Science Archaeology How a hobbyist's hunch uncovered hidden Roman military camps The finds are forcing historians to reconsider the extent of the Roman military's advance in Germany. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. An amateur archaeologist armed only with satellite imagery and a hunch helped uncover evidence that's reshaping how historians understand the Roman Empire's advance into present-day Germany in the third century CE. In 2020, hobbyist Michael Barkowski was combing through aerial imagery available online, when he spotted an unusual formation near the town of Aken, in the state of Saxony-Anhalt in northwestern Germany. Barkowski suspected that the large rectangular outlines and apparent ditches he was seeing could be signs of marching camps that were commonly deployed by Roman legions .

Kurt "The CyberGuy" Knutsson provides tips on how to limit the device's notifications. Do you ever feel like your Alexa device is listening to you a little too much? Do you wish you could have more control over what it says and when it says it? It's great that they can be set up to lock our doors, turn off our lights or give us the weather. STAY UPDATED WITH KURT'S FREE CYBERGUY NEWSLETTER TO GET SECURITY ALERTS, QUICK TIPS, TECH REVIEWS AND EASY HOW-TO'S TO MAKE YOU SMARTER What I don't appreciate about Alexa devices, however, is that they sometimes can give us extra information that we never asked for, which can be annoying.

Amazon's Echo speakers, and the Alexa assistant, are incredibly useful and pretty darn invasive. On the practical side, it can function as a security alarm with a device you already own. Here's how Alexa Guard works. I once found a voice recording of a conversation my Echo caught when I knew for sure I didn't ask Alexa to listen in. It just thought it heard the wake word.

If a restart doesn't fix the problem, your Wi-Fi network might be to blame. When too many devices are connected to your network, your Alexa device may get lost in the congestion. Try turning off any connected devices you're not using. Also, keep your Alexa device away from metal objects, Bluetooth devices, baby monitors, microwaves, and other sources of interference. Placing Alexa at a higher location will help boost signal strength. It's all in the data: Most people make this major mistake sharing photos

While deep device embeddings are effective for predicting Hunches, researchers have discovered that when the embedding space is viewed, it has some features that are fascinating. This area is intriguing because it contains clusters to which the team can assign usage meanings. The researchers discovered that clusters include semantic information; for example, the isolated island of devices made up of the "outside" and "porch" (blue and brown) clusters is most likely made up of outside equipment that is left on for extended periods of time. While the labels provided to clusters are the most common names associated with them, they are not the only ones. In the outside cluster, for example, the team discovers devices labeled "First Light."

Military applications of artificial intelligence, we are told, are poised to transform military power. They might make the oceans transparent to sensor systems, threatening at-sea nuclear deterrent systems like the UK's Trident. They might enable autonomous aircraft that could outfight human crewed planes. They could transform intelligence processing in war, enable all sorts of complex weapons that would make things like tanks and aircraft carriers yesterday's news. The sky, it appears, is the limit. In this light, big states are making large investments in military AI. One aspect of the UK's recent Integrated Review (ahem, "Global Britain in a Competitive Age") and Command Paper (ahem, "Defence in a competitive age") is a bet that investment in military applications of artifical intelligence will offset cuts to things like tanks and troop numbers.

Back in November, the computer scientist and cognitive psychologist Geoffrey Hinton had a hunch. After a half-century's worth of attempts--some wildly successful--he'd arrived at another promising insight into how the brain works and how to replicate its circuitry in a computer. "It's my current best bet about how things fit together," Hinton says from his home office in Toronto, where he's been sequestered during the pandemic. If his bet pays off, it might spark the next generation of artificial neural networks--mathematical computing systems, loosely inspired by the brain's neurons and synapses, that are at the core of today's artificial intelligence. His "honest motivation," as he puts it, is curiosity. But the practical motivation--and, ideally, the consequence--is more reliable and more trustworthy AI.

In addition to new hardware, Amazon also revealed new Alexa features, including "doorbell concierge," which adds the voice assistant to Ring smart doorbells. The update makes Alexa more conversational when interacting with people at a user's front door, including asking if it can "take a message" or telling a deliveryman where to leave a package. Another new Alexa feature uses AI to mimic celebrity voices. For 99 cents, users can select the voice of a celebrity such as actor Samuel L. Jackson to tell them the weather, set alarms and play music. The feature is set to roll out later this year.

Picture this: It's Monday and Ms. D'Angelo, a seventh-grade science teacher in the South Bronx, gives her students a homework assignment about food chains that is due in one week. The assignment asks students to teach a family member about this concept by completing a model food chain together. The following Monday, Ms. D'Angelo is surprised to see that that some of her students seem to understand the material at a deep level--they even use new vocabulary terms with great fluidity. These same students appear be much more confident than usual when engaging in the class discussion. Ms. D'Angelo scans her grade book and notices that these students are the same the ones who completed the homework assignment.

Alexa is getting even more personalized. Amazon has rolled out a slew of software updates for its digital assistant that are aimed at making users' lives easier. The updates include location-based reminders, an email tool and a feature called'Hunches,' in which Alexa is able to remind users if it thinks they've forgotten something. Amazon has rolled out a slew of software updates for its digital assistant. The updates include location-based reminders, an email tool and a feature called'Alexa Hunches' The new features were first announced at Amazon's Alexa-focused product event this fall, but are now set to arrive on voice-activated Echo devices.