Recent advances have increasingly applied large language models (LLMs) to electrocardiogram (ECG) interpretation, giving rise to Electrocardiogram-Language Models (ELMs). Conditioned on an ECG and a textual query, an ELM autoregressively generates a free-form textual response. Unlike traditional classification-based systems, ELMs emulate expert cardiac electrophysiologists by issuing diagnoses, analyzing waveform morphology, identifying contributing factors, and proposing patient-specific action plans. To realize this potential, researchers are curating instruction-tuning datasets that pair ECGs with textual dialogues and are training ELMs on these resources. Yet before scaling ELMs further, there is a fundamental question yet to be explored: What is the most effective ECG input representation? In recent works, three candidate representations have emerged-raw time-series signals, rendered images, and discretized symbolic sequences. We present the first comprehensive benchmark of these modalities across 6 public datasets and 5 evaluation metrics. We find symbolic representations achieve the greatest number of statistically significant wins over both signal and image inputs. We further ablate the LLM backbone, ECG duration, and token budget, and we evaluate robustness to signal perturbations. We hope that our findings offer clear guidance for selecting input representations when developing the next generation of ELMs.

OpenAI's abrupt move to ban access to its services in China is setting the scene for an industry shakeup, as local AI leaders from Baidu Inc. to Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. move to grab more of the field. The ChatGPT creator this week sent memos to Chinese users warning it will cut off access to its widely used AI development software and tools from July, triggering a scramble to fill the void. Since Tuesday, at least a half-dozen companies and startups including Tencent Holdings Ltd. and Zhipu AI began offering incentives to developers making the switch. OpenAI's shift will accentuate the divide between China and the U.S., which is trying to curb Beijing's AI and chip efforts. While the startup's exit offers an opportunity for sector leaders to grow their user base, it also deprives entrepreneurs and cash-strapped startups of some of the best tools available to fine-tune or get their AI applications off the ground.

Nathan Heller on the Order of the Third Bird, a secret society that includes writers and artists, many of whom have spawned new initiatives like the Strother School of Radical Attention, which offers an education against the distractions of apps, digital ads, and shorter attention spans.

Scientists have shown for the first time that briefly tuning into a person's individual brainwave cycle before they perform a learning task dramatically boosts the speed at which cognitive skills improve. Calibrating rates of information delivery to match the natural tempo of our brains increases our capacity to absorb and adapt to new information, according to the team behind the study. University of Cambridge researchers say that these techniques could help us retain "neuroplasticity" much later in life and advance lifelong learning. "Each brain has its own natural rhythm, generated by the oscillation of neurons working together," said Prof Zoe Kourtzi, senior author of the study from Cambridge's Department of Psychology. "We simulated these fluctuations so the brain is in tune with itself – and in the best state to flourish."

IT leaders seeking to derive business value from the data their companies collect face myriad challenges. Perhaps the least understood is the lost opportunity of not making good on data that is created, and often stored, but seldom otherwise interacted with. This so-called "dark data," named after the dark matter of physics, is information routinely collected in the course of doing business: It's generated by employees, customers, and business processes. It's generated as log files by machines, applications, and security systems. It's documents that must be saved for compliance purposes, and sensitive data that should never be saved, but still is.

As mass shootings at US schools increase in frequency while our country's gun control laws remain weaker than those in any other developed nation, more school administrators across the US are turning to artificially intelligent surveillance tools in an attempt to beef up school safety. But systems that allow schools to easily track people on campus have left some worried about the impact on student privacy. Recode has identified at least nine US public school districts -- including the district home to Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School (MSD) in Parkland, Florida, which in 2018 experienced one of the deadliest school shootings in US history -- that have acquired analytic surveillance cameras that come with new, AI-based software, including one tool called Appearance Search. Appearance Search can find people based on their age, gender, clothing, and facial characteristics, and it scans through videos like facial recognition tech -- though the company that makes it, Avigilon, says it doesn't technically count as a full-fledged facial recognition tool. Even so, privacy experts told Recode that, for students, the distinction doesn't necessarily matter.

Uber is rolling out new safety features to deal with rider safety. The ride-sharing company said it is adding a direct way to call 911 from the app. File photo taken in 2017 shows ride-hailing app Uber's logo on a mobile phone in London, England. SAN FRANCISCO -- Denver law professor Nancy Leong hailed an Uber to get to the airport Tuesday morning. She says she wound up on a ride to hell, "pounding on the windows."

Artificial intelligence technology is transforming the way the world works, and human resources departments will likely be no exception. "Now, more than ever, AI technology is changing the way companies source, engage, acquire and manage talent," Jason Roberts, global head of technology and analytics for staffing firm Randstad Sourceright, told Bloomberg BNA via email. In fact, Randstad Sourceright research shows that 76 percent of 400 global human capital leaders surveyed say technology analytics play a critical role in engaging talent, and 48 percent are investing in analytics dashboards to better manage and predict talent needs, according to Roberts. "These tools are providing HR with the ability to capture workforce data, and are critical to building the business intelligence and insights needed to drive overall business growth," he said. Future hiring process will increasingly incorporate AI and data analytics to find the best candidate for a job.

Babies are remarkable at taking in knowledge about the language they hear. Even in the first few months of their lives, children begin to learn about how to pronounce words – and it seems this is a skill they never forget. A new study has shown even if a baby moves country at a young age and never learns its birth language; it will always retain some hidden knowledge of the words it heard in its early life. Babies are remarkable at taking in knowledge about the language they hear. Dr Jiyoun Choi and colleauges at Hanyang University in Seoul tested Dutch-speaking adults adopted from South Korea.

These devices are implanted and perform three types of actions: l.monitor the heart 2.to pace the heart 3.to apply high energy/high voltage electric shock 1bey sense the electrical activity of the heart through leads attached to the heart tissue. Two types of sensing are commooly used: Single Chamber: Lead attached to the Right Ventricular Apex (RVA) Dual Chamber: An additional lead is attached to the High Right Atrium (HRA). The actions performed by defibrillators are based on the outcome of a classification procedure based on the heart rhythms of different heart diseases (abnormal rhythms or "arrhythmias").