Monthly Archives: June 2023

MakeUseOf: The 7 Best Apps and Websites to Set Multiple Timers

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MakeUseOf: The 7 Best Apps and Websites to Set Multiple Timers. “Do you find it difficult to multitask and often don’t get much done? Multitasking can be stressful, especially in today’s era with daily activities transitioning online. Setting multiple timers relieves the stress of multitasking at home and work, and it saves you from recalculating how long to spend on different projects.” Shoutout to all the other timer nerds.

Axios: Online hate and harassment continues to rise

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Axios: Online hate and harassment continues to rise. “More than half of Americans say they have experienced hate or harassment online, according to a new survey from the Anti-Defamation League, with a dramatic rise in incidents over the last 12 months, especially among teens.”

New York Times: Publishers Clearing House Pays $18.5 Million in ‘Dark Patterns’ Suit

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New York Times: Publishers Clearing House Pays $18.5 Million in ‘Dark Patterns’ Suit. “Publishers Clearing House, the direct marketing company that uses sweepstakes to sell magazine subscriptions, agreed on Monday to pay $18.5 million to settle a lawsuit brought by the Federal Trade Commission, which accused the company of using what’s known as dark patterns to trick customers into paying for products or giving up their data.”

National Academies: New Report Recommends Ways That U.S. Colleges and Universities Can Mitigate Risks Related to Foreign-Funded Language and Culture Institutes

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National Academies: New Report Recommends Ways That U.S. Colleges and Universities Can Mitigate Risks Related to Foreign-Funded Language and Culture Institutes. “The report, developed in response to a mandate from Congress, follows one released in January that examined Confucius Institutes — Chinese government-funded language and culture centers — and recommended conditions that a college or university should meet for the U.S. Department of Defense to consider granting a waiver to the institution to host a CI while receiving DOD funding for research.”

New Atlas: Technique turns maps of lost neighborhoods into possible VR landscapes

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New Atlas: Technique turns maps of lost neighborhoods into possible VR landscapes. “Using old insurance fire maps, researchers have enabled a machine-learning system to recreate 3D models of neighborhoods that no longer exist. Not only could the technique lead to VR tours of the ‘hoods, but it could help study the economic impact of urbanization.”

Bloomberg: Europe to Open AI ‘crash test’ centres to ensure safety

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Bloomberg: Europe to Open AI ‘crash test’ centres to ensure safety . “The Europe Union is introducing ‘crash test’ systems for artificial intelligence to ensure new innovations are safe before they hit the market. The trade bloc launched four permanent testing and experimental facilities across Europe on Tuesday, having injected ₹220 million ($240 million) into the project.”

Get rid of ridiculous faces: DeArrow extension crowdsources non-hideous YouTube thumbnails (Boing Boing)

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Boing Boing: Get rid of ridiculous faces: DeArrow extension crowdsources non-hideous YouTube thumbnails . “If you can’t stand the horrible thumbnails people use on their YouTube videos to grab your attention, the DeArrow browser extension is for you. It’s an ‘open source browser extension for crowdsourcing better titles and thumbnails on YouTube. The goal is to make titles accurate and reduce sensationalism. No more arrows, ridiculous faces, and no more clickbait.'”

9to5 Mac: Reddit plagued with 1-star App Store reviews over API debacle as users search for 0-star button

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9to5 Mac: Reddit plagued with 1-star App Store reviews over API debacle as users search for 0-star button. “Despite site-stopping protests by mods and users, Reddit leadership chose to brute force its way through any reasonable way of continuing third-party app support. Instead, the company hopes its luxury-priced API will be its secret shortcut to an overvalued IPO. As a result, Reddit’s official iOS app is being torpedo’d in the App Store.”

CNN: Melinda French Gates says more women must join the AI race to help prevent bias

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CNN: Melinda French Gates says more women must join the AI race to help prevent bias. “As Silicon Valley and beyond is gripped by the fervor of artificial intelligence, Melinda French Gates is raising the alarm that more women must be involved in developing these tech tools.”

Harpers UK: Old Vine database goes live

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Harpers UK: Old Vine database goes live. “The Old Vine Registry currently has 2,200 vineyards recorded from entries collected over 13 years. Portugal and Spain lead with 822 and 383 old vineyards registered respectively. The United States comes in third with 334 vineyards, followed by Australia and France with 208 and 142 respectively.”

University of Southern California: Putting the Rational Thinking Skills of Language Models to the Test

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University of Southern California: Putting the Rational Thinking Skills of Language Models to the Test. “Mayank Kejriwal, lead researcher at the University of Southern California Viterbi’s Information Sciences Institute (ISI), said this behavior from conversational AI chatbots is even more concerning in the context of the big push in the tech world to integrate them into real world applications.”

University of Sheffield: Honeybees make rapid, accurate decisions and could inspire future of AI, study suggests

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University of Sheffield: Honeybees make rapid, accurate decisions and could inspire future of AI, study suggests . “New research revealing how honeybees can make fast and accurate decisions, which could help to design more efficient robots and autonomous machines, has been published by scientists at the University of Sheffield.”

New York Times: How Easy Is It to Fool A.I.-Detection Tools?

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New York Times: How Easy Is It to Fool A.I.-Detection Tools?. “To assess the effectiveness of current A.I.-detection technology, The New York Times tested five new services using more than 100 synthetic images and real photos. The results show that the services are advancing rapidly, but at times fall short.”

NPR: He lost $340,000 to a crypto scam. Such cases are on the rise

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NPR: He lost $340,000 to a crypto scam. Such cases are on the rise. “Naum Lantsman was sure his cryptocurrency investments were making money. Every time he’d log on to the trading platform he was using, it looked like he was reaping windfall profits. But Lantsman, in fact, was one of a growing number of people who’ve fallen victim to cryptocurrency scams.”