Where does consciousness come from? Supporters and detractors of a leading theory of how consciousness arises are stuck in an increasingly bitter debate. Opponents suggest that integrated information theory (IIT), which claims that consciousness can be defined on a mathematical spectrum, is pseudoscience that could be misused to influence sensitive debates around abortion and the sentience of artificial intelligences – while supporters say the detractors are just jealous. Scientists have long sought to explain how the brain gives rise to conscious experience, but two prominent ideas have recently come to the fore: IIT and global neuronal workspace theory (GNWT).…

Researchers have trained a new kind of large language model (LLM) using GPUs dotted across the world and fed private as well as public data--a move that suggests that the dominant way of building artificial intelligence could be disrupted. Flower AI and Vana, two startups pursuing unconventional approaches to building AI, worked together to create the new model, called Collective-1. Flower created techniques that allow training to be spread across hundreds of computers connected over the internet. The company's technology is already used by some firms to train AI models without needing to pool compute resources or data. Vana provided sources of data including private messages from X, Reddit, and Telegram.

Generative'AI' isn't just useful for making bad writing and bad images, it can be used to make software code, too. In fact, Microsoft's CEO claims that up to 30 percent of the company's new code is now created with artificial intelligence. Satya Nadella made this claim at LlamaCon (around the 45:00 minute mark), Meta/Facebook's conference focusing on generative AI tools. In fact Nadella was opposite Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook founder and controversy lightning rod, when he said as much yesterday. "Code reviews are very high," says Nadella. "In fact the agents we have for reviewing code, that usage has increased, and so I would say maybe 20, 30 percent of the code that is inside of our repos today and in some of our projects are probably all written by software." That's a pretty stunning claim, and as Tom's Hardware points out, it seems in line with similar claim from Google CEO Sundar Pichai made last year.

For a 10-day period the summer of 2006, in between handing in my resignation at my first job on a games magazine and returning to Scotland to start university, I did almost nothing except eat, sleep and play The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion on my Xbox 360. I hauled my TV from the living room of my small, unpleasantly warm flatshare into my bedroom so I could play uninterrupted; it was all I could think about. My character was a Khajiit thief, a kind of manky lion in black-leather armour with excellent pickpocketing skills. One afternoon, I decided to see whether I could steal every single object in the smallish town of Bravil, and got caught by the guards a couple of hours in. I did a runner, dropping a trail of random plates, cheese wheels and doublets in my wake, and the guards pursued me all the way to the other side of the map, where they finally got entangled with a bear who helpfully killed them for me.

Depending on your upbringing, a phone call might seem normal…or alarming overkill. But regardless of when or where you were born, one current universal truth exists: Companies will not call you and ask for your account information or personal information. Disguised under "confirming" your details, fraudsters use this tactic to scam you and gain unauthorized access to your account. The phone calls might sound legitimate, especially with the rapid improvement and accessibility of generative AI tools. So if your caller ID says a company is ringing you, let them roll to voicemail.

ADT offers Yale Assure locks with its ADT home security systems, and now the security service provider has partnered with Yale and the Z-Wave Alliance to introduce the Yale Assure Lock 2 Touch with Z-Wave. This is the first Z-Wave lock with fingerprint recognition that is certified to use the Z-Wave User Credential Command Class specification that was released in June 2024. The new lock also features the latest generation Z-Wave 800 chipset, which promises longer battery life and improved range on a Z-Wave mesh network. Thanks to its use of the Z-Wave User Credential Command Class spec, ADT subscribers will be able arm and disarm their security system at the same time they lock or unlock the new deadbolt, all by just touching their previously enrolled finger to the new lock. ADT offers the Yale Assure Lock 2 Touch with Z-Wave with its ADT home security systems, which can be self- or professionally installed.

AI models are riddled with culturally specific biases. A new data set, called SHADES, is designed to help developers combat the problem by spotting harmful stereotypes and other kinds of discrimination that emerge in AI chatbot responses across a wide range of languages. Why it matters: Although tools that spot stereotypes in AI models already exist, the vast majority of them work only on models trained in English. They identify stereotypes in models trained in other languages by relying on machine translations from English, which can fail to recognize stereotypes found only within certain non-English languages. To get around these problematic generalizations, SHADES was built using 16 languages from 37 geopolitical regions.

Although tools that spot stereotypes in AI models already exist, the vast majority of them work only on models trained in English. They identify stereotypes in models trained in other languages by relying on machine translations from English, which can fail to recognize stereotypes found only within certain non-English languages, says Zeerak Talat, at the University of Edinburgh, who worked on the project. To get around these problematic generalizations, SHADES was built using 16 languages from 37 geopolitical regions. SHADES works by probing how a model responds when it's exposed to stereotypes in different ways. The researchers exposed the models to each stereotype within the data set, including through automated prompts, which generated a bias score.

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'Bella the robot waitress won't replace our staff' 4 days agoShareSaveSophie CridlandReporting fromPortlandShareSaveBBCMike Deadman, from The View Cafe and Bar, said Bella was not being used to replace staff Bella carries multiple trays packed with food and drinks, deftly swerving any obstacles and delivering orders day in and day out to her customers. This is the latest recruit at The View Cafe and Bar at Portland's Heights hotel in Dorset. But Bella is no normal member of the waiting staff - she is a state-of-the art robot programmed to serve and even interact with the eatery's patrons. And costing a little under 9,000, it is hoped it can be an economical idea, as well as a novel one. But assistant manager Mike Deadman insists Bella - built by Chinese technology company Pudu - will not result in any job losses.