Lifeboat Foundation

The data centers that help train ChatGPT-like AI are very ‘thirsty,’ finds a new study.

A new study has uncovered how much water is consumed when training large AI models like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Google’s Bard. The estimates of AI water consumption were presented by researchers from the Universities of Colorado Riverside and Texas Arlington in a pre-print article titled “Making AI Less ‘Thirsty.’”

Continue reading “GPT-3 training consumed 700k liters of water, ‘enough for producing 370 BMWs’” »

From high-tech fighting machines to supercomputers and killer robots, science fiction has a lot to say about war. You might be surprised to learn that some governments (including the UK and France) are now turning their attention to these fantastical stories as a way to think about possible futures and try and ward off any potential threats.

For many years now, science fiction writers have made prophesies about futuristic technologies that have later become a reality. In 1964, Arthur C. Clarke famously predicted the internet. And in 1983, Isaac Asimov predicted that modern life would become impossible without computers.

Continue reading “Science Fiction Is Influencing How We Conduct War And We Might Not Like The Results” »

A new material was used in a simple snail robot, but it could one day make artificial nervous systems for more complex machines.

A team of researchers designed a two-dimensional photonic time crystal that they say could have applications in technologies like transmitters and lasers.

Despite their name, photonic time crystals have little in common with time crystals, a phase of matter first proposed in 2012 and observed several years later. The fundamental commonality is that both crystals have structural patterns over time, but time crystals are quantum materials—the atoms are suspended in quantum states—while photonic time crystals are artificial materials not found in nature and they are not necessarily suspended in quantum states.

While a pandemic unleashed by a disease from the distant past sounds like the plot of a sci-fi movie, scientists warn that the risks, though low, are underappreciated. Chemical and radioactive waste that dates back to the Cold War, which has the potential to harm wildlife and disrupt ecosystems, may also be released during thaws.

Permafrost covers a fifth of the Northern Hemisphere, having underpinned the Arctic tundra and boreal forests of Alaska, Canada and Russia for millennia. It serves as a kind of time capsule, preserving — in addition to ancient viruses — the mummified remains of a number of extinct animals that scientist have been able to unearth and study in recent years, including two cave lion cubs and a woolly rhino.

Warmer temperatures in the Arctic are thawing the region’s permafrost — a frozen layer of soil beneath the ground — and potentially stirring viruses that, after lying dormant for tens of thousands of years, could endanger animal and human health.

Continue reading “Scientists have revived a ‘zombie’ virus that spent 48,500 years in permafrost” »

The Tibetan Plateau, the highest and largest plateau above sea level, is one of the harshest environments settled by humans. It has a cold and arid environment and its elevation often surpasses 4,000 meters above sea level (masl). The plateau covers a wide expanse of Asia—approximately 2.5 million square kilometers—and is home to over 7 million people, primarily belonging to the Tibetan and Sherpa ethnic groups.

However, our understanding of their origins and history on the plateau is patchy. Despite a rich archaeological context spanning the plateau, sampling of DNA from ancient humans has been limited to a thin slice of the southwestern plateau in the Himalayas.

Now, a study published in Science Advances led by Prof. Fu Qiaomei from the Institute of Vertebrate Paleontology and Paleoanthropology (IVPP) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences has filled this gap by sequencing the genomes of 89 ancient humans dating back to 5,100 BP from 29 archaeological sites spanning the Tibetan Plateau.

The world’s first fully sustainable robot lawn mower which runs solely on solar energy. No more pollution, no more emission.

The modern quest to automate everything leveraging connected technology has seen the likes of robot vacuum cleaners and other smart-home devices flourish. SunScout, a company based in New Zealand, aims to be at the forefront of this race with its autonomous robot lawn mower fully powered by the sun.

Continue reading “SunScout Pro keeps your lawn in top shape with blessings from the Sun” »

Both SpaceX’s Falcon Heavy and Starship could take to the skies next week in an action-packed few days for Elon Musk’s space firm.

SpaceX showed off its Falcon Heavy rocket ahead of its next launch, scheduled for April 18.

SpaceX prepares for the next Falcon Heavy launch.

Continue reading “SpaceX shows off Falcon Heavy ahead of massive rocket’s sixth launch” »

One thing that is not really making the news is that South Korea is becoming a major military power. For example, France has recently committed to providing 2,000 155 mm shells to Ukraine per month, as reported at https://kyivindependent.com/france-to-double-supply-of-155-m…o-ukraine/. Meanwhile, South Korea has just committed to providing 500,000 155 mm shells to Ukraine in one big batch as reported at https://www.msn.com/en-gb/news/world/south-korea-to-lend-500…r-AA19LIgJ. (They are giving the shells to the U.S. who will then give the same quantity of shells to Ukraine.

By Hyonhee Shin SEOUL (Reuters)-South Korea has reached an agreement to lend the United States 500,000 rounds of 155mm artillery shells that could give Washington greater flexibility to supply Ukraine with ammunition, a South Korean newspaper reported on Wednesday. The DongA Ilbo newspaper cited unidentified government sources as saying South Korea decided to “lend” the ammunition instead of selling, to minimise the possibility of South Korean shells being used in the Ukraine conflict.