List of All Articles with Tag 'tech'

By Josh Ye HONG KONG (Reuters) -China's cyberspace regulator released on Wednesday names of the first batch of mobile app

Officials in Iran are reportedly looking to use artificial intelligence to issue fatwas to speed up the process of Islamic law rulings. Clerics in the city of Qom – Iran’s main hub of Islamic learning – are mulling over the use of AI assistants to help them with religious seminaries, the Financial Times reported. “Robots can’t replace senior clerics, but they can be a trusted assistant that can help them issue a fatwa faster,” Mohammad Ghotbi, who heads a state-linked tech group in Qom, told FT. Iran is home to over 200,000 Shia clergy, of whom nearly half are based in Qom. These officials have been the country’s leading force in protecting its religious values amid growing clashes between tradition and modernity as AI use sees growing interest across the world. Iran particularly sees a growing need to modernise following last year’s nationwide uprising triggered by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini in the custody of the country’s morality police after her arrest for allegedly violating the regime’s mandatory Islamic dress code. Violence launched by the regime against the protest movement also sparked condemnation from international rights groups, including the UN. “It pains me to see what is happening in the country – images of children killed, of women being beaten in the streets,” Volker Turk, UN high commissioner for human rights, said last year. “The old methods and the fortress mentality of those who wield power simply don’t work. In fact, they only aggravate the situation. We are now in a full-fledged human rights crisis,” Mr Turk said. Now, the regime’s clerical establishment seems to view technology – especially the use of AI – as an attempt to modernise. While still in infancy, the move to trial the use of AI to issue fatwas is underway in cities like Qom, whose first AI conference was held in 2020, according to FT. The head of the city’s seminary reportedly shared his views on how AI could advance Islamic studies of senior clergy and speed up their communication with the public. Interest shown by the clerics also appears to be in line with the views of the country’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who said in June that he wants the country to be “at least among the top-10 countries in the world in terms of artificial intelligence”. Read More Iran will keep taking hostages – because no one is willing to stand up to them ChatGPT now has power to ‘see, hear, and speak’ Can a chatbot preach a good sermon? Hundreds attend experimental Lutheran church service to find out Spotify clarifies position on whether it will ban AI-powered music ChatGPT now has power to ‘see, hear, and speak’ ChatGPT can now generate images and create illustrated books

Apple's former design chief, Jony Ive, and OpenAI CEO Sam Altman have been discussing building a new artificial

SEOUL (Reuters) -The U.S. is expected to indefinitely extend a waiver granted to South Korean chipmakers Samsung Electronics and SK

By Byron Kaye SYDNEY Elon Musk's X, formerly called Twitter, disabled a feature that let users report misinformation

The Baltimore Police Department has announced an arrest warrant for a suspect wanted for the murder of Pava LaPere, the 26-year-old CEO of startup EcoMap Technologies, who was found dead in a downtown Baltimore apartment Monday with signs of blunt-force trauma to her head.

Hollywood studios are expected to retain the right to train artificial-intelligence models based on writers' work under the

(Reuters) -OpenAI, the artificial intelligence startup behind ChatGPT, is talking to investors on a possible sale of existing shares, according

By Chibuike Oguh NEW YORK Shares of electric-vehicle startup Fisker Inc rose by more than 20% on Tuesday

The US government and 17 states are suing Amazon in a landmark monopoly case reflecting years of allegations that the e-commerce giant abused its economic dominance and harmed fair competition.

By Diane Bartz WASHINGTON (Reuters) -The U.S. Federal Trade Commission filed a long-awaited antitrust lawsuit against Amazon.com on Tuesday, charging

Blue light emitted from the screens of phones, tablets and televisions could induce puberty early, a study has found. In the modern day, children are raised with devices all around them, with many having a phone or tablet to keep them entertained from a young age. But, researchers in Turkey have discovered that it exposure to the blue light such devices give off could speed up the onset of puberty. Teams from the Gazi University and Bilkent City Hospital in Ankara revealed how they saw the effect in male rats, which could suggest a link between device screens and early childhood development. Their findings were presented at the 61st Annual European Society for Paediatric Endocrinology Meeting in The Hague and published in the Frontiers in Endocrinology journal. The study emulates the same findings that were observed in female rats, where early puberty was seen. Lead researcher Dr. Aylin Kılınç Uğurlu, of Bikent City Hospital, said: “For the first time, we found a direct relationship between blue light exposure and early puberty in male rats.” They continued: “Our findings align with our previous work on female rats, which also showed similar effects, thereby providing a more comprehensive view of how blue light may influence puberty in both male and female rats.” As part of the study, 18 male rats, all 21 days old, were split into three groups. Two of the groups were assigned either six or 12 hours of blue light exposure per day. The last group was a control and was not exposed to any blue light from screens. Results showed that the rats with exposure to blue light experienced signs of puberty “significantly earlier” compared with the control group. Uğurlu noted in a news report: “I want to emphasise that this is a rat study and direct results cannot be interpreted for humans. “However, we provide an experimental foundation to further investigate the health consequences of ever-increasing screen time in modern society.” Researchers hope to continue their study on the effects of blue light on rats to “understand its long-term effects on reproductive organ damage and fertility”. Uğurlu continued: “Ultimately, this research could lead to preventative measures and contribute to the ongoing discourse on how modern lifestyles affect physiological development and long-term health.” 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.