Science writing wasn’t really an early focus in my career for two reasons. First, it’s a small, specialised field and I frankly didn’t have the experience or knowledge. Second, I’d considered myself a computer, phone and application guy since first becoming a freelance writer.
I reviewed the latest mobiles and software. I was fully acquainted with the whole Mac versus PC thing at its height. I gave ratings out of five, knew all the products RRPs and my system was littered with product shots from PR agencies working for the IBMs, Lenovos and Samsungs of the world.
Today my interest is where tech fits into our lives. Sometimes it’s AI agents that appear all but human, sometimes it’s an emerging field like the new Internet of Things paradigm of short lived, disposable sensors.
But my knowledge of science evolved and grew and I’ve been thrilled to join the ranks I’d always admired and envied and write about scientific topics from the whimsical, like when Skylab returned to Earth in remote Western Australia, to the socially urgent, like the way the human brain reacts to sexual assault.
Our personalities as humans are shaped through interaction, reflected through basic survival and reproductive instincts, without any pre-assigned roles or desired computational outcomes. Now, researchers at Japan’s University of Electro-Communications
Continue readingAI can develop ‘personality’ spontaneously with minimal prompting
The supposed “creativity” of artificial intelligence (AI) is subject to strict mathematical limits, according to a study published Nov. 11 in the Journal of Creative Behavior. David Cropley, a professor
When you think about the leading edge of manufacturing technology, you might imagine sites in the US and China. But there’s evidence that the UK is also a major player
Continue readingHow the UK is leading Europe at AI-driven manufacturing
When asked to evaluate how good we are at something, we tend to get that estimation completely wrong. It’s a universal human tendency, with the effect seen most strongly in
The Greek philosopher Plato wrote about Socrates challenging a student with the “doubling the square” problem in about 385 B.C.E. When asked to double the area of a square, the
Continue readingScientists asked ChatGPT to solve a math problem from more than 2,000 years ago
Scientists have suggested that when artificial intelligence (AI) goes rogue and starts to act in ways counter to its intended purpose, it exhibits behaviors that resemble psychopathologies in humans. That’s
Continue readingThere are 32 different ways AI can go rogue, scientists say
Remember SETI@Home? The Institute for the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence was the custodian of gigabytes of radio telescope data (a lot back in 1999) collected from observatories around the world,
Continue readingFrom SETI to CERN: What you need to know about cluster computing
You’d be forgiven for thinking virtual reality (VR) has gone the way of 3D TV, NFTs or Second Life, other technologies that had us talking during all-encompassing hype cycles but
In what seems like a further blow to a capability in which we thought computers would never outdo us, scientists now suggest AI understands emotions better than we do. Scientists
Continue readingNew study claims AI ‘understands’ emotion better than us
Online search has changed in the ChatGPT era. Instead of using Google, workers can query AI as they would a colleague at the next desk and get the answer without
