A NASA rover has captured incredible footage of a “dust devil” sweeping across the surface of Mars. To many on Earth, dust devils are known to form vertical columns of particles and hot air when the weather is particularly warm. But, astronomers have now observed a dust devil forming on Mars and it was absolutely huge, reaching an astounding 1.2 miles high. Images of the phenomenon were captured by NASA's Perseverance rover, which made its way to the Red Planet on 30 July 2020 and landed in February 2021. The machine’s cameras captured the plume of air and particles moving from east to west, travelling at a speed of around 12 miles per hour at Thorofare Ridge, on the western rim of the planet’s Jezero Crater, on 30 August 2023. The rover was located around 2.5 miles from the passing dust whirlwind when it captured the incredible scene in a series of photographs. NASA used the image data received from Perseverance to create a moving image made up of 21 frames taken four seconds apart, sped up 20 times. A NASA blog post about the phenomenon explained: “Using data from the imagery, mission scientists determined that the dust devil was about 2.5 miles (4 kilometres) away, at a location nicknamed ‘Thorofare Ridge,’ and moving east to west at a clip of about 12 mph (19 kph). “They calculated its width to be about 200 feet (60 meters). While only the bottom 387 feet (118 meters) of the swirling vortex are visible in the camera frame, scientists used the dust devil's shadow to estimate its full height at about 1.2 miles (2 kilometres).” It comes after alien enthusiasts were given a new reason to get excited about potential life on Mars, after scientists found cracked mud on the Red Planet. 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.

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Artificial intelligence (AI) is developing at a faster pace than laws can be drafted in response, an academic has warned. Although the technology has been around in some form for some time, the rate at which it is changing and improving is the new, key challenge, senators and TDs were told. The Oireachtas Enterprise Committee heard that AI can offer “profound opportunities” to help people, but can also be used to reduce white-collar employees’ salaries and even prompt diplomatic incidents. Professor of AI at Trinity College Dublin Gregory O’Hare cited cases including technology beating a world chess champion in 1997, as well as fake AI-generated images of Donald Trump being arrested and the Pope wearing a designer puffer jacket, as he outlined landmark moments in the development of the “disruptive technology”. He said there have been many previous “false dawns and unrealised promises” about the technology’s potential, and that ChatGPT has gathered 100 million users in two months and is the fastest-growing technology in history. He said white-collar professions like the law, academia, marketing, architecture, engineering, journalism and the creative industries will all be “profoundly affected”, and cited a recent study which estimated that two-thirds of all US occupations will be affected by AI. “In terms of the point around wages, I think there is certainly an opportunity for employers to reduce salaries,” he said. The Irish Congress of Trade Unions (ICTU) argued that unions should be involved at an early stage in any initiatives looking to address concerns around AI. Dr Laura Bambrick, of the ICTU, said the EU AI Act is not suitable to regulate AI and is “more than disappointing” from workers’ point of view, stating that the amendments tabled offer some comfort but “don’t go far enough”. “It only requires software providers to self-assess their own technology between low- and high-risk before putting it on the market, and did not include any rules on the use of AI in the workplace,” she said. The velocity of AI technology is, alas, fast exceeding the rate at which the law around AI can be framed Professor Gregory O'Hare, Trinity College Dubin Prof O’Hare said he believes the current legislative framework proposed to regulate AI is not “in a position to be able to respond with the speed that we need”. He added: “The velocity of AI technology is, alas, fast exceeding the rate at which the law around AI can be framed.” Cork East TD David Stanton said that statement is “quite scary”, and “science fiction is actually becoming science fact”. He suggested the topic is so serious and developing at such a pace that it could warrant setting up a dedicated Oireachtas committee to discuss it. During the session, committee chairman Maurice Quinlivan said he used ChatGPT to double-check that the three guests had not used ChatGPT to write their opening statements, with one TD remarking he was “using AI to check for AI”. Prof O’Hare said it is difficult to assess how AI comes to a particular conclusion, even for experts. “Not only is there typically not a set of algorithmic steps that one, even with a trained eye, could scrutinise, AI, and in particular deep AI, does not have an algorithmic basis. “So, even were it to be the case that someone like myself, a professor of artificial intelligence, were I to look at a particular AI application that was using deep learning, I would have great difficulty in being able to establish, on the surface, how it actually arrived at its deduction and its recommendation or conclusion.” It knows no political boundaries, it knows no geographic boundaries, no socio-economic boundaries. This is something that demands potentially a global position Professor Gregory O'Hare, Trinity College Dublin He added that, while it is crucial to engage with all stakeholders involved, it will take “some considerable time”, and the rate at which AI is developing “does not afford us that level of time”. Responding to the suggestion that the use of AI should be slowed down or halted to allow for consultation, he said: “We’re talking about something that knows no boundaries.” “It knows no political boundaries, it knows no geographic boundaries, no socio-economic boundaries. This is something that demands potentially a global position. So Ireland needs to find a way and a voice into that global discussion.” Ronan Lupton SC, of the Bar Council of Ireland, said that although AI has been around for some time, “where we’re moving to now, at the moment, is a sphere in an environment of extreme pace”, which is the “key challenge”. He said AI could help people with speech disabilities to communicate, but also warned of the dangers of misinformation. He said that newsrooms, instead of sending a draft article to a solicitor to check for defamation or other legal issues, are now using artificial intelligence technologies instead, which he said is “an interesting development”. Prof O’Hare agreed with the potential of AI to help people with disabilities and said it is “very important that we do not throw the baby out with the bathwater”. “This technology has profound opportunities, absolutely profound opportunities.” But he suggested that, because the technology has been put out “into the wild”, it could be used for “sinister” means which could have financial or political implications, such as boundary incursions – and even wars. “The question is will it always be used for good purpose, or is there a significant chance that it will be used for Machiavellian purposes?” he said. 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SAN JOSE, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sep 13, 2023--

Attorneys general from 33 states, including New York AG Letitia James, have filed a lawsuit against tech giant Meta alleging it designed harmful features that contributed to the youth mental health crisis. The lawsuit, filed in the Northern District of California, alleges that Mark Zuckerberg’s company knowingly created addictive and “psychologically manipulative” features targeted at young people while falsely assuring the public it was safe to use. Some of the features, they say, include infinite scrolling, filters that change a person’s face or body, notifications that call young people back to Meta’s social media platforms like Instagram and Facebook and more. “Meta has profited from children’s pain by intentionally designing its platforms with manipulative features that make children addicted to their platforms while lowering their self-esteem,” Ms James said in a statement. “Social media companies, including Meta, have contributed to a national youth mental health crisis and they must be held accountable,” she added. Multiple studies have shown that children and teenagers’ prolonged exposure to social media can have negative impacts on their mental health due to disrupting their sleep, exposing them to bullying, rumour spreading, unrealistic views of people’s lives and more Plaintiffs in the lawsuit allege that Meta internally knew the impact of social media on young people but denied and downplayed the potential harm anyway in order to maximize profit – something a Facebook whistleblower testified to Congress about in 2021. The lawsuit seeks to force Meta to drastically change some of its design features that they allege are harmful to young people as well as impose financial penalties under each state’s specific consumer protection law. In a statement provided to The Independent, a spokesperson for Meta said, “We share the attorneys general’s commitment to providing teens with safe, positive experiences online, and have already introduced over 30 tools to support teens and their families.” Some of the “tools” Meta has implemented to help young people include age verification, preventing content that promotes harmful behaviours, giving users the option to hide “like” counts, prompting young people to take breaks or set timers and more. “We’re disappointed that instead of working productively with companies across the industry to create clear, age-appropriate standards for the many apps teens use, the attorneys general have chosen this path,” the spokesperson added. The lawsuit is the latest action taken against tech giants as concern about the impact of social media on young people grows. Read More People’s Instagram posts are showing where they are not expected Google and Meta withdraw from upcoming Web Summit Mark Zuckerberg uses Meta’s new AI Ray-Bans to braid daughter’s hair WhatsApp update will change how you log in forever Instagram Threads adds yet more features as it tries to take over from Twitter Viral WhatsApp warning of cyberattack targeting Jewish people is fake

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European Union antitrust regulators are taking aim at Google’s lucrative digital advertising business, ordering the tech giant to sell off some of its ad business to address competition concerns

By Alvise Armellini, Giuseppe Fonte and Giulio Piovaccari ROME (Reuters) -Italy's government said on Friday it had taken steps to