Tag Archives: Articles

02Mar/23

AI could make more work for us, instead of simplifying our lives

Barbara Ribeiro, University of Manchester

There’s a common perception that artificial intelligence (AI) will help streamline our work. There are even fears that it could wipe out the need for some jobs altogether.

But in a study of science laboratories I carried out with three colleagues at the University of Manchester, the introduction of automated processes that aim to simplify work — and free people’s time — can also make that work more complex, generating new tasks that many workers might perceive as mundane.

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23Feb/23

The EU’s AI Act – Innovations Vs Human Rights

Artificial intelligence (AI) technology is everywhere. Thanks to a lack of red tape, it’s transforming our homes, economies and cultures – from ChatGPT and virtual DJs, to facial recognition and predictive policing tools.

However, the rise of AI has also come at a significant cost. As we’ve discussed in recent weeks, AI often undermines our privacy, entrenches societal biases, and creates opaque systems that lack accountability.
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21Feb/23

How your brain decides what to think

Valerie van Mulukom, Coventry University

You’re sitting on the plane, staring out of the window at the clouds and all of a sudden, you think back to how a few months ago, you had a heart-to-heart with a good colleague about the pressure you experience at work. How do thoughts seemingly completely unrelated to the present pop into our heads? Why do we remember certain things and not others? Why does our mind go off on tangents and why do we have daydreams?

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13Feb/23

Psychopaths: why they’ve thrived through evolutionary history – and how that may change

Jonathan R Goodman, University of Cambridge

When you start to notice them, psychopaths seem to be everywhere. This is especially true of people in powerful places. By one estimate, as many as 20% of business leaders have “clinically relevant levels” of psychopathic tendencies – despite the fact as little as 1% of the general population are considered psychopaths. Psychopaths are characterised by shallow emotions, a lack of empathy, immorality, anti-social behaviour and, importantly, deceptiveness.

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11Feb/23

Faeces, urine and sweat – just how gross are hot tubs? A microbiologist explains

Primrose Freestone, University of Leicester

For many centuries we have bathed in communal waters. Sometimes for cleanliness but more often for pleasure. Indeed, in ancient Greece, baths were taken in freshwater, or sometimes the sea – which was thought of as a sacred place dedicated to local gods and so was considered an act of worship.

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10Feb/23

Bard, Bing and Baidu: how big tech’s AI race will transform search – and all of computing

Toby Walsh, UNSW Sydney

Today, if you want to find a good moving company, you might ask your favourite search engine – Google, Bing, or DuckDuckGo perhaps – for some advice.

After wading past half a page of adverts, you get a load of links to articles on moving companies. You click on one of the links and finally read about how to pick a good ’un. But not for much longer.

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09Feb/23

London Fashion Week – Digital Fashion Innovation

By EFFEKT x FASHHACK

Digital fashion is having a significant impact on the traditional fashion industry. By creating clothing and accessories using pixels instead of fabric, digital fashion is blurring the lines between the physical and virtual worlds. Continue reading

05Feb/23

BrandSpark International announces its 15th annual 2023 Best New Product Awards winners, honoring the Best New Food, Beverage, Beauty, Health, Personal Care, and Household products, based on a nationwide survey of American consumers

BrandSpark has also released some key highlights from its BrandSpark American Shopper Study – health & wellness, value for money and sustainability are top of mind with Americans. 56% of consumers say they don’t mind spending a lot to get health products that really work, sleep is number one priority in health management, and almost half say they want to be leaders in reducing environmental impact. 66% believe that research and development is continuously leading to better household care products. Not surprisingly, 8 in 10 believe taste remains the most important factor in their food purchases. Continue reading

31Jan/23

Unlike with academics and reporters, you can’t check when ChatGPT’s telling the truth

Blayne Haggart, Brock University

Of all the reactions elicited by ChatGPT, the chatbot from the American for-profit company OpenAI that produces grammatically correct responses to natural-language queries, few have matched those of educators and academics.

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