Imagine this: you’re having a nice day, the weather is great, you’ve enjoyed a brilliant breakfast… and suddenly your iPhone shows a photo memory with your ex to inadvertently ruin your day. Why, you ask, as you curse the heavens, does this have to happen to you? Well, Apple’s Photos app has a Memories feature that shows you algorithmically curated collections of photos and videos — based on different factors like dates, holidays, or places you visited. These memories can appear through a notifi
This article is part of our coverage of the latest in AI research. For humans, working with deformable objects is not significantly more difficult than handling rigid objects. We learn naturally to shape them, fold them, and manipulate them in different ways and still recognize them. But for robots and artificial intelligence systems, manipulating deformable objects present a huge challenge. Consider the series of steps that a robot must take to shape a ball of dough into pizza crusts. It must k
The European Central Bank and its counterparts in the UK, US, China, and India are exploring a new form of state-backed money built on similar online ledger technology to cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin and ethereum. So-called central bank digital currencies (CBDCs) envision a future where we’ll all have our own digital wallets and transfer money between them at the touch of a button, with no need for high-street banks to be involved because it all happens on a blockchain. But CBDCs also presen
This article is part of our coverage of the latest in AI research. In early May, Meta released Open Pretrained Transformer (OPT-175B), a large language model (LLM) that can perform various tasks. Large language models have become one of the hottest areas of research in artificial intelligence in the past few years. OPT-175B is the latest entrant in the LLM arms race triggered by OpenAI’s GPT-3, a deep neural network with 175 billion parameters. GPT-3 showed that LLMs can perform many tasks witho
Facebook Inc, now called Meta, announced its dating application, Facebook Dating, in May 2018. There was real excitement, with people expecting a revolutionary dating app that would soon beat Tinder. And it is no wonder when you consider the size of the company, its technical capabilities, and most importantly the large volume of data that Facebook has collected about its users. After all, research shows that Facebook knows us better than our mums, so why wouldn’t it live up to its goal of creat
The pilot must have seen a crash coming. The BlockDown Web3 conference was kicking off the next day. TNW was flying in to attend — but the fates had other plans. After descending towards the landing strip in Split, Croatia, the plane suddenly reversed course and climbed back into the skies. A shroud of Saharan sand had made it too dangerous to land — and the real drama had only just begun. When we finally arrived in Croatia the next day, the crypto market had entered its biggest downturn in year
There currently exists no machine capable of superhuman feats of intelligence. I’m sorry to be the one who bursts your bubble but, at least for the time being, that’s the way the universe works. It might seem like AI is smarter than humans in some ways. For example, the powerful neural networks used by big tech can sort through millions of files in a matter of seconds, a feat that would take humans more than a single lifetime. But that’s not a superhuman feat of intellect. It’s trading human att
Transport operators are always looking at ways to increase passenger levels. And making comfortable carriages that offer a great user experience is the way forward. This week German long-distance rail operator Deutsche-Bahn launched images of a new interior redesign, part of their goal to modernize and improve the passenger experience. There’s a lot of wood, warm, natural colors, and modern fabrics to help you pretend you aren’t sitting near other people. It looks pretty cool and I am feeling li
Qualcomm announced its XR1-based smart AR viewer last year before the “metaverse” became a buzzword. Now, it’s launching its new XR2-powered reference AR glasses so hardware manufacturers can “enable immersive experiences that unlock the metaverse.” But if we look beyond the marketing speak, the company’s new headset has gone wireless with a sleeker design. What does the new headset offer? The firm says it has a 40% thinner profile than the XR1 reference design, and has equal weight distribution
Traditional computer programming has a steep learning curve that requires learning a programming language, for example C/C++, Java or Python, just to build a simple application such as a calculator or Tic-tac-toe game. Programming also requires substantial debugging skills, which easily frustrates new learners. The study time, effort and experience needed often stop nonprogrammers from making software from scratch. No-code is a way to program websites, mobile apps and games without using codes o