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☆ 'Griefbots' could use AI to haunt relatives from beyond the grave, ethicists warn
▼ + stars: | 2024-05-09 | by ( Geoff Weiss | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Nascent 'griefbots' or 'deadbots' allow users to chat with the deceased. Safeguards should keep kids away from the bots and allow users to turn them off, a study suggested. AdvertisementAI could make your relatives haunt you from beyond the grave, researchers are warning. These bots use generative AI to allow people to have text and voice conversations with the deceased, using their past digital footprints to conjure a likeness. But AI ethicists at Cambridge's Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence warn that AI could one day push ads on grieving relatives or confuse children.

Persons: —, Tomasz Hollanek, Dr, Katarzyna Nowaczyk Organizations: Service, University of Cambridge, Cambridge's Leverhulme, Intelligence Locations: Cambridge, China, Cambridge's

☆ What an isolated community in Africa may be able to teach about child care
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-17 | by ( Katie Hunt | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

The children had a high degree of physical contact and care for most of time they were observed. Nikhil ChaudharyResponses to cryingWhat was notable, Chaudhary said, wasn’t necessarily the amount of care children received, but that mothers weren’t responsible for all of it. Other caregivers — fathers, older siblings and nonrelatives — were responsible for 38% to 46% of close care, according to the study. The mean number of caregivers other than a child’s mother was 14.4, but these weren’t all adults. “How representative would a day care center with 18 children in inner-city London be of childhood … anywhere?” he asked.

Persons: “, ”, Nikhil Chaudhary, ” Chaudhary, Chaudhary, ’, —, reexamine, wasn’t, nonrelatives —, …, Jennifer Lansford, Malcolm Gillis, ” Lansford, Carlo Schuengel, ” Schuengel, ” Marc Bornstein, we’re Organizations: CNN, Leverhulme, University of Cambridge, “, Central African, Center for Child, Duke University, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam Locations: Republic of Congo, Central African Republic, North Carolina, London

☆ Starfish bodies are really just heads, new research says
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-02 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +8 min

CNN —The heads of most animals are easily identifiable, but scientists haven’t been able to say the same for sea stars until now. But new genetic research suggests the opposite — that sea stars are largely heads that lack torsos or tails and likely lost those features evolutionarily over time. There, they go through a process that transforms a bilateral body into a star shape, or pentaradial body. But echinoderms also share a common ancestor with bilateral animals, which adds to the puzzle researchers are trying to solve. Specific molecular markers act like body plan blueprints, directing each cell to the body region where it belongs.

Persons: haven’t, It’s, ”, Laurent Formery, “ It’s, Christopher Lowe, Jeff Thompson, “, ” Lowe, Formery, Chan Zuckerberg, Dr, Priscilla Chan, Mark Zuckerberg, Laurent Formery “, ” Thompson, Daniel Rokhsar Organizations: CNN, Stanford University, University of California, University of Southampton, NASA, National Science Foundation, Leverhulme Trust Locations: Berkeley, San Francisco

☆ Fact Check-In wake of Maui fires, here’s why some trees survive damage
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-22 | by ( Reuters Fact Check | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

Some posts on social media in the wake of the fires on the Hawaiian island of Maui, however, suggested that the fact some trees had remained standing showed proof that the fires were somehow engineered or steered to intentionally burn homes and vehicles, leaving trees unscathed. Reuters photographs and satellite imagery of the Lahaina Banyan Court area produced by Maxar Technologies shows buildings, vehicles and trees damaged following the fires (shorturl.at/bpsTX), (here). Other trees were more heavily damaged, but remained standing, Reuters pictures show (here), (here). Regardless, the fact that some trees could remain standing or were less damaged than cars or buildings during a fire is not abnormal. Trees sometimes survive severe damage during fires due to factors including their water content and the ways a fire spreads.

Persons: Albert Simeoni, ”, Erica Fischer, Fischer, Christopher Baird, ” Baird, Katie Kamelamela, James Urban, Niamh Nic Daeid, Nic Daeid, Read Organizations: Reuters, Facebook, Maxar Technologies, Fire Protection Engineering Department, Worcester Polytechnic Institute, Department of Wood Science, Engineering, Oregon State University, “, JB, University of Hawaii, West Texas, M University, Conservatory, Akaka Foundation, Tropical Forests, HOW, Fire Protection, Leverhulme Research, Forensic Science, University of Dundee Locations: Maui, Instagram, Lahaina Banyan, Oregon, Colorado, Manoa, Hawaii

☆ How a 3.2-million-year-old human relative named Lucy walked
▼ + stars: | 2023-06-13 | by ( Ashley Strickland | ) edition.cnn.com time to read: +6 min

Lucy's fossil includes 40% of her skeleton, one of the most complete Australopith fossils found to date. Edwin Remsberg/Alamy Stock PhotoAnalysis of Lucy’s fossil over the past 20 years has suggested that she and others of her species walked upright. Then, she used scans of Lucy’s fossil to determine how her joints were articulated and moved in life. Muscle modeling of Lucy, dubbed "AL 288-1," is compared side by side with human muscle maps. “Lucy likely walked and moved in a way that we do not see in any living species today,” Wiseman said.

Persons: “ Lucy, ”, Lucy, Edwin Remsberg, Dr, Ashleigh L.A, Wiseman, didn’t, Isaac Newton, waddle, Dr Ashleigh Wiseman, ” Wiseman, “ Organizations: CNN, Sky, Royal Society Open Science, University of Cambridge, Leverhulme, Isaac, Isaac Newton Trust, McDonald Institute for Archaeological Research Locations: Ethiopia, United Kingdom

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