Students worldwide are using generative AI tools to write papers and complete assignments. Teachers are using similar tools to grade tests. What exactly is going on here? Where is all of this heading? Can education return to a world before artificial intelligence? How many students are using generative AI in school? Many high school and […]
Watch two tiny, AI-powered robots play soccer
Google DeepMind is now able to train tiny, off-the-shelf robots to square off on the soccer field. In a new paper published today in Science Robotics, researchers detail their recent efforts to adapt a machine learning subset known as deep reinforcement learning (deep RL) to teach bipedal bots a simplified version of the sport. The […]
Watch this robotic slide whistle quartet belt out Smash Mouth’s ‘All Star’
The slide whistle isn’t known as a particularly difficult instrument to play—there’s a reason they’re usually marketed to children. But designing, programming, and building a robotic slide whistle quartet? That takes a solid background in computer science, a maddening amount of trial-and-error, logistical adjustments to account for “shrinkflation,” and at least two weeks to make […]
Spider conversations decoded with the help of machine learning and contact microphones
Arachnids are born dancers. After millions of years of evolution, many species rely on fancy footwork to communicate everything from courtship rituals, to territorial disputes, to hunting strategies. Researchers usually observe these movements in lab settings using what are known as laser vibrometers. After aiming the tool’s light beam at a target, the vibrometer measures […]
What’s in the US military’s historic lost and found: nukes, jets, and drones
For roughly 24 hours, between the afternoon of September 17 and the evening of September 18, the United States Marine Corps couldn’t find one of its F-35B stealth fighter jets. The pilot had ejected, but it took the military a spell to find the jet, and in the process it put out a call for […]
AI companies eye fossil fuels to meet booming energy demand
It takes massive amounts of energy to power the data center brains of popular artificial intelligence models. That demand is only growing. In 2024, many of Silicon Valley’s largest tech giants and hoards of budding, well-funded startups have (very publically) aligned themselves with climate action–awash with PR about their sustainability goals, their carbon neutral pledges, […]
A version of OpenAI’s GPT-4 will be ‘teaching’ thousands of kids this fall
Thousands of students heading into the new school year will arrive in classrooms from kindergarten to highschool alongside a new tutoring assistant: a large language model. As CNN noted today, the education nonprofit service Khan Academy, is expanding its Khanmigo AI access to over 8,000 educators and K-12 students as part of its ongoing pilot […]
Crypto scammers flooded YouTube with sham SpaceX Starship livestreams
YouTube is flooded with fake livestream accounts airing looped videos of “Elon Musk” supposedly promoting crypto schemes. Although not the first time to happen, the website’s layout, verification qualifications, and search results page continue to make it difficult to separate legitimate sources from the con artists attempting to leverage today’s Starship test launch—its most successful […]
ChatGPT’s accuracy has gotten worse, study shows
A pair of new studies presents a problematic dichotomy for OpenAI’s ChatGPT large language model programs. Although its popular generative text responses are now all-but-indistinguishable from human answers according to multiple studies and sources, GPT appears to be getting less accurate over time. Perhaps more distressingly, no one has a good explanation for the troubling […]
Joby’s latest electric air taxi will head to an Air Force base for tests in 2024
Small planes have one propeller, bigger ones have two, and helicopters have a giant rotor on top and a smaller one on the tail. Then there’s an electric aircraft from Joby Aviation, which has a whopping six propellers. They can all tilt to allow the flying machine to take off and land vertically, or cruise […]