List of All Articles with Tag 'tec'

Scientists have discovered one of the strangest exoplanets ever that is so light and fluffy that it is actually being compared to candyfloss (or cotton candy if you are American). The planet is called WASP-193b and is 1,232 light-years away and was discovered by researchers at the University of Liège in Belgium. The findings of their study, led by astronomer Khalid Barkaoui has been published on arXiv. The planet, which is believed to be a so-called gas giant is nearly 50 per cent bigger than Jupiter and is orbiting a Sun-like star named WASP-193, which the scientists believe is up to 6 billion years old. Although this star is slightly bigger than our sun it is still said to have the same temperature but compared to Earth, WASP-193b orbits its star just every 6.25 days. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter By studying the planet, Barkaoui and his team were able to determine that its density was around 0.059 grams per cubic centimetre. Earth's density per cubic centimetre for comparison, is 5.51 grams whereas candyfloss has a density of 0.05 grams. There are few other examples of a planet like this existing but its close proximity to a star may give an indication as to how it came to exist as its heat is likely to have warmed up the planet's puffy atmosphere, which is mostly made up of hydrogen and helium. This state of the planet is only set to last for around a few ten million years as the temperatures and winds emitted from the star are only likely to strip back the atmosphere further. Due to this scientists cannot fully recreate or determine what is causing WASP-193b's unique atmosphere but is it likely to be a continued source of study to try and determine the cause of this phenomenon. 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.

Time travel, or just an illusion? Eagle eyed art lovers have spotted what appears to be a satellite in a four-century old painting of Jesus Christ. The Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost are depicted in the ‘Glorification of the Eucharist’, a painting by Ventura Salimbeni from 1595. But in the background is something surprising – a blue sphere with spikes sticking out of it, which some people have interpreted as Sputnik, the first satellite to orbit the Earth in 1957. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Steve Mera, chairman of the Manchester Association of Paranormal Investigation & Training (MAPIT) and a paranormal specialist and lecturer, said at a conference: “You start to find a lot of religious connotation linked in with the UFO phenomenon. “This painting [the Eucharist] was painted in the 1600s and nobody ever really knew what that was a painting of, until we kind of looked at Sputnik, which was the first satellite to pass round the Earth,” he said. “What is really, really interesting is it is surprisingly similar to Sputnik, even to the point there is a little nodule there (on Sputnik) and the exact same nodule on the side there [on the object in the painting].” Clearly, Salimbeni wouldn’t have known about Sputnik. Or would he…? Mera added: "Did they somehow have knowledge of future events?" Well, we can probably assume not. Instead, experts think the ball is a representation of the so-called celestial sphere (or the universe), while the spikes indicate God’s power over it. But for conspiracy theorists, it’s yet another win for time travel. 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.

Crypto exchanges that connect buyers and sellers directly without Wall Street-style middlemen are under pressure to improve their

Stereophonics frontman Kelly Jones has spoken about the growing use of artificial intelligence in music saying that “art should come from people”. The 49-year-old lead singer of the rock band which formed in Wales in 1992 also questioned the move towards multiple songwriters on a release. Jones spoke to Times Radio at Latitude Festival in Henham Park, Suffolk, on Sunday after he played with his new band Far From Saints. The Welsh musician said he had not realised until attending the Ivor Novello Awards that AI technology is being increasingly used to “finish off people’s songwriting”. He also said: “I’m not against forward-thinking technology and how things are progressing, but I think art should come from people, I mean the basics of it anyway. “I think art has always been somebody’s expression, a real person’s expression from a heart, from a head. “If you’re going to start an idea, then a computer finishes it, I mean, it’s OK, but it’s just about algorithms and things like that, it’s not my personal feeling on where it should come from. “I’m not really into 10 songwriters on a song. “It’s like if you’re making painting, you’ve got 10 painters chucking paint on a canvas, I mean, whose f****** painting is it anymore?” Far From Saints have been touring festivals after releasing Let’s Turn This Back Around earlier this year. Jones, who set up his new band with Patty Lynn of The Wind And The Wave, said since the pandemic and the UK’s break from the European Union it has become harder to make money from music. He said: “It’s kind of a nightmare with… Brexit and all that sort of stuff. “So it’s a very different place since Brexit, since Covid, since all of that stuff. “So it’s not easy to make a living of it if you’re a brand new kid coming out onto the street, ‘just let’s get in a van and go make music’ – it’s kind of hard.” There has been a mixed response to the technology in the music business, with country star Dolly Parton voicing concerns about AI while Black Eyed Peas member Will.i.am has taken an optimistic view on new music software. Last month, Parton told a press event: “I think I’ve left a great body of work behind. “I have to decide how much of that high-tech stuff I want to be involved because I don’t want to leave my soul here on this Earth.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live TikTok is now most favourable single source of news in UK teenagers, research shows Talk of AI dangers has ‘run ahead of the technology’, says Nick Clegg Eurostar passengers can avoid UK passport checks by having faces scanned

Scientists think they have discovered a previously unknown hidden structure inside the Earth’s core that could change our understanding of our planet. In school, most of us were taught there are four main layers to the Earth’s structure: the crust, the mantle, the outer core and the inner core. What we know about the Earth’s insides has mostly derived from geologists’ knowledge and observations of volcanoes and seismic waves. But now, scientists believe that there may also be a whole extra layer hidden inside the inner core that no one knew about. Earth’s molten inner core is predicted to be around 5,000 degrees Celsius in temperature and scientists have calculated that it takes up around just 1 per cent of the planet’s total volume. The discovery of a potential fifth layer to the planet’s core came a few years ago when scientists used an algorithm to model thousands of scenarios of the inner core to observe the length of time it takes seismic waves to travel through Earth based on data by the International Seismological Centre. Sign up to our new free Indy100 weekly newsletter Scientists were able to analyse how different material properties within the inner core would affect seismic waves differently and found that some scenarios were certainly more likely than others. The algorithm showed how different materials altered the angle of seismic waves, leading them to hypothesise that there was a change of material somewhere in the inner core. Joanne Stephenson, an Australian National University geophysicist, explained: “We found evidence that may indicate a change in the structure of iron, which suggests perhaps two separate cooling events in Earth's history.” She continued: “The details of this big event are still a bit of a mystery, but we've added another piece of the puzzle when it comes to our knowledge of the Earth's inner core.” While their data isn’t conclusive, it does correlate with other similar studies that have looked into the anisotropy of the Earth’s inner core. Stephenson said: “It's very exciting - and might mean we have to re-write the textbooks!” 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.

Elon Musk has hinted that he will today be changing the Twitter logo from its iconic blue bird which has been synonymous with the website since its inception to a solitary 'X' symbol. Late on Saturday, July 22nd or early on July 23rd (depending on where in the world you are) Musk tweeted: "And soon we shall bid adieu to the twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds." Shortly after this he added: "If a good enough X logo is posted tonight, we'll make (it) go live worldwide tomorrow." Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter He also hinted at what the logo might look like in a short and dramatic video snippet that showed a flickering animated 'X' symbol with some over-the-top music accompanying it. The South Africian billionaire and former richest man in the world also joined a Twitter spaces audio chat and simply replied "Yes" when he was asked about the sudden logo change before adding that "it should have been done a long time ago." Attentive listener's on the audio call also noticed that when Musk made the announcement he was playing the video game Diablo IV. Twitter has previously called its blue bird logo "our most recognisable asset" but it remains to be seen how long the new logo change will last. In April of this year, the website's logo was briefly changed to the Dogecoin dog symbol. Twitter has experienced a tumultuous time since Musk took over in 2022 with the website blighted by a number of technical issues as Musk and his new team attempted to implement changes. This has since led to many users flocking to other similar sites such as BlueSky, Mastadon and Mark Zuckerberg's new venture Threads, which registered more than 70 million sign-ups in its first 48 hours. 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.

A new crop of artificial intelligence tools carries the promise of streamlining tasks, improving efficiency and boosting productivity in the workplace. But that hasn't been Neil Clarke's experience so far.

(Reuters) -Audio-streaming platform Spotify Technology plans to raise the price of its ad-free premium monthly plan by $1 in the

One of the more head-scratching phenomenas playing out in the digital-asset world is the shrinking of the stablecoin

AI does not represent “an existential threat to humanity”, hundreds of experts have urged in a new open letter. It is just the latest intervention by engineers and other academics amid an increasing interest and fear about the future of artificial intelligence. The new letter follows a recent intervention by technologists including Elon Musk, who in March was one of more than 1,000 experts who said that humanity was in danger from AI experiments. It called on companies to pause their work and consider the dangers - and asked governments to intervene if they would not. The new letter stands in opposition to that call. It says that AI “will be a transformative force for good if we get critical decisions about its development and use right”. The letter was organised by UK-based BCS, the Chartered Institute for IT. It said that it had launched the letter to counter “AI doom”. It says that the country “can help lead the way in setting professional and technical standards in AI roles, supported by a robust code of conduct, international collaboration and fully resourced regulation”. By doing so it would not only help promote the UK as an AI destination but also ensure that AI was used for good, it said. The signatories includes a range of people from across society, including those who work in think tanks and public bodies and not specifically on artificial intelligence. But it also includes a range of engineers and others who have worked on artificial intelligence within academic and business contexts. BCS said that the calls including those in the letter signed by Elon Musk earlier this year could help play into the hands of bad actors. “The technologists and leaders who signed our statement believe AI won’t grow up like The Terminator but instead as a trusted co-pilot in learning, work, healthcare, entertainment,” said Rashik Parmar, the chief executive of BCS, The Chartered Institute for IT. “One way of achieving that is for AI to be created and managed by licensed and ethical professionals meeting standards that are recognised across international borders. “The public need confidence that the experts not only know how to create and use AI but how to use it responsibly. Yes, AI is a journey with no return ticket, but this letter shows the tech community doesn’t believe it ends with the nightmare scenario of evil robot overlords.” Read More Meta unveils its ChatGPT rival Llama xAI: Everything we know about Elon Musk’s new AI company Meet the AI human-like robots that can do our jobs

People are getting less happy with their cars – and it appears to be the fault of new technology and design innovations, according to landmark research. Customer satisfaction is falling with people pointing to a range of issues including the exterior design of the car. But particular frustration is with infotainment systems, with people turning away from them as ways of listening to music and get around. Only 56 per cent of car owners prefer to use their car’s in-built system to play audio, for instance, down from 70 per cent in 2020. Less than half of car owners prefer to use integrated systems for functions like phone calls, voice recognition and navigation. Instead, users are presumably using external systems such as their phones. In recent years, technologies such as Apple CarPlay and Android Auto have made it possible to mirror those screens, rather than use the built-in and often complicated software provided by car manufacturers. That is according to the US Automotive Performance, Execution and Layout (APEAL) study, run by JD Power. It is the first time in the 28 year history of the study that customer satisfaction has fallen two years in a row – and could point to a range of issues in the car market. Satisfaction is counted on a 1000-point scale. This year, it was measured at 845, which was down two points from last year, and three points from the year before. “The decline in consecutive years might look small, but it’s an indicator that larger issues may lie under the surface,” said Frank Hanley, senior director of auto benchmarking at JD Power, in a statement. “Despite the technology and design innovations that manufacturers put into new vehicles, owners are lukewarm about them. While innovations like charging pads, vehicle apps and advanced audio features should enhance an owner’s experience, this is not the case when problems are experienced. “This downward trajectory of satisfaction should be a warning sign to manufacturers that they need to better understand what owners really want in their new vehicles.” The survey also found a decline in satisfaction with some tech focused car companies. Tesla remains one of the higher performing brands but saw its score at 878, down nine points from last year, when the company was first included in the study. The study was based on almost 85,000 owners of new cars who were surveyed after owning the vehicle for 90 days. It ran between February and May of this year. Read More ChatGPT will now know who you are and what you want Rumours are growing about some bad iPhone news Solar panel tech breakthrough generates electricity from rain

OpenAI has launched new “custom instructions” for ChatGPT, aimed at letting the system know who you are and what you want. The tool allows users to “share anything you’d like ChatGPT to consider in its response”, the company said. That might mean always starting conversations with the chatbot being aware that you are a teacher of young children, for instance, so that it can word its responses accordingly. Or a user might set an instruction that they are a computer programmer in a specific language, so that it can know how to format its responses. They can also be more specific instructions to the chatbot itself. Users might opt to tell it what tone to use in its responses, for instance, or to keep to a word limit. The new tool comes with a range of warnings about the way that the data itself is used. Those instructions might be shared with the developers of any plug-ins, for instance, and it will also be used gathered by OpenAI. The company says it will use people’s custom instructions “to improve model performance – like teaching the model how to adapt its responses to your instructions without overdoing it”. The tool comes with some restrictions aimed at ensuring people do not use the feature to break ChatGPT’s rules. That includes scanning custom instructions to ensure they do not break its rules, and allowing ChatGPT not to comply with instructions if they are going to be used to violate the company’s policies. OpenAI is not making the new feature available in the UK and EU. Regulators in those countries have shown particular concern about the way data is used by OpenAI – and in Italy, those concerns are such that the country has banned access to ChatGPT. Users must also have a subscription to OpenAI’s “Plus” premium tier, and is currently only available in beta. The company plans to roll it out to everyone “soon”, it said. At the moment, ChatGPT does not remember anything from previous conversations. A person might have told it useful information, for instance – such as those previous examples of teachers and programmers – but after the chat is closed and restarted, that information will be lost. The feature can be used by clicking into settings, then clicking “beta features” or “new features” and enabling “custom instructions”. Read More Stolen ChatGPT accounts for sale on the dark web ChatGPT creator withholds latest AI over fears it’s too powerful Meta unveils its ChatGPT rival Llama