Goto

Collaborating Authors

 Asia


Can nonhuman apes understand others' points of view?

Christian Science Monitor | Science

How you see the world may be very different than how someone else sees it. And recognizing that has long been thought to be a uniquely human ability. But when it comes to understanding others' perspectives, humans might not be alone. "Reading others' mind is not our special skill," says Fumihiro Kano, a comparative psychologist at Kyoto University in Japan. Nonhuman apes can do it, too, according to Dr. Kano's research, published Thursday in the journal Science, a finding that could further blur the line between the cognitive capacities of humans and nonhuman apes.


Apes might understand what you are thinking: Strange video shows chimps can anticipate human behaviour

Daily Mail - Science & tech

A strange new video will show you that apes might be a lot more perceptive than you thought. The video, part of a new study, shows chimpanzees, bonobos, and orangutans are able to understand people's beliefs, desires and intentions โ€“ a phenomenon that was previously considered to be unique to humans. The findings, which challenge our understanding of how intelligent apes are, were presented in a hilarious video. The video, part of a new study, shows chimpanzees, bonobos, and orangutans are able to understand people's beliefs, desires and intentions โ€“ a phenomenon that was previously considered to be unique to humans. The apes watched as a human witnessed an object being hidden in one location.


Robotic penguin hatches from Umarete Woomo interactive egg toy

The Japan Times

An interactive toy that promoters hope will take the world by storm revealed its secret on Thursday after months of speculation. The egg-shaped product, named Umarete Woomo in Japan and Hatchimals in English, is developed by Canada-based Spin Master and hits the market Friday. It made its public appearance earlier this year but not until now has one "hatched." Tomy Co., which sells the product in Japan, showed the magical moment during a preview in Tokyo. What emerged was a fluffy penguin-like toy robot with a hard beak, which it used to crack the egg from inside.


Yahoo case brings back the Edward Snowden effect

USATODAY - Tech Top Stories

Edward Snowden appears from Russia to people in Stuttgart, Germany, in 2014. SAN FRANCISCO -- The Edward Snowden effect just made an encore, thanks to a report Yahoo has been scanning incoming emails on behalf of U.S. intelligence officials. And it's likely to take a few more bows. U.S. technology companies, already in defensive mode thanks to the former NSA contractor's revelations of a mass government surveillance program in 2013, are even more data-hungry today and therefore more on edge. From big data to the cloud to artificial intelligence you can talk to in your kitchen, the tech world is busy spinning the straw of information it gathers about users into gold.


AI Technology Mashup Gives Voice to Transgender Activist in Nepal

#artificialintelligence

If you're a transgender political activist located in the small mountainous kingdom of Nepal, how do you get your story out to the global community? Well if your name is Bhumika Shrestha, you use some of the most advanced information technologies from IBM, Google, Facebook, and Amazon to create a web platform for talking to the world. Bhumika is a political activist who has been working to advance to cause of transgender rights and cultural acceptance in Nepal and worldwide. Last year, she became the first transgender woman to travel abroad using the designation of "other" as her gender. Nepal is one of the few countries to allow such a classification on its passports.


They teamed up to conquer Wall Street. Now, one is bankrolling Clinton and the other Trump

Los Angeles Times

When Republican senators investigated a little-known San Francisco nonprofit steering as much as 50 million a year to climate change activists, the right-wing media outlet Breitbart News pounced on the report. Breitbart branded the organization, the Sea Change Foundation, as a vehicle for "rich liberals who are secretly funding the green movement's war on Western industrial civilization." As it turned out, though, the money to support both Sea Change and Breitbart came from the same place -- Renaissance Technologies, a hedge fund based on Long Island, N.Y., churning astonishing profits with a formula of algorithms and equations that only a select group of math geniuses understand. In recent years, the masterminds behind Renaissance have put their billions to work reshaping the political landscape -- but in divergent and opposing ways. The political evolution of Renaissance founder James Simons, a mathematician who worked as a U.S. code-breaker, and his star recruit, computer scientist and poker ace Robert Mercer, reflects one of the strangest permutations of the new era of super-donors in American politics.


Computer keyboards can be used to detect Parkinson's disease symptoms at home

The Independent - Tech

Nasa has announced that it has found evidence of flowing water on Mars. Scientists have long speculated that Recurring Slope Lineae -- or dark patches -- on Mars were made up of briny water but the new findings prove that those patches are caused by liquid water, which it has established by finding hydrated salts. Several hundred camped outside the London store in Covent Garden. The 6s will have new features like a vastly improved camera and a pressure-sensitive "3D Touch" display


London has the best 4G coverage in the UK, but the slowest speeds

The Independent - Tech

Nasa has announced that it has found evidence of flowing water on Mars. Scientists have long speculated that Recurring Slope Lineae -- or dark patches -- on Mars were made up of briny water but the new findings prove that those patches are caused by liquid water, which it has established by finding hydrated salts. Several hundred camped outside the London store in Covent Garden. The 6s will have new features like a vastly improved camera and a pressure-sensitive "3D Touch" display


The Problem with Modern Romance Is Too Much Choice - Issue 41: Selection

Nautilus

In the age of online dating there are more romantic options than there are fish in the, well, you know. On the appropriately named site Plenty of Fish, for instance, you can pore over profiles of hundreds or thousands of potential mates before deciding which ones to contact. Such unfettered choice means a better shot at true love--or so many daters believe. The more options you have, the assumption goes, the more likely you are to find the one who truly suits you. Yet many daters are finding that less romantic choice yields top-notch results without all the angst.


Andrew Ng on artificial intelligence and startup culture - SupChina

@machinelearnbot

To answer these and many other questions, Kaiser and Jeremy talk to Andrew Ng, founder and chairman of Coursera, an associate professor in the department of computer science at Stanford University, and the chief scientist of Baidu, where he heads up the company's research on deep learning and AI. The discussion delves into the differences between Chinese and American engineers, entrepreneurial culture in China, artificial neural networks, augmented reality, and the role big internet companies and their resources play in advancing AI. Check out the SupChina backgrounder on their conversation here.