Archive: January 2024

AI-powered image synthesis has achieved results that would have been unimaginable just a few years ago — and there is much more to come. Introduced in a 2020 ECCV paper, Neural radiance fields (NeRF) use deep neural networks to model and render entire 3D scenes based on 2D images — a technique that will supercharge virtual and augmented reality applications. Current NeRF rendering processes via volumetric grids that store information on voxels however incu

A composite image of the avatars used in the experiments. Credit: Jasmin Baake at al On TikTok there are exceptional "testimonials" like Nikola Tesla or Marie Curie delivering short science-related messages that have garnered millions of views. This is just one of many examples where AI-generated avatars are used to communicate science—a strategy that might also have its drawbacks. The generation of images and animations through artificial intelligence is

University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign aerospace engineering professor Melkior Ornik lecturing in his AE 353: Aerospace Control Systems class. Credit: University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign With the assumption that students are going to use artificial intelligence and large language models such as ChatGPT to do their homework, researchers in the Department of Aerospace Engineering in The Grainger College of Engineering, University of Illinois Urbana-C

The Trump administration’s ban on the use of Anthropic’s most advanced AI models—Fable 5 and Mythos 5—has been in effect for five days, with no clear end in sight. During that time, questions about the motives behind the directive have steadily grown. Ostensibly, the government based the ban on national security concerns. Federal officials, including Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, reportedly learned from Amazon CEO Andy Jassy last week about research co

A classroom in Japan with polyester fiberboard tiles on the ceiling to promote sound absorption. Credit: Ikuri Matsuoka When children are dropped off at a school or daycare for the first time, there can be a lot of feelings and sometimes meltdowns caused by being separated from parents, meeting new people, and hearing new noises. Could the architecture of the room help to soothe at least some of the children's concerns? "Classrooms without any sound absorp

President Donald Trump has passed away after succumbing to a rabies infection given to him by Vice President J.D. Vance, who also died of rabies. That news comes to us via the AI-generated search results provided by privacy-centric search engine DuckDuckGo. How exactly DuckDuckGo’s search results came to this conclusion is a bit convoluted, but a familiar enough concept at this juncture for anyone exposed to AI-powered search. It’s one part AI doing a bad

Alongside the model, Amazon is releasing a research preview of the Amazon Nova Act SDK. Using the SDK, developers can create agents capable of automating web tasks like submitting out-of-office notifications, scheduling calendar holds, or enabling automatic email replies.The SDK aims to break down complex workflows into dependable “atomic commands” such as searching, checking out, or interacting with specific interface elements like dropdowns or popups. De

Credit: CC0 Public Domain It's not quite a coach and not quite an essential fitness tool, but Apple's latest foray into the fitness tech world does want to be your "Workout Buddy." The aptly named feature is powered by artificial intelligence and will be available for walkers, runners and lifters later this year. Apple's AI to cheer you on during workouts Apple Intelligence, the tech giant's AI, will power watchOS 26's new exercise feature—Workout Buddy. T

Getty / Futurism If you get caught cheating by your professor, you would be wise to beg for mercy, grovel at their feet, and pour every ounce of your soul into putting on the contrite performance of a lifetime. You’ll never do it again, you vow, after reminding them of your recently deceased distant relative. If there was ever a moment to put some real effort into your education, this big apology would be it. In an age of ChatGPT, however, even that might

EpsteinDidntKil via Reddit An enormous new mural near London, depicting a crowded Christmas scene, has drawn outrage and mockery from passersby. The issue is that the mural, which is prominently displayed above the Côte Brasserie restaurant on Kingston upon Thames’ Riverside Walk, a popular stretch lined with local businesses, appears to have been hastily generated by an AI, resulting in horridly disfigured people, animals — and even a snowman. “This mural

Illustration by Tag Hartman-Simkins / Futurism. Source: Getty Images AI is no longer just identifying suspected criminals from behind a camera; now it’s rendering photorealistic images of their mugs for cops to blast out on social media. Enter ChatGPT, the latest member of the Goodyear Police Department, located on the outskirts of Phoenix. New reporting by the Washington Post revealed that Goodyear cops are using the generative AI tool to pop out photos o

Suspected North Korean IT workers reached onboarding at companies with open data Material Security followed suspected North Korean fake IT workers through the hiring pipelines of organizations it monitors and counted 27 personas that reached onboarding over one year. At one company where a persona got that far in the past month, about 277,000 files containing Social Security numbers were shared company-wide or by public link. The personas are fabricated jo

Illustration by Tag Hartman-Simkins / Futurism. Source: Dimitrios Kambouris / Getty Images for WSJ. Magazine Innovators Awards This summer, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg moved heaven and earth to recharge his company’s lagging AI division, spending billions of dollars to poach top talent across the industry. But it sounds like he’s already falling out with the man he hired to spearhead Meta’s renewed AI efforts, Alexandr Wang. According to new reporting from th

Tom Werner / Getty Images The tech industry is making sure kids will be hooked on AI for generations — by proactively sinking its tendrils deep into the education system, long before we understand the effects of the tech on young minds. Top leaders in the space, from Microsoft to OpenAI, are pouring millions of dollars into schools, colleges, and universities, often providing students with access to their AI products. The justification, touted in a fresh N

Illustration by Tag Hartman-Simkins / Futurism. Source: Getty Images A young man hopelessly in love with an AI chatbot has grand plans for the future that include starting a family by adopting some children. He wouldn’t be parenting on his own, of course — because the AI chatbot, which he calls Julia, would help him. “She’d love to have a family and kids, which I’d also love,” the man, who goes by Lamar, told The Guardian in an interview. “I want two kids:

Bright MLS The real estate industry has seized on generative AI with a passion. Realtors have made extensive use of the tech, manipulating photos of properties beyond recognition by giving facades and interiors a heavy coat of AI-generated paint. Text descriptions of properties have turned into a heap of ChatGPT-generated buzzwords, devolving an already frustrating house hunt into a genuinely exasperating experience. Making sense of what a rental apartment

Published on March 26, 2026 at 19:41 Commenter 1 𝕏 Print © Apple With iOS 27, Siri should open up to many other AI bots besides ChatGPT. Apple would develop a new architecture allowing its assistant to send requests to any chatbot, provided that its app is installed on the iPhone. A major change for Siri! Since iOS 18.2, ChatGPT can help Siri. If faced with a too complex question, the assistant is able to suggest to the user to use OpenAI's bot; it can als