AI will add to the e-waste problem. Here’s what we can do about it.
Generative AI could account for up to 5 million metric tons of e-waste by 2030, according to a new study. That’s a relatively small fraction of the current global total of over 60 million metric tons of e-waste each year. However, it’s still a significant part of a growing problem, experts warn. E-waste is the…
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This AI system makes human tutors better at teaching children math
The US has a major problem with education inequality. Children from low-income families are less likely to receive high-quality education, partly because poorer districts struggle to retain experienced teachers. Artificial intelligence could help, by improving the one-on-one tutoring sometimes used to supplement class instruction in these schools. With help from an AI tool, tutors could…
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Palmer Luckey on the Pentagon’s future of mixed reality
Palmer Luckey has, in some ways, come full circle. His first experience with virtual-reality headsets was as a teenage lab technician at a defense research center in Southern California, studying their potential to curb PTSD symptoms in veterans. He then built Oculus, sold it to Facebook for $2 billion, left Facebook after a highly public…
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Kids are learning how to make their own little language models
“This new AI technology—it’s very interesting to learn how it works and understand it more,” says 10-year-old Luca, a young AI model maker. Luca is one of the first kids to try Little Language Models, a new application from Manuj and Shruti Dhariwal, two PhD researchers at MIT’s Media Lab, that helps children understand how…
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How Wayve’s driverless cars will meet one of their biggest challenges yet
The UK driverless-car startup Wayve is headed west. The firm’s cars learned to drive on the streets of London. But Wayve has announced that it will begin testing its tech in and around San Francisco as well. And that brings a new challenge: Its AI will need to switch from driving on the left to…
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Reckoning with generative AI’s uncanny valley
Generative AI has the power to surprise in a way that few other technologies can. Sometimes that’s a very good thing; other times, not so good. In theory, as generative AI improves, this issue should become less important. However, in reality, as generative AI becomes more “human” it can begin to turn sinister and unsettling,…
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Google DeepMind is making its AI text watermark open source
Google DeepMind has developed a tool for identifying AI-generated text and is making it available open source. The tool, called SynthID, is part of a larger family of watermarking tools for generative AI outputs. The company unveiled a watermark for images last year, and it has since rolled out one for AI-generated video. In May,…
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Introducing: The AI Hype Index
There’s no denying that the AI industry moves fast. Each week brings a bold new announcement, product release, or lofty claim that pushes the bounds of what we previously thought was possible. Separating AI fact from hyped-up fiction isn’t always easy. That’s why we’ve created the AI Hype Index—a simple, at-a-glance summary of everything you…
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The algorithms around us
A metronome ticks. A record spins. And as a feel-good pop track plays, a giant compactor slowly crushes a Jenga tower of material creations. Paint cans burst. Chess pieces topple. Camera lenses shatter. An alarm clock shrills and then goes silent. A guitar neck snaps. Even a toy emoji is not spared, its eyes popping…
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Would you trust AI to mediate an argument?
This story originally appeared in The Algorithm, our weekly newsletter on AI. To get stories like this in your inbox first, sign up here. I’ve recently been feeling heartbroken. A very close friend recently cut off contact with me. I don’t really understand why, and my attempts at fixing the situation have backfired. Situations like…
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