This California summer, passersby on the streets of San Francisco can be divided into two camps: blase locals who are used to a parade of moving cars with no drivers or gobsmacked tourists fumbling for their smartphones to...

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

A natural phenomenon consisting of polka-dot-style formations has been cropping up around the world, and scientists are baffled as to why. The circular-shaped patches of ground have been seen in deserts in Australia and Namibia but now experts believe they are more widespread than originally thought. Known as “fairy circles”, there are now 263 known sites across the globe where they can be found, according to new research published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS). They have been documented in 15 countries, across three continents, including the Sahel region of Africa, Madagascar, and in Middle-West Asia. And yet, despite the spread of these anomalies, scientists are still none the wiser about how they actually form. A team led by environmental scientist Emilio Guirado, of the University of Alicante in Spain, explained in their paper on the "intriguing" phenomenon: “We conducted a global and systematic assessment of fairy circle-like vegetation patterns and discovered hundreds of [fairy-circle]-like locations on three continents. “Our study provides insights into the ecology and biogeography of these fascinating vegetation patterns and the first atlas of their global distribution.” The mysterious circles appear in desert regions and can be as wide as 12 metres (39 feet) in diameter. They are almost always spaced out and rarely connect or overlap with one another. Several theories have been put forward as to what causes them, including, tiny insects, termites, and plant toxins. But, none have been accompanied by any significant evidence and some have been debunked completely. One significant factor limiting their study is they are often found in places that are difficult to access and are inhospitable. Locating the 263 different sites of “fairy circles” involved analysing high-resolution satellite imagery. Guirado and his team wrote in their paper: “[The sites] include those already identified in Namibia and Western Australia, as well as areas never described before, including the Sahel, Western Sahara, Horn of Africa, Madagascar, Southwest Asia, or Central and Southwest Australia. “By doing so, our study provides a global atlas of areas showing FC-like vegetation patterns and expands the known existence of this vegetation type to new countries and continents.” The team hopes that locating new sites will enable them to find common traits that may point towards their cause. 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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