Lifeboat Foundation

AI has exploded onto the scene in recent years, bringing both promise and peril. Systems like ChatGPT and Stable Diffusion showcase the tremendous potential of AI to enhance productivity and creativity. Yet they also reveal a dark reality: the algorithms often reflect the same systemic prejudices and societal biases present in their training data.

While the corporate world has quickly capitalized on integrating generative AI systems, many experts urge caution, considering the critical flaws in how AI represents diversity. Whether it’s text generators reinforcing stereotypes or facial recognition exhibiting racial bias, the ethical challenges cannot be ignored.

From generating text that furthers stereotypes to producing discriminatory facial recognition results, biased AI poses ethical and social challenges.

Continue reading “New AI Model Counters Bias In Data With A DEI Lens” »

The trial has revealed that Google was concerned about losing its monopoly to Spotlight, an in-house search engine made by Apple.

Google and Apple compete on several fronts – operating systems, email, app stores, cloud computing, and photo apps. While Google leads in the market share of its phone operating system, Apple boasts of a line of very cool hardware tech. But they remain partners in one key area, which is also currently in the eye of the storm.

Google pays Apple for its search engine to be the default selection on iPhones. Its parent company, Alphabet, pays the iPhone maker upwards of $20 billion annually as part of the deal. In 2016, Apple reportedly was presented with a lucrative billion-dollar offer by Microsoft to replace Google with Bing in its phones. But Apple didn’t budge.

The latest round of restrictions has left a huge blow to China’s AI aspirations, as per reports.

China’s tech firms are allegedly racing to secure Nvidia’s crucial graphics processing units (GPUs) after the latest embargo by the US on the components that support AI tech.

The latest round of restrictions has dealt a huge blow to China’s AI aspirations, leaving companies struggling to secure key components, according to a news report by South China Morning Post (SCMP) on Friday.

Still, experts caution that Chinese firms remain years behind in producing the lithography systems needed to make real progress.

China’s top memory chip maker, Yangtze Memory Technologies Corp (YMTC), has achieved a “surprise” breakthrough in producing the “world’s most advanced” 3D NAND memory chip, which is used in consumer devices like laptops and smartphones, a report by TechInsights.

Breaking the US sanctions barrier

Continue reading “How China’s YMTC defied US sanctions with a chip breakthrough” »

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” »