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When robotaxis start taking over, what happens to Uber and Lyft drivers?According to a new Business Insider piece, some of them start working for the robotaxi companies that’re outmoding them.The autonomous cars may be self-driving, but they aren’t self-sufficient. Someone needs to clean and service them on the daily, making sure everything runs smoothly. Waymo, the leading robotaxi firm, maintains depots across the country where this type of work is performed, and many of their employees used to drive for rideshare apps themselves.The ones that BI spoke to who work at Waymo’s Nashville depot, which is run by Lyft, seemed…
There are a litany of reasons to take the output of generative AI with a heavy dose of salt. Its answers are known to sound authoritative, convincing, and elaborate — while simultaneously being completely and utterly wrong.It’s a lesson astrophysicist and science communicator Paul Sutter learned the hard way, and was brave enough to share with the world. In a article for the publication Nautilus earlier this month, Sutter retold a truly harrowing story that feels like something yanked straight out of a stress-induced nightmare.In February, he gave a presentation in front of a room full of “collaborators,” revealing a…
Mom Who Travels For Work Builds AI Clone of Herself to Keep Her Teenage Son Company
Scientists have detected an unusual “thermal asymmetry” buried deep beneath the surface of Mars’ southern hemisphere — and they’re only beginning to postulate potential explanations for its existence.As detailed in a new paper published in the journal Nature, the team found that the interior of the Red Planet’s southern half is roughly 400 to 750 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than its northern half. The unexpected discrepancy could give scientists important clues about the period during which the planet was warm enough to host life billions of years ago.The surfaces of the planet’s two halves are dramatically different. The south is densely…
Chinese engineers are zeroing in on one of the loftiest goals in applied robotics: fully automated cooking.At the buzzy World Robotics Conference in Beijing, the company Oak Deer Robotics revealed three kitchen aids designed to advance the state of kitchen automation, China Daily shared. A mix of standalone appliances and humanoid robots, the new products include a “multimodal cooking AI model” called CookingMuse, a new AI-integrated cooking robot apparatus, as well as a fully-automated food cart with a little humanoid chef called RobotCook.According to CD, the basic cooking robot went through two live cooking demonstrations, stir-frying tofu as well as…
If there’s one thing that smart TVs have proven, it’s that some tech is better off staying dumb. Sure, it’s nice being able to have your streaming apps in one place, but the tradeoff is hellish: these TVs, by default, come stuffed with ads and track an alarming amount of personal data. Some are even shipping with AI integration, with remotes featuring a dedicated AI button — because of course they are.Now, computer monitors may be going the same way.Last month, LG launched a storm of controversy after its monitors were caught sneakily installing pop-up ads onto customers’ computers. This was…
At this point, Flock automatic license plate readers are basically a 90-10 issue in the US. In fact, so many Americans hate these surveillance towers that hacking one down has become the quickest way to achieve national folk-hero status.In one incident reported by the Verge, a sheriff in Lumpkin County, Georgia announced a $1,000 reward for information resulting in the arrest of the vandal responsible for destroying a Flock camera installed in a community park.“I hope you’re happy with this. It was to keep our kids safe,” the sheriff said in a Reel uploaded to Facebook.Since uploading the video on…
In his genre-defining 1984 sci-fi novel “Neuromancer,” William Gibson envisioned a future filled with “joeboys,” or “nearly identical young men,” whose arms and shoulders were “bulging with grafted muscle.”In the cyberpunk trilogy’s universe, the grafts were a prominent type of biological body modification among corporate bodyguards to increase strength and appear more intimidating.While the intention isn’t to get swole without ever hitting the gym, scientists in China say they’ve effectively turned the concept into a reality. As the South China Morning Post reports, the researchers developed a “self-exercising” muscle graft designed to be injected under the skin. They say it…
In a joint statement earlier this week, United Nations chief António Guterres and Red Cross president Mirjana Spoljaric Egger sent out an urgent message.“We are now dangerously close to crossing a moral red line: the autonomous targeting of humans by machines,” they said.But while international humanitarian law strictly forbids targeting civilians and civilian infrastructure, Russia is reportedly already using AI-controlled drones to kill innocent people in Ukraine.Ukrainian military commanders and forensics experts told the New York Times that fully autonomous Russian drones, piloted by an experimental AI system, are targeting civilians back on the ground in Zaporizhzhia, a city in…
When Dolly Parton died this week, everyone mourned. She was the queen of country music and a magnetic actress, enrapturing the public with her bodacious but kind personality. She was a feminist icon and also a gay icon. She was a devout Christian and a loyal wife. There was something about her for everyone to love.In the wake of her death, a data enthusiast on Reddit put together a chart showing Parton’s incredible favorability among both Republicans and Democrats, using data collected by the UMass Lowell Center for Public Opinion. The results were extraordinary, showing that she was one of…