It’s summer and cars have become ovens. But you don’t need to suffer.

Google is trialling artificial intelligence (AI) in Manchester’s traffic light system to reduce stop-and-go emissions and improve the flow of vehicles. The technology giant announced the UK launch of its Project Green Light on Tuesday, working alongside Transport for Great Manchester (TfGM) to run the pilot. It coincides with Google hosting a major sustainability event in Brussels, where the firm will outline the innovations it has been working on across high-emission industries like transport and energy, including how it is using AI for climate solutions. The company said it found that half of emissions at traffic intersections come from vehicles stopping and starting. To help reduce these emissions, Google’s Green Light research initiative uses AI as well as driving trends from Google Maps to model traffic patterns and make recommendations for making the existing traffic light plans more efficient. Google said city engineers can implement these plans in as little as five minutes using existing infrastructure. The Green Light programme is live at 70 junctions across 12 cities, including Haifa in Israel, Rio de Janeiro in Brazil and Bangalore in India. Early data from those cities indicate a potential for up to 30% reduction in stops and up to 10% reduction in emissions at junctions, Google said. Manchester, the first UK city to host the pilot, has around 2,400 traffic signals and sees millions of journeys each week. Debbie Weinstein, Google UK managing director and vice president, said: “AI is the most profound technology that we’re working on today, with the potential to boost the UK’s productivity and support net zero ambitions. “That’s why we’re excited to be partnering with Transport for Greater Manchester to pilot Project Green Light here in the UK. Our aim is to make the network run as efficiently as possible and we look forward to seeing how we can use what we’ve learnt from this pilot to improve journey times for all road users David Atkin, Traffic for Greater Manchester “Already, this early stage AI-powered tool uses existing infrastructure to provide city planners with a cost-effective and efficient way to improve traffic flow, reduce stop-and-go traffic and cut emissions. “We look forward to partnering with more organisations across the country to help drive innovative solutions that unlock the benefits of AI.” David Atkin, TfGM’s analysis and reporting manager, said Greater Manchester’s road network is “complex”, adding that the needs of motorists, cyclists, pedestrians and public transport users need to be balanced. “With traffic levels now at or beyond pre-pandemic levels, we are working really hard to tackle congestion and are delighted to be amongst the first areas in the world – and the first in the UK – to work with Google on the innovative Green Light initiative,” he said. “The pilot provided valuable insights and teams from both Green Light and TfGM brought expertise and ideas to the table to improve journeys by up to 18% and reduce emissions. “Our aim is to make the network run as efficiently as possible and we look forward to seeing how we can use what we’ve learnt from this pilot to improve journey times for all road users.” Read More Broadband customers face £150 hikes because of ‘outrageous’ rises – Which? Rise of AI chatbots ‘worrying’ after man urged to kill Queen, psychologist warns William hails ‘amazing’ eco-friendly start-up businesses Royal website subject to ‘denial of service attack’, royal source says TikTok finds and shuts down secret operation to stir up conflict in Ireland Viral WhatsApp warning of cyberattack targeting Jewish people is fake

INDIANAPOLIS & GOTHENBURG, Sweden--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul 27, 2023--

By Anirban Sen NEW YORK Microsoft Corp is in talks about an extension of its acquisition contract with

“The Matrix is everywhere. It is all around us. Even now in this very room." So says Laurence Fishburne’s Morpheus in sci-fi classic ‘The Matrix’ as he offers Keanu Reeves’s Neo the choice to find out just how “deep the rabbit hole goes”. Now, just as Neo discovered that the "life" he'd been living was little more than an algorithmic construct, scientists and philosophers are arguing that we could be stuck inside a simulation ourselves. In a paper published earlier this month, physicist Melvin Vopson, of the University of Portsmouth, offered scientific evidence for a philosophical theory known as the simulation hypothesis. This, in a nutshell, posits that the entire universe and our objective reality are just super-advanced virtual reality illusions. Elon Musk is among the well-known fans of the theory, which – as Dr Vopson notes in his paper – has been “gaining traction in scientific circles as well as in the entertainment industry”. The university lecturer also pointed out that recent developments in a branch of science known as information physics “appear to support this possibility”. Information physics suggests that physical reality is made up of bits of information. However, Dr Vopson has gone further and is working to prove that information has a physical mass and is a fundamental building block of the universe. He even claims that information could be the mysterious dark matter that makes up almost a third of the universe. In previous research, the physicist proposed that all elementary particles (the smallest known building blocks in the universe), store information about themselves, much like DNA in humans. Then, in 2022, he discovered a new law of physics, christened the second law of infodynamics, which states that entropy – the degree of randomness or disorder – within an isolated information system either remains constant or decreases over time. In other words, the system becomes less and less chaotic, implying that there is some kind of mechanism governing it rather than random chance. “I knew then that this revelation had far-reaching implications across various scientific disciplines,” Dr Vopson said in a statement released by the University of Portsmouth. “What I wanted to do next is put the law to the test and see if it could further support the simulation hypothesis by moving it on from the philosophical realm to mainstream science.” Is the Universe a Simulation? | Melvin Vopson www.youtube.com Dr Vopson employed the law in a range of different fields, including genetics, cosmology and even symmetry. Here, he found that the abundance of symmetry in the Universe (think snowflakes and facial structures) could be explained by the second law of infodynamics. "Symmetry principles play an important role with respect to the laws of nature, but until now there has been little explanation as to why that could be,” he said. “My findings demonstrate that high symmetry corresponds to the lowest information entropy state, potentially explaining nature's inclination towards it." Again, put simply, nature prefers things to be as well-ordered as possible. He continued: “This approach, where excess information is removed, resembles the process of a computer deleting or compressing waste code to save storage space and optimise power consumption.” As a result, this “supports the idea that we’re living in a simulation.” Dr Vopson is serious about this idea and, last year, even launched a crowdfunding campaign to test it. At the time, he announced that he had designed an experiment to determine whether we are all just characters in an advanced virtual world. “There is a growing community out there looking seriously at the possibility that information is more fundamental to everything than we think,” he said in a statement released back in December. “If information is a key component of everything in the universe, it would make sense that a vast computer somewhere is in control. “Assuming the universe is indeed a simulation, then it must contain a lot of information bits hidden everywhere around us. I’ve devised an experiment that proposes a way of extracting this information to prove it’s there.” His proposed experiment is based on his conclusion that information is physical and that elementary particles have a DNA of information about themselves. He posited that the information in an elementary particle could be detected and measured by using particle-antiparticle collision. “We can measure the information content of a particle by erasing it. If we delete the information from the particles, we can then look at what’s left,” he said in the December statement. “This experiment is highly achievable with our existing tools, and I’m hoping the crowdfunding site will help us achieve it.” And whilst the crowdfunder closed well before reaching its proposed £185,000 target, Dr Vopson still hopes to carry out the ambitious test. Following his most recent paper, he suggested the experiment had the power to confirm the “fifth state of matter in the universe” and “change physics as we know it.” 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.

RALEIGH, N.C.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 6, 2023--

China has published new rules for generative artificial intelligence (AI), becoming one of the first countries in the world to regulate the technology that powers popular services like ChatGPT.

The best centre-backs to sign on Football Manager 2024, including Harry Maguire, Joe Gomez, Jean-Clair Todibo & more.

NIJMEGEN, Netherlands--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jun 14, 2023--

The $79.99 Logitech MX Anywhere 3S is an update to the company's excellent Anywhere 3,

WhatsApp is changing the way billions of users log into the messaging app, ditching passwords and two-factor authentication in favour of quicker and more secure passkeys. The move is part of a major shift within the tech industry to move away from decades-old password technology and replace it with the more modern passkey format, which combines biometric information like fingerprints with a simple numeric code in order to identify people. A similar switch was recently announced by Google, which will introduce passkeys to its apps like Maps, Search and YouTube. WhatsApp’s update will only impact Android users to begin with. “Passkeys are a new way to log back into your account,” said Will Cathcart, who heads WhatsApp. “This is a more secure way of confirming it’s really you – and gives you an added layer of security.” WhatsApp is also rolling out self-destructing voice notes to users as part of new measures to improve privacy on the world’s most popular messaging app. The update is currently only available for beta tester users who have the latest version of WhatsApp installed on their phone or computer, though it is expected to eventually be introduced for all users. With more than 2.7 billion users worldwide – the majority of which on Android devices – WhatsApp updates typically need to be introduced gradually in order to make sure any potential security bugs do not have a critical impact. The self-destructing audio messages, first spotted by WhatsApp feature tracker Wabetainfo, is compatible with both Android and iOS users, though no date has been given for when a wider roller out might be expected. WhatsApp does not comment on release schedules for feature updates unless they relate to security. “After sending the voice note with view once mode enabled, you won’t be able to listen to it and the recipient can no longer listen to the voice note after dismissing it,” Wabetainfo noted. “This mode effectively minimises the chances of unauthorised access or later listening, providing a new layer of privacy for sensitive and confidential information.” The latest update follows recently added features like ‘Channels’, which allow people to follow celebrities and companies within the app, and a ‘Create’ button that gives users the ability to make custom art on the platform. The Create feature brings generative artificial intelligence to WhatsApp for the first time, and means users do not require external tools or specific design skills to create the stickers. Instead, the custom stickers can be produced using simple text-based prompts, similar to other AI image generators like Midjourney and OpenAI’s Dall-E. Read More Facebook and Instagram users face monthly fee for ad-free version Meta launches AI chatbots with ‘personalities’ to take on ChatGPT Viral WhatsApp warning of cyberattack targeting Jewish people is fake Amazon trials humanoid robots to see if they can help staff warehouses Tesla’s profits dip as Musk goes on rant about staff working from home

BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Jul 18, 2023--