I have a complicated relationship with marijuana. I wish I liked it more. But I'm a control freak, and so it makes me relax for about three minutes before sending me into a panic attack because I have lost control. I live in Canada, where it's legal, with government shops full of wacky baccy wares in all shapes and sizes. They even have lurid canned drinks, like some form of anti-Red Bull.

Even if you didn't watch last weekend's episode of Saturday Night Live, you still probably saw it. You may already even know what "it" I'm talking about: Timothée Chalamet, and other similarly-dressed cast members, booty-shaking in tiny little red undies. He was, the sketch goes, "an Australian YouTube twink turned indie pop star and model turned HBO actor Troye Sivan being played by an American actor who can't do an Australian accent." Chalamet and his cohort were Troye Sivan Sleep Demons, and they'd been haunting straight women all over the place. It was a funny bit and, ironically, the least nightmarish Sivan impression to come out this week.

In November 2018, an elementary school administrator named Akihiko Kondo married Miku Hatsune, a fictional pop singer. The couple's relationship had been aided by a hologram machine that allowed Kondo to interact with Hatsune. When Kondo proposed, Hatsune responded with a request: "Please treat me well." The couple had an unofficial wedding ceremony in Tokyo, and Kondo has since been joined by thousands of others who have also applied for unofficial marriage certificates with a fictional character. Though some raised concerns about the nature of Hatsune's consent, nobody thought she was conscious, let alone sentient.

In this paper we investigate the frequency sensitivity of Deep Neural Networks (DNNs) when presented with clean samples versus poisoned samples. Our analysis shows significant disparities in frequency sensitivity between these two types of samples. Building on these findings, we propose FREAK, a frequency-based poisoned sample detection algorithm that is simple yet effective. Our experimental results demonstrate the efficacy of FREAK not only against frequency backdoor attacks but also against some spatial attacks. Our work is just the first step in leveraging these insights. We believe that our analysis and proposed defense mechanism will provide a foundation for future research and development of backdoor defenses.

In late 2019, I went in for what I thought was a routine mammogram. The radiologist reading my images told me there was an area of concern and that I should schedule a diagnostic ultrasound. I knew then it would be bad. Another mammogram and several doctor visits later, it was certain: I had breast cancer. If you buy something using links in our stories, we may earn a commission.

Rise of the machines may not be far away.

You, like me, may sometimes (or all the time!) feel that the world is spiraling out of control--trade wars and political strife. And, oh right, climate change, arguably the greatest threat our species has ever faced. Or maybe artificial intelligence and robots will put us all out of work before the world actually ends. "A dirty little secret about autonomous vehicles," says Edelman, "is there won't be enough people to service them because these are trade skill programs. We don't pay these people enough."

Among the scant books in my tiny rented room in San Francisco, I've kept a spine-worn copy of Romeo and Juliet. It's the one I read in my high school English class, the pages yellowed, the margins filled with scribbled notes. Since the play was written in the 1590s, Shakespeare's portrayal of the nature of love--irrational, all-consuming--has been told and retold in countless movie adaptations. I hold onto the book to revisit those insights, and also because I'm prone to nostalgic literary tendencies like keeping old books. I am also a personal tech writer in 2018. It's my job to keep tabs on how our rapidly shifting technology is shaping not only how we communicate, but how we empathize, trust, show affection.

On Thursday, Seattle news station KIRO 7 published a disconcerting story. A Portland family discovered that a snippet of private conversation had been recorded by an Amazon Echo and sent to a random person in their contact list. The report instantly sparked concern and outrage that Amazon's Echo smart speaker is listening to and recording much more than the company claims. The woman, who only identified herself as Danielle, said that one of her husband's employees called the family to say that he had received a text message containing an audio recording of one of their conversations about hardwood floors. "I felt invaded," she told KIRO 7. "A total privacy invasion. Immediately I said, 'I'm never plugging that device in again, because I can't trust it.'"

Elon Musk's grand plan of moving beyond passenger cars to truly revolutionize transportation just got a bit grander. In addition to developing an electric 18-wheeler that Tesla plans to unveil next month, Musk wants to make the thing drive itself. Tesla is working with Nevada authorities to begin testing a robo-rig prototype at some point in the not-too-distant future. "Our primary goal is the ability to operate our prototype test trucks in a continuous manner across the state line and within the States of Nevada and California in a platooning and/or Autonomous mode without having a person in the vehicle," Tesla's Nasser Zamani told officials with the Nevada Department of Motor Vehicles, according to Reuters. Assuming Tesla can figure out how to make battery tech work for long-haul trucking (no easy feat), adding autonomy to the equation makes perfect sense.