Lifeboat Foundation

OpenAI’s ChatGPT gets 60 times the traffic of Google’s conversational generative AI engine Bard and boasts industry-leading 30-minutes session times.

I asked AI why that might be, and one potential reason ChatGPT gave me for the disparity: historically higher representation of men in the tech sector, which is likely to be the source of most early adopters. When I also asked on Twitter/X why the disparity might exist, one person cited the fact that historically AI tools like Alexa, Siri and Cortana have often had female names, playing into cultural stereotypes about women helping men. The modern generative AI tools, of course, have names like ChatGPT or Bard or Perplexity or MidJourney. So perhaps that is changing.

Another perfectly valid reason one woman cited: perhaps they just don’t want to.

Continue reading “Men 2X More Likely To Use Generative AI Than Women: Report” »

In my 2015 exploration with General John R. Allen on the concept of Hyperwar, we recognized the potential of artificial intelligence to unalterably change the field of battle. Chief among the examples of autonomous systems were drone swarms, which are both a significant threat and a critical military capability. Today, Hyperwar seems to be the operative paradigm accepted by militaries the world over as a de facto reality. Indeed, the observe-orient-decide-act (OODA) loop is collapsing. Greater autonomy is being imbued in all manner of weapon systems and sensors. Work is ongoing to develop systems that further decrease reaction times and increase the mass of autonomous systems employed in conflict. This trend is highlighted potently by the U.S. Replicator initiative and China’s swift advancements in automated manufacturing and missile technologies.

The U.S. Replicator Initiative: A Commitment to Autonomous Warfare?

The Pentagon’s “Replicator” initiative is a strategic move to counter adversaries like China by rapidly producing “attritable autonomous systems” across multiple domains. Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks emphasized the need for platforms that are “small, smart, cheap, and many,” planning to produce thousands of such systems within 18 to 24 months. The Department of Defense, under this initiative, is developing smaller, more intelligent, and cost-effective platforms, a move that aligns with the creation of a Hyperwar environment.

The retirement of the space station could be ‘the biggest project ever embarked upon in human history.’

Gremlin / iStock.

In Jan 2022, NASA announced plans to wind down the ISS and released a statement about the transition plan. The Biden-Harris Administration has committed to extending the operations of the International Space Station until 2030, the space agency reported.

The scientists were able to recreate conditions that favor the generation of hazy skies on extraterrestrial planets, in laboratory settings.

Roberto Molar Candanosa/Johns Hopkins University.

This makes it challenging to ascertain the chemical compositions of some exoplanets due to their opaque atmospheres, often obscured by clouds or haze.

Researchers developed the Human Guided Exploration (HuGE) approach that doesn’t rely on expertly designed reward functions for AI agents learning new tasks.

Stellalevi / iStock.

HuGE doesn’t rely on expertly designed reward functions for AI agents learning new tasks, according to MIT News.

Explore Virgin Galactic’s Mesa facility, a cutting-edge hub poised to revolutionize spacecraft manufacturing, boosting space travel capabilities and economic growth.

Virgin Galactic.

This move, detailed in a recent company release, outlines Virgin Galactic’s ambitious plans for its next-generation Delta class spaceships, aiming to boost production and flight frequency significantly.

Foxconn plans to invest $1.54 billion in India, the latest in its growing expansion plan, following a surge in revenues in the South Asian market.

Foxconn said in a stock exchange filing that the investment will help it fulfil “operational needs.” The investment comes two months after the Taiwanese firm said it plans to double its workforce and investment in India by next year.

Foxconn works with many firms including Apple and assembles their devices in plants in India as many tech giants look to shift part of their manufacturing base to India in a move that analysts describe as “China+1.”

Scientists may have figured out a brand new way to treat lung cancer by using a protein that inhibits tumor growth.

This previously unknown molecule pathway could help researchers develop personalized lung cancer treatments, a new study in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) reveals.

The researchers found that a protein called RBM10—previously known to be a tumor suppressor—can inhibit the growth of lung cancer by stopping the function of another protein called c-Myc drives cancer cell growth when it is overexpressed in the body.

Researchers have been able to reduce dramatically the level of bad cholesterol in human subjects after injecting them with an experimental gene editing treatment, according to the science journal Nature, which is the first time this technique, called base editing, has been done on humans.

But at least one person died after receiving an infusion, prompting a round of safety concerns.

In the clinical trial, 10 subjects with congenitally high levels of bad cholesterol, aka low-density lipoprotein (LDL), were given an injection of VERVE-101, a gene-editing treatment that uses the base editing technique. This treatment then turned off the gene for the protein PCSK9, which is found in the liver and regulates LDL. High levels of LDL can lead to coronary heart disease.