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Category: Technology

Increased AI use linked to eroding critical thinking skills

Increased AI use linked to eroding critical thinking skills

Phys.org reports: A study by Michael Gerlich at SBS Swiss Business School has found that increased reliance on artificial intelligence (AI) tools is linked to diminished critical thinking abilities. It points to cognitive offloading as a primary driver of the decline. AI’s influence is growing fast. A quick search of AI-related science stories reveals how fundamental a tool it has become. Thousands of AI-assisted, AI-supported and AI-driven analyses and decision-making tools help scientists improve their research. AI has also become…

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Tech coup: How Elon Musk has secretly recruited Silicon Valley executives to infiltrate the U.S. government

Tech coup: How Elon Musk has secretly recruited Silicon Valley executives to infiltrate the U.S. government

The New York Times reports: An unpaid group of billionaires, tech executives and some disciples of Peter Thiel, a powerful Republican donor, are preparing to take up unofficial positions in the U.S. government in the name of cost-cutting. As President-elect Donald J. Trump’s so-called Department of Government Efficiency girds for battle against “wasteful” spending, it is preparing to dispatch individuals with ties to its co-leaders, Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, to agencies across the federal government. After Inauguration Day, the…

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A nickel rush threatens Indonesia’s last nomadic tribes and its forests, fishermen and farmers

A nickel rush threatens Indonesia’s last nomadic tribes and its forests, fishermen and farmers

Garry Lotulung writes: Deep in the backcountry here, Sumean Gebe, 42, lives with Bede Yuli, 39, and his two children in the forest around Dodaga Village, about four hours by road from the capital of North Maluku Province. Every so often, they’ll move to a different forest. “We have been like this since we were little,” he said. “Usually we will make a bivouac [a temporary shelter] with a roof of palm leaves and tarpaulin. We are comfortable living there.”…

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Trump will unleash a crypto frenzy that endangers the whole of the financial system

Trump will unleash a crypto frenzy that endangers the whole of the financial system

Annie Lowrey writes: “The countdown clock on the next catastrophic crash has already started,” Dennis Kelleher, the president of the nonprofit Better Markets, told me. In the past few weeks, I have heard that sentiment or similar from economists, traders, Hill staffers, and government officials. The incoming Trump administration has promised to pass crypto-friendly regulations, and is likely to loosen strictures on Wall Street institutions as well. This will bring an unheralded era of American prosperity, it argues, maintaining the…

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Elon Musk is getting involved in European politics to serve his business interests

Elon Musk is getting involved in European politics to serve his business interests

Malcolm Ferguson writes: Elon Musk wants to be the Italian government’s sole telecommunications provider. The billionaire’s SpaceX company is closing in on a $1.6 billion security contract after Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni visited Donald Trump’s Mar-a-Lago estate on Saturday. The Italian government promises that Meloni didn’t talk to Musk about the deal while she was there. If enacted, Musk’s SpaceX would supply Italy with encryption services for government and military use. “Ready to provide Italy the most secure and…

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AI is costing American renters over $3.6 billion annually, according to new report

AI is costing American renters over $3.6 billion annually, according to new report

Judd Legum writes: The property management software used by many corporate landlords, RealPage, is deploying AI to artificially inflate rental prices in the United States by more than $3.6 billion annually, according to a new report by the White House Council of Economic Advisers (CEA). RealPage, owned by the private equity firm Thoma Bravo, includes a tool called “AI Revenue Management” that provides recommendations for rental prices based on data from competitors. The feature, according to the CEA, the Department…

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Elon Musk and the right’s war on Wikipedia

Elon Musk and the right’s war on Wikipedia

Molly White writes: When Elon Musk launched his latest crusade against Wikipedia this Christmas Eve, it wasn’t just another of the billionaire’s frequent Twitter tantrums. His gripes about the community-written encyclopedia expose something far more significant: the growing efforts by America’s most powerful right-wing figures to rewrite and control the flow of information. While Musk’s involvement began with grievances about his own coverage on the website, his recent attacks reveal his growing role in this broader campaign to delegitimize Wikipedia,…

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With Gaza war and Trump’s return, Silicon Valley embraces a military renaissance

With Gaza war and Trump’s return, Silicon Valley embraces a military renaissance

Sophia Goodfriend reports: On Dec. 10, Israeli military officials, weapons manufacturers, and American venture capitalists gathered at Tel Aviv University for the first ever DefenseTech Summit. The two day affair featured panels on “The Future of Global Conflict,” “Challenges of Iron Swords” (the IDF’s name for the war in Gaza) and “Exploring Innovation in Drone Technology.” Representatives from Palantir, Sequoia Capital, and Elbit shared the stage with the Director General of the IDF and the head of LOTEM, the army…

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Facebook and Instagram to unleash AI-generated ‘users’ no one asked for

Facebook and Instagram to unleash AI-generated ‘users’ no one asked for

Rolling Stone reports: Since burning through tens of billions of dollars on its flop “metaverse” concept and laying off thousands in the aftermath of that gamble, tech giant Meta has strained to reinvent itself as a company poised to capitalize on the overhyped AI revolution. Last year, for example, founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg unveiled animated AI chatbots modeled as alter egos of celebrities including Snoop Dogg, MrBeast, Paris Hilton, and Kendall Jenner. But licensing the voices and likenesses of famous people did little to endear Meta to the younger demographics it wants to turn…

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Large Language Models don’t actually model human language

Large Language Models don’t actually model human language

The Register reports: In May, Sam Altman, CEO of $80-billion-or-so OpenAI, seemed unconcerned about how much it would cost to achieve the company’s stated goal. “Whether we burn $500 million a year or $5 billion – or $50 billion a year – I don’t care,” he told students at Stanford University. “As long as we can figure out a way to pay the bills, we’re making artificial general intelligence. It’s going to be expensive.” Statements like this have become commonplace…

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Musk calls for MAGA’s ‘contemptible fools’ to be expelled from the Republican Party

Musk calls for MAGA’s ‘contemptible fools’ to be expelled from the Republican Party

Salon reports: Tesla CEO Elon Musk may have financed an anti-immigrant, ‘America First’ presidential campaign to the tune of $250 million, but his call for more skilled foreign-born workers sparked massive backlash from President-elect Donald Trump’s far-right supporters. Musk on Wednesday asserted that there was a “dire shortage of extremely talented and motivated engineers in America” and called for increased visa availability, drawing scorn from many of Trump’s followers and close allies. Former Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., a momentary pick…

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Elon Musk calls Jeff Bezos’ ex-wife MacKenzie Scott’s $19 billion charitable donations ‘concerning’

Elon Musk calls Jeff Bezos’ ex-wife MacKenzie Scott’s $19 billion charitable donations ‘concerning’

Benzinga reports: Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk has raised fresh concerns about MacKenzie Scott‘s charitable donations, highlighting growing tensions over billionaire philanthropy and its societal impact. What Happened: Responding to a social media post about Scott’s donations to liberal nonprofits, Musk offered a one-word critique: “Concerning.” The comment came after author John LeFevre highlighted Scott’s contributions to organizations focused on racial equity, social justice, and LGBTQ+ rights. Scott, who received Amazon.com Inc. shares worth billions in her 2019 divorce from…

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The race to translate animal communication into human language

The race to translate animal communication into human language

Arik Kershenbaum writes: In 2025 we will see AI and machine learning leveraged to make real progress in understanding animal communication, answering a question that has puzzled humans as long as we have existed: “What are animals saying to each other?” The recent Coller-Dolittle Prize, offering cash prizes up to half-a-million dollars for scientists who “crack the code” is an indication of a bullish confidence that recent technological developments in machine learning and large language models (LLMs) are placing this…

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The alchemy that powers the modern world

The alchemy that powers the modern world

December 13, 2024 by Sarah Scoles The astronomer Carl Sagan once said, “If you wish to make an apple pie from scratch, you must first invent the universe.” That universe must then invent the first atoms, which will make up the first stars, which will fuse those initial elements into larger ones. Stars will explode and die and crash into each other, those cataclysms building heavier elements. Eventually, billions of years later, the universe will produce an Earth whose insides…

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Hyundai is becoming the new Tesla

Hyundai is becoming the new Tesla

Patrick George writes: Hyundai has a lot riding on a patch of rural Georgia. In October, the South Korean auto giant opened a new electric-vehicle factory west of Savannah at the eye-watering cost of $7.6 billion. It’s the largest economic-development project in the state’s history (one that prompted the Georgia statehouse to pass a resolution recognizing “Hyundai Day”). For now, workers at the so-called Metaplant are building the company’s popular electric SUV, the Hyundai Ioniq 5, and soon more EVs will be built there, too….

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AI chatbots show dementia-like cognitive decline in tests, raising questions about their future in medicine

AI chatbots show dementia-like cognitive decline in tests, raising questions about their future in medicine

The British Medical Journal reports: Almost all leading large language models or “chatbots” show signs of mild cognitive impairment in tests widely used to spot early signs of dementia, finds a study in the Christmas issue of the BMJ. The results also show that “older” versions of chatbots, like older patients, tend to perform worse on the tests. The authors say these findings “challenge the assumption that artificial intelligence will soon replace human doctors.” Huge advances in the field of…

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