This thread is about how artificial intelligence learns to communicate—and what it means for the humans on the other end of the conversation. LISTEN to the full podcast episode of #InMachinesWeTrust: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/wha…
You heard that right. We called up the original voice of Siri for this podcast episode. And @SiriouslySusan tells us she had no idea her voice would become the one that millions would associate with Apple devices.
Our very own @charlottejee also turns her parents into voice assistants. She and her family worked with HereAfter, one of a slew of companies preserving the memory of our loved ones... by creating interactive, digital versions of them.
And we speak with a father who thinks scam artists may have used artificial intelligence to capture the essence of his son’s voice.
There also may be a cameo of @joerogan’s voice. And when we say Joe Rogan, we mean a computer-generated fake of the podcaster, produced by Square’s AI lab called Dessa to raise awareness about the technology.
Was the covid-19 pandemic caused by a laboratory accident? A year ago, this idea was denounced as a conspiracy theory. Now, a group of prominent biologists say there needs to be a “safe space” for asking this question. technologyreview.com/2021/05/13/102…
In a letter in the journal @ScienceMagazine, 18 prominent biologists—including the world’s foremost coronavirus researcher—are lending their weight to calls for a new investigation of all possible origins of the virus.
They are also calling on China’s laboratories and agencies to “open their records” to independent analysis.
The hype around “scariants” is overblown, but we also shouldn’t be too complacent. Here are five reasons why you shouldn’t panic about coronavirus variants.
Real-world data out of Qatar suggests that the Pfizer vaccine works quite well, even against B.1.351. Full vaccination offered 75% protection, still “a miracle,” says Andrew Read, a disease ecologist at @PennStateBio.
While scientists testing vaccine efficacy often focus on antibodies, they are only “a very narrow slice” of what the immune response might be, says @drjenndowd. T-cells also help keep infections in check—and there’s data that the vaccines elicit good T-cell responses.
This is a thread about how China used a prize-winning iPhone hack, developed at the country’s top security competition, to spy on the Uyghurs. technologyreview.com/2021/05/06/102…
Chinese hackers used to be the most dominant force at international hacking competitions. In 2018, Beijing stopped sending its hackers overseas and instead created its own contest. The first top prize went to a remarkable iPhone hack.
.@techreview has learned that US government surveillance quickly spotted the same prize-winning iPhone hack being used against Uyghurs, and informed Apple.
Universal basic income has become a favored cause for many high-profile Silicon Valley entrepreneurs like @jack and Mark Zuckerberg as a solution to the job losses and social conflict that would be wrought by automation and AI—the very technologies their own companies create.
But the conversation has changed. Its center of gravity has shifted away from “universal basic income” aimed at counterbalancing the automation of work and toward “guaranteed income” aimed at addressing economic and racial injustices.
This is a thread about how Australia has become the battleground for a power struggle between governments and Big Tech, as explained in today’s Download newsletter. mailchi.mp/technologyrevi…
Australians woke up on Thursday to Facebook timelines devoid of any news.
Faced with the option of either paying to link back to publishers to comply with an incoming Australian law, or entirely pulling the plug on hosting news, it chose the latter.