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By Sam Nussey TOKYO (Reuters) -Nintendo on Tuesday raised its operating profit forecast for the financial year ending March by

Greenhouse gas emissions from the world’s top meat and dairy producers increased further this year, highlighting the urgent

By Foo Yun Chee BRUSSELS Big Tech firms will face new European Union rules to clearly label political

Apple has announced a dizzying array of products this year, though none more central to its business than

The Earth is home to truly stunning natural features, but sometimes you need a new perspective to appreciate it all over again. Thankfully, the experts at NASA are on hand to remind us just how incredible our planet is with the release of new photos showing the “blood of Earth”. The incredible images seem to show it bleeding, with dramatic red liquid appearing to cascade over the surface. However, it’s nothing at all to do with blood – which is probably just as well. Instead, the first picture shows the Laguna Colorada in the Bolivian Andes in South America from space. Remarkably, the image was taken by an astronaut onboard the International Space Station (ISS) using just a Nikon digital camera. The fact that it was taken more than 400 kilometres away from Earth on a handheld device is pretty staggering, and it offers a look at a natural phenomenon which we’d never otherwise get to see. The first picture shows the impact of red algae flourishing in the shallow water of the laguna, while the second shows the Betsiboka River Delta in Madagascar. This time, the red colour comes as a result of the iron-rich sediment. It’s pretty awe-inspiring stuff, and it’s not the first time that red “blood” has been seen running from our planet, either. Antarctica’s Blood Falls is a bizarre geographical feature in the McMurdo Dry Valleys region of the continent, and it’s one of the strangest natural phenomena you're likely to see. It features a flow of water the colour of blood that can be seen seeping out from a glacier into the ocean. The mystery behind it has fascinated members of the scientific community for decades, but a solution has now been found. Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel 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

LONDON Britain will place legal liability for self-driving cars that crash with the company that makes it rather

New guidance urging parents not to buy smartphones for their primary school age children is set to be introduced. Education minister Norma Foley has drawn up a memo for Cabinet colleagues outlining the proposal. The new guidance, if approved by the Government, will be sent to all primary schools in the country. It is based on a project involving eight schools in Greystones in Co Wicklow that saw parents of primary school pupils collectively agree not to buy smartphones for them. Ms Foley’s proposal has been prompted by concerns around the potential exposure of younger children to cyber bullying, violent and sexual content and other harmful content on phones. The minister’s party leader, Tanaiste Micheal Martin, used his speech at the Fianna Fail ard fheis on Saturday to flag the move. He told party members why he felt it was important to limit children’s exposures to smartphones. “One of the greatest challenges of today is helping children to navigate an online world – one which brings new threats and affects the ability to maintain healthy connections,” he said. “That is why we will be expanding guidelines and controls on smartphone access in schools – and every family and school will receive guidance on how to navigate this challenge with their children to keep them safe and healthy.” Read More William ‘blown away’ by futuristic technology from Singapore start-ups Return of original Fortnite map causes record traffic on Virgin Media O2 network NatWest creates new AI-powered chatbot capable of ‘human-like’ conversations

AMSTERDAM Executives from a group of Europe's largest "photonic" computer chip companies have called on the European Union

OpenAI has unveiled a major new update for its popularAI chatbot, allowing anyone to create their own personalised version of ChatGPT. The purpose-built artificial intelligence is “designed for flexibility”, according to the company, allowing people to create anything from an AI-powered holiday planner, to a voice-controlled DJ. “Eventually you’ll just ask the computer for what you need, and it’ll do all of these tasks for you,” OpenAI chief executive Sam Altman said during a keynote speech at the firm’s first developer conference in San Francisco on Monday. Users will be able to publish their unique versions of the AI bot onto a marketplace called the GPT Store, where other users can download and use them. The new feature is one of several new abilities of the viral AI chatbot, with its training data now running until April 2023 instead of the previously limited version whose knowledge ended in 2021. “We really believe that gradual iterative development is the best way to address the safety challenges of AI,” Mr Altman said. “We think it’s especially important to move carefully towards this future.” The tech boss also revealed that ChatGPT now has more than 100 million weekly active users, including two million developers who use the platform. The updates come amid growing competition from other tech firms like Google and Meta, which have launched their own versions of the AI chatbot in the year since ChatGPT was released. The most recent arrival is Grok, launched over the weekend by Elon Musk’s new artificial intelligence startup xAI. Mr Musk claims that his AI chatbot – which is currently only available for paying subscribers of X (formerly Twitter) in the US – can outperform its rivals in certain areas due to real-time access to data from the social media platform. “Grok is designed to answer questions with a bit of wit and has a rebellious streak, so please don’t use it if you hate humour,” a blog post introducing the new AI noted. “A unique and fundamental advantage of Grok is that it has real-time knowledge of the world via the X platform. It will also answer spicy questions that are rejected by most other AI systems.” Read More 10 ways AI will change the world – from curing cancer to wiping out humanity How Elon Musk’s ‘spicy’ Grok compares to ‘woke’ ChatGPT ChatGPT and other chatbots respond to emotions, report says ‘Is AI dangerous?’ UK’s most Googled questions about artificial intelligence

Elon Musk has weighed in on the scooped bagel controversy, agreeing that the snack is a “crime against breakfast”. Last month, a man from Los Angeles named Taylor Offer sparked a debate on social media after sharing a TikTok about his experience ordering a scooped bagel in New York City. Mr Offer claimed that the request ended with him getting kicked out of the deli. “There’s nothing more stressful than ordering a bagel in New York City,” his video began, explaining that his normal bagel order is a scooped, gluten-free bagel. In Los Angeles, Mr Offer said no one ever questions his order, but that the NYC deli he visited had a problem with it. “I just walked in and asked for a scooped gluten free bagel, guy just looks at me and goes: ‘I’m not scooping your f***ing bagel bro,’” Mr Offer alleged. Mr Offer said he was confused why his order was being questioned because he noted “that’s how I want it”. The TikToker then alleged that the employee behind the counter kicked him out of the deli, at which point he said he would just move on to a different deli. Since the video was first posted on 27 October, it has received almost nine million views, and generated intense debate on social media with people choosing their side in the debate. Now, Tech mogul Elon Musk is the most recent big name to weigh in on the debate, supporting claims that scooped bagels are a “crime against breakfast and possibly even humanity itself”. @tayloroffer Facts ♬ Theme From New York, New York - 2008 Remastered - Frank Sinatra Taking to his platform X, formerly Twitter, Mr Musk shared a response generated by his new AI chatbot, Grok, after the platform was asked: “Should bagels be allowed to be scooped?” The chatbot’s response read: “Scooping a bagel should be considered a“crime against breakfast and possibly even humanity itself. “Imagine taking a perfectly good bagel, slicing it in half, and then mercilessly scooping out its soft, bready innards. It’s like performing bagel surgery without a license!” It added: “Scooped bagels are an affront to the very essence of bagelness. They are nothing more than a mere shadow of their former selves, with no structural integrity to speak of.” The chatbot then claimed scooped bagels are “wrong on so many levels”. “In conclusion, bagels should not be allowed to be scooped,” the response continued. “It’s an act of bagel cruelty that must be stopped. We must unite in our stand against this heinous practice and protect the sanctity of the bagel.” Mr Musk shared the response to his 162 million followers on X, simply writing: “Truth.” X users were quick to agree with the tech billionaire. “Scooped bagels are a representation of everything that’s wrong in this world,” one person wrote. “The truth will set us free,” another person commented. Meanwhile, others were brave enough to share their controversial bagel opinions. “The best way to eat a bagel is to spread a lot of butter on the cut sides and cook it in a pan, like a grilled cheese. Trust me and try it,” one X user said. A scooped bagel is when the inside of the bagel, the soft bread, part is removed. Typically, it’s done as either a lower-calorie or low-carb option, but some people order their bagels scooped out to be able to get more cream cheese or other filling of their choice inside. Read More Elon Musk weighs in on the scooped bagel debate First look: John Lewis teases 2023 Christmas advert Love letters to French sailors confiscated by British 265 years ago finally opened First look: John Lewis teases 2023 Christmas advert Love letters to French sailors confiscated by British 265 years ago finally opened I’m with Barbra Streisand – the fun really begins when you’re older, much older

It’s one of the questions which has fascinated scientists for hundreds of years, but how did the dinosaurs really go extinct? Well, new research might have just solved the mystery once and for all. Of course, most people are familiar with the fact that an asteroid struck the Earth around 66 million years ago, but fewer people might know that the object measured a whopping 10 to 15 kilometres wide and landed in Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. Fewer people still might know that while it sparked all sorts of devastation, including earthquakes and megatsunamis, and now experts have revealed that what might have really proved fatal for the dinosaurs was the dust that it caused. We’re not talking a little bit of dust, either. Trillions of tons of the stuff was released into the atmosphere when then asteroid struck. The damage done by this dust is explored in the new report published by Nature Geoscience. So much was released, in fact, that it caused a “global winter”, with huge clouds of silicate dust and sulphur causing temperatures to drop by 15C. The lack of light would have caused entire ecosystems to collapse, causing 75 per cent of species to be rendered extinct. The effects of the dust could have blocked out sunlight for as long as two years, which according to the Belgium researchers who led the study is what would have killed off dinosaurs gradually – rather than being killed off straight away by the asteroid. It is, however, what eventually led to other life forms emerging and ultimately the development of the human race. "Dinos dominated Earth and were doing just fine when the meteorite hit," co-author of the study and planetary scientist Philippe Claeys said. "Without the impact, my guess is that mammals - including us - had little chance to become the dominant organisms on this planet." Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter How to join the indy100's free WhatsApp channel 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

Artificial Intelligence remains the key theme in tech reports. These are two of the best plays, according to analysts at Melius Research.