Wired: Pop Culture May Evolve at the Same Rate as Birds and Bugs. “We like to think modern culture moves at a dizzying pace, fueled by a relentless parade of new works of music, literature, and technological design. Change in nature, by contrast, seems to follow a slower trajectory as genetic mutations over generations give animals bigger teeth, say, or a better camouflage. But maybe the opposite is true, and human culture doesn’t move so fast and we consumers are less eager to embrace change than we realize.”
Research & Opinion
EFF: ICANN Needs To Ask More Questions About the Sale of .ORG
EFF: ICANN Needs To Ask More Questions About the Sale of .ORG. “Over 21,000 people, 660 organizations, and now six Members of Congress have asked ICANN, the organization that regulates the Internet’s domain name system, to halt the $1.135 billion deal that would hand control over PIR, the .ORG domain registry, to private equity. There are crucial reasons this sale is facing significant backlash from the nonprofit and NGO communities who make the .ORG domain their online home, and perhaps none of them are more concerning than the speed of the deal and the dangerous lack of transparency that’s accompanied it.”
Ubergizmo: Björk And Microsoft Use AI To Create Music That Adapts To Changes In The Sky
Ubergizmo: Björk And Microsoft Use AI To Create Music That Adapts To Changes In The Sky. “We’ve seen AI used for all kinds of things, ranging from automation and to even helping doctors detect diseases and illnesses they might have otherwise missed. Now it looks like AI could soon be applied to music, thanks to a collaboration between musician Björk and Microsoft, where they are using AI to adapt Björk’s music to the ever-changing skies.”
New York Times: Panicking About Your Kids’ Phones? New Research Says Don’t
New York Times: Panicking About Your Kids’ Phones? New Research Says Don’t. “It has become common wisdom that too much time spent on smartphones and social media is responsible for a recent spike in anxiety, depression and other mental health problems, especially among teenagers. But a growing number of academic researchers have produced studies that suggest the common wisdom is wrong.”
Google CEO Sundar Pichai: We must be ‘clear-eyed’ about how AI could go wrong (CNET)
CNET: Google CEO Sundar Pichai: We must be ‘clear-eyed’ about how AI could go wrong. “CEO of Google and Alphabet Sundar Pichai is convinced that AI must be regulated in order to prevent the potential negative consequences of tools including deepfakes and facial recognition, he said in an op-ed for the Financial Times on Monday.”
Newswise: $25 Million Project Will Advance DNA-Based Archival Data Storage
Newswise: $25 Million Project Will Advance DNA-Based Archival Data Storage. “The Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity’s (IARPA) Molecular Information Storage (MIST) program has awarded a multi-phase contract worth up to $25 million to develop scalable DNA-based molecular storage techniques. The goal of the project, which will be led by the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI), is to use DNA as the basis for deployable storage technologies that can eventually scale into the exabyte regime and beyond with reduced physical footprint, power and cost requirements relative to conventional storage technologies.”
PLOS Blogs: PLOS Joins Other Publishers and Societies in Support of the Proposed White House Policy Regarding Federally Funded Research
PLOS Blogs: PLOS Joins Other Publishers and Societies in Support of the Proposed White House Policy Regarding Federally Funded Research. “A peer-reviewed article, whether published via an AAP signatory, or a signatory of this letter, is ultimately authored and peer-reviewed by the same research community. There is nothing, therefore, contained in your proposed policy that jeopardizes the quality and integrity of American research. This research will continue to be performed and peer-reviewed by the same people, to the same high standards as before — it will simply be disseminated for the benefit of the American people and the entire research community more cost-effectively, immediately, and openly.”
