Police accused of'homophobic assumptions' over victims of blackmail on Grindr Police failed to properly investigate allegations that a gang was blackmailing men on the gay dating app Grindr, the BBC can reveal. Our investigation has learned of five cases of suspected blackmail involving victims targeted on Grindr in one area, with at least four of them connected to the same gang, which remains at large. In one instance, a suspected victim killed himself 24 hours after a group of men turned up at his home demanding he hand over his new Range Rover. The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC) watchdog has told Hertfordshire Police - the investigating force - to examine whether homophobic assumptions could have contributed to failures in the investigation. Hertfordshire Police said it was unable to discuss specific points about the case, which has now been reopened, but said it is committed to building and maintaining good working relationships with the LGBTQ+ communities.

Humans have been trying to talk to animals ever since we figured out how to form words. In modern times, we turn to technology for the solution--giving our dogs talking buttons to paw at, or trying to use artificial intelligence to help us understand whales. The latest and perhaps most direct approach at human-animal communication is a voice-activated collar that gives your pet the power to talk back to you. John McHale, a self-described "tech guy" based out of Austin, Texas, has a company called Personifi AI. The startup's goal, as the name implies, is to create tech that will "personify everything," as McHale puts it.

Imagining military artificial intelligence (AI) applications can make one dream up scenarios like those in the Terminator films, but in reality, AI solutions for defense are much more mundane and focused on improving decision-making for humans, whether they're aircraft maintenance personnel; pilots; or intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) analysts, says John Canipe, Director of Business Development, Air Force, at SparkCognition Government Systems, during a conversation we had at his company headquarters in Austin, Texas. We also discussed the difference between AI and machine learning (ML), how AI is being applied across multiple military domains, and more. MCHALE: Please provide a brief description of your responsibility within SparkCognition Government Systems and your group's role within the company. CANIPE: As Director of Business Development, Air Force, my current responsibilities are product development, capture management, price/licensing of products, and generating new and recurring sales. MCHALE: We often see AI/ML [artificial intelligence/machine learning] in the same sentence, or used to describe the same thing, but what is the actual difference between AI and ML? CANIPE: Differentiating AI from ML is a struggle everyone is having right now.

Deep learning is advancing at lightning speed, and Alexander Amini '17 and Ava Soleimany '16 want to make sure they have your attention as they dive deep on the math behind the algorithms and the ways that deep learning is transforming daily life. Last year, their blockbuster course, 6.S191 (Introduction to Deep Learning) opened with a fake video welcome from former President Barack Obama. This year, the pair delivered their lectures "live" from Stata Center -- after taping them weeks in advance from their kitchen, outfitted for the occasion with studio lights, a podium, and a green screen for projecting the blackboard in Kirsch Auditorium on their Zoom backgrounds. "It's hard for students to stay engaged when they're looking at a static image of an instructor," says Amini. "We wanted to recreate the dynamic of a real classroom." Amini is a graduate student in MIT's Department of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science (EECS), and Soleimany a graduate student at MIT and Harvard University.

Machine learning and artificial intelligence are touted as the cure-all for everything that ails a data center. While much of it is hype and baseless optimism, AI-powered tools are already useful and practical in some areas. Those areas include data center physical security, where AI is making a difference on three fronts: image and sound recognition, anomaly detection, and predictive analytics. Image recognition is one of the big success stories in AI, and the technology is quickly being embedded everywhere. And so is its close cousin, sound recognition.

"Dimension 404" has been compared to "Black Mirror," but it seems the two shows may have more differences than similarities. "Dimension 404" and "Black Mirror" were both inspired by "The Twilight Zone," and they both tackle issues related to technology. For this reason, the two shows have been compared to each other, but they have a distinct difference. For one, Hulu's new science fiction drama is not as dark as Netflix's show. "Dimension 404" aims to give a lighter take on the science-fiction-horror genre.