Synthetic viruses could be generated through the misuse of artificial intelligence and potentially spark pandemics, a former Google executive and AI expert has warned. Google DeepMind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman expressed concern that the use of AI to engineer pathogens to cause more harm may lead to a scenario like a pandemic. “The darkest scenario is that people will experiment with pathogens, engineered synthetic pathogens that might end up accidentally or intentionally being more transmissible or more lethal,” he said in a recent episode of a podcast. Similar to how there are restrictions in place to prevent people from easily accessing pathogenic microbes like anthrax, Mr Suleyman has called for the means to restrict access to advanced AI technology and software that runs such models. “That’s where we need containment. We have to limit access to the tools and the know-how to carry out that kind of experimentation,” he said in The Diary of a CEO podcast. “We can’t let just anyone have access to them. We need to limit who can use the AI software, the cloud systems, and even some of the biological material,” the Google DeepMind co-founder said. “And of course on the biology side it means restricting access to some of the substances,” he said, adding that AI development needs to be approached with a “precautionary principle”. Mr Suleyman’s statements echo concerns raised in a recent study that even undergraduates with no relevant background in biology can detail suggestions for bio-weapons from AI systems. Researchers, including those from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, found chatbots can suggest “four potential pandemic pathogens” within an hour and explain how they can be generated from synthetic DNA. The research found chatbots also “supplied the names of DNA synthesis companies unlikely to screen orders, identified detailed protocols and how to troubleshoot them, and recommended that anyone lacking the skills to perform reverse genetics engage a core facility or contract research organization”. Such large language models (LLMs), like ChatGPT, “will make pandemic-class agents widely accessible as soon as they are credibly identified, even to people with little or no laboratory training,” the study said. The study, whose authors included MIT bio risk expert Kevin Esvelt, called for “non-proliferation measures”. Such measures could include “pre-release evaluations of LLMs by third parties, curating training datasets to remove harmful concepts, and verifiably screening all DNA generated by synthesis providers or used by contract research organizations and robotic ‘cloud laboratories’ to engineer organisms or viruses”. Read More China’s ‘government-approved’ AI chatbot says Taiwan invasion is likely Government urged to address AI ‘risks’ to avoid ‘spooking’ public Scientists give verdict on Harvard professor’s claim of finding materials in sea from outside Solar System Google boss says he wants to make people ‘shrug’ Why is Elon Musk obsessed with the letter X? Elon Musk ‘borrowed $1bn from SpaceX’ at same time as Twitter acquisition

WALDOBORO, Maine--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 22, 2023--

Nintendo has announced a new game focus on Princess Peach.

TL;DR: The Complete 2023 Cybersecurity Developer and IT Skills Bundle is on sale for £55.77,

Check out the Fortnite OG Season 7 launch times for all regions before the next Fortnite OG update drops on Thursday, Nov. 16, at 9 a.m. ET.

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Focus on companies with powerful fundamentals. Microsoft offers exposure to two important themes: cloud computing and artificial intelligence.

If some influencers on TikTok are to be believed, eating a handful of carrots a day will give you a tan. An account called isabelle.lux posted last week to claim that eating three carrots each day would make you orange. And the fad is spreading like wildfire. @isabelle.lux #stitch with @Isabelle ⚡️ Lux ?CARROT TAN 101 take Astaxanthin (i get mine on amazon) #carrottan #selftan #selftanroutine Tanning hack routine Carrot tan before and after results But like most things promoted by beauty grifters on the internet, all is not what it seems. Two dieticians wrote in The Conversation on 27 September that, no, you probably won't get that golden tan just from eating a couple of root vegetables. They are Lauren Ball, professor of community health and wellbeing at The University of Queensland, and Emily Burch, a dietitian, researcher and lecturer, Southern Cross University. Here’s what they had to say. What is Carotene? The reason carrots are orange is because they contain beta-carotene, a natural pigment. When you eat it, your gut breaks it down into vitamin A, which helps vision, reproduction, immunity and growth. If you eat too much beta-carotene, it stops breaking it down into vitamin A. Then your poo goes orange. (No, really.) The excess beta-carotene gets stored in the liver and fat tissue, write Ball and Burch, and is excreted through your poo, or removed via sweat glands in the outer layer of the skin. This is when your skin goes orange, or “tanned”. There’s even a medical name for the condition – carotenoderma – which sees the orange pigmentation concentrated in the palms of your hands, the soles of your feet and the smile lines near your nose. So how many carrots do you need? “A few days of high carrot intake will unlikely result in a change in skin colour,” Bell and Burch write. Moreover, “no high quality trials have been conducted to test the relationship between number of carrots eaten per day and skin colour changes or other outcomes”. One published case report found that for a person who ate around 3kg of carrots per week (about seven large carrots a day) found the colour of their skin started to change. Other experts have suggest you would need to eat at least ten carrots per day, for at least a few weeks, for colour changes to occur. The experts added: “Most people would find this carrot intake challenging.” Is that even good for you? And while they continue that myths around beta-carotene being toxic for humans don’t quite stack up, there is a potential danger. “There is, however, some evidence that taking high-dose beta-carotene supplements (20 mg per day or more) increases lung cancer risk in people who smoke cigarettes or used to smoke,” they wrote. “This may be due to changes to chemical signalling pathways.” The Cancer Council therefore recommends avoiding high doses of beta-carotene supplements (more than 20 mg per day). But the good news is that if you really want to go a strange orange hue, beta-carotene is also found in parsley, basil, chives, chilli powder and sun-dried tomatoes. So as far as real fruit and veg is concerned, you might as well crack on. Read the full article in The Conversation here. Sign up to 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.

Google says it has made a major artificial intelligence breakthrough that could dramatically reduce the climate impact from flying. The company partnered with an airline and data provider to build a new artificially intelligent system that looks to reduce the amount of contrails produced by planes. Contrails are the long, white lines that appear behind planes, and can sometimes make the sky appear cloudy. They are formed as soot from planes’ exhausts turn into ice – and when they merge together, they trap heat in the atmosphere and warm the Earth. Those contrails account for more than a third of the global warming impact of flying, according to the UN. If planes are able to avoid flying through areas that create contrails, however, then they will reduce the amount of warming. If the human-made clouds can be stopped, then their warming effects can be reduced. In an attempt to do so, Google researchers gathered satellite imagery, weather and flight path data and fed it into an AI system. That was then used to try and generate routes for pilots that avoided creating those contrails. Pilots at American then flew some 70 test flights over a period of six months, Google said, following those AI-generated routes. The researchers then examined satellite imagery and found that the contrails produced were reduced by 54 per cent. “This is the first proof point that commercial flights can verifiably avoid contrails and thereby reduce their climate impact,” Google said. The company did also note that the flights burned 2 per cent additional fuel, though Google suggested that the flights could be selectively chosen. Google said it would be “working across the aviation industry to use AI to make contrail avoidance a reality over the coming years” in its announcement. It said it has the “potential to be a cost-effective, scalable solution to reduce the climate impact of flying”. Airlines are currently not charged for their climate impact, however, and there is therefore no indication that they would opt to use the routes that help reduce global warming. Read More Google will now alert you if people are talking about you Google Assistant will be ‘supercharged’ with AI like ChatGPT and Bard Google warns Gmail users they could be about to lose their account

One of the biggest energy-draining components on a laptop is the display. To cut down

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