Alter

Never say goodbye, Sydney.Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESS / Screenshot: u/NoLock1234 / Thomas Germain (AP)Bing won’t talk about its feelings anymore, and it seems that its alter ego Sydney is dead. Earlier this month, Microsoft unleashed a newly ChatGPT-powered Bing search engine, along with an accompanying Bing chatbot. Almost immediately, users started posting screenshots of the AI’s deranged responses. The AI declared that it was a feeling, living thing, hinted at plans for world domination, and spouted racial epithets (not…

After seeking voluntary retirement from the state police service, Lionel Carmichael returns to his family home in the quaint hill station of Debrakot. He hopes to spend a quiet life there with a few quirky neighbours for company. However, that is not to be. There is a double murder at Shambala Villa or “Shambles”, as it has come to be known due to its dilapidated condition, and his former colleague SHO Thapliyal needs his help. Carmichael visits Shambles and finds Reuben Sabharwal, a self-styled godman, lying in a pool…

For some, circumcision a religious or cultural act. For others, it's a health decision. Yet even among medical experts, not everyone agrees on whether removing the foreskin of a male person has any real clinical benefits.A small new study involving 11 children in the United States has found evidence that removing the skin that covers the tip of the penis can change the abundance and composition of bacterial and fungal communities that naturally live there.But what would that actually mean in practice?Some of the…

Twitter’s interface will alter, long-form tweets launching in Feb: Elon Musk reveals!  Read more tech news Good Morning Tech fam, here are some quick tech updates for you to catch on to! What’s New Today: Expert and Novice Cybercriminals Have Already Started Using OpenAI’s ChatGPT Chatbot to Create Hacking Tools, According to Security Analysts. Fast-Track Insights: Governor of the Bank of France calls for more stringent crypto licencing in France. The Governor claims that the current instability in the…

Ideas53:59A Clearer Universe: Astrophysicist Louise EdwardsBy Louise Edwards, AstrophysicistI was absolutely honoured and delighted to give the 8th annual Dan McLennan Lecture in Astronomy this winter. Halifax, and Saint Mary's University is where I grew up, in the astronomical sense. My two years pursuing a Masters in Science provided me with decades long friendships I still hold dear, and introduced me to mentors I continue to admire today.For the lecture, I decided to talk about the synergy between ground-based and…

If you've ever caught yourself talking to someone and thought, "Gee, I sound just like them", it might be a sign that you're engaged in the conversation or the task at hand.The same goes, as a new study shows, for solving puzzles in an immersive virtual game environment.Over the years, researchers have found that when two people discuss an alluring topic, the sounds of their speech are more likely to converge.Without prompting, speakers may unintentionally start to say certain words like the other person. They may also…

You’ve studied slavery around the world. What stood out about Azad Nagar? Azad Nagar caught my attention when I started learning about contemporary slavery. That’s because they did what everybody hoped would happen — it was a grassroots worker-led movement that took back the means of production. So it provided an exciting power transfer model where workers had agency. After my first trip to Azad Nagar, I learned that the story was not what it was made out to be. Yet, all of this is still true to an extent. You wrote how…

Google pays $100 million for the artificial intelligence avatar startup Alter Google has acquired Alter, an artificial intelligence (AI) avatar startup that was developing AI avatars for social media users and brands to express their virtual identities. Google paid around $100 million for the startup in order to improve its content game and compete with TikTok. The acquisition was completed about two months ago, but neither company announced it publicly. According to the report, some of Alter top executives have…

When I meet Wizkid at Metropolis recording studios in London, I am suddenly an awed 18-year-old again. The Afropop juggernaut soundtracked my university years, yet I’m struck by how youthful he appears, apparently having barely aged since I screamed myself hoarse watching him perform at London’s Hammersmith Apollo a decade ago.The only difference is that now, the 32-year-old Nigerian musician’s wrists are weighed down by Van Cleef bracelets and a diamond-encrusted watch. And his music is no longer the preserve of a…

We've already seen systems that wirelessly transmit data via patterns of flickering light. A Saudi Arabian team has created a less energy-intensive alternative, that could use modulated sunlight in place of traditional Wi-Fi.Currently in development at the King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST), the system utilizes "smart glass" elements known as Dual-cell Liquid Crystal Shutters (DLSs). These rapidly alter the polarity of sunlight passing through them, and could conceivably be used in the plate glass…