List of All Articles with Tag 'tech'

It’s been 10 years since Jeffrey Bush disappeared in his own home, and no trace of him has ever been found. The 37-year-old was asleep in bed at his home in Seffner, Florida, when the ground caved in around him, swallowing him into a massive sinkhole. On the night of February 28, 2013, his brother Jeremy heard a loud crash and ran into Jeffrey’s room only to find a vast crater in place of his sibling’s bed. Jeremy jumped into the hole in a desperate bid to rescue his brother but was swiftly pulled to safety as the ground around him continued to cave in. Sign up for our free Indy100 weekly newsletter "The floor was still giving in and the dirt was still going down, but I didn't care. I wanted to save my brother," he told The Guardian at the time. "But I just couldn't do nothing. "I could swear I heard him hollering my name to help him." Within minutes, local law enforcement had arrived and engineers lowered a microphone into the pit to try to pick up signs of Jeffrey. However, a second collapse sucked the equipment down into the sinkhole and the property was deemed too dangerous for rescue or recovery. Video released of Seffner sinkhole that claimed life of Jeff Bush youtu.be The house was subsequently fenced off and eventually demolished, with the gaping 20ft-wide cavity filled in with gravel. But then, more than two years later, on August 19, 2015, the hole reopened. Specialists at the time pointed out that it was very rare to see such a phenomenon reemerge in the exact same spot. Florida is particularly susceptible to sinkholes as it is home to a high number of underground caverns which are made up of limestone, a rock which easily dissolves in water. In fact, they’re so common, that state law requires home insurers to provide coverage against the danger. And, indeed, someone had visited the Stevens’ home just weeks before the tragedy to check for sinkholes and other risks on the property, apparently for insurance purposes. "[The inspector] said there was nothing wrong with the house. Nothing,” Jeremy told The Guardian. “And a couple of months later, my brother dies. In a sinkhole.” So what happened to Jeffrey’s body? Well, Philip van Beynen, a University of South Florida environmental scientist, concluded that it had most likely dropped into a 60ft-tall water-filled void between the sinkhole and the lower bedrock. The body would have sunk much deeper than the gravel pit seen from the street, van Beynen told USA Today. He stressed that any attempt to retrieve it would have been unwise, if not impossible, as the ground around the hole could have collapsed as well. "It would be extraordinarily difficult and incredibly expensive," he noted. Still, that’s little comfort to the Stevens’ who never got to bury their loved-one or, even, to properly say goodbye. 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.

The Indian government has announced that it would impose a heavy 28 per cent tax on the funds collected by online gaming firms from its customers, dealing a blow to the country’s fast-growing industry valued close to $2bn. India’s Goods and Services Tax (GST) Council, consisting of federal and state ministers, said on Tuesday that it has agreed to levy a 28 per cent indirect tax on online gaming, casinos, and horse racing, adding there should be no distinction between “game of skill” and “game of chance.” Industry experts have voiced concerns that the increased tax burden on the companies may lead to extra charges levied from customers. Companies have so far only paid a small tax on the fee charged from customers for playing games involving real money, but Tuesday’s new rule would impose a 28 per cent tax on the amount these firms collect from players in every game, dealing a hefty blow to their operations. “The implementation of a 28 per cent tax rate will bring significant challenges to the gaming industry. This higher tax burden will impact companies’ cash flows,” Aaditya Shah, an executive at the gaming app IndiaPlays, told Reuters. The new move also comes amid a number of reports across the country of gaming addiction and financial losses among fantasy cricket players and online card games. Commenting on the GST Council’s decision, Roland Landers, chief of the trade body All India Gaming Federation which represents firms like Mobile Premier League, Gameskraft, and Paytm First Games, said it is “unconstitutional, irrational, and egregious”. “This decision will wipe out the entire Indian gaming industry and lead to lakhs of job losses and the only people benefitting from this will be anti-national illegal offshore platforms,” Mr Landers said in a statement, TechCrunch reported. Ashneer Grover, co-founder of the Indian fintech company BharatPe and a former Shark Tank India judge, tweeted that the move may pose risks “not only for online games – but across sectors. Across startups.” “You got billions in from foreign investors as FDI (foreign direct investment). Celebrated FDI inflow! Now the same investors will apply regulatory risk discount to India and funds will dry up,” he said. “RIP – Real money gaming industry in India....It was good fun being part of the fantasy gaming industry - which stands murdered now,” Mr Grover tweeted. Read More A look at sports gambling rules among Big 4 pro leagues Seventh Indian cheetah died of ‘traumatic shock’ after fight with female, post mortem shows Record monsoon rains have killed more than 100 people in northern India this week £10 phone with e-wallet and streaming can bridge India ‘digital divide’, experts say Elon Musk reveals plan to use AI to reveal mysteries of the universe xAI: Everything we know about Elon Musk’s new AI company

Oh Google, you naughty old devil. Someone in Silicone Valley is rolling around in laughter after pulling off this hilarious prank at the expense of the Flat Earth community. Flat Earthers believe that the world is flat, and that any evidence to the contrary is faked. Their belief that the world is flat has been described as the ultimate conspiracy theory, as they also think that several governments and NASA are working together to keep the general public in the dark. Sign up to our free Indy100 weekly newsletter Now, one member of Google's workforce has decided to take matters into their own hands with this subtle but oh-so-effective troll. Log onto Google, and access Google Translate. When you're in there, type in 'I'm a flat-earther' in English, then look at the French translation. If you're not a fluent French speaker, then the translation might need explaining. Try flipping that box around again and see what you get. In other flat earthers news, they announced that they think that Australia - yes, that massive, dusty continent that's given us Kylie Minogue, and has a population of 24 million - doesn't exist. In a now-deleted Facebook post, one of the leaders of the movement Shelley Floryd wrote: Australia does not exist. All things you call 'proof' are actually well-fabricated lies and documents made by the leading governments of the world. Your Australian friends? They're all actors and computer-generated personas, part of the plot to trick the world. If you think you've ever been to Australia, you're terribly wrong. The pilots are all in on this and have in all actuality only flown you to islands close nearby - or in some cases, parts of South America, where they have cleared space and hired actors to act our as real Australians. As if that wasn't enough, they also said that they think that gravity doesn't exist and that the only real force is electromagnetism. Right... Now we see why Google set up the troll. 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.

Nasa are celebrating the first birthday of the James Webb Space Telescope by releasing extraordinary images of stars 'being born'. In the images, which almost look surreal, rainbow bursts with tiny twinkles can be seen. "The darkest areas are the densest, where thick dust cocoons still-forming protostars", the space giants say. "These occur when a star first bursts through its natal envelope of cosmic dust, shooting out a pair of opposing jets into space like a newborn first stretching her arms out into the world." Click here to sign up for our newsletters

By John McCrank and Michelle Price WASHINGTON Partnering with Coinbase Global may hinder rather than help Nasdaq's bid

China has loosened some of the guardrails it proposed for ChatGPT-style services months ago, as it acknowledges the

Elon Musk has launched a new AI company that aims to “understand reality” and unlock the secrets of the universe. The formation of xAI brings together researchers from leading artificial intelligence firms, including Google’s DeepMind, OpenAI and Microsoft Research, who collectively have contributed to major advances in AI in recent years. Announcing the launch on Twitter on Wednesday, Mr Musk gave further details about what he hoped to achieve with his latest venture. “I often wonder where consciousness starts, as we progress from one cell to ~35 trillion cells,” Mr Musk wrote. “If the Standard Model is correct, then quarks and leptons become ‘conscious’ no later than ~13.8B years from start, assuming there are no sentient aliens. Btw, where are the aliens!?” Mr Musk has warned for months about AI’s potential for “civilizational destruction,” arguing that a race among companies such as Google and Microsoft to develop the technology should be halted to allow time for drafting regulation for the sector. The reason for the launch of xAI is “to understand the true nature of the universe,” said Mr Musk, who also co-founded OpenAI but later left the startup credited with sparking the generative AI frenzy through its launch of the ChatGPT chatbot. Dan Hendrycks, who serves as the director of the Center for AI Safety, a nonprofit that aims to reduce the risks posed by the technology, will be an adviser to xAI. The startup’s team includes several former engineers and scientists from Alphabet-owned Google, Microsoft and OpenAI. “We have worked on and led the development of some of the largest breakthroughs in the field including AlphaStar ... GPT-3.5, and GPT-4,” the startup said on its website. The company, which is looking for experienced engineers and researchers to join its team as technical staff in the Bay Area, will hold a Twitter Spaces event on 14 July. Mr Musk’s startup will work closely with his other companies including Twitter and Tesla, according to the website. Tesla shares showed little reaction to the news and were trading 1.5 per cent higher, a sign that investors were not worried the startup will be a potential distraction for Mr Musk. The billionaire in March registered a firm named X.AI Corp, incorporated in Nevada, according to a state filing. The firm lists Musk as the sole director and Jared Birchall, the managing director of Musk’s family office, as a secretary. Mr Musk has previously warned of the existential risk posed by advanced AI, claiming that it is one of the most serious threats to the future of humanity. Earlier this year, he joined more than 1,000 tech leaders and researchers in signing an open letter urging a moratorium on the development of powerful AI. Additional reporting from agencies Read More ChatGPT creator says AI ‘superintelligence’ is impossible to stop xAI: Everything we know about Elon Musk’s new AI company Elon Musk posts series of explicit tweets about Mark Zuckerberg Twitter gets strange endorsement from Taliban over rival Threads

SHENZHEN, China Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies received $560 million in royalty revenues in 2022, Alan Fan, its

Twitter introduced tweet-reading rate limits to address extreme levels of data scraping, Elon Musk reaffirmed on Thursday, in

HCL Technologies Ltd. is acquiring a German automotive engineering services company for $280 million to push beyond IT

Tesla and SpaceX boss Elon Musk now has a new artificial intelligence startup xAI, years after he left ChatGPT-owner OpenAI. The Twitter owner announced the “formation” of the new firm on Wednesday in a tweet, sharing that its goals are “to understand reality”. He did not reveal any more details about the company’s plans and the firms website also doesn’t say much other than that its aims are “to understand the true nature of the universe”. The startup, however, noted it is a separate entity from “X Corp” – the new name of the company formerly known as Twitter. However, the company mentions in its website that it would work closely with X Corp, Tesla, and firms owned by Mr Musk as well as other companies “to make progress towards our mission.” While xAI does not reveal a lot on its website about its “mission”, the new company’s sole Twitter post hints it would look into the “most fundamental unanswered questions” of the universe. The company’s website also reveals the names of its employees, led by Mr Musk and listing Dan Hendrycks – the director of the Centre for AI Safety – as an advisor. Employees listed with the company are all men, and people who have “previously worked at DeepMind, OpenAI, Google Research, Microsoft Research, Tesla, and the University of Toronto.” “Collectively we contributed some of the most widely used methods in the field,” xAI mentions in its website. “We have worked on and led the development of some of the largest breakthroughs in the field including AlphaStar, AlphaCode, Inception, Minerva, GPT-3.5, and GPT-4,” the company noted about its employees. Mr Musk’s new venture also comes as companies including Google, Microsoft, OpenAI and even smaller firms and competitors in other countries like China continue to invest heavily in AI technology. The multibillionaire had previously co-founded OpenAI in 2015 but left the firm in 2018 to avoid conflicts of interest with Tesla which had its own AI operations for the vehicles’ autopilot mode. Following the launch of the now popular ChatGPT AI chatbot by OpenAI, the Tesla titan had also hinted in interviews that he was planning to start his own new artificial intelligence firm. In April, he told former Fox News host Tucker Carlson that he planned to develop “TruthGPT,” which he called a “maximum truth-seeking AI”. This was followed by an xAI statement calling for the world to prioritise reducing AI’s dangers, signed by prominent members of the tech industry, and Mr Musk also reportedly acquired thousands of GPU processors from Nvidia seemingly to run a large language model like ChatGPT. The xAI team is planning to host a Twitter Spaces discussion on Friday – one in which listeners can “meet the team and ask us questions,” according to the startup’s website. Read More Elon Musk posts series of explicit tweets about Mark Zuckerberg Twitter gets strange endorsement from Taliban over rival Threads Tucker Carlson’s Twitter show is haemorrhaging viewers, reports says Mark Zuckerberg trains with UFC champions amid rumours of Elon Musk fight Threads: Elon Musk posts series of explicit tweets about Mark Zuckerberg Twitter traffic ‘tanking’ after record-breaking Threads launch

By Sheila Dang AUSTIN Rapid advancements in artificial intelligence have the potential to exacerbate societal problems and even