List of All Articles with Tag 'tech'

Everybody hurts sometimes – even the most basic worms in the animal kingdom which have no eyes, spine or brain. That’s what scientists have found out about nematode species Caenorhabditis elegans, which possesses basic emotions such as fear. Researchers zapped the worms to see if they would display negative reactions, and the worms continued to “flee” at high speeds for minutes after. The scientists at Nagoya City University in Japan and Northeastern University in the US said the response shows a brain state which is comparable to fear in humans. "These properties have been recently regarded as essential features of emotion, suggesting that C. elegans response to electric shock may reflect a form of emotion, akin to fear," the researchers wrote. The findings are the most recent in a debate over which animals can experience primitive versions of our own emotions. Crayfish and bumblebees have all shown animals can have lasting positive and negative mental states. C. elegans is one of the most basic worms in the animal kingdom. At about 1mm in length it is also tiny and transparent, with no brain, sight or smell. Nonetheless, worms which sensed an electric current for 45 seconds “ran away” for more than two minutes. During this state, they ignored food which was placed nearby, instead scurrying at high speeds. This suggests that the emotional response could be triggered by different stimuli and that one stimulus could inhibit responses to others. When the shock was just five seconds long, the worms fled for a minute and a half before calming down. And when the researchers repeated the experiments with worms that were not to produce neuropeptides – which are the equivalent to human hormones – the worms stayed in a state of fear for longer. "Because the requirement of neuropeptide signaling [in worms] is reminiscent of neuropeptide regulation of fear in mammals including humans, the fear-like brain state may be regulated by evolutionarily conserved molecular mechanisms," the authors of the study wrote. 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.

Deepfakes are becoming an increasing concern online with many celebrities and influencers' faces fronting fake scams – and in more sinister cases, NSFW material. For the blissfully unaware, a deepfake is a digitally altered piece of content, often without concern. They're often used with malicious intent for financial gain or to spread false information. The surge in deepfakes has prompted many high profilers to come forward and speak out including MrBeast and Tom Hanks: Martin Lewis The nation's favourite money-saving expert issued a warning over a "disgraceful" scam that could lead vulnerable people to lose money. Lewis said people are using the technology to "pervert and destroy" his reputation to scam people. An advert, which circulated online earlier this year, appeared to show Lewis endorsing an Elon Musk-backed investment scheme. "Musk’s new project opens up new opportunities for British citizens. No project has ever given such opportunities to residents of the country," the AI version of Lewis says in the footage. The real Lewis later told the BBC "it's pretty frightening." He continued: "These people are trying to pervert and destroy my reputation in order to steal money off vulnerable people, and frankly, it is disgraceful, and people are going to lose money and people’s mental health are going to be affected." MrBeast The popular YouTuber took to X/Twitter to address a deepfake video that went viral online. "Lots of people are getting this deepfake scam ad of me… are social media platforms ready to handle the rise of AI deepfakes? This is a serious problem," he posted to the platform. MrBeast included a clip that has been circulating online, that shows an AI version of him saying he's giving away iPhones. "You’re one of the 10,000 lucky people who will get an iPhone 15 pro for just $2," the deceiving clip said. "I’m MrBeast and I am doing the world’s largest iPhone 15 giveaway." Tom Hanks Hanks was forced to issue a warning over a deepfake advert promoting a dental plan using his presence. In a post to Instagram, Hank shared a screenshot of the ad, with overlaid text reading: "BEWARE!! There’s a video out there promoting some dental plan with an AI version of me. I have nothing to do with it." Nicki Minaj In a much lighter incident, the rapper was featured in ITV's Deep Fake Neighbour Wars. The programme showed an AI version of Minaj and her 'husband,' Tom Holland. Upon arriving home from their honeymoon, they found an intruder in their living room, Mark Zuckerberg. It plays on an internet rumour that joked Minaj and Holland were dating and expecting a baby in 2019. At the time, the actor joked to Esquire: "This actually really stressed me out... and then I realised I've never met Nicki Minaj. So that was a big relief for me because I'm not ready to have kids." She wrote: "HELP!!! What in the AI shapeshifting cloning conspiracy theory is this?!?!! I hope the whole internet get deleted!!!" Streamer Sweet Anita Meanwhile, popular streamer Sweet Anita was horrified to learn she was targeted by deepfake porn without her consent. "It has all the same consequences of revenge porn, and so now I will be living those consequences for a choice I never made," Sweet Anita told ITV. The streamer said the situation has made her "tired" and heightened her security fears. Sign up for 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.

By Graham Keeley and Tim Hepher MADRID (Reuters) -Spanish company PLD Space launched its recoverable Miura-1 rocket early on Saturday

Since the 1960s, one scholar has dedicated his career to arguing that Jesus was not a living man, but in fact a mushroom. John Marco Allegro was one of the first scholars permitted to decipher the ancient documents now known as the Dead Sea Scrolls, that were discovered in 1947 in the Judean Desert. They contained the oldest surviving versions of books that would later be incorporated into the biblical canon. Allegro and his colleagues were the first to go about making sense of the documents, as they were obviously discovered untranslated, eventually publishing the texts after hard work and disagreements. Allegro then went on to write two more books on the subject in 1958, The Dead Sea Scrolls and The People of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which remain extremely influential. Then in 1970 and again in 1979, Allegro published two more books. These expanded on his idea that Christianity was a cover for a secret cryptic sex cult generated by people under the influence of Amanita muscaria, more commonly known as Fly agaric. And that Jesus was a metaphor for the fungus and its influences. Using etymology, Allegro argued that early Christianity was created by an Essene cult that recorded their practices through the texts of the New Testament. And that evangelists misunderstood the text's true meaning when they transcribed it. There was never a man called Jesus, only a cult that used mushrooms to have hallucinations. He also argued that the God of the Old Testament was "a mighty penis in the heavens who in a thunderous climax of the storm ejaculated semen upon the furrows of Mother Earth." Allegro's views were not well received, with some believing he created the argument as revenge against Christian critics who dismissed his earlier translations of the Dead Sea Scrolls, whilst some believed he just ran away with the wrong idea. 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.

MUMBAI (Reuters) -India has sent notices to social media platforms X, formerly known as Twitter, YouTube and Telegram asking them

An orcas diet consists of Chinook salmon and can eat up to two dozen fish a day - so why is it that the killer whales like to bully porpoises despite them not being part of their diet? That's the question which has left scientists scratching their heads, as the study published in Marine Mammal Science seeks to add further understanding to this subject. Around 78 cases of orcas targeting porpoises were noted by researchers from the UK, USA and Canada. It was said to be happening in the Salish Sea (located in the Canadian province of British Columbia and the U.S. state of Washington). Some of the orcas' bullying tactics include pushing the porpoise along with their nose, holding the porpoise in their mouth, balancing the porpoise above water, slapping the porpoise with their tail, and raking the porpoise with their teeth, according to Science Alert. Killer whales also use porpoises as playthings as they catch them before letting them and proceeding to chase them once more - and they even play toss them around in a 'pass the porpoise' game, say whale watchers. That's some textbook tormenting. Out of these sightings, 28 of them have ended in the harbour porpoise (Phocoena phocoena) or a Dall's porpoise being suspected to have been killed, though there's no record of the porpoises being eaten by the orcas. In terms of size, the porpoise is said to be fairly small being a similar size to a Chinook salmon - a large fish species that can grow up to 1.5 meters (5 feet). There are three theories that have been considered by the experts. Firstly, the bullying is all about creating coordination, and cohesion within the group of orcas, or alternatively that the orcas do this as a form of hunting practice. The final theory is that orcas could be trying to look after weak porpoises as if they were their own aka 'displaced epimeletic behaviour.' This mismothering behaviour – also known as 'displaced epimeletic behaviour' to scientists – might be due to their limited opportunities to look after youngsters as the stat shows. "Our research has shown that due to malnutrition, nearly 70 per cent of Southern Resident killer whale pregnancies have resulted in miscarriages or calves that died right away after birth." It seems that orcas are not the only bullies of the seas, as smaller dolphins e.g. bottlenose have similarly been seen harassing and killing for no clear reason. 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.

By Raphael Satter WASHINGTON A hacker is advertising millions of "pieces of data" stolen from the family genetics

By Joey Roulette WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Amazon's first pair of prototype satellites for its planned Kuiper internet network were launched into

Spotify is preparing to launch a new “Supremium” tier, with extra features for a higher price, according to new rumours. The membership will cost $19.99 – twice the current price – and offer a variety of new features. Chief among them is expected to be lossless audio, which is already offered for free on rival Apple Music. But the extra tier will also offer advanced playlist mixing tools that allow people to choose songs by tempo, feel, activity and more. It will have new listening stats, the inclusion of audiobook listening and AI playlist generation tools, according to technology expert Chris Messina, who found mentions of the update within Spotify. Spotify has focused heavily on artificial intelligence tools in recent months. They have included the addition of an AI DJ that not only automatically selects songs but also introduces them, and AI-powered translation that allows people to listen to podcasts in other languages but with realistic-sounding voices. Spotify’s HiFi tier has been in the works for years. The company first announced it at the beginning of 2021, but it has not arrived since, and there have been rumours about it ever since. The new leaks suggest that the upgrade will bring 24-bit lossless audio. That bitrate matches the high-quality offering on other music streaming services, such as Apple Music. A number of streaming services have launched HiFi or lossless tiers in recent months, even as most people listen with Bluetooth headphones that are unable to actually play music at high enough quality. Amazon has a lossless plan that costs $14.99 per month, for instance, and Tidal offers its HiFi plan at $19.99. It is unclear whether Spotify will offer any more revenue to artists from the extra cost of the higher-priced lossless plan. The company has received sustained criticism for the relatively small fees it pays to musicians when their music is streamed. The leaked code is the latest suggestion that Spotify will use the “Supremium” branding for its higher-priced tier. Previously, it had called it “HiFi”, and a survey sent to subscribers last year referred to it as “Platinum”. Read More Spotify clarifies position on whether it will ban AI-powered music Spotify makes voice clones of podcasters and uses them to speak other languages Slack has stopped working

(Reuters) -Investigators at the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission's enforcement division have concluded that the co-founder of Voyager Digital broke

(Reuters) -Several U.S. regulators have requested Kazakhstan-based Freedom Holding for information, a company spokesperson told Reuters on Friday, adding that

By David Shepardson WASHINGTON The U.S. Treasury Department on Friday issued new guidance on how a $7,500 electric