Artificial intelligence tools hold promise for applications ranging from autonomous vehicles to the interpretation of medical images. However, a new study finds these AI tools are more vulnerable than previously thought to targeted attacks that effectively force AI systems to make bad decisions. At issue are so-called “adversarial attacks,” in which someone manipulates the data...
Science & Technology
Brazilian City Enacts an Ordinance That Was Secretly Written by ChatGPT
City lawmakers in Brazil have enacted what appears to be the nation’s first legislation written entirely by artificial intelligence — even if they didn’t know it at the time. The experimental ordinance was passed in October in the southern city of Porto Alegre and city councilman Ramiro Rosário revealed this week that it was written...
Merriam-Webster’s Word of the Year – Authentic – Reflects Growing Concerns Over AI’s Ability to Deceive and Dehumanize
When Merriam-Webster announced that its word of the year for 2023 was “authentic,” it did so with over a month to go in the calendar year. Even then, the dictionary publisher was late to the game. In a lexicographic form of Christmas creep, Collins English Dictionary announced its 2023 word of the year, “AI,” on...
Study Reveals How Shipwrecks Are Providing a Refuge for Marine Life
An estimated 50,000 shipwrecks can be found around the UK’s coastline and have been acting as a hidden refuge for fish, corals and other marine species in areas still open to destructive bottom towed fishing, a new study has shown. Many of these wrecks have been lying on the seabed for well over a century,...
Long in the Bluetooth: Sussex Scientists Develop a More Efficient Way to Transmit Data Between Our Devices
University of Sussex researchers have developed a more energy-efficient alternative to transmit data that could potentially replace Bluetooth in mobile phones and other tech devices. With more and more of us owning smart phones and wearable tech, researchers at the University of Sussex have found a more efficient way of connecting our devices and improving battery...
What Is Quantum Advantage? a Quantum Computing Scientist Explains an Approaching Milestone Marking the Arrival of Extremely Powerful Computers
Quantum advantage is the milestone the field of quantum computing is fervently working toward, where a quantum computer can solve problems that are beyond the reach of the most powerful non-quantum, or classical, computers. Quantum refers to the scale of atoms and molecules where the laws of physics as we experience them break down and...
Biden Administration Executive Order Tackles Ai Risks, but Lack of Privacy Laws Limits Reach
The comprehensive, even sweeping, set of guidelines for artificial intelligence that the White House unveiled in an executive order on Oct. 30, 2023, show that the U.S. government is attempting to address the risks posed by AI. As a researcher of information systems and responsible AI, I believe the executive order represents an important step...
Want to Prevent Misinformation? Present Data with an Interactive Visual.
Getting readers of a news story interested in numbers can be a challenge. But the benefits of engaging readers in data can lead to a better understanding, preventing misinformation and misrepresentation in the news. New research by Haiyan Jia, assistant professor in the Department of Journalism and Communication and the Data X Initiative at Lehigh University,...
Cold War Spy Satellite Imagery Reveals Ancient Roman Forts
Two-thousand years ago, forts were constructed by the Roman Empire across the northern Fertile Crescent, spanning from what is now western Syria to northwestern Iraq. In the 1920s, 116 forts were documented in the region by Father Antoine Poidebard, who conducted one of the world’s first aerial surveys using a WWI-era biplane. Poidebard reported that...
Rage Against the Machine?
Knowing How Technology and Artificial Intelligence Have—and Have Not—Affected Jobs in Recent Decades Offers Insight into How They Could Affect the Future of Work No matter how helpful it is, technology has always generated some worker anxiety. Tailors rioted against quick-stitching sewing machines in their day, and, centuries later, the invention of mechanical switching likely bred a...