice actor and professional narrator for 20 years. She has a recording studio in her home. But in the past six months she has seen her work load fall by half. Her bookings now run only through June, while in a normal year they would extend through August.…

Billionaire tech entrepreneur Elon Musk on Friday named NBCUniversal executive Linda Yaccarino as the chief executive officer of social media giant Twitter. From his own Twitter account Friday, Musk wrote, "I am excited to welcome Linda Yaccarino as the new CEO of Twitter! (She) will focus primarily on business operations, while I focus on product design and new technology."  He said Yaccarino would transform Twitter, which is now called X Corp., into "an everything app" called X.  On Thursday, Musk teased Yaccarino's hiring, saying only "she" will start in six to eight weeks.   Yaccarino worked in advertising and media sales for NBCUniversal since 2011 and as chairperson of global advertising since October 2020. The company announced her departure earlier in the day Friday. Analysts say Yaccarino's background could be…

Apple will launch its first online store in Vietnam next week, the company said Friday, hoping to cash in on the country's young and tech-savvy population. The iPhone maker is among a host of global tech giants including Intel, Samsung and LG, that have chosen Vietnam for assembly of their products. But up to now, the Silicon Valley giant has sold its products in Vietnam's market of 100 million people via authorized resellers. "We're honored to be expanding in Vietnam," said Deirdre O'Brien, Apple's senior vice president of retail in an online statement in Vietnamese. The country's communist government says it wants 85 percent of its adult population to have access to a smartphone by 2025, up from the current 73 percent. Less than a third of the country's mobile…

Astronomers have created a stunning mosaic of baby star clusters hiding in our galactic backyard. The montage, published Thursday, reveals five vast stellar nurseries less than 1,500 light-years away. A light-year is nearly 9.7 trillion kilometers. To come up with their atlas, scientists pieced together more than 1 million images taken over five years by the European Southern Observatory in Chile. The observatory's infrared survey telescope was able to peer through clouds of dust and discern infant stars. "We can detect even the faintest sources of light, like stars far less massive than the sun, revealing objects that no one has ever seen before," University of Vienna's Stefan Meingast, the lead author, said in a statement. The observations, conducted from 2017 to 2022, will help researchers better understand how stars…

The growing abilities of artificial intelligence have left many observers wondering how AI will impact people’s jobs and livelihoods. One expert in the field predicts it won’t have much effect, at least in the short term.   The topic was a point of discussion at the annual TED conference held recently in Vancouver.    In a world where students’ term papers can now be written by artificial intelligence, paintings can be drawn by merely uttering words and an AI-generated version of your favorite celebrity can appear on screen, the impact of this new technology is starting to be felt in societies and sparking both wonderment and concern.   While artificial intelligence has yet to become pervasive in everyday life, the rumblings of what could be a looming economic earthquake are growing stronger.…

Tesla Inc on Monday broke ground on a Texas lithium refinery that CEO Elon Musk said should produce enough of the battery metal to build about 1 million electric vehicles (EVs) by 2025, making it the largest North American processor of the material.  The facility will push Tesla outside its core focus of building automobiles and into the complex area of lithium refining and processing, a step Musk said was necessary if the auto giant was to meet its ambitious EV sales targets.  "As we look ahead a few years, a fundamental choke point in the advancement of electric vehicles is the availability of battery grade lithium," Musk said at the ground-breaking ceremony on Monday, with dozers and other earth-moving equipment operating in the background.  Musk said Tesla aimed to finish construction of…

Most Democrats and Republicans agree that the federal government should better regulate the biggest technology companies, particularly social media platforms. But there is little consensus on how it should be done.  Concerns have skyrocketed about China's ownership of TikTok, and parents have grown increasingly worried about what their children are seeing online. Lawmakers have introduced a slew of bipartisan bills, boosting hopes of compromise. But any effort to regulate the mammoth industry would face major obstacles as technology companies have fought interference.  Noting that many young people are struggling, President Joe Biden said in his February State of the Union address that "it's time" to pass bipartisan legislation to impose stricter limits on the collection of personal data and ban targeted advertising to children.  "We must finally hold social media…

Tracking down accurate information about Philadelphia's elections on Twitter used to be easy. The account for the city commissioners who run elections, @phillyvotes, was the only one carrying a blue check mark, a sign of authenticity. But ever since the social media platform overhauled its verification service last month, the check mark has disappeared. That's made it harder to distinguish @phillyvotes from a list of random accounts not run by the elections office but with very similar names. The election commission applied weeks ago for a gray check mark — Twitter's new symbol to help users identify official government accounts – but has yet to hear back from the Twitter, commission spokesman Nick Custodio said. It's unclear whether @phillyvotes is an eligible government account under Twitter's new rules. That's troubling,…

Google is planning to make its search engine more "visual, snackable, personal and human," with a focus on serving young people globally, The Wall Street Journal reported on Saturday, citing documents. The move comes as artificial intelligence (AI) applications such as ChatGPT are rapidly gaining in popularity, highlighting a technology that could upend the way businesses and society operate. The tech giant will nudge its service further away from "10 blue links," which is a traditional format of presenting search results and plans to incorporate more human voices as part of the shift, the report said. At its annual I/O developer conference in the coming week, Google is expected to debut new features that allow users to carry out conversations with an AI program, a project code-named "Magi," The Wall…

Billionaire Warren Buffett said artificial intelligence may change the world in all sorts of ways, but new technology won't take away opportunities for investors, and he's confident America will continue to prosper over time. Buffett and his partner Charlie Munger are spending all day Saturday answering questions at Berkshire Hathaway's annual meeting inside a packed Omaha arena. "New things coming along doesn't take away the opportunities. What gives you the opportunities is other people doing dumb things," said Buffett, who had a chance to try out ChatGPT when his friend Bill Gates showed it to him a few months back. Buffett reiterated his long-term optimism about the prospects for America even with the bitter political divisions today. "The problem now is that partisanship has moved more towards tribalism, and in…

When Greg Brockman, the president and co-founder of ChatGPT maker OpenAI, was recently extolling the capabilities of artificial intelligence, he turned to "Game of Thrones." Imagine, he said, if you could use AI to rewrite the ending of that not-so-popular finale. Maybe even put yourself into the show. "That is what entertainment will look like," said Brockman. Not six months since the release of ChatGPT, generative artificial intelligence is already prompting widespread unease throughout Hollywood. Concern over chatbots writing or rewriting scripts is one of the leading reasons TV and film screenwriters took to picket lines earlier this week. Though the Writers Guild of America is striking for better pay in an industry where streaming has upended many of the old rules, AI looms as rising anxiety. "AI is terrifying,"…

White House Mulls AI Oversight, Protections with Industry Leaders ...

Good news for all the password-haters out there: Google has taken a big step toward making them an afterthought by adding "passkeys" as a more straightforward and secure way to log into its services.  Here's what you need to know:  What are passkeys?   Passkeys offer a safer alternative to passwords and texted confirmation codes. Users won't ever see them directly; instead, an online service like Gmail will use them to communicate directly with a trusted device such as your phone or computer to log you in.  All you'll have to do is verify your identity on the device using a PIN unlock code, biometrics such as your fingerprint or a face scan or a more sophisticated physical security dongle.  Google designed its passkeys to work with a variety of…

A computer scientist often dubbed "the godfather of artificial intelligence" has quit his job at Google to speak out about the dangers of the technology, U.S. media reported Monday. Geoffrey Hinton, who created a foundation technology for AI systems, told The New York Times that advancements made in the field posed "profound risks to society and humanity". "Look at how it was five years ago and how it is now," he was quoted as saying in the piece, which was published on Monday. "Take the difference and propagate it forwards. That's scary." Hinton said that competition between tech giants was pushing companies to release new AI technologies at dangerous speeds, risking jobs and spreading misinformation. "It is hard to see how you can prevent the bad actors from using it…

The European Union is likely to reach a political agreement this year that will pave the way for the world's first major artificial intelligence (AI) law, the bloc's tech regulation chief, Margrethe Vestager, said on Sunday. This follows a preliminary deal reached on Thursday by members of the European Parliament to push through the draft of the EU's Artificial Intelligence Act to a vote on May 11. Parliament will then thrash out the bill's final details with EU member states and the European Commission before it becomes law. At a press conference after a Group of Seven digital ministers' meeting in Takasaki, Japan, Vestager said the EU AI Act was "pro-innovation" since it seeks to mitigate the risks of societal damage from emerging technologies. Regulators around the world have been…

Artificial intelligence, or AI, could potentially transform arts and entertainment, from music to movies, but it is also raising concerns. Is AI a creative tool or a threat to creators and artists? VOA’s Mike O’Sullivan examines the question. ...

British antitrust regulators on Wednesday blocked Microsoft’s $69 billion purchase of video game maker Activision Blizzard, thwarting the biggest tech deal in history over worries that it would stifle competition for popular titles like Call of Duty in the fast-growing cloud gaming market. The Competition and Markets Authority said in its final report that “the only effective remedy” to the substantial loss of competition “is to prohibit the Merger.” The companies have vowed to appeal. The all-cash deal faced stiff opposition from rival Sony, which makes the PlayStation gaming system, and also was being scrutinized by regulators in the U.S. and Europe over fears that it would give Microsoft and its Xbox console control of hit franchises like Call of Duty and World of Warcraft. The U.K. watchdog’s concerns centered…

Mars is Earth's next-door neighbor in the solar system — two rocky worlds with differences down to their very core, literally. A new study based on seismic data obtained by NASA's robotic InSight lander is offering a fuller understanding of the Martian deep interior and fresh details about dissimilarities between Earth, the third planet from the sun, and Mars, the fourth. The research, informed by the first detection of seismic waves traveling through the core of a planet other than Earth, showed that the innermost layer of Mars is slightly smaller and denser than previously known. It also provided the best assessment to date of the composition of the Martian core. Both planets possess cores comprised primarily of liquid iron. But about 20% of the Martian core is made up…

A Japanese space start-up will attempt Tuesday to become the first private company to put a lander on the Moon.    If all goes to plan, ispace's Hakuto-R Mission 1 lander will start its descent towards the lunar surface at around 15:40 GMT.    It will slow its orbit some 100 kilometers above the Moon, then adjust its speed and altitude to make a "soft landing" around an hour later.    Success is far from guaranteed. In April 2019, Israeli organization SpaceIL watched their lander crash into the Moon's surface.    ispace has announced three alternative landing sites and could shift the lunar descent date to April 26, May 1 or May 3, depending on conditions.    "What we have accomplished so far is already a great achievement, and we are already applying lessons learned…

The U.S. Space Force said on Monday that Elon Musk's SpaceX was granted approval to lease a second rocket launch complex at a military base in California, setting the space company up for its fifth launch site in the United States.  Under the lease, SpaceX will launch its workhorse Falcon rockets from Space Launch Complex-6 at Vandenberg Space Force Base, a military launch site north of Los Angeles where the space company operates another launchpad. It has two others in Florida and its private Starbase site in south Texas.  A Monday night Space Force statement said a letter of support for the decision was signed on Friday by Space Launch Delta 30 commander Col. Rob Long. The statement did not mention a duration for SpaceX's lease.  The new launch site, vacated…

Twitter accounts operated by authoritarian governments in Russia, China and Iran are benefiting from recent changes at the social media company, researchers said Monday, making it easier for them to attract new followers and broadcast propaganda and disinformation to a larger audience.  The platform is no longer labeling state-controlled media and propaganda agencies, and will no longer prohibit their content from being automatically promoted or recommended to users. Together, the two changes, both made in recent weeks, have supercharged the Kremlin's ability to use the U.S.-based platform to spread lies and misleading claims about its invasion of Ukraine, U.S. politics and other topics.  Russian state media accounts are now earning 33% more views than they were just weeks ago, before the change was made, according to findings released Monday by…