Exclusive-India's govt plans action against Google after antitrust breaches
By Aditya Kalra and Munsif Vengattil NEW DELHI India's government plans to take action against Alphabet Inc's Google
2023-05-19 21:22
Scientists discover that humans mastered fire centuries before history suggests
Humans in Europe may have mastered fire long before we previously thought. According to a study published in Scientific Reports, humans made the discovery around 245,000 years ago, up to 50,000 years earlier than scientist thought previously. Researchers studied samples from the Valdocarros II, a huge archaeological site found east of Madrid, Spain. Using chemical analysis, they found certain compounds that show things were burnt by fire in "organised" social events, rather than through accidents or wildfires. "We have found definitive evidence of things being burnt and those remains are organised into a pattern, suggesting it's humans who are making and controlling the fire. Either they were using the fire to cook or to defend themselves. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter The spatial patterning in the fire tells us that they were encircling something, like a home or sleeping area, a living room or kitchen, or an enclosure for animals," Dr. Clayton Magill, study author and Assistant Professor at Heriot-Watt University in Scotland, said in a statement. Dr Magill added that this new work helps to fill in the gaps in our understanding of human-controlled fire and human development. "This is important because our species is defined by our use of fire," Dr Magill explained. "Being able to cook food to feed our big brains is one of the things that made us so successful in an evolutionary sense. Fire also brings protection and fosters communication and family connection. And we now have definitive, incontrovertible evidence that humans were starting and stopping fires in Europe about 50,000 years earlier than we suspected." 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.
2023-05-19 20:57
Crypto Trading Is Heading for the Fringes After Flirting With Mainstream
First the crypto lenders imploded, then the industry’s second-largest exchange collapsed. Next to go were the crypto-friendly banks.
2023-05-19 20:45
Pokemon Go Creator Niantic Suffers Metaverse Woes
Just a few years ago, tech evangelists were hailing Niantic Inc., the maker of the hit game Pokémon
2023-05-19 20:16
Nasa discover new planet that is entirely covered with volcanoes
Nasa scientists have found a planet they believe is covered by active volcanoes. In a study published in the journal Nature, scientists said they found the planet, which is the size of Earth about 90 light-years from Earth in the Crater constellation. They called it LP 791-18 d and one part is constantly scorched by sunlight, while the other is always in darkness. “The day side would probably be too hot for liquid water to exist on the surface. But the amount of volcanic activity we suspect occurs all over the planet could sustain an atmosphere, which may allow water to condense on the night side,” Björn Benneke, one of the astronomers who studied the planet, told NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter The LP 791-18 system contains at least two other planets, called LP 791-18 b and c. The latter is two-and-a-half times larger than Earth and more than seven times its mass. It also affects the orbit of LP 791-18 d, making it travel along an elliptical path around the system’s sun. That path means LP 791-18 d is deformed every time it completes an orbit. “These deformations can create enough internal friction to substantially heat the planet’s interior and produce volcanic activity at its surface,” according to NASA. “A big question in astrobiology, the field that broadly studies the origins of life on Earth and beyond, is if tectonic or volcanic activity is necessary for life,” study co-author Jessie Christiansen said. “In addition to potentially providing an atmosphere, these processes could churn up materials that would otherwise sink down and get trapped in the crust, including those we think are important for life, like carbon.” 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.
2023-05-19 19:23
Why Montana's TikTok ban may not work
Montana has become the first US state to ban TikTok on all devices, even personal ones, triggering renewed doubts about the short-form video app's future in the country.
2023-05-19 19:19
London court throws out lawsuit against Google over medical records
LONDON Google on Friday defeated a lawsuit brought on behalf of 1.6 million people over medical records provided
2023-05-19 18:23
Britain unveils $1.2B strategy to boost computer chip industry
Britain’s government has unveiled its long-awaited semiconductor strategy
2023-05-19 18:17
ChatGPT app launches for iPhone users amid scam frenzy
OpenAI has launched a ChatGPT app for iPhone users amid a surge in fake versions of its hugely popular AI chatbot. The free app is the first official OpenAI product to appear in app stores, though dozens of imitation versions seeking to mislead or scam users are currently available for iOS and Android users. The new ChatGPT app is available immediately in the US and will roll out to other countries in the coming weeks, OpenAI said, with an Android version of the ChatGPT app also under development. “With the ChatGPT app for iOS, we’re taking another step towards our mission by transforming state-of-the-art research into useful tools that empower people, while continuously making them more accessible,” OpenAI wrote in a blog post detailing the new app. “We’re eager to see how you use the app. As we gather user feedback, we’re committed to continuous feature and safety improvements for ChatGPT.” Users who download the app will have access to their ChatGPT account history from the web, as well as access to OpenAI’s open-source speech-recognition system Whisper. This will allow people to speak to the artificial intelligence tool for the first time. Subscribers to ChatGPT Plus will also get access to the more advanced GPT-4 tool, as well as faster response times compared to free users. Last month, researchers noted an “alarming” number of scam apps had appeared within the MacOS App Store, while Google’s Play Store is still inundated with unofficial ChatGPT apps. “Most of these apps are nothing but cheap imitations or outright scams that fail to deliver on their promises,” privacy researcher Alex Kleber wrote in a report published in April. “These scams not only deceive users but also tarnish the reputation of legitimate developers and hinder the growth of the app ecosystem on the MacOS platform.” OpenAI has applied to patent the GPT acronym in an effort to crackdown on the concerning trend, however the US Patent and Trademark Office refused to fast-track the request last month. Read More 10 ways AI will change the world – from curing cancer to wiping out humanity ChatGPT creator ‘nervous’ about AI election manipulation Regulation ‘critical’ to curb risk posed by AI, boss of ChatGPT tells Congress Watch as OpenAI CEO faces questions from Congress on potential AI regulation
2023-05-19 17:56
Britain's $1.3 billion semiconductor support plan gets cool response
By Alistair Smout and Kate Holton LONDON (Reuters) -Britain will invest 1 billion pounds ($1.3 billion) in its semiconductor sector
2023-05-19 17:55
Fujitsu General’s $1.1 Billion Stake Sale Is Said to Stall
The sale of Fujitsu Ltd.’s majority stake in its air-conditioner manufacturing unit has stalled as the bidders have
2023-05-19 16:28
Chinese EV maker Nio invests in nuclear fusion startup
SHANGHAI Chinese electric vehicle maker Nio has invested in a startup firm that is developing fusion technologies, according
2023-05-19 14:59