Taiwanese microchip manufacturer TSMC blames struggle to build Phoenix plant on skilled labor shortage but workers cite disorganization and safety concernsPosed in front of an American flag and a large banner reading A Future Made in America Phoenix, AZ," Joe Biden told a crowd of assembled workers, supporters and media last December: American manufacturing is back, folks."Eight months on, the Phoenix microchip plant - the centerpiece of Biden's $52.7bn US hi-tech manufacturing agenda - is struggling to get online. Continue reading...
One marketplace firm says Amazon is only delaying the pain' of having to wait a week for their proceedsAmazon has partially relented following a row about new rules affecting thousands of marketplace sellers and is now releasing some of their sale proceeds.The online retailer had told many of its sellers in the UK and continental Europe that it would now hold on to the proceeds of sales for more than a week, rather than crediting their accounts immediately a sale was made. Some small firms said the move - first revealed by the Guardian - could force them out of business. Continue reading...
There were 9,000 breaches of personal information last year but experts say not enough is being done to stop themIt's brutal. People are wondering if they should resign, or move house, or get fortified gates. You can feel the anger."The comment from a former officer in the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) underlines the real-life consequences of an all-too frequent occurrence: a data breach. Continue reading...
Chief executive of platform rebranded as X seeking to reverse advertiser boycott since Elon Musk takeoverThe chief executive of X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, has moved to repair the company's relationship with advertisers by reinstating a client council" for marketing and ad agency executives.Linda Yaccarino wrote on the platform on Thursday that it was officially bringing back the client council in the fall", as the business seeks to reverse an advertiser boycott that has hit revenues since it was bought by Elon Musk for $44bn last year. Musk admitted last month that cashflow was still negative amid a 50% slump in advertising revenues. Continue reading...
For Microbird Games co-founders Philipp Seifried and Regina Reisinger, the social side of their RPG adventure game is just as important as exploring dungeons and slaying huge bossesDungeon slaying video games have severely lacked one essential element, until now: toasting an epic monster battle with a well-deserved schnitzel. At least, that's what the team at Vienna-based Microbird Games has decided, prompting the creation of forthcoming action role-playing game, Dungeons of Hinterberg.Looking like a Saturday morning cartoon come to life, with a visual style inspired by the clear lines and vivid colours of European comic artists, the indie adventure promises a mix of hack 'n' slash action RPG and social sim, against the backdrop of the Austrian Alps - which as video games go, is a setting as fresh as recently fallen snow. Players can explore dungeons, solve puzzles, slay huge bosses ... and then enjoy a schnitzel with the local people and other visiting slayers. Fighting monsters has never sounded so delicious. Continue reading...
AI's potential is huge and terrifying. But a new generation of artists is starting to find new uses for the technology, as well showing its many limitationsWhen I visited the Victoria and Albert Museum in London in early June, a fabulous drag cabaret was in full swing. Across seven small screens and a large wall projection, a rotating cast of performers in an array of bold looks danced and lip-synced their hearts out to banger after banger. Highlights included Freedom! 90 by George Michael, Five Years by David Bowie and Beyonce's Sweet Dreams.Then the whole thing started again. And again. But this wasn't just a video installation running on a loop: it was an elaborately engineered deepfake. Between each song, the performers underwent a kind of metamorphosis, melting down into amorphous masses of pixels and then re-forming with new faces and figures. For these AI-generated drag kings and queens, life really is a cabaret. Continue reading...
Data from Electoral Commission breach could allow rogue actors to create AI-generated messages in effort to manipulate electionsData accessed in the Electoral Commission hack could help state-backed actors target voters with AI-generated disinformation, experts have warned.The UK elections watchdog revealed on Tuesday that a hostile cyber-attack had been able to access the names and addresses of all voters registered between 2014 and 2022. Continue reading...
The $350 million Galactic Starcruiser will shut this year - but experiences that combine the real world with online gameplay could still fly Don't get Pushing Buttons delivered to your inbox? Sign up hereNext month, Disney's immersive Galactic Starcruiser Star Wars hotel" in Florida will shut down, less than two years after opening. Best known for being horrendously expensive - $4,809 for a couple for two nights, or a mere $1,500 a person if you fit four to a cabin - most have dismissed the Starcruiser as yet another of Disney's recent spendthrift follies.When I heard the news of its closure earlier this year, I rushed to book one of the remaining cabins. My path into the games industry was by playing alternate reality games (ARGs) that mixed real-world actors and events with online gameplay; I'd go on to make ARGs such as Perplex City and, more recently, augmented reality games like Zombies, Run! Even though I hadn't been impressed by the Starcruiser's marketing, I was desperate to see what an estimated $350m budget had produced. Continue reading...
Russia named as likely culprit in cyber-attack on election watchdog, while police service accidentally publishes staff detailsThe UK election watchdog and Northern Ireland's police service both announced serious data breaches on Tuesday, in the latest example of the vulnerability of personal details to hacks and human error.The UK data regulator, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), is looking at the incidents, which have raised immediate safety concerns over the consequences of leaking personal data. Here is what has happened and what we know so far. Continue reading...
Engineers' work on cycling and public transit have transformed the app - but rural directions remain a sticking pointIn October 2022, New York City officials unveiled a new bike lane on Schermerhorn street, one of the most dangerous and heavily trafficked streets in downtown Brooklyn and somewhere I had always avoided on my bike. Unless I was a religious reader of transportation department press releases (I'm not), I would have no way of knowing the lane existed - except that very same morning, my Apple Maps app sent me on the new Schermerhorn bike lane, instead of hurtling down Dean Street. By the time I was taking my return route, it was busy with cyclists.For Apple to know the lane was open, it had to have updates from the Adams's administration, as well as, presumably, hundreds of other city governments around the world. How was the company pulling it off? And it's not just cycling: it also knows the placement of the trees in Central Park, when the bus is coming, and whether a dive bar takes contactless payments or is cash only. Continue reading...
An aunt's death led Kemisola Bolarinwa to develop a wearable device that can pick up Nigeria's most common cancer much earlierIt was a school competition to build a radio that set Kemisola Bolarinwa on her path to becoming the inventor of a bra that can detect cancer. My physics teacher brought the idea of coming up with a radio transmitter and a receiver. I started working on it with one of my classmates," she says.We went for the competition, and we came second out of the many competitors from other schools. That was when I discovered myself to be an innovator - that was how the passion started." Continue reading...
Forget AI doomerism' hype over ChatGPT, big tech's colonial attitude lets hateful electoral propaganda be fed to millionsMore than 70 countries are due to hold regional or national elections by the end of 2024. It will be a period of huge political significance across the globe, with more than 2 billion people (mostly from the global south) directly affected by the outcome of these elections. The stakes for the integrity of democracy have never been higher.As concerns mount about the influential role of information pollution, disseminated through the vast platforms of US and Chinese corporations, in shaping these elections, a new shadow looms: how artificial intelligence - more specifically, generative AI such as OpenAI's ChatGPT - has increasingly moved into the mainstream of technology. Continue reading...
Participants in simulated environment with random slip hazards were more likely to fall despite trying to be more cautiousIn news that will come as a surprise to nobody who has walked down a busy street in the past 10 years, scientists have confirmed people texting while walking are more likely to have accidents.While previous studies have shown that texting pedestrians are more likely to walk into oncoming traffic, others have suggested young adults have mastered the art of multitasking and are able to text accurately while navigating obstacles. Continue reading...
Researchers create system using sound recordings that can work out what is being typed with more than 90% accuracyTapping in a computer password while chatting over Zoom could open the door to a cyber-attack, research suggests, after a study revealed artificial intelligence (AI) can work out which keys are being pressed by eavesdropping on the sound of the typing.Experts say that as video conferencing tools such as Zoom have grown in use, and devices with built-in microphones have become ubiquitous, the threat of cyber-attacks based on sounds has also risen. Continue reading...
The company formerly known as Twitter alleges that the Center for Countering Digital Hate drove away advertisers - but CCDH and legal experts say otherwise Don't get TechScape delivered to your inbox? Sign up for the full article hereCensorship, or rather his stance against it, is a key reason why Elon Musk bought Twitter for $44bn last year. His social media company's lawsuit against an anti-hate speech group refers to censorship, or variations on the word, eight times.But for critics of his complaint against the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), it is Musk who is doing the censoring. The intent is definitely to get the centre to shut up. That's the whole point of this suit, to prevent the centre from exercising any speech that Musk doesn't like," says Prof Brian Quinn from Boston College law school. Continue reading...
Elon Musk firm alleges in lawsuit against Center for Countering Digital Hate that it got data help from European Climate FoundationElon Musk's X Corp has accused the European Climate Foundation of helping an anti-hate speech campaign group conduct research against its rebranded Twitter platform.The claim was made in a blogpost on Monday that alleged the ECF had given the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) access to Brandwatch, a software tool that allows organisations to monitor posts on Twitter, which Musk last month renamed X. Continue reading...
Country's data protection regulator said firm cannot harvest user information such as physical locations for showing targeted adsFacebook owner Meta Platforms will be fined 1m krone ($98,500) a day over privacy breaches from 14 August, Norway's data protection authority told Reuters on Monday, a decision that could have wider European implications.The regulator, Datatilsynet, had said on 17 July that the company would be fined if it did not address privacy breaches the regulator had identified. Continue reading...
Policy to apply to those living within 50 miles and follows fall in post- pandemic demand for video-conferencing servicesIt was the poster child for remote working and may have made more gains from people able to work from home during the pandemic than any other company, but even Zoom has told its staff to come into the office more often.The company, which became a household name during Covid lockdowns because of the popularity of its video-conferencing tools, has told employees to travel in at least two days a week, according to a report in Business Insider. Continue reading...
Like sea mines washing up on the beaches of the Black Sea, the consequences of someone else's war keep arriving in the lives of this science-fiction game's charactersIn any other game, two mega corporations obliterating each other in a galactic war would be the story's focus. But in Citizen Sleeper 2, the conflict between Conway and Senetstat at the centre of the Helion System is background noise. Citizen Sleeper is a game about the periphery," designer Gareth Damian Martin says.You, an escaped android, have more immediate problems than the brewing war at Helion's centre. Out in the Starward Belt, an archipelago of asteroids at the edge of the corporation-dominated solar system, you're running from a violent gang leader after stealing one of his spaceships. You need to keep your vessel fuelled, your supplies stocked, and your synthetic body topped up with a hard-to-find serum that keeps it from shutting down.Citizen Sleeper 2 will release initially on PC; release date TBC Continue reading...
Tinder's users say long-term relationships are their number-one goal. Yet dating apps are failing at finding people loveRomance scams are among the most common type of online fraud, with losses in millions of dollars. Scammers prey on people's need for love and connection, which can make them vulnerable to manipulation. There's no end to the lies romance scammers will tell to get your money," warns the Federal Trade Commission.I couldn't help but think of this when I saw that Tinder has just announced it is moving ahead with plans to launch a new high-end" membership for as much as $500 a month. Tentatively called Tinder Vault, representatives of the company have said that the new service will provide an even more fun experience" and quality matches" for exclusive" users.Nancy Jo Sales is the author, most recently, of Nothing Personal: My Secret Life in the Dating App Inferno Continue reading...
Forty years since the release of its first game, British developer Rare - formerly known as Ultimate - has cemented its place in gaming history. We look back at its origins on the ZX Spectrum and NESFor five long years, the ZX Spectrum magazine Crash tried to get an interview with the people behind Ultimate Play the Game, which had become one of the UK's premier games developers. They heard nothing until, one day early in 1988, Crash got a phone call. It was them. And they wanted to talk.Ultimate Play the Game, a trading name of Ashby Computers and Graphics, began in 1982, owned by one family: the Stampers - brothers Chris and Tim, and Tim's future wife Carole Ward, alongside programmer John Lathbury. Even at this stage, the Stampers were supremely confident in their own abilities, honed during the development of several arcade games. We chose [this] company's name because we felt it was representative of our products: the ultimate games," Tim Stamper declared in an August issue of Home Computing Weekly. The brothers designed and created games while Carole juggled administrative roles and contributed art to several of its first hits. Those early titles included Jetpac, the home computer game that thrust the company into the big time, and turns 40 years old this year. Continue reading...
Comment comes as company is going through organizational changes and looking to boost falling advertising revenueElon Musk has said his X social media platform will pay the legal bills and sue on the behalf of people who have been treated unfairly" by employers because of posting or liking something on the site formerly known as Twitter.If you were unfairly treated by your employer due to posting or liking something on this platform, we will fund your legal bill," Musk said in a post on X late on Saturday, adding that there will be no limits to funding the bills. Continue reading...
In this forthcoming black and white adventure game, you play as a ghost on a quest to ascend to a higher plane of the afterlifeWhy would you want to make a game about death? To me, it's fascinating," says Leo Dasso, director of Hauntii, a game about navigating eternity as a ghost. All of us have to cope with the changing circumstances of life, and death is the most extreme change of all, he says. And because death is universal, Dasso thinks the story will be of interest to everyone. As far as I know, nobody's immortal," he laughs.Not that he wants to put a downer on things. Often stories or games about death can kind of be morbid, [and] we really didn't want that for this game," he says. [Kirby creator Masahiro] Sakurai says that no matter what, a game should be entertaining first." And so it is with Hauntii, which sees your friendly ghost meeting a cavalcade of curious and often funny entities as they travel through the afterlife. Continue reading...
No part of me questioned whether this was real - I had to save my babyMom?" repeated my daughter's voice on my phone. I've messed up." My heart sank and I started trembling. I heard a man instructing her to lie down and put her head back. My 15-year-old daughter, Briana, was at a skiing competition with my husband two hours away, and I instantly thought she'd been badly hurt. I was in my car, picking up her sister Aubrey, who is 13, from dance class in Arizona. Over the phone, I heard Briana bawling and shouting, Help me, help me." My blood ran ice cold and my legs turned to jelly as the man on the phone began explaining that he had my daughter, and if I told anyone he would pump her stomach full of drugs, drop her in Mexico and I would never see her again.I sprinted into the lobby of the building where Aubrey was having her dance class. Putting the phone on mute, I wailed for help from the other parents. By this point, the man was shouting threats down the phone. A couple of mothers started calling 911. Coming out of class to hear what the fuss was about, Aubrey was thrown into a panic too. I pleaded with her to try to contact the rest of the family, but she was frozen in terror. I'll never forget her face as she tried to process that someone had taken her sister. Continue reading...
A growing number of doctored images are being used to disrupt politics. Here are four more recent examplesThe row over a manipulated photo of Rishi Sunak pulling an imperfect pint is the latest example of doctored or deepfake images attempting to disrupt politics.Using false information or imagery to alter public opinion is not new but breakthroughs in artificial intelligence threaten to take deception to a new level. Here are some recent examples of image-based disinformation. Continue reading...
Update will also ensure explicit or graphic photos do not appear easily in search resultsGoogle is launching new privacy tools to allow users to have more control over unwanted personal images online and ensure explicit or graphic photos do not appear easily in search results.Updates to Google policies on personal explicit images mean that users will be able to remove non-consensual and explicit imagery of themselves that they no longer wish to be visible in searches. Continue reading...
App says it will be launching a number of artificial intelligence initiatives to make dating more rewardingBeauty is now in the AI of the beholder. Or at least if you're on Tinder.The dating app is testing an artificial intelligence tool that selects users' best-looking photos for their profiles, in the hope it will enhance the chances someone will swipe right. Continue reading...
Call for action comes after Labour MP shared a digitally manipulated image of Rishi Sunak on social mediaExperts have warned that action needs to be taken on the use of artificial intelligence-generated or enhanced images in politics after a Labour MP apologised for sharing a manipulated image of Rishi Sunak pouring a pint.Karl Turner, the MP for Hull East, shared an image on the rebranded Twitter platform, X, showing the prime minister pulling a sub-standard pint at the Great British beer festival while a woman looks on with a derisive expression. The image had been manipulated from an original photo in which Sunak appears to have pulled a pub-level pint while the person behind him has a neutral expression. Continue reading...
Development trio Gabe Cuzzillo, Maxi Boch, and Bennett Foddy are back with a story about a failson basement-dweller trying not to fall flat on his faceGame developers Gabe Cuzzillo, Maxi Boch and Bennett Foddy have been friends for over a decade, having met through NYU's Game Centre, and they already have one successful indie game under their belt. Ape Out had you smashing through halls full of goons as a rampaging gorilla to the tune of a procedural jazz soundtrack. Their next game, Baby Steps, is equally unconventional. A walking simulator in a very literal sense, you'll awkwardly steer Nate, a caked-up, onesie-wearing basement dweller, to the top of a misty mountain. And often, you'll fall flat on your face.On a controller, players use the triggers to lift and plant each foot while using the left stick to move the lifted foot around in the air, manually taking each of Nate's steps," Cuzzillo says. Using this literalist control scheme, reminiscent of Foddy's earlier games like QWOP and Getting Over It, the team want players to get into a rhythm as they hike, taking in the eclectic sights and letting their minds wander. That hypnotic space you can get into as you walk is a big part of the appeal of hiking to me," Cuzzillo said. We're trying to capture a bit of that here."Baby Steps is coming to PlayStation 5 and PC in 2024. Continue reading...
Issues raised include use of eye scans to prove humanness' and financial inducements to sign upThe Kenyan government has barred the eyeball-scanning Worldcoin cryptocurrency project from recruiting new customers as it investigates data privacy and security concerns.Kenya's interior ministry said the venture must stop collecting user data after raising a number of issues including: concerns over the secure storage of data that includes scans of a user's iris; that offering crypto in exchange for data borders on inducement"; inadequate information on cybersecurity safeguards; and placing large amounts of private data in the hands of a private business. Continue reading...
Proposals would cut usage for 16- to 18-year-olds to a maximum of two hours, with under-16s limited to one hourShares in Chinese technology firms have fallen after the country's online regulator announced plans recommending smartphone use for children be limited to a maximum of two hours a day.The rules proposed by the Cyberspace Administration of China (CAC) will require device makers, operating systems, apps and app stores to introduce a so-called minor-mode" capping time spent on screens, increasing the pressure on local tech companies already grappling with tight government controls. Continue reading...
by Hollie Richardson, Hannah Verdier and Nabiha Ahmed on (#6DGRE)
In this week's newsletter: Queen of the Con returns with a new season unpicking the life of reality TV star and ruthless manipulator' Jen Shah. Plus: five of the best celebrity-free podcasts
US tech giant starts charm offensive on artificial intelligence with basic courses to help firms understand and exploit emerging phenomenonA larger-than-life Michelle Donelan beams on to a screen in Google's London headquarters. The UK science and innovation secretary is appearing via video to praise the US tech behemoth for its plans to equip workers and bosses with basic skills in artificial intelligence (AI).The recent explosion in the use of AI tools like ChatGPT and Google's Bard show that we are on the cusp of a new and exciting era in artificial intelligence, and it is one that will dramatically improve people's lives," says Donelan. Google's ambitious" training programme is so important" and exceptional in its breadth", she gushes in a five-minute video, filmed in her ministerial office. Continue reading...
Cabinet Office assessment also upgrades likelihood of catastrophic' pandemic hitting the countryDisruption to energy supplies after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, and another pandemic, are two of the most significant risks to the UK shown in an updated government register that declassifies some threats for the first time.In its first update for three years, the risk register rates the possibility of a catastrophic" pandemic as 5% to 25% likely in a five-year period, upgrading its risk from the previous assessment of 1 to 5% likely. Continue reading...
English and Mandarin speakers found to have the same level of accuracy when detecting artificially generated speechHumans are able to detect artificially generated speech only 73% of the time, a study has found, with the same levels of accuracy found in English and Mandarin speakers.Researchers at University College London used a text-to-speech algorithm trained on two publicly available datasets, one in English and the other in Mandarin, to generate 50 deepfake speech samples in each language. Continue reading...
Employees describe the psychological trauma of reading and viewing graphic content, low pay and abrupt dismissalsThe images pop up in Mophat Okinyi's mind when he's alone, or when he's about to sleep.Okinyi, a former content moderator for Open AI's ChatGPT in Nairobi, Kenya, is one of four people in that role who have filed a petition to the Kenyan government calling for an investigation into what they describe as exploitative conditions for contractors reviewing the content that powers artificial intelligence programs. Continue reading...
Dara Khosrowshahi expresses surprise at Wired journalist's $51.69 journey to company's annual product event in New YorkThe chief executive of Uber expressed surprise when an interviewer told him he paid $51.69 for a three-mile ride to the company's annual product event in New York.Dara Khosrowshahi, who took over at Uber six years ago and has presided over soaring price increases, was speaking to Wired when he was informed of the cost of the ride. Continue reading...
Changes at online craft marketplace prompt anger among vendors as some report up to 75% of takings kept for at least 45 daysEtsy sellers have boycotted the online craft marketplace after it stepped up the amount of sales income it holds back from some vendors to ensure items are delivered as promised.The UK's small business commissioner, Liz Barclay, said she had contacted the site about a fortnight ago after a surge in complaints by sellers who had suddenly seen as much as 75% of their takings held back on reserve for at least 45 days. Continue reading...
It is much more likely your message will be opened if you send it on a Sunday afternoon than a busy working day. But it might make you pretty unpopular ...Name: Work emails.Age: The first email was sent by the computer engineer Ray Tomlinson in 1971 to himself, reading QWERTYUIOP". Continue reading...
Whether you enter the big green pipe to Super Nintendo World, or want to rummage through rare games in Tokyo's Electric Town, Japan is a video game paradiseThe experience of travelling in Japan is simultaneously overwhelming and freeing. The world feels bigger out there, gilded by how mainstream video game culture is in comparison with the west. It doesn't feel like a subculture; it is ordinary. For example, I walked into a FamilyMart for a snack one afternoon, and found a Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom promotional mushroom tart (which was delicious). The little bright-green payphones along the streets are the very same as those used in the Resident Services in Animal Crossing. Narita Airport even has an entire Nintendo display welcoming jet-lagged passengers fresh off the plane. As a western tourist on a personal pilgrimage, there is so much to find and be surprised by.Here are some recommendations for fellow video game fans planning to explore Japan: Continue reading...
AI uses huge amounts of electricity and water to work, and the problem is only going to get worse - what can be done? Don't get TechScape delivered to your inbox? Sign up for the full article hereTechnology never exists in a vacuum, and the rise of cryptocurrency in the last two or three years shows that. While plenty of people were making extraordinary amounts of money from investing in bitcoin and its competitors, there was consternation about the impact those get-rich-quick speculators had on the environment.Mining cryptocurrency was environmentally taxing. The core principle behind it was that you had to expend effort to get rich. To mint a bitcoin or another cryptocurrency, you had to first mine" it. Your computer would be tasked with completing complicated equations that, if successfully done, could create a new entry on to the blockchain.Rupert Murdoch's News Corp is using AI to publish 3,000 local news stories a week in Australia.It's not just journalists at risk: AI is replacing comedians at the Edinburgh fringe.Elon Musk's X (formerly known as Twitter) is threatening to sue a media monitoring organisation that tracks hate speech on the social network.Meanwhile, the giant glowing X sign on the company's San Francisco HQ has been removed after neighbours complained. This came after Musk reportedly blocked building inspectors from accessing the office to look at the sign.The UK's Competition and Markets Authority has opened up an avenue to backtrack () on its block of a massive $75bn merger of Microsoft and Activision Blizzard.A 1970s programming language called Prolog, which helped the early development of AI, has been put to another use: deciphering how to game the UK's national lottery for the maximum chance of success.Should you take your phone to the bathroom? Scroll during a film? Paula Cocozza runs through the 10 rules of smartphone etiquette. Continue reading...
Co-creative directors Mathieu Beaudelin and Kevin Poupard are tight-lipped about the story but their meditative take on mountaineering gives players a taste of being an elite climberFor those whose feel the call of the mountains, video games have proved abundant recently: Death Stranding, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, and Sable all feature enticing summits, enveloped in clouds, with makeshift rock-paths towards them. Now there is Jusant, the latest title to turn vertiginous traversal into a puzzle, inspiring wanderlust from the comfort of the sofa.It is the new game from Don't Nod, the French studio behind the hit adventure series Life Is Strange. However, unlike that famously chatty franchise, there isn't a single word of dialogue in Jusant. Rather, all its talking is done through dizzying, gravity-defying action. Co-creative director Mathieu Beaudelin wants to give players a taste of being an elite climber, he says, to become one with the massif. He describes the pursuit poetically: A dance with the mountain." Continue reading...
Researchers at UCLA found GPT-3 solved 80% of reasoning problems correctly compared with 60% of humansChatGPT can solve problems at a level that matches or surpasses an undergraduate student, according to a new study.Researchers found that the GPT-3 large language model that underpins the chatbot performed about as well as US college undergraduates when asked to solve reasoning problems that appear on intelligence tests or exams such as the American college admission test, the SAT. Continue reading...
A startup making replicas is giving Indigenous people in India an alternative to using wild animal parts in traditional headgearIn the lowland rainforests of Arunachal Pradesh in north-east India, tigers, clouded leopards, eagles and hornbills dot the landscape. The area is also home to the Nyishi community, the largest Indigenous tribe in the state, where the men traditionally don a byopa, an elaborate handwoven cane cap with the upper beak and casque of a great hornbill attached to the top edge, and an eagle's claw at the back. They also wield a machete fitted either with the short, squat jaw of the clouded leopard or the much larger one of a tiger.The tiger rules the jungle. The eagle rules the sky. Wearing their parts implies inhabiting their mighty spirit, protecting the people. It's a status symbol," says Nabam Bapu, an entrepreneur from the Nyishi tribe based in the state's Papum Pare district. Continue reading...
Technology | The Guardian