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AI startup Hugging Face and ServiceNow Research, ServiceNow’s R&D division, have released StarCoder, a free alternative to code-generating AI systems along the lines of GitHub’s Copilot.

Code-generating systems like DeepMind’s AlphaCode; Amazon’s CodeWhisperer; and OpenAI’s Codex, which powers Copilot, provide a tantalizing glimpse at what’s possible with AI within the realm of computer programming. Assuming the ethical, technical and legal issues are someday ironed out (and AI-powered coding tools don’t cause more bugs and security exploits than they solve), they could cut development costs substantially while allowing coders to focus on more creative tasks.

According to a study from the University of Cambridge, at least half of developers’ efforts are spent debugging and not actively programming, which costs the software industry an estimated $312 billion per year. But so far, only a handful of code-generating AI systems have been made freely available to the public — reflecting the commercial incentives of the organizations building them (see: Replit).

A place to write what you’re feeling. If no new messages are received for 24 hours, the site will go away.

Perhaps our best chance for nearby life in the Universe?

Posted on Big Think, for direct link see.

Researchers at the Department of Psychiatry and Psychology, Center for Behavioral Health, Neurological Institute at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio have authored a case report on the positive effects of psilocybin on color blindness.

Published in the journal Drug Science, Policy and Law, the researchers highlight some implications surrounding a single reported vision improvement self-study by a colleague and cite other previous reports, illustrating a need to understand better how these psychedelics could be used in therapeutic settings.

Past reports have indicated that people with color vision deficiency (CVD), usually referred to as color blindness, experience better color vision after using lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD) or psilocybin (magic mushrooms). There is a lack of scientific evidence for these claims, as researching the effects of these drugs has been highly restricted.

Tools such as DALL – E 2 and ChatGPT have the potential to crush the “competition” because they can do specific creative tasks faster and, in some cases, better than humans. This may sound scary for the people behind the desk; however, as phenomenal as these tools are, they are not infallible. These LLMs are not without their limits. They are vulnerable to inconsistent accuracy, limited creativity and controllability and may provide outdated information.

Despite their significant strengths, they present users with challenges that must be addressed to optimize their potential fully. What this means for those threatened by the existence of AI is the need to step up their game and upskill to remain competitive.

The evolution of technology will continue, addressing the gaps in many different industries to benefit society. Creatives, including digital marketers, copywriters and designers, have already recognized the potential benefits of AI-powered tools. So, the question shouldn’t be whether AI will take over your jobs but how you’ll adapt.

We don’t know when. We don’t know who will get there first. But Q-day will happen — and it will change the world as we know it.

A collaborative effort has installed electronic “brains” on solar-powered robots that are 100 to 250 micrometers in size – smaller than an ant’s head – so that they can walk autonomously without being externally controlled.

Cornell researchers installed electronic “brains” on solar-powered robots that are 100 to 250 micrometers in size, so the tiny bots can walk autonomously without being externally controlled. Noël Heaney/Cornell University

Continue reading “Brains on board: Smart microrobots walk autonomously” »

Facebook has taken action against a malware campaign leveraging popular topics like ChatGPT, Google BERT, and TikTok marketing tools as a lure.

The U.S. Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) on Tuesday released an Industrial Control Systems (ICS) advisory about a critical flaw affecting ME RTU remote terminal units.

The security vulnerability, tracked as CVE-2023–2131, has received the highest severity rating of 10.0 on the CVSS scoring system for its low attack complexity.

“Successful exploitation of this vulnerability could allow remote code execution,” CISA said, describing it as a case of command injection affecting versions of INEA ME RTU firmware prior to version 3.36.