News and Things

First brain chip implant on humans performed by Elon Musk's Neuralink

On January 28, Neuralink, founded by billionaire Elon Musk, performed the first brain chip implant on a human patient, who the company said was recovering well. In a post on the social media platform X this week, Musk said, "Initial results show promising neuron spike detection." <a

Stellantis launches large hydrogen van production in Poland

In a move aimed at expanding its range of zero-emission commercial vehicles, this week, Stellantis said it began the volume production of large-sized and mid-sized hydrogen fuel cell vans in Europe in southern Poland. In a statement, the group said it will produce the larger vans at its Gliwice plant

Volkswagen to instal ChatGPT in compact cars this year

This week, Volkswagen said that by the middle of the year, its voice assistant will integrate ChatGPT into its cars, enabling them to converse with users in back-and-forth dialogue. At the CES electronics trade fair in Las Vegas, Volkswagen presented its first vehicles featuring ChatGPT, which will be on sale

Learn to forget? How to rein in a rogue chatbot

When Australian politician Brian Hood noticed ChatGPT was telling people he was a convicted criminal, he took the old-fashioned route and threatened legal action against the AI chatbot's maker, OpenAI.His case raised a potentially huge problem with such AI programs: what happens when they get stuff wrong

DeepMind develops AI that demonstrates social learning capabilities

Most AI systems, such as ChatGPT, gain their knowledge through exposure to huge amounts of data, such as from repositories on the Internet. But such an approach, those in the industry have noted, is not very efficient. Therefore many in the field continue to look for other ways to teach

AI could judge if the user is of porn-watching age under new UK guidance

Britain proposed new age-check guidance on Tuesday to protect children from accessing pornography online, including a suggestion to use AI-based technology to see if a viewer looks to be of legal age. The government's newly passed Online Safety Act requires sites and apps that display or publish pornographic

OpenAI, emerging from the ashes, has a lot to prove even with Sam Altman’s return

The OpenAI power struggle that captivated the tech world after co-founder Sam Altman was fired has finally reached its end — at least for the time being. But what to make of it? It feels almost as though some eulogizing is called for — like OpenAI died and a new, but not

Instagram makes public Reels downloadable for everyone

Instagram launched the ability to download publicly viewable Reels in June, but it limited the feature's availability to users on mobile in the US. Now, Instagram head Adam Mosseri has announced on his broadcast channel that the feature is rolling out to all users worldwide. Anybody on the

Google's Bard AI chatbot is getting better at understanding YouTube videos

Google has updated the Bard AI chatbot so you can have deeper and more meaningful conversations with it when it comes to YouTube videos. In its most recent experiment update log, the company has announced that it has expanded the capabilities of Bard's YouTube extension so that when

YouTube says it’s not slowing down Firefox — just ad blockers

Users on Reddit and Hacker News are complaining that YouTube seems to have inserted an intentional five-second delay before video pages will load in Mozilla’s Firefox and occasionally some other browsers. YouTube tells The Verge that these users are right about the delay, but the browser has nothing to

Sam Altman hired by Microsoft to lead AI research after ouster from OpenAI

It’s been a whirlwind weekend at OpenAI after the company’s board of directors fired founder Sam Altman on November 17. Now, after apparently failed attempts on Sunday to get Altman rehired, OpenAI’s board has instead hired a new CEO, Emmett Shear, while Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella has

Inside plan for world’s biggest passenger plane twice size of Boeing 747 that would have carried nearly 1,000 people

The double-decker super plane was thought up in 1996 by Lockheed Martin and would've blown any other passenger jet out of the sky. Officially called "The Lockheed Very Large Aeroplane" the jet lived up to that name as it weighed in at a whopping 635,000kg

Nepal moves to ban social media app TikTok alleging misuse

This week, Nepal said that Chinese social media app TikTok will be banned from the country, as social harmony and goodwill were being negatively affected by its "misuse." Due to security concerns, the popular social media app has already been either partially or completely banned by other countries.

Instagram adds new features to create content

Instagram added new features such as custom AI stickers, photo filters, a clip hub, and more to help users create content easily. The new features have been added to reels and stories. Creators can save time editing videos with new tools like undo and redo that make it easier to

Flying taxis braced for takeoff at Dubai Airshow

Flying taxis have been a sci-fi fixture for decades, but one operator says they are finally close to reality, first in the United States and then the United Arab Emirates and India. "What we used to think of as science fiction is now science fact," Billy Nolen, Archer

Amazon reaches deal to run shopping ads on Snap

Amazon.com will allow Snapchat users in the US to buy some products listed on the e-commerce company directly from the social media app, a spokesperson said on Monday, making it a deal similar to one recently inked with Facebook-owner Meta Platforms. Customers will be able to shop directly from

Meta's ad free Instagram, Facebook cost around $20 per month

Meta has started prompting its Europe-based users for paid ad-free subscription plans for Instagram and Facebook. Meta has been under scrutiny over its services in Europe. Hence, as a response to new EU privacy regulations, the platform is giving the option to use its services with targeted ads as a

Meta strikes deal with Tencent to sell VR headset in China

The initial agreement establishes Tencent as the sole distributor of Meta's headsets in China, according to sources cited by the Journal. The report indicates that the Chinese gaming company will commence sales of the headset by late 2024. However, details regarding the potential pricing of the headset were

TikTok CEO to meet top EU chiefs next week amid disinformation worries

The visit by Chew, his second to Brussels, comes amid heightened regulatory scrutiny of TikTok's role in the proliferation of disinformation following Hamas' attack on Israel last month and the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza. Chew will meet Breton on Nov. 6 and Jourova and Reynders on Nov.

Biden launches executive order on protection against risks posed by AI

President Joe Biden has unveiled an executive order aimed at mitigating the risks associated with artificial intelligence (AI) for consumers, workers, minority groups, and national security. The order mandates developers of AI systems with potential risks to national security, the economy, public health, or safety to disclose safety test results

LinkedIn Premium gets AI coach for users

LinkedIn is adding an AI-powered coach for premium subscribers which use the technology to help job seekers find, research and apply for roles. The new feature was announced just as the company shared its milestone of achieving one billion user base. LinkedIn has been experimenting with AI features for its

YouTube starts crackdown on ad blockers

YouTube wants users to allow ads on the platform and opt for a premium tier subscription for an ad-free experience. Users around the world are seeing an error which says "Ad blockers violate YouTube's Terms of Service". It further says, “Video playback is blocked unless YouTube

TikTok, Snapchat and others sign pledge to tackle AI-generated child sex abuse images

Tech firms including TikTok, Snapchat and Stability AI have signed a joint statement pledging to work together to counter child sex abuse images generated by artificial intelligence. "We resolve to sustain the dialogue and technical innovation around tackling child sexual abuse in the age of AI," the statement

Did a computer write this? Book industry grapples with AI

From low-quality computer-written books flooding the market to potential copyright violations, publishing is the latest industry to feel the threat from rapid developments in artificial intelligence. Since the launch last year of ChatGPT, an easy-to-use AI chatbot that can deliver an essay upon request within seconds, there have been growing

Meta's Instagram linked to depression, anxiety, insomnia in kids - US states' lawsuit

In a complaint filed on Tuesday, the attorneys general of 33 states including California and New York said Meta, which also operates Facebook, repeatedly misled the public about the dangers of its platforms, and knowingly induced young children and teenagers into addictive and compulsive social media use. Click here to