App-driven gig-economy nurses.
The Markup looks at what it’s like when you start hiring nurses the way you catch a ride from Uber: Gig nursing apps have become […]
computer science
AI is reading scrolls burned in Vesuvius.
The Guardian looks back at a carbonized papyrus scorched by the lava that consumed Pompeii. University of Kentucky computer scientists have been able to decipher […]
SONG: “Communications” (a penitential Slim Gaillard cover)
SONG: “Communications” (a penitential Slim Gaillard cover). (available as .ogg here) ARTIST: grant. SOURCE: This isn’t based on any research. It’s a cover of a […]
Chinese programmer fined RMB 1 million for using a VPN.
The Guardian reports on a dramatic sentence for the crime of internet privacy: The programmer, surnamed Ma, was issued with a penalty notice by the […]
An AI anesthesiologist to detect pain during surgery.
EurekAlert! shares the slightly unnerving announcement made at the annual Anesthesiology meeting about a new application for AI – monitoring pain levels in surgical patients […]
AIs are in the hurricane-forecast business now.
Ars Technica, in not so many words, is saying that AIs could be coming for the meteorologists next. But for now, they’re helping the pros […]
SONG: FAQs
SONG: “FAQs”. (available as .wav here) ARTIST: grant. SOURCE: Based on Popular Science, 14 Aug 2023, “School district uses ChatGPT to help remove library books,” […]
Science Art: Information Display front cover, 1972
This is the cover of the 1972 March/April issue of Information Display, Vol 9 No 2, from archive.org. Stories inside include ways to project different-sized […]
ChatGPT, the Fahrenheit 451 edition
Popular Science discusses a school board in Iowa using ChatGPT to itemize the books that should be removed from library shelves because they ‘contain a […]
Wanna watch the watchers?
The Markup is making an offer to anyone with a Facebook account – even an inactive one. Previously, they mapped out how the Meta Pixel […]
AI trained on AI tends to collapse (like most cannibalizing systems do).
Venture Beat, a tech investing magazine, weighs in on research that looks directly at the problems that arise when AI is used to generate web […]
AI is eating the web. Not as in coding, but as in its economy.
The Verge has one of the more interesting pieces (to me) about AI that I’ve seen lately, reporting less on “what do these content-making machines […]
SONG: Content Feeds
SONG: “Content Feeds”. ARTIST: grant. SOURCE: The Markup, 1 May 2023, “The Very Hungry Algorithm: Bedtime with ChatGPT,” as used in the post “How do […]
How do you feel when the AI starts reading your young children their bedtime stories?
As The Markup points out, this is no longer a hypothetical question, but an actual parenting challenge now: I made a note to ask his […]
The smarter the brain, the longer it takes to solve a hard problem.
The Berlin Institute of Health has a new metric for intelligence. It’s not speed at solving problems, but the opposite. Higher intelligence means simple problems […]