Lifeboat Foundation

Researchers demonstrate how Text-to-SQL systems can lead to cyber attacks.

A team of researchers from the University of Sheffield has demonstrated that popular artificial intelligence applications like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, among five others, can be manipulated to produce potentially harmful Structured Query Language (SQL) commands and can be exploited to attack computer systems in the real world.

The applications they used in their study included BAIDU-UNIT, ChatGPT, AI2SQL, AIHELPERBOT, Text2SQL, and ToolSKE.

No AI announcements expected at Apple event on Monday.

Apple is reportedly spending a billion dollars a year in a major push for artificial intelligence. Over the last year, the AI boom has seen many of its tech adversaries investing millions and billions of dollars into large language models (LLMs) and conversational platforms.

Although the iPhone maker is hush about what is cooking in its AI laboratory, Interesting Engineering reported earlier that the company may be looking to revamp Siri with generative AI capabilities. Much like how OpenAI’s ChatGPT (Plus and Enterprise) can now generate content from voice commands, iPhone users could use Siri similarly.

“As sensors continue to evolve to be more skin-like, there is a need for robots to be smarter. Developments in sensors and artificial intelligence will need to go hand in hand”

Scientists at the University of British Columbia and Honda’s research institute have revealed the creation of a revolutionary soft sensor that mimics human skin in a press release. This highly sensitive, smart, and stretchable sensor is poised to reshape how machines interact with the world.

Offering a myriad of applications, the soft sensor takes cues from human skin in terms of both sensitivity and texture. It can make actions such as picking up a piece of soft fruit possible when applied to the surface of a prosthetic or robotic arm.

A new study from the University of Wisconsin–Madison suggests that chemotherapy may not be reaching its full potential, in part because researchers and doctors have long misunderstood how some of the most common cancer drugs actually ward off tumors.

For decades, researchers have believed that a class of drugs called microtubule poisons treat cancerous tumors by halting mitosis, or the division of cells. Now, a team of University of Wisconsin–Madison scientists has found that in patients, microtubule poisons don’t actually stop cancer cells from dividing. Instead, these drugs alter mitosis—sometimes enough to cause new cancer cells to die and the disease to regress.

Cancers grow and spread because cancerous cells divide and multiply indefinitely, unlike normal cells which are limited in the number of times they can split into new cells. The assumption that microtubule poisons stop cancer cells from dividing is based on lab studies demonstrating just that.

A meta-analysis showed improvement of neuropsychiatric symptoms with acetylcholinesterase inhibitors in Alzheimer disease and Parkinson disease, although effect sizes were small.

Neuropsychiatric symptoms are challenging to treat in patients with neurodegenerative conditions. In this meta-analysis, researchers investigated the effect of cholinesterase inhibitors (ChEI) on neuropsychiatric symptoms in those with Alzheimer disease (AD) or Parkinson disease (PD). Studies in the analysis included placebo-controlled, randomized clinical trials that included at least one ChEI — i.e., donepezil, rivastigmine, or galantamine — and applied at least one validated neuropsychiatric measure, with the Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI) being the most used measure studied. The primary outcomes were hallucinations and delusions. Secondary outcomes included all other neuropsychiatric outcomes.

Original participant data for 6,649 individuals with AD or PD from 17 trials were available for analysis out of 34 eligible trials. In patients with AD, ChEI use was associated with significantly fewer delusions (effect size, −0.08) and hallucinations (−0.09) compared with placebo. In the PD subgroup, ChEIs also were associated with significantly fewer delusions (−0.14) and hallucinations (−0.08). These effects did not differ among ChEI types. ChEIs were associated with lower appetite scores in the AD group and with significantly improved total neuropsychiatric scores in the PD group (−0.18). Increases in baseline neuropsychiatric scores were associated with greater effect size favoring ChEIs in those with PD. Lower baseline cognitive score was associated with increased effect size favoring ChEIs in both AD and PD.

Based on this meta-analysis, ChEIs could be considered in appropriate patients, since ChEIs may reduce hallucinations and delusions in people with AD or PD. Greater effects may be possible if neuropsychiatric symptoms or lower cognitive scores are present at the time of initiation. ChEIs decreased appetite scores in AD, which should be considered in those who are underweight. Whether ChEIs also improve neuropsychiatric symptoms in dementia with Lewy bodies requires further study, since data were insufficient to assess that population in this analysis.

Continue reading “Cholinesterase Inhibitors and Psychiatric Symptoms in Alzheimer Disease and Parkinson Disease” »

Neurologists at the biggest Alzheimer’s research meeting in the US experienced something this week they hadn’t in years: optimism.

Researchers have developed a new computer simulation of the early universe that closely aligns with observations made by the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST).

Initial JWST observations hinted that something may be amiss in our understanding of early galaxy formation. The first galaxies studied by JWST appeared to be brighter and more massive than theoretical expectations.

The findings, published in The Open Journal of Astrophysics, by researchers at Maynooth University, Ireland, with collaborators from US-based Georgia Institute of Technology, show that observations made by JWST do not contradict theoretical expectations. The so-called “Renaissance simulations” used by the team are a series of highly sophisticated computer simulations of galaxy formation in the early universe.

You might have forgotten about it, but Apple unveiled what it described as the “next-generation” of CarPlay way back at WWDC 2022. Since that initial announcement, however, Apple hasn’t said a word about next-gen CarPlay, nor have any of its automaker partners.

Despite the silence, Apple still seems adamant that the first vehicles with next-generation CarPlay will be announced this year…

On its website dedicated to CarPlay, there’s a small section at the bottom dedicated to the “Next generation of CarPlay.” Apple explains:

ACAPULCO, Mexico (AP) — First came the devastation, then people’s desperation.

Hurricane Otis blasted the Mexican tourist port of Acapulco like no other storm before in the Eastern Pacific. As a monstrous Category 5 meteor, with its 165 mph (266 kph) winds, it destroyed what it found in its path: large residential buildings, houses, hotels, roads and stores.

Fallen trees and power line poles covered practically all the streets in this city of more than 1 million people. The walls and the roofs of buildings and houses were left partially or totally ripped off, while some cars were buried under debris.