Health Diseases Donor organ's blood type altered for the first time Scientists removed the blood's antigens to make a kidney the universal type-O. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. In a world first, researchers at the University of British Columbia (UBC) in Canada successfully transplanted a human donor kidney that they artificially swapped from someone with type-A blood to the universal type-O. The breakthrough may pave the way for the creation of a universal donor blood supply, as well as the ability to pull off similar results with other vital organs. The riskiest and often most difficult part of an organ transplant procedure is the distinct possibility that a patients' body will reject the organ itself .

As the scope of machine learning broadens, we observe a recurring theme of algorithmic monoculture: the same systems, or systems that share components (e.g. While sharing offers advantages like amortizing effort, it also has risks. We introduce and formalize one such risk, outcome homogenization: the extent to which particular individuals or groups experience the same outcomes across different deployments. If the same individuals or groups exclusively experience undesirable outcomes, this may institutionalize systemic exclusion and reinscribe social hierarchy. We relate algorithmic monoculture and outcome homogenization by proposing the component sharing hypothesis: if algorithmic systems are increasingly built on the same data or models, then they will increasingly homogenize outcomes.

Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. If you recently received a voice message from an unusual number claiming to be your local congressperson, it's probably a scam. The FBI's crime division issued a warning this week about a new scheme in which bad actors use text messages and AI-generated voice clones to impersonate government officials. The scammers try to build a sense of connection with their target and eventually convince them to click on a malicious link that steals valuable login credentials. This scam is just the latest in a series of evolving attacks using convincing generative AI technology to trick people.

THIS ARTICLE IS republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Severance, which imagines a world where a person's work and personal lives are surgically separated, returns Friday for its long-awaited second season. While the concept of this gripping piece of science fiction is far-fetched, it touches on a question neuroscience has been trying to answer for decades: Can a person's mind really be split in two? Remarkably, "split-brain" patients have existed since the 1940s. To control epilepsy symptoms, these patients underwent a surgery to separate the left and right hemispheres.

Tattoos printed onto a person's scalp can detect electrical activity in the brain and carry signals to a recording device Analysing brainwaves could be made easier by printing a temporary tattoo onto a person's head. Electroencephalography (EEG) is a way of measuring electrical activity in the brain via electrodes placed on the scalp. It can be used to test patients for neurological conditions such as epilepsy, tumours or injury from stroke or traumatic impacts to the head. Because people's skulls vary in size and shape, technicians have to spend considerable amounts of time measuring and marking the scalp to get accurate readings. A gel helps the electrodes detect brain signals, but it stops working well as it dries.

Exasperated parents may decry video games as a mind-destroying waste of time as they try to prise their children away from them. But could video games – whisper it – actually be good for us? A new study from Japan suggests they can significantly improve mental wellbeing in children and adults. 'These games can serve as distraction or emotional release, providing stress relief, mood enhancement and a sense of accomplishment,' Dr Hiroyuki Egami, an assistant professor at Nihon University and the lead author of the study, told Good Health. The behavioural scientist, who analysed the effects of gaming on people aged from ten to 69, added that many parents'feel excessively worried about their children's video game habits, fearing potential negative consequences'... but'our study now provides robust scientific evidence to ease some of those worries'.

One difficulty in using artificial agents for human-assistive applications lies in the challenge of accurately assisting with a person's goal(s). Existing methods tend to rely on inferring the human's goal, which is challenging when there are many potential goals or when the set of candidate goals is difficult to identify. We propose a new paradigm for assistance by instead increasing the human's ability to control their environment, and formalize this approach by augmenting reinforcement learning with human empowerment. This task-agnostic objective increases the person's autonomy and ability to achieve any eventual state. We test our approach against assistance based on goal inference, highlighting scenarios where our method overcomes failure modes stemming from goal ambiguity or misspecification.

Paramount just announced that it's going ahead with a new video game based on Avatar: The Last Airbender, which will be developed by Saber Interactive. For the uninitiated, Saber is behind titles like Snowrunner and Teardown. It also has plenty of experience making licensed content, as it published Evil Dead: The Game and World War Z: Aftermath, among others. After all, there have been plenty already. Paramount is already crowing about the title, though, calling it a "AAA RPG" and claiming it'll be the "biggest video game in franchise history."

In its relentless search for ways to weave digital products into people's lives, Big Tech has achieved some big wins. Apple Watch users talk to their wrists. Artificial intelligence-powered assistants are everywhere. But convincing people to wear computers on their faces has been a dud. Tech giants have been focused in the last decade on developing eye glasses that project digital screens in front of a user's eyes.

The world's shortest IQ test not only reveals your intelligence but also your level of patience. The test, called a Cognitive Reflection Test (CRT), consists of three math-based questions that target a person's ability to ignore their initial gut response in favor of a more rational thought process. Many quickly assume the answers are simple, but the Yale University professor who created the exam warned it isn't as straightforward as it may seem. Professor Shane Frederick created the CRT in 2005 and only 20 to 40 percent of students who have attempted it have passed. A Yale University professor designed a Cognitive Reflection Test ( CRT) that consists of three math-based questions that target a person's ability to ignore their initial gut response in favor of a more rational thought process Mathematical brain teasers are useful in helping people develop logical thinking by promoting brain stimulation and build visual and spatial reasoning skills.