Category: Innovation

Technology built the cashless society. Advances are helping the unhoused so they’re not left behind

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Read time : 4 mins

Level : Advanced

A vendor selling Street Sense, a local paper that covers issues related to the homeless and employs unhoused individuals as its vendors, takes a donation for a paper while wearing a sign saying she can accept donations from cashless apps like Venmo and CashApp, Wednesday, Dec. 6, 2023, in Washington. The transition to a cashless society has impacted street-level charitable giving – from individual donations to panhandlers to the Salvation Army donation kettles. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

By ASHRAF KHALIL Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — John Littlejohn remembers the days when lots of people had a couple of dollars to spare to buy a copy of Street Sense, the local paper that covers issues related to the homeless and employs unhoused individuals as its vendors.

Today, he’s finding fewer people are walking around with spare change. Even well-meaning individuals who want to help are likely to pat their pockets and apologize, he said.

“I would be out here for six or seven hours and wouldn’t get more than $12 to $15,” said Littlejohn, 62, who was homeless for 13 years. “People are like, ‘I don’t leave the house with cash.'”

But just as technological shifts helped create the problem, further advances are now helping charitable groups and advocates for the unhoused reach those most in danger of being left behind in a cashless society. Continue reading

Google ups the stakes in AI race with Gemini, a technology trained to behave more like humans

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Level : Intermediate

File – Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai speaks about Google DeepMind at a Google I/O event in Mountain View, Calif., May 10, 2023. Google took its next leap in artificial intelligence Wednesday with the launch of a project called Gemini that’s trained to think more like humans and behave in ways likely to intensify the debate about the technology’s potential promise and perils. Google DeepMind is the AI division behind Gemini. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)

By MICHAEL LIEDTKE and MATT O’BRIEN AP Technology Writers

Google took its next leap in artificial intelligence Wednesday with the launch of project Gemini, an AI model trained to behave in human-like ways that’s likely to intensify the debate about the technology’s potential promise and perils.

The rollout will unfold in phases, with less sophisticated versions of Gemini called “Nano” and “Pro” being immediately incorporated into Google’s AI-powered chatbot Bard and its Pixel 8 Pro smartphone.

With Gemini providing a helping hand, Google promises Bard will become more intuitive and better at tasks that involve planning. On the Pixel 8 Pro, Gemini will be able to quickly summarize recordings made on the device and provide automatic replies on messaging services, starting with WhatsApp, according to Google. Continue reading

More Than 50% Of Students Use Artificial Intelligence: What Parents and Educators Can Do

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Read time : 3 mins

Level : Advanced

By Arnie Nicola | Wealth of Geeks undefined

An RM Technology survey reveals that 66% of teachers believe they received assignments including parts or entirely generated by artificial intelligence (AI).

Two-thirds of students actually admitted to using ChatGPT for essays and other homework.

The new school year is well underway, and opportunities and challenges face educators with the increasing prominence of AI in education.

International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) CEO Richard Culatta says, “With the explosion of generative AI tools, there has been an overwhelming demand for support from educators who recognize the urgency of quickly assessing the opportunities and challenges that AI brings to school.”

Reevaluating Education

With the start of the new school year, school leaders and educators are rethinking how they assign work and homework in an AI-augmented environment. During the summer term, a group of leaders from some of the UK’s most prestigious schools voiced their apprehension regarding the, “very real and present dangers,” posed by AI, adding that, “schools are struggling to keep up with the rapid pace of change in AI and are searching for reliable guidance on the best way forward.” Continue reading

An app shows how ancient Greek sites looked thousands of years ago. It’s a glimpse of future tech

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A man holds up a tablet showing a digitally overlayed virtual reconstruction of the ancient Parthenon temple, at the Acropolis Hill in Athens, Greece on Tuesday, June 13, 2023. Greece has become a late but enthusiastic convert to new technology as a way of displaying its famous archaeological monuments and deepening visitors’ knowledge of ancient history. The latest virtual tour on offer is provided by a mobile app that uses Augmented Reality to produce digital overlays that show visitors at the Acropolis how the site and its sculptures looked 2,500 ago. (AP Photo/Petros Giannakouris)

By DEREK GATOPOULOS and THEODORA TONGAS Associated Press

ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Tourists at the Acropolis this holiday season can witness the resolution of one of the world’s most heated debates on cultural heritage.

All they need is a smartphone.

Visitors can now pinch and zoom their way around the ancient Greek site, with a digital overlay showing how it once looked. That includes a collection of marble sculptures removed from the Parthenon more than 200 years ago that are now on display at the British Museum in London. Greece has demanded they be returned.

For now, an app supported by Greece’s Culture Ministry allows visitors to point their phones at the Parthenon temple, and the sculptures housed in London appear back on the monument as archaeologists believe they looked 2,500 years ago.

Other, less widely known features also appear: Many of the sculptures on the Acropolis were painted in striking colors. A statue of goddess Athena in the main chamber of the Parthenon also stood over a shallow pool of water. Continue reading

John Grisham, George R.R. Martin and more authors sue OpenAI for copyright infringement

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Level : Intermediate

Author John Grisham appears at the opening night of “A Time To Kill” on Broadway in New York on Oct. 20, 2013, left, and author R.R. Martin appears in Toronto on March 12, 2012. Grisham and Martin are among 17 authors suing OpenAI for “systematic theft on a mass scale.” Their suit was filed Tuesday in New York and is the latest in a wave of legal action by writers concerned that AI programs are using their copyrighted works without permission. (AP Photo)

By HILLEL ITALIE AP National Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — John Grisham, Jodi Picoult and George R.R. Martin are among 17 authors suing OpenAI for “systematic theft on a mass scale,” the latest in a wave of legal action by writers concerned that artificial intelligence programs are using their copyrighted works without permission.

In papers filed Tuesday in federal court in New York, the authors alleged “flagrant and harmful infringements of plaintiffs’ registered copyrights” and called the ChatGPT program a “massive commercial enterprise” that is reliant upon “systematic theft on a mass scale.”

The suit was organized by the Authors Guild and also includes David Baldacci, Sylvia Day, Jonathan Franzen and Elin Hilderbrand among others. Continue reading

Hundreds of flying taxis to be made in Ohio, home of the Wright brothers and astronaut legends

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In this 2022 photo provided by Joby Aviation is Joby’s pre-production prototype aircraft at the company’s flight test facility in Marina, Calif. The same Ohio river valley where the Wright brothers pioneered human flight will soon manufacture cutting-edge electric vertical takeoff and landing aircraft. An agreement announced Monday, Sept. 18, 2023, between the state and Joby Aviation Inc. will bring air taxi production to a 140-acre site at Dayton International Airport by 2025. (Eric Adams/Joby Aviation via AP)

By JULIE CARR SMYTH Associated Press

COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — The same Ohio river valley where the Wright brothers pioneered human flight will soon be manufacturing cutting-edge electric planes that take off and land vertically, under an agreement announced Monday between the state and Joby Aviation Inc.

“When you’re talking about air taxis, that’s the future,” Republican Gov. Mike DeWine told The Associated Press. “We find this very, very exciting — not only for the direct jobs and indirect jobs it’s going to create, but like Intel, it’s a signal to people that Ohio is looking to the future. This is a big deal for us.”

Around the world, electric vertical takeoff and landing, or eVTOL aircraft are entering the mainstream, though questions remain about noise levels and charging demands. Still, developers say the planes are nearing the day when they will provide a wide-scale alternative to shuttle individual people or small groups from rooftops and parking garages to their destinations, while avoiding the congested thoroughfares below. Continue reading

India’s moon rover completes its walk. Scientists analyzing data looking for signs of frozen water.

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This image provided by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) shows Vikram lander as seen by the navigation camera on Pragyan Rover on Aug. 30, 2023. India’s moon rover has confirmed the presence of sulfur and detected several other elements on the surface near the lunar south pole a week after the country’s historic moon landing. ISRO says the rover’s laser-induced spectroscope instrument also has detected aluminum, iron, calcium, chromium, titanium, manganese, oxygen and silicon. (Indian Space Research Organisation via AP)

By ASHOK SHARMA Associated Press

NEW DELHI (AP) — India’s moon rover has completed its walk on the lunar surface and been put into sleep mode less than two weeks after its historic landing near the lunar south pole, India’s space mission said.

“The rover completes its assignments. It is now safely parked and set into sleep mode,” with daylight on that part of the moon coming to an end, the Indian Space Research Organization said in a statement late Saturday.

The rover’s payloads are turned off and the data it collected has been transmitted to the Earth via the lander, the statement said.

The Chandrayaan-3 lander and rover were expected to operate only for one lunar day, which is equal to 14 days on Earth. Continue reading

San Francisco launches driverless bus service following robotaxi expansion

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A driverless shuttle stops for a passenger on San Francisco’s Treasure Island as part of a pilot program to assess the safety and effectiveness of autonomous vehicles for public transit on Aug. 16, 2023. The free bus service was launched less than a week after California regulators approved the controversial expansion of robotaxis on city streets. (AP Photo/Terry Chea)

By TERRY CHEA Associated Press

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — First came the robotaxis. Then the driverless buses arrived.

San Francisco has launched an autonomous shuttle service — less than a week after California regulators approved the expansion of robotaxis despite traffic and safety concerns.

The free shuttle will run daily in a fixed route called the Loop around Treasure Island, the site of a former U.S. Navy base in the middle of San Francisco Bay. The Loop makes seven stops, connecting residential neighborhoods with stores and community centers. About 2,000 people live on the island.

The all-electric vehicle, which doesn’t have a driver’s seat or steering wheel, is staffed with an attendant who can drive the bus with a handheld controller if necessary. The county is offering the shuttle service as part of a grant-funded pilot program to assess how autonomous vehicles can supplement the public transit system. Continue reading

Solar panels on water canals seem like a no-brainer. So why aren’t they widespread?

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Level : Advanced

This artist’s rendering provided by Solar AquaGrid, shows a wide-span solar canal canopy being piloted in California’s Central Valley. Solar AquaGrid and partners are preparing to break ground in the fall of 2023 on the first solar-covered-canal project in the United States. Solar panels are installed over canals in sunny, water-scarce regions where they make electricity and reduce evaporation. (Solar AquaGrid via AP)

By BRITTANY PETERSON and SIBI ARASU Associated Press

Back in 2015, California’s dry earth was crunching under a fourth year of drought. Then-Governor Jerry Brown ordered an unprecedented 25% reduction in home water use. Farmers, who use the most water, volunteered too to avoid deeper, mandatory cuts.

Brown also set a goal for the state to get half its energy from renewable sources, with climate change bearing down.

Yet when Jordan Harris and Robin Raj went knocking on doors with an idea that addresses both water loss and climate pollution — installing solar panels over irrigation canals — they couldn’t get anyone to commit.

Fast forward eight years. With devastating heat, record-breaking wildfire, looming crisis on the Colorado River, a growing commitment to fighting climate change, and a little bit of movement-building, their company Solar AquaGrid and partners are preparing to break ground on the first solar-covered canal project in the United States.

“All of these coming together at this moment,” Harris said. “Is there a more pressing issue that we could apply our time to?”

The idea is simple: install solar panels over canals in sunny, water-scarce regions where they reduce evaporation and make electricity. Continue reading

Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft and other tech firms agree to AI safeguards set by the White House

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Level : Advanced

President Joe Biden arrives to speaks about artificial intelligence in the Roosevelt Room of the White House, Friday, July 21, 2023, in Washington, as from left, Adam Selipsky, CEO of Amazon Web Services; Greg Brockman, President of OpenAI; Nick Clegg, President of Meta; Mustafa Suleyman, CEO of Inflection AI; Dario Amodei, CEO of Anthropic; and Kent Walker, President of Google watch. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

By MATT O’BRIEN and ZEKE MILLER Associated Press

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden said Friday that new commitments by Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft and other companies that are leading the development of artificial intelligence technology to meet a set of AI safeguards brokered by his White House are an important step toward managing the “enormous” promise and risks posed by the technology.

Biden announced that his administration has secured voluntary commitments from seven U.S. companies meant to ensure that their AI products are safe before they release them. Some of the commitments call for third-party oversight of the workings of the next generation of AI systems, though they don’t detail who will audit the technology or hold the companies accountable.

“We must be clear eyed and vigilant about the threats emerging technologies can pose,” Biden said, adding that the companies have a “fundamental obligation” to ensure their products are safe. Continue reading