'The Joe Rogan AI Experience' launched on YouTube with an episode of Joe Rogan in conversation with Open AI's CEO Sam Altman

U.S. and British cybersecurity officials are warning of the potential widespread global impact of a Russian cyber-extortion gang’s hack of a file-transfer program popular with corporations

The US has “serious concerns” about China’s move to restrict sales of Micron Technology Inc. products in the

SEGA Europe and Rovio Entertainment Corporation have agreed a deal for the takeover.

Germany, through its KfW development bank, will as soon as Friday sign an agreement to lend South Africa

Ron DeSantis continues to defend newly approved curriculum guidelines in Florida instructing students to learn that enslaved people “developed skills” that could be “applied for personal benefit”. “That means they developed skills in spite of slavery, not because of slavery,” the governor told NBC News in a recent interview that aired on 7 August. “It was them showing resourcefulness and then using those skills once slavery ended,” he added. Mr DeSantis, who is seeking the Republican nomination for president in 2024, has dismissed criticism from Vice President Kamala Harris and Democratic and Republican members of Congress urging Florida officials to amend the state’s African American history standards and reflect an honest history of race and racism in school curricula. The vice president has also rejected an invitation from Mr DeSantis to “discuss” the standards, telling a crowd in Orlando earlier this month that “there is no roundtable, no lecture, no invitation we will accept to debate an undeniable fact: there were no redeeming qualities of slavery.” Mr DeSantis had previously stated he “wasn’t involved” with the guidelines approved by the state’s appointed Board of Education. He said the standards are “probably going to show some of the folks” – enslaved people – “that eventually parlayed, you know, being a blacksmith into doing things later in life.” The development of such “skills” would not have benefited the millions of enslaved people in the US in the decades before slavery’s abolition. Another controversial guideline instructs high schoolers to be taught that a massacre in the state led by white supremacists against Black residents to stop them from voting in 1920 included “acts of violence perpetrated against and by African Americans.” “Adults know what slavery really was. It involved rape, it involved torture, it involved taking a baby from their mother, it involved some of the worst examples of depriving humanity of people in our world,” Ms Harris said in her remarks in Jacksonville last month. South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, the only Black Republican in the Senate, echoed Ms Harris in his criticism of the standards, stressing that slavery was defined by “separating families, about mutilating humans and even raping their wives”. “It was just devastating,” said Mr Scott, who is also seeking the 2024 Republican nomination. “So I would hope that every person in our country – and certainly running for president – would appreciate that.” Mr DeSantis told NBC in response: “Don’t take that side of Kamala Harris against the state of Florida. Don’t indulge those lies.” The new standards join the governor’s overhaul of public education and a “parents’ rights” agenda that targets honest lessons on race and racism and gender and sexuality, which the governor told NBC amounts to “indoctrination”. “Those standards were not political at all,” he added. “The legislature didn’t dictate any of that. [The] governor’s office didn’t dictate anything of that.” Last week, before thousands of high school students enrolled in advanced placement courses begin classes for the 2023-2024 school year, the DeSantis administration criticised the College Board’s warning that Florida education officials had “effectively banned” AP Psychology courses in the state under the Parental Rights in Education Act, what opponents have derided as the “Don’t Say Gay” law. Read More Ron DeSantis admits ‘of course’ Donald Trump lost the election DeSantis blasted for ‘un-American’ restrictions on AP psychology course under ‘Don’t Say Gay’ law Why Florida’s new curriculum on slavery is becoming a political headache for Ron DeSantis

OpenAI has reached a deal for ousted boss Sam Altman to return as its chief executive, the company said on Wednesday. The artificial intelligence company said it would reinstate a board consisting of Bret Taylor, Larry Summers, and Adam D’Angelo. “We have reached an agreement in principle for Sam to return to OpenAI as CEO with a new initial board of Bret Taylor (Chair), Larry Summers, and Adam D’Angelo,” the company posted on X. The AI company’s board abruptly fired Mr Altman on Friday saying it “no longer has confidence in his ability to continue leading OpenAI”. Within days, OpenAI brought in the former head of Twitch Emmett Shear as interim chief. But chaos soon erupted at the company with over 500 employees threatening to quit unless its board resigned and reinstated their dismissed boss. The announcement earlier on Wednesday confirms rumours that the OpenAI founder is returning to the helm of his company. “We are collaborating to figure out the details,” the company said. More follows Read More Microsoft stock just hit an all-time high amid OpenAI chaos Microsoft chief hints Sam Altman may return as OpenAI staff demand board resignation OpenAI staff ‘threaten to quit over ousting of Sam Altman’

Metal detecting can be a pretty thankless task, with most enthusiasts lucky if they find a couple of quid or an old belt buckle. But for one man in Australia, the experience was out of this world. David Hole was out digging for gold in Maryborough Regional Park, near Melbourne, back in 2015 when his trusty detector alerted him to a strange, red-brown rock embedded in some yellow clay. Hole took the mysterious boulder home with him and did his utmost to crack it open, using a rock saw, a sledgehammer, a drill, and even dousing it in acid, according to Science Alert. And yet, nothing left so much as a dent. Admitting defeat years later, in 2018, Hole took his find to the Melbourne Museum, hoping someone there could explain its impenetrability; convinced it contained a golden nugget. However, the discovery was far more significant than a precious metal: it was a 4.6 billion-year-old glimpse at the birth of our solar system – a rare meteorite that had crashed down to Earth. The museum’s geologists, Dermot Henry and Bill Birch, said they grew excited as soon as Hole pulled the enigmatic rock from his rucksack. Speaking to the Sydney Morning Herald back in 2019, Henry recalled: "It had this sculpted, dimpled look to it. "That's formed when they come through the atmosphere, they are melting on the outside, and the atmosphere sculpts them." Meanwhile, Birch told the paper he knew the specimen was special as soon as he held it. “If you saw a rock on earth like this, and you picked it up, it shouldn’t be that heavy,” he said. Testing soon confirmed their suspicions, as well as the composition of this extraordinary chunk of history. In July 2019, the two colleagues published a scientific paper describing the meteorite, which they christened “Maryborough”, after the area where it was found. The space rock, which measures 38.5cm by 14.5cm by 14.5cm, weighs a staggering 17 kg, and after using a diamond saw to slice through it, the experts discovered that it is what is known as an H5 ordinary chondrite. This means that it contains tiny crystallised droplets (chondrules), that were created by flash heating of dust clouds in the early solar system. "Meteorites provide the cheapest form of space exploration. They transport us back in time, providing clues to the age, formation, and chemistry of our Solar System (including Earth)," Henry said in a statement published by Museums Victoria. "Some provide a glimpse at the deep interior of our planet. In some meteorites, there is 'stardust' even older than our Solar System, which shows us how stars form and evolve to create elements of the periodic table. "Other rare meteorites contain organic molecules such as amino acids; the building blocks of life." The scientist added that the Maryborough Meteorite was most likely formed in the asteroid belt between Mars and Jupiter. Despite all of Henry and Birch’s work, plenty of questions surrounding the rock remain unanswered. They don’t know for sure when it landed on Earth, with carbon 14 testing it was between 100 and 1,000 years ago. Still, multiple meteor sightings were reported in the Maryborough district between 1889 and 1951, so it could have crashed down within this relatively recent time period. Whatever its precise origins, the researchers insist it’s worth more to science than its weight in gold. "This is only the 17th meteorite found in Victoria, whereas there's (sic) been thousands of gold nuggets found," Henry told Channel 10 News at the time. "Looking at the chain of events, it's quite, you might say, astronomical it being discovered at all." Birch echoed this sentiment, adding: “When you consider all the events this chunk of rock has experienced since its formation 4.6 billion years ago, it's really mind-boggling that we get the opportunity to hold it and study it today. How good is that?" Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Have your say in our news democracy. Click the upvote icon at the top of the page to help raise this article through the indy100 rankings

PayPal Holdings Inc. is rolling out a stablecoin, the first by a large financial company and a potentially

Arm Ltd. Chief Executive Officer Rene Haas, gearing up for the biggest initial public offering of the year,

WhatsApp has introduced a new feature that will bring generative artificial intelligence tools to the platform for the first time. The world’s most popular messaging app, which counts close to 3 billion monthly active users around the world, will allow a limited number of people to create custom stickers using a new AI-powered ‘Create’ button. The latest feature follows similar generative AI tools from other messaging platforms, with Snapchat introducing a ‘My AI’ chatbot in February powered by OpenAI’s ChatGPT technology. Instagram, which is also owned by Meta, is reportedly planning its own AI chatbot that will come with up to 30 different personalities for users to choose from. Meta did not respond to a request from The Independent for more details about Instagram’s AI plans, though leaked images reveal options for asking questions, seeking advice and offering writing assistance. “Bring AI to your chats for a more fun and engaging experience,” stated text on the leaked images. “Chat with 30 AI personalities and find which one you like the best.” The new WhatsApp update, first spotted by WaBetaInfo, means WhatsApp users do not require external tools or specific design skills in order to create stickers. They will simply need to enter a text-based command in order for the stickers to be generated, similar to image generator tools like Midjourney and OpenAI’s Dall-E. “AI stickers are generated using a secure technology offered by Meta,” the WhatsApp news site noted. “It’s important to note that this feature is optional and those AI stickers are easily recognisable. This means that the recipient may understand when a sticker has been generated by the AI technology from Meta.” The Independent has reached out to Meta for more information about WhatsApp’s latest AI tool, though the company typically does not comment on features before they are released publicly. Currently only Android users signed up to WhatsApp’s Google Play Beta Program have access to the custom sticker creator tool. Read More WhatsApp update: App finally launches new way to transfer chat history, fixing major security issue

Here are some deals PlayStation owners should check out!