As demand for artificial intelligence technology boosts construction and proposed construction of data centers around the world, those computers require not just electricity and land, but also a significant amount of water. Data centers use water directly, with cooling water pumped through pipes in and around the computer equipment. They also use water indirectly, through the water required to produce the electricity to power the facility. The amount of water used to produce electricity increases dramatically when the source is fossil fuels compared with solar or wind. A 2024 report from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory estimated that in 2023, U.S. data centers consumed 17 billion gallons (64 billion liters) of water directly through cooling, and projects that by 2028, those figures could double - or even quadruple.

U.S. Ambassador to Japan Rahm Emanuel visited a Fukushima coastal city to support the local fishing industry after China and South Korea raised the alarm over water discharge began from the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant. A drone small enough to fit in one's hand flew inside one of the damaged reactors at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant Wednesday in hopes it can examine some of the molten fuel debris in areas where earlier robots failed to reach. Tokyo Electric Power Company Holdings also began releasing the fourth batch of the plant's treated and diluted radioactive wastewater into the sea Wednesday. The government and TEPCO, the plant's operator, say the water is safe and the process is being monitored by the International Atomic Energy Agency, but the discharges have faced strong opposition by fishing groups and a Chinese ban on Japanese seafood. A magnitude 9.0 quake and tsunami in March 2011 destroyed the plant's power supply and cooling systems, causing three reactors to melt down.

Artificial intelligence can now reason as well as the average college student. Dr Geoffrey Hinton, who is seen as one of the godfathers of AI, warned recently that the technology'may soon be' more intelligent than people. Now it appears AI has mastered a type of intelligence called'analogical reasoning' which was previously believed to be uniquely human. Analogical reasoning means working out a solution to a completely new problem by using experience from previous similar problems. Given one type of test requiring this reasoning, the AI language programme GPT-3 beat the average score among 40 university students.

Orthodox Catholic philosopher Joe Vukov discusses the moral implications of using artificial intelligence to cope with the loss of loved ones. This year is shaping up to be the year of artificial intelligence. ChatGPT has stolen most of the headlines, but it is only the most infamous in a wide assortment AI platforms. One of the most recent to arrive on the scene is HereAfter AI, an app that can "preserve memories with an app that interviews you about your life." The goal: to "let loved ones hear meaningful stories by chatting with the virtual you."

Sustainability and generative AI are two topics that are currently taking the world by storm. While they may seem unrelated, there is a significant intersection between the two. A recent study called "Making AI Less Thirsty" reveals just how much water is consumed when training large AI models like OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Bard. The study was conducted by researchers from the University of Colorado Riverside and the University of Texas Arlington. It compares and measures the environmental impact of AI training that requires massive amounts of constant electricity and water. The water is used to cool data centers that are essential to keep them running.

Both DataStax and Kaskada have a track record of contributing to open source communities. Datastax will open source the core Kaskada technology initially, and it plans to offer a new machine learning cloud service later this year. Most machine learning initiatives don't deliver the results that businesses need because the process is manual, complex and frustrating. Compounding this problem, many models underperform because they lack the relevance and context of real-time data. The addition of Kaskada to DataStax's portfolio of cloud services--which today includes the massively scalable Astra DB database-as-a-service built on Apache Cassandra and event streaming with Astra Streaming-- will give organizations a single environment to easily and cost-effectively deliver applications infused with real-time AI, using an advanced ML/AI model proven by industry leaders such as Netflix and Uber.

Artificial intelligence is an increasingly prominent part of our lives, in areas you may not even think about. Chances are you've had a travel problem in the last year or two, caused by the many disruptions the COVID pandemic has wrought on the industry. When you messaged your airline's Facebook page, did you encounter a bot? I bet your school-age children ask your smart speaker at home 1,000,000 questions per day, or ask your respective brand's speaker to play 46,789 songs per day. I bet many of you reading this have applied for a job during the pandemic, when the job market has very much favored job seekers.

Computer vision and intelligent video solutions now have the potential to revolutionize industries, improve operations, and enhance the quality of life for citizens. And with recent advancements in artificial intelligence and machine learning, it's easier and more accessible for businesses to unleash these solutions and compete in today's fast-paced, data-driven world. But developing and deploying computer vision and intelligent video applications at the edge requires strategic partnerships within the ecosystem. Intel systems integrators and IoT solution aggregators, for example, provide critical expertise and technologies necessary for success. You can see this for yourself at the International Security Conference & Exposition, ISC West, taking place March 28 to 31 at the Venetian Expo in Las Vegas.

From Bitcoin to Ethereum, cryptocurrencies have been hailed as the new way to pay for products and services online. But according to one expert, they do not'bring anything useful for society', despite using up massive amounts of processing power. Michael Kagan, chief technology officer at chipmaker Nvidia, has said cryptocurrencies will never'do something good for humanity'. The expert has citied artificial intelligence (AI) – including chatbot ChatGPT – as being of more use to the public and a better use of energy than'crypto mining'. Cryptocurrencies perform mining to generate new coins and verify transactions, but it's more environmentally costly than beef production, a recent study found.

ChatGPT is back online, after a crash left users around the world unable to use the AI chatbot. According to Down Detector, the problems started at around 08:45 GMT and affected users globally. While the reason for the outage remains unclear, of those who reported issues, 82 per cent said they were having problems with ChatGPT, 11 per cent with login and 7 per cent with the website. Users flocked to social media to express their dismay at not being able to access the revolutionary artificial intelligence tool. One said: 'OMG!!! Thought it was just me! ChatGPT is down globally.