Can machines invent things without human help? These AI examples show the answer is ‘yes’
ShutterstockThe question of whether artificial intelligence (AI) can invent is nearly 200 years old, going back to the very beginning...
AI
Heads or tails: What statistical models tell us about the probability of living beyond 110
Is there a limit to human life expectancy? (Shutterstock)The world’s presumed oldest person, Kane Tanaka of Japan, died in April...
The ChatGPT chatbot is blowing people away with its writing skills. An expert explains why it’s so impressive
ShutterstockWe’ve all had some kind of interaction with a chatbot. It’s usually a little pop-up in the corner of a...
Text-to-image AI: powerful, easy-to-use technology for making art – and fakes
A synthetic image generated by mimicking real faces, left, and a synthetic face generated from the text prompt ‘a photo...
Twitter lifted its ban on COVID misinformation – research shows this is a grave risk to public health
The restraints on COVID-19 misinformation on Twitter are off. AP Photo/Jeff ChiuTwitter’s decision to no longer enforce its COVID-19 misinformation...
The Galactica AI model was trained on scientific knowledge – but it spat out alarmingly plausible nonsense
Tengyart / UnsplashEarlier this month, Meta announced new AI software called Galactica: “a large language model that can store, combine...
We built an algorithm that predicts the length of court sentences – could AI play a role in the justice system?
Getty ImagesThe rapid development of artificial intelligence (AI) has led to its deployment in courtrooms overseas. In China, robot judges...
Friday essay: shaping history – why I spent ten years studying one Wikipedia article
An Egyptian woman takes part in a demonstration in Cairo, 25 January, 2011. Amel Pain/EPAIn mid-July 2008, I arrived in...
Sandton terror alert: time for South Africa to improve its intelligence sharing channels with the US
South African foreign minister, Naledi Pandor, right, hosts US Secretary of State, Antony Blinken, for the SA-US Strategic Dialogue in...
An AI named Cicero can beat humans in Diplomacy, a complex alliance-building game. Here’s why that’s a big deal
ShutterstockIn a rare piece of good news from Meta, artificial intelligence researchers at the company have just announced a scientific...
