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In anticipation for my next public lecture, the organizer requested the title of my lecture. I suggested: “Hunting for Aliens.” The organizer expressed concern that some members of the audience might confuse me for a U.S. government employee in search of illegal aliens near the southern border wall. I explained that no two-dimensional wall erected on Earth would protect us from extraterrestrials because they will arrive from above. It is just a matter of time until we notice interstellar travelers arriving without a proper visa. A policy of deporting them back to their home exoplanet will be expensive — over a billion dollars per flight. The trip will also take a long time — over a billion years with conventional chemical propulsion. We will have to learn how to live with these aliens, and promote diversity and inclusion in a Galactic context.

The Sun formed in the last third of cosmic history, so we are relatively late to the party of interstellar travelers. Experienced travelers might have been engaged in their interstellar journeys for billions of years. To properly interpret their recorded diaries and photo albums in terms of the specific stars they visited, we would need to accurately interpret their time measurements.

Imagine an interstellar tourist wearing a mechanical analog watch. Such a timepiece is at best accurate to within 3 seconds per day, or equivalently 30,000 years per billion years. This timing error is comparable to the amount of time it takes to hop from one star to another with chemical propulsion. Interstellar travelers must wear better clocks in order to have a reliable record of time.

Regular use of math and reading skills could prevent cognitive decline with age, according to a new Science Advances study.


Cognitive skills of the population such as literacy and numeracy are important not only for individual incomes but also for the economic growth of nations (26). As a result, the aging of world populations presents an economic concern if the commonly assumed declines of these skills with age hold.

We use longitudinal variation in individual literacy and numeracy skills for a representative adult sample to create age-skill profiles that credibly separate age from cohort effects. The pure age component that we derive provides a different perspective on the impacts of aging populations. Overall, our results are not consistent with a view that a natural law dictates an inevitable decline in these skills with age. Potential cognitive declines only occur at later ages and are not inevitable with usage of skills.

This is consolation for countries with aging populations, but avoidance of skill losses is not automatic and appears related to stimulation from skill usage. These results thus suggest that age-skill relationships of adults deserve policy attention, consistent with concerns about the necessity of lifelong learning.

Cow D lived on a dairy farm in New Zealand. The animal looked like the typical black-and-white cow farmers raise for milk, except for one thing: Researchers had outfitted Cow D with an artificial fistula—a hole offering them a way to reach the microbes inhabiting the animal’s bathtub-size stomach. But it’s what happened next that offers a porthole into the global debate over the use of genetic data.

In the spring of 2009, Samantha Noel, then a doctoral researcher at Massey University in Palmerston North, New Zealand, reached into Cow D’s rumen and plucked out a strain of Lachnospiraceae bacterium, later dubbed ND2006. Another team of geneticists sequenced the microbe’s complete set of genes, or genome, and uploaded the information, which was then shared with GenBank, a public database run by the US National Institutes of Health. If genes are the book of life, then this process was like adding a digital copy to an online library. In policy circles, these lines of code go by another name: digital sequence information, or DSI.

The future of warfare starts in your mind. Understand how Neuroscience, Technology/AI and the OODA loop affects your flow. The world is changing, and cognitive warfare is at the forefront. In our latest podcast episode, we sit down with James Giordano, PhD, a Navy veteran and an expert in neurocognitive science, to delve into the world of cognitive warfare.
Stay in the Loop: https://www.aglx.com/newsletter-signup-north-america.
From the impact of emotions on decision-making to the integration of artificial intelligence and human cognition, this episode challenges your perspective on the battlefield. Join us as we explore the ethical implications of genetic modifications, the transformative effects of psychedelics, and the complexities of data usage in the digital age. Get ready to reimagine the relationship between technology, culture, and language. Don’t miss out on this opportunity to gain valuable insights from our thought-provoking conversation with Dr. Giordano. Tune in now to stay ahead of the curve on the evolving landscape of warfare!

00:00 — Understanding the OODA loop: A Neuroscience Perspective.
09:11 — Exploring Fifth Generation Warfare and Liminal Warfare.
16:06 — The Long Game: China’s Strategic Plan.
22:19 — Understanding Cognitive Warfare and Human-Machine Teaming.
25:52 — The Evolution of Human-Machine Teaming.
29:11 — Human Involvement in AI Decision Making.
36:01 — The Ethics of Paternalistic AI Systems.
40:43 — Technology’s Impact on Cognitive Engagement.
45:13 — Exploring Technologies for Human Performance Enhancement.
55:59 — Diving Into Attacking Mode and Ethics.
56:24 — Hacking the Human Genome.
59:37 — Epigenetic Modification and Phenotypic Shift.
1:04:54 — The Psychedelic Revolution.
1:11:18 — Revisiting Alcohol and Caffeine: Benefits and Burdens.
1:19:18 — Impact of Technology on Cognitive Capacity.
1:23:33 — Information Overload and Burdens.
1:27:02 — Ownership and Security of Personal Data.
1:31:56 — Identifying Predispositional Traits.
1:33:49 — Data Manipulation and Biometrics.
1:40:13 — Cultural Impact of Technology.
1:48:55 — The Role of Education in Integrating Science, Technology, Ethics, and Policy.
1:54:30 — Major Threats and Concerns in Today’s World.

Leading up to the launch, NSF will go live with over six hours of commentary stakeout. We will answer questions, observe, and provide you with everything you need to know for Starship Flight 8.

⚡ Become a member of NASASpaceflight’s channel for exclusive discord access, fast turnaround clips, and other exclusive benefits. Your support helps us continue our 24/7 coverage. ⚡

🔍 If you are interested in using footage captured by this stream, please review our content use policy: https://www.nasaspaceflight.com/conte

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YouTube warns that scammers are using an AI-generated video featuring the company’s CEO in phishing attacks to steal creators’ credentials.

The attackers are sharing it as a private video with targeted users via emails claiming YouTube is changing its monetization policy.

“We’re aware that phishers have been sharing private videos to send false videos, including an AI generated video of YouTube’s CEO Neal Mohan announcing changes in monetization,” the online video sharing platform warned in a pinned post on its official community website.

Lessening the severity and impact of influenza — dr. gregg C sylvester, MD — chief health officer, CSL seqirus.


Dr. Gregg Sylvester, MD is Chief Health Officer and Vice President, Medical Affairs, at CSL Seqirus (https://www.cslseqirus.us/our-company/leadership/gregg–… one of the world’s largest influenza vaccine companies.

Dr. Sylvester has led CSL Seqirus Medical Affairs since 2016, overseeing the global team that scientifically differentiates company’s vaccines by generating Real World Evidence and presenting CSL Seqirus research to national vaccine recommending organizations.

Dr. Sylvester has extensive experience in the pharmaceutical industry, government and patient care.

Prior to joining CSL Seqirus, Dr. Sylvester led Medical Affairs teams at Pfizer and Merck involved in the worldwide launches of vaccines including Gardasil (Human Papillomavirus Vaccine), Prevnar 13 (Pneumococcal Conjugate Vaccine) and Trumenba (Meningococcal Group B Vaccine).

In today’s AI news, Backed by $200 million in funding, Scott Wu and his team at Cognition are building an AI tool that could potentially disintegrate the whole industry, at a $2 Billion valuation. Devin is an autonomous AI agent that, in theory, writes the code itself—no people involved—and can complete entire projects typically assigned to developers.

In other advancements, OpenAI is changing how it trains AI models to explicitly embrace “intellectual freedom … no matter how challenging or controversial a topic may be,” the company says in a new policy. OpenAI is releasing a significantly expanded version of its Model Spec, a document that defines how its AI models should behave — and is making it free for anyone to use or modify.

Then, xAI, the artificial intelligence company founded by Elon Musk, is set to launch Grok 3 on Monday, Feb. 17. According to xAI, this latest version of its chatbot, which Musk describes as “scary smart,” represents a major step forward, improving reasoning, computational power and adaptability. Grok 3’s development was accelerated by its Colossus supercomputer, which was built in just eight months, powered by 100,000 Nvidia H100 GPUs.

And, large language models can learn complex reasoning tasks without relying on large datasets, according to a new study by researchers at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. Their findings show that with just a small batch of well-curated examples, you can train an LLM for tasks that were thought to require tens of thousands of training instances.

S new o1 model, which focuses on slower, more deliberate reasoning — much like how humans think — in order to solve complex problems. ” + Then, join Turing Award laureate Yann LeCun—Chief AI Scientist at Meta and Professor at NYU—as he discusses with Link Ventures’ John Werner, the future of artificial intelligence and how open-source development is driving innovation. In this wide-ranging conversation, LeCun explains why AI systems won’t “take over” but will instead serve as empowering assistants.

Meanwhile, when confronted with a constant stream of new AI tools, it can be stressful to make the best choice, especially with hype of “the next big thing. In the opening keynote from the Gartner IT Infrastructure, Operations & Cloud Strategies Conference, Gartner experts Autumn Stanish, Hassan Ennaciri and Roger Williams equip you with insights and guidance on the AI, cloud and platform trends.

We close out with expert panel, at AI House, led by Moderator Mina Al-Oraibi, The National delves into how a globally integrated AI ecosystem can revolutionize smart cities by enhancing efficiency, sustainability, and citizen well-being. Panelists include; Thomas Pramotedham Presight, Juan Lavista Ferres, Microsoft AI For Good Research Lab, Guillem Martínez Roura, International Telecommunications Union, and Anna Gawlikowska, SwissAI.

In today’s AI news, a consortium of investors led by Elon Musk is offering $97.4 billion to buy the nonprofit that controls OpenAI. The unsolicited offer adds a complication to Altman’s carefully laid plans for OpenAI’s future, including converting it to a for-profit company and spending up to $500 billion on AI infrastructure through a JV called Stargate.

In other advancements, all eyes were on French President Emmanuel Macron Sunday at the end of the first day of the AI Action Summit in Paris after he announced a €109 billion investment package. “For me, this summit is not just the announcement of a lot of investment in France. It’s a wake-up call for a European strategy,” he said.

And, Current AI, a “public interest” initiative focused on fostering and steering development of artificial intelligence in societally beneficial directions, was announced at the French AI Action summit on Monday. It’s kicking off with an initial $400 million in pledges from backers and a plan to pull in $2.5 billion more over the next five years.

Then, ZDNET contributor Jack Wallen reports his local AI of choice is the open-source Ollama. He recently wrote a piece on how to make using this local LLM easier with the help of a browser extension, which he uses on Linux. But on MacOS devices, Jack turns to an easy-to-use, free app called Msty.

In videos, At the AI Action Summit in Paris, Yann LeCun underscored a fundamental shift in artificial intelligence—one that moves beyond the brute-force approach of large language models in his presentation, “The Next AI Revolution”. The future of AI hinges on *world models*—structured, adaptive representations that can infer, reason, and plan.

And, DeepSeek is not a threat to OpenAI says, Sridhar Ramaswamy, CEO Snowflake, the $60BN public company with $3.5BN in revenue growing 30% per year. Sridhar joined Snowflake following his company, Neeva, being acquired by them for $150M. Mr. Ramaswamy spent 15 years growing Google’s AdWords from $1.5B to over $100B.

Then, former Google CEO Eric Schmidt with Alliant founder Craig Mundie talk with David Rubenstein about the promise, and potential peril, of a new frontier in artificial intelligence — and their collaboration with the late Henry Kissinger on his final book, Genesis. Recorded January 26, 2025 at The 92nd Street Y, in New York City, New York.

More than 800 researchers, policy makers and government officials from around the world gathered in Paris this week to attend the official launch of the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology (IYQ). Held at the headquarters of the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), the two-day event included contributions from four Nobel prize-winning physicists – Alain Aspect, Serge Haroche, Anne l’Huillier and William Phillips.

Opening remarks came from Cephas Adjej Mensah, a research director in the Ghanaian government, which last year submitted the draft resolution to the United Nations for 2025 to be proclaimed as the IYQ. “Let us commit to making quantum science accessible to all,” Mensah declared, reminding delegates that the IYQ is intended to be a global initiative, spreading the benefits of quantum equitably around the world. “We can unleash the power of quantum science and technology to make an equitable and prosperous future for all.”

The keynote address was given by l’Huillier, a quantum physicist at Lund University in Sweden, who shared the 2023 Nobel Prize for Physics with Pierre Agostini and Ferenc Krausz for their work on attosecond pulses. “Quantum mechanics has been extremely successful,” she said, explaining how it was invented 100 years ago by Werner Heisenberg on the island of Helgoland. “It has led to new science and new technology – and it’s just the beginning.”