Oreste Pollicino, Bocconi University and Giovanni De Gregorio, Bocconi University
In March 2023, Italy became the first western country to block the advanced chatbot known as ChatGPT.
The Italian data protection authority, Garante, cited concerns over the protection of personal data when making this decision. It has given OpenAI, the California-based company that created ChatGPT, until the end of April to comply with its demands.
By Adam Smith | Tech correspondent
OpenAI rolled out GPT-4 last week, the new artificial intelligence service that powers ChatGPT.
The main addition to the new model is that it can now “understand” images – writing captions and descriptions, as well as explaining jokes behind memes – and write computer code. Continue reading
Taha Yasseri, University College Dublin
At the end of every year, I gather statistics on the most viewed Wikipedia articles of the year. This helps me, a computational social scientist, understand what topics captured the most attention and gives me a chance to reflect on the major public events of the year. I try to use data to determine how the public (and more specifically here, English-language Wikipedia readers) will collectively remember the past year.
Melvin M. Vopson, University of Portsmouth
Physicists have long struggled to explain why the universe started out with conditions suitable for life to evolve. Why do the physical laws and constants take the very specific values that allow stars, planets and ultimately life to develop? The expansive force of the universe, dark energy, for example, is much weaker than theory suggests it should be – allowing matter to clump together rather than being ripped apart.
Punit Shah, University of Bath; Luca Hargitai, University of Bath, and Lucy Anne Livingston, King’s College London
The business magnate and new owner of Twitter Elon Musk revealed a while ago that he is autistic. Musk, the wealthiest person in the world, is autistic. Musk, a fellow of the prestigious Royal Society and Time’s 2021 Person of the Year, is autistic. One of the most famous people on Earth is autistic. Perhaps it is worth letting that sink in?
Melanie Channon, University of Bath and Jasmine Fledderjohann, Lancaster University
The world’s population is expected to hit 8 billion people on November 15, according to the UN. Already this has prompted worry about whether there will be enough food, water and energy to support our growing population. While human activity is undoubtedly driving the climate crisis, population growth is a red herring.
Elon Musk has said he intends to complete his purchase of Twitter after earlier trying to wriggle out of the deal.
Patrick Pleul/Pool via AP
Erik Gordon, University of Michigan
Elon Musk has finally completed his US$44 billion deal to acquire Twitter and take it private.