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The Download: harmful AI, and a deadlier monkeypox variant

+ What does GPT-3 “know” about me? Large language models are trained on troves of personal data hoovered from the internet. But how much does it actually know about us? Read the... Read more »

VIDEO: Chasing Technology

In association withJPMorgan Chase & Co. .cst-large, .cst-default { width: 100%; } @media (max-width: 767px) { .cst-block { overflow-x: hidden; } } @media (min-width: 630px) { .cst-large { margin-left: -25%; width: 150%;... Read more »

Who’s going to save us from bad AI?

About damn time. That was the response from AI policy and ethics wonks to news last week that the Office of Science and Technology Policy, the White House’s science and technology advisory... Read more »

The Download: robotic bees, and China’s surveillance state

Something was wrong, but Thomas Schmickl couldn’t put his finger on it. It was 2007, and the Austrian biologist was spending part of the year at East Tennessee State University. During his... Read more »

How robotic honeybees and hives could help the species fight back

Schmickl, who now leads the Artificial Life Lab at the University of Graz in Austria, wasn’t wrong. Studies in various parts of the world have since found that insect populations are declining... Read more »

The Chinese surveillance state proves that the idea of privacy is more “malleable” than you’d expect

“They probably saved millions of lives by using those technologies,” he says, “and the result is that sold [the necessity of] state surveillance to a lot of Chinese people.” Does “good” surveillance... Read more »

The Download: music-making AI, and Kasparov’s defeat

Jess’s story is from The Checkup, her new weekly newsletter giving you the inside track on all things health and tech-related. Sign up to receive it in your inbox every Thursday. The... Read more »

Google’s new AI can hear a snippet of song—and then keep on playing

“There is a lot of what we could call linguistic information that is not in the words that you pronounce, but it’s another way of communicating based on the way you say... Read more »

Is a covid and flu “twindemic” on the horizon?

As the weather cools in the Northern Hemisphere, and people increasingly mix indoors, we can expect cases to rise, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director general of the WHO, told journalists at a press... Read more »

I Was There When: AI mastered chess

Commentator 2: Deep Blue! Kasparov, after the move C4, has resigned! [Applause] Jennifer: I’m Jennifer Strong, and this is I Was There When—an oral history project featuring the stories of breakthroughs and... Read more »