Google’s company-defining effort to catch up to ChatGPT creator OpenAI is turning out to be harder than expected. From a report: Google representatives earlier this year told some cloud customers and business partners they would get access to the company’s new conversational AI, a large language model known as Gemini, by November. But the company recently told them not to expect it until the first quarter of next year, according to two people with direct knowledge. The delay comes at a bad time for Google, whose cloud sales growth has slowed while that of its bigger rival, Microsoft, has accelerated. Part of Microsoft’s success has come from selling OpenAI’s technology to its customers.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot – Google Delays Release of Gemini AI That Aims To Compete With OpenAI

After months of wrangling, the European Commission says it has decided to renew the license for the weedkiller compound glyphosate, approving its use in European Union countries for ten more years. From a report: Following the decision yesterday, the Commission released a statement saying that, on the basis of comprehensive safety assessments carried out by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the European Chemicals Agency (ECHA), it would renew the licence, “subject to certain new conditions and restrictions.” These include a ban on the use of the chemical to dry crops before harvest, and “the need for certain measures to protect non-target organisms.” Governments can still restrict the use of glyphosate in their own countries if they consider the risks too high, particularly in regard to the need to protect biodiversity, the statement added.

Glyphosate is the active ingredient in Roundup, the world’s most widely used herbicide. Over the years, a debate has developed about whether the chemical is safe to use on food crops, as well as its possible environmental impacts. Some studies point to a link between glyphosate and certain cancers; others suggest that the way in which it is used should not harm consumers. Glyphosate has been investigated extensively by food- and chemicals-safety agencies, but disagreements among researchers remain. The license allowing glyphosate’s use in the EU was last renewed for five years in 2017. Ahead of the authorization’s expiry in last December, the European Union temporarily extended it for another year to allow the EFSA to assess some 2,400 studies about the compound and to make a recommendation to governments.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot – EU Allows Use of Controversial Weedkiller Glyphosate for 10 More Years

Doctors have long relied on a few key patient characteristics to assess risk of a heart attack or stroke, using a calculus that considers blood pressure, cholesterol, smoking and diabetes status, as well as demographics: age, sex and race. Now, the American Heart Association is taking race out of the equation. From a report: The overhaul of the widely used cardiac-risk algorithm is an acknowledgment that, unlike sex or age, race identification in and of itself is not a biological risk factor. The scientists who modified the algorithm decided from the start that race itself did not belong in clinical tools used to guide medical decision making, even though race might serve as a proxy for certain social circumstances, genetic predispositions or environmental exposures that raise the risk of cardiovascular disease.

The revision comes amid rising concern about health equity and racial bias within the U.S. health care system, and is part of a broader trend toward removing race from a variety of clinical algorithms. “We should not be using race to inform whether someone gets a treatment or doesn’t get a treatment,” said Dr. Sadiya Khan, a preventive cardiologist at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, who chaired the statement writing committee for the American Heart Association, or A.H.A. The statement was published on Friday [PDF] in the association’s journal, Circulation. An online calculator using the new algorithm, called PREVENT, is still in development.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot – Race Cannot Be Used To Predict Heart Disease, Scientists Say

Davide Castelvecchi, writing for Nature: A Nature retraction last week has put to rest the latest claim of room-temperature superconductivity — in which researchers said they had made a material that could conduct electricity without producing waste heat and without refrigeration. The retraction follows the downfall of an even more brazen claim about a supposed superconductor called LK-99, which went viral on social media earlier this year. Despite these high-profile setbacks, superconductivity researchers say the field is enjoying somewhat of a renaissance. “It’s not a dying field — on the contrary,” says Lilia Boeri, a physicist who specializes in computational predictions at the Sapienza University of Rome. The progress is fuelled in part by the new capabilities of computer simulations to predict the existence and properties of undiscovered materials.

Much of the excitement is focused on ‘super-hydrides — hydrogen-rich materials that have shown superconductivity at ever-higher temperatures, as long as they are kept at high pressure. The subject of the retracted Nature paper was purported to be such a material, made of hydrogen, lutetium and nitrogen. But work in the past few years has unearthed several families of materials that could have revolutionary properties. “It really does look like we’re on the hairy edge of being able to find a lot of new superconductors,” says Paul Canfield, a physicist at Iowa State University in Ames and Ames National Laboratory.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot – Why Superconductor Research is in a ‘Golden Age’ – Despite Controversy

The way we buy and sell homes in the U.S. isn’t normal — at least not compared with the rest of the world. From a report: The commission on a home sale here is typically around 5% to 6%, usually split between the seller’s and buyer’s agents. In most countries, the commissions are substantially smaller. The U.S. is home to as many as three million agents. By most estimates, no other country is even a close second.

Though it is unclear how much a court decision on commissions last month will upend American real estate, if at all, the ruling opens up the possibility of forever changing how agents are paid for their work. And looking at home sales around the world offers a window into what could be in store. One reason commissions here remain high is the use of buyer agents, said Ryan Tomasello, managing director at investment bank Keefe, Bruyette & Woods. Home sellers pay the commission — typically between 5% and 6% of a home’s selling price — which is usually split between the seller’s and buyer’s agent. Buyer agents aren’t nearly as common in other parts of the world, said Tomasello.

[…] In the pre-internet days, a buyer agent’s main job was to screen and filter listings for hopeful home buyers. Today, much of that early house hunting can be done online. So the role of the buyer agent has shifted more to providing advice and support, as well as recommendations for home inspectors, lenders and lawyers. A good buyer agent will know how to make a strong offer and may push to lower the home price. In most countries, buyer agents are much less of a factor.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot – Almost No One Pays a 6% Real-Estate Commission – Except Americans

The technology has become the standard LAN worldwide. From a report: Ethernet became commercially available in 1980 and quickly grew into the industry LAN standard. To provide computer companies with a framework for the technology, in June 1983 Ethernet was adopted as a standard by the IEEE 802 Local Area Network Standards Committee. Currently, the IEEE 802 family consists of 67 published standards, with 49 projects under development. The committee works with standards agencies worldwide to publish certain IEEE 802 standards as international guidelines.

A plaque recognizing the technology is displayed outside the PARC facility. It reads: “Ethernet wired LAN was invented at Xerox Palo Alto Research Center (PARC) in 1973, inspired by the ALOHAnet packet radio network and the ARPANET. In 1980 Xerox, DEC, and Intel published a specification for 10 Mbps Ethernet over coaxial cable that became the IEEE 802.3-1985 Standard. Later augmented for higher speeds, and twisted-pair, optical, and wireless media, Ethernet became ubiquitous in home, commercial, industrial, and academic settings worldwide.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot – Ethernet is Still Going Strong After 50 Years

Amazon will eliminate several hundred roles in its Alexa division as part of a broader shift in priorities and a focus on developing new forms of artificial intelligence, according to an internal memo sent to employees Friday morning. From a report: “As we continue to invent, we’re shifting some of our efforts to better align with our business priorities, and what we know matters most to customers — which includes maximizing our resources and efforts focused on generative AI,” wrote Daniel Rausch, vice president of Alexa and Fire TV, in the memo, obtained by GeekWire. “These shifts are leading us to discontinue some initiatives, which is resulting in several hundred roles being eliminated.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot – Amazon Will Cut ‘Several Hundred’ Alexa Jobs as It Ends Unspecified Initiatives

Apple announced on Thursday its plans to bring RCS support to the iPhone in 2024. But some things are not going to change, sadly. 9to5Mac reports: Since I published my story on the news this morning, there’s one thing everyone wants to know: is the blue bubbles vs green bubbles debate coming to an end? I’m happy to say I now have an official answer: nope. RCS will use green bubbles just like SMS. […] Apple has confirmed to me that blue bubbles will still be used to represent iMessages, while green bubbles will represent RCS messages. The company uses blue bubbles to denote what it believes is the best and most secure way for iPhone users to communicate, which is iMessage.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot – Apple Says RCS Messages Will Have Green Bubbles

Thrasio, which acquires third-party sellers on Amazon, is preparing to file for bankruptcy as it grapples with a post-pandemic slump in online spending, the Wall Street Journal reported. From a report: Thrasio has been advised by New York-based consulting firm AlixPartners in recent years and their retail turnaround professional Holly Etlin is currently working with the company, the report said, citing people familiar with the matter. In 2021, Thrasio said it had raised $1 billion in a funding round led by private equity firm Silver Lake, taking its total funding to $3.4 billion.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot – Amazon Aggregator Thrasio Prepares For Bankruptcy

Sonos announced plans to expand into a new “multi-billion dollar” product category next year. Sonos CEO Patrick Spence declined to give specific details, but it’s widely expected to be headphones. He said the new product will “complement” current Sonos devices and will “delight customers and drive immediate revenue.” MacRumors reports: Spence said that Sonos believes it will generate more than $100 million from new products in 2024, and the new product will account for a “large portion” of this revenue in the second half of the year. There have been rumors for years now that Sonos intends to enter the headphone market with a pair of wireless headphones that could be similar in design to over-ear headphones like the AirPods Max.

Sonos has never confirmed its work on headphones, but a leaked internal memo that was obtained by Bloomberg earlier today confirmed that the company does indeed have a headphone division. […] Bloomberg in 2019 said that Sonos was targeting a $300 price point and was focusing on features like audio quality and multi-service interoperability, but it has been several years since new details emerged.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot – Sonos Teases Plans To Enter Headphones Product Category

An anonymous reader quotes a report from 9to5Google: With Manifest V3, Google wants to make extensions safer by prioritizing privacy, but was initially criticized for the impact to ad blockers. The Chrome team has since added new features in response and is ready to disable old Manifest V2 extensions in 2024. Google will begin automatically disabling Manifest V2 extensions in Chrome Dev, Canary, and Beta as early as June 2024 (Chrome 127+). Similarly, Chrome Web Store installs will no longer be possible. Developers are encouraged to update and migrate before then.

This will gradually roll out, with Google taking into account user feedback and data to “make sure Chrome users understand the change and what actions they can take to find alternative, up-to-date extensions.” [Google said in a statement:] “We expect it will take at least a month to observe and stabilize the changes in pre-stable before expanding the rollout to stable channel Chrome, where it will also gradually roll out over time. The exact timing may vary depending on the data collected, and during this time, we will keep you informed about our progress.” This was originally schedule to take place in 2023, but Google spent this year closing the functionality gap between Manifest V2 and V3 […].

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot – Old Manifest V2 Chrome Extensions Will Be Disabled In 2024

Sara Fischer reports via Axios: The decline of local newspapers accelerated so rapidly in 2023 that analysts now believe the U.S. will have lost one-third of the newspapers it had as of 2005 by the end of next year — rather than in 2025, as originally predicted. There are roughly 6,000 newspapers left in America, down from 8,891 in 2005, according to a new report from Northwestern’s Medill School of Journalism, Media, Integrated Marketing Communications. “We’re almost at a one-third loss now and we’ll certainly hit that pace next year,” said the report’s co-authors — Penelope Muse Abernathy, a visiting professor at Medill, and Sarah Stonbely, director of Medill’s State of Local News Project. Of the papers that still survive, a majority (4,790) publish weekly, not daily.

Over the past two years, newspapers continued to vanish at an average rate of more than two per week, leaving 204 U.S. counties, or 6.4%, without any local news outlet. Roughly half of all U.S. counties (1,562) are now only served with one remaining local news source — typically a weekly newspaper. Abernathy and Stonbely estimate that 228 of those 1,562 counties, or roughly 7% of all U.S. counties, are at high risk of losing their last remaining local news outlet.

There isn’t enough investment in digital news replacements to stop the spread of news deserts in America. The footprint for alternative local news outlets is tiny and they are mostly clustered around metro areas that already have some local coverage. The report estimates that — for outlets focused on state and local news — there are roughly 550 digital-only news sites, 720 ethnic media organizations and 215 public broadcasting stations in America, compared to 6,000 newspapers. The authors argue that the dynamic between those with access to quality local news and those who don’t “poses a far-reaching crisis for our democracy as it simultaneously struggles with political polarization, a lack of civic engagement and the proliferation of misinformation and information online.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot – One-Third of US Newspapers As of 2005 Will Be Gone By 2024

Richard Speed reports via The Register: Scientists have revealed how data from a NASA telescope was secured thanks to creative thinking and a batch of Raspberry Pi computers. The telescope was the Super Pressure Balloon Imaging Telescope (SuperBIT), launched on April 16, 2023, from Wanaka Airport in New Zealand. The telescope was raised to approximately 33km in altitude by NASA’s 532,000-cubic-meter (18.8-million-cubic-foot) balloon and, above circa 99.5 percent of the Earth’s atmosphere, it spent over a month circumnavigating the globe and acquiring observations of astronomical objects. The plan had been for the payload to transmit its data to the ground using SpaceX’s Starlink constellation and the US Tracking and Data Relay Satellite System (TDRSS). However, the Starlink connection went down soon after launch, on May 1, and the TDRSS connection became unstable on May 24. The boffins decided to attempt a landing on May 25 due to poor communications and concerns the balloon might be pulled away from further land crossings by weather.

The telescope itself was destroyed during the landing; it was dragged along the ground for 3km by a parachute that failed to detach, leaving a trail of debris in its wake. Miraculously, though, SuperBIT’s solid-state drive was recovered intact. However, other than as a reference, its data was not needed thanks to the inclusion of Raspberry Pi-powered hardware in the form of four Data Recovery System (DRS) capsules. Each capsule included a Raspberry Pi 3B and 5TB of solid-state storage. A parachute, a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receiver, and an Iridium short-burst data transceiver were also included so the hardware could report its location to the recovery team. The capsules were connected to the main payload via Ethernet, and 24V DC was also available.

The plan had been to release the first DRS capsule on day 40, and then another every 20 days after that, whenever SuperBIT passed over land. However, when it became clear that SuperBIT would have to come down on May 25, it was decided to drop two DRS capsules over Argentina’s Santa Cruz Province. Both of the DRS capsules released were recovered from their reported locations — a curious cougar apparently nosed around one of them without causing damage — and the data was fully intact. Of the unreleased DRS capsules, one failed for unknown reasons at launch — the team speculated that perhaps a cable came loose — but the other also contained an intact data set.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot – Scientists Use Raspberry Pi Tech To Protect NASA Telescope Data

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: On Wednesday, a collaborative whiteboard app maker called “tldraw” made waves online by releasing a prototype of a feature called “Make it Real” that lets users draw an image of software and bring it to life using AI. The feature uses OpenAI’s GPT-4V API to visually interpret a vector drawing into functioning Tailwind CSS and JavaScript web code that can replicate user interfaces or even create simple implementations of games like Breakout. “I think I need to go lie down,” posted designer Kevin Cannon at the start of a viral X thread that featured the creation of functioning sliders that rotate objects on screen, an interface for changing object colors, and a working game of tic-tac-toe. Soon, others followed with demonstrations of drawing a clone of Breakout, creating a working dial clock that ticks, drawing the snake game, making a Pong game, interpreting a visual state chart, and much more.

Tldraw, developed by Steve Ruiz in London, is an open source collaborative whiteboard tool. It offers a basic infinite canvas for drawing, text, and media without requiring a login. Launched in 2021, the project received $2.7 million in seed funding and is supported by GitHub sponsors. When The GPT-4V API launched recently, Ruiz integrated a design prototype called “draw-a-ui” created by Sawyer Hood to bring the AI-powered functionality into tldraw. GPT-4V is a version of OpenAI’s large language model that can interpret visual images and use them as prompts. As AI expert Simon Willison explains on X, Make it Real works by “generating a base64 encoded PNG of the drawn components, then passing that to GPT-4 Vision” with a system prompt and instructions to turn the image into a file using Tailwind. You can experiment with a live demo of Make It Real online. However, running it requires providing an API key from OpenAI, which is a security risk.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot – ‘Make It Real’ AI Prototype Turns Drawings Into Working Software

During MediaTek’s 2023 summit, MediaTek executive Vince Hu announced a new partnership with Meta that would allow it to develop smart glasses capable of augmented reality or mixed reality experiences. 9to5Google reports: As the current generation exists, the Ray-Ban Meta glasses feature a camera and microphone for sending and receiving messages. However, the next generation of Meta smart glasses are likely to have a built-in “viewfinder” display to merge the virtual and physical worlds, allowing users to scan QR codes, read messages, and more. Beyond that, the company wants to bring AR glasses into the fold, which presents a much broader set of challenges. To accomplish this, a few things need to change. AR glasses need to be built for everyday use and optimized to take on an industrial design that looks good but can pack enough tech to ensure a good experience. As it stands, mixed-reality headsets are bulky and take on a large profile. Ideally, Meta’s fully AR glasses would be thinner and sleeker.

The new partnership between companies means that MediaTek will help co-develop custom silicon with Meta, built specifically for AR use cases and the glasses. MediaTek brings expertise in developing low-power, high-performance SoCs that can fit within small parameters, like in the frame in a pair of AR glasses. Little to no details were revealed about the upcoming AR glasses, other than directly stating that “MediaTek-powered AR glasses from Meta” would be a thing sometime in the future. Previous leaks position the next generation of smart glasses with a viewfinder as a 2025 release, while a more robust set of AR glasses was referred to as a 2027 product — if done properly, it would be an incredible product.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot – MediaTek Partners With Meta To Develop Chips For AR Smart Glasses

Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy revealed a crypto plan today that aims to protect core aspects of the industry, including software developers and unhosted digital wallets. CoinDesk reports: Republican presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy has a message for most of the employees at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) if he’s elected to the White House: You’re fired. And everybody still left at their desks would need to back off the crypto industry, according to the candidate’s new policy strategy for U.S. digital assets. Most cryptocurrencies are commodities that are none of the SEC’s business, according to Ramaswamy’s crypto plan shared with CoinDesk on Thursday and set for public release at the North American Blockchain Summit in Texas. The pharmaceutical entrepreneur remains among the top four GOP candidates, maintaining 5% support in a dwindling field dominated by former President Donald Trump, according to polling data.

One issue that separates him from other candidates is his enthusiastic support of crypto as a financial innovation. He argues that the sector needs to have several freedoms protected: the right to code as a First Amendment freedom that should shield software developers from criminal or enforcement vulnerability, the right to maintain self-hosted digital wallets outside the reach of regulators and the right to know how each new virtual asset will be treated by the government. “A big part of what we’re missing today is clarity from our regulators,” Ramaswamy said in an interview with CoinDesk TV. “What we’re going to have is rescinding any of those regulations that are allowing the regulatory state to go after perfectly legal behavior, but by claiming that somehow it shouldn’t exist because they don’t like it. All of that can end on my watch.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot – Ramaswamy Is the Only GOP Candidate With a Crypto Plan

Alibaba is canceling the scheduled IPO of its cloud division due to the impact of the U.S. government’s CPU export bans to China. The Register reports: The Chinese e-commerce giant reported the move alongside its calendar Q3 earnings, otherwise a generally positive quarter, with the group reporting an income from operations of $4.6 billion, up 34 percent year-on-year, and revenue of $30.8 billion, up 9 percent. Alibaba also said US export restrictions could affect its business more generally by making it harder for the company to upgrade its existing hardware. […] It’s worth noting that the Cloud Intelligence Group brought in $3.789 billion in revenue but earnings before income tax and amortization was $193 million, up 44 percent on the same period a year earlier. Cloud sales growth has stalled in 2023 as customers weigh up their spending.
“We believe that these new restrictions [referring to expanded restrictions announced in October] may materially and adversely affect Cloud Intelligence Group’s ability to offer products and services and to perform under existing contracts, thereby negatively affecting our results of operations and financial condition,” Alibaba said. “We believe that a full spin-off of Cloud Intelligence Group may not achieve the intended effect of shareholder value enhancement,” the company added. “Accordingly, we have decided to not proceed with a full spin-off, and instead we will focus on developing a sustainable growth model for Cloud Intelligence Group (CIG) under the fluid circumstances.”

“The US needs to stop politicizing and weaponizing trade and tech issues and stop destabilizing global industrial and supply chains,” Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said in response to the US’s new restrictions.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot – Alibaba Cancels Cloud Spinoff, Blames US Chip Sanctions

An anonymous reader quotes a report from Ars Technica: Prison phone company Global Tel*Link leaked the personal information of nearly 650,000 users and failed to notify most of the users that their personal data was exposed, the Federal Trade Commission said today. The company agreed to a settlement that requires it to change its security practices and offer free credit monitoring and identity protection to affected users, but the settlement doesn’t include a fine. “Global Tel*Link and two of its subsidiaries failed to implement adequate security safeguards to protect personal information they collect from users of its services, which enabled bad actors to gain access to unencrypted personal information stored in the cloud and used for testing,” the FTC said.

A security researcher notified Global Tel*Link of the breach on August 13, 2020, according to the FTC’s complaint (PDF). This happened just after “the company and a third-party vendor copied a large volume of sensitive, unencrypted personal information about nearly 650,000 real users of its products and services into the cloud but failed to take adequate steps to protect the data,” the FTC said. The data was copied to an Amazon Web Services test environment to test a new version of a search software product. For about two days, the data was in the test environment and “accessible via the Internet without password protection or other access controls,” the FTC said. After hearing from the security researcher, Global Tel*Link reconfigured the test environment to cut off public access. But a few weeks later, the firm was notified by an identity monitoring vendor that the data was available on the dark web. Global Tel*Link didn’t notify any users until May 2021, and even then, it only notified a subset of them, according to the FTC. […]

The complaint said that Global Tel*Link violated the Federal Trade Commission Act’s section on unfair or deceptive acts or practices and charged the firm with unfair data security practices, unfair failure to notify affected consumers of the incident, misrepresentations regarding data security, misrepresentations to individual users regarding the incident, misrepresentations to individual users regarding notice, and deceptive representations to prison facilities regarding the incident. To settle the charges, the company agreed to new security protocols, including “‘change management’ measures to all of its systems to help reduce the risk of human error, use of multifactor authentication, and procedures to minimize the amount of data it collects and stores,” the FTC said. Global Tel*Link also has to notify the affected users who were not previously notified of the breach and provide them with credit monitoring and identity protection products. The product must include $1,000,000 worth of identity theft insurance to cover costs related to identity theft or fraud. The company must also notify consumers and prison facilities within 30 days of future data breaches and notify the FTC of the incidents, the agency said. Violations of the settlement could result in fines of $50,120 for each violation, the FTC said.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot – Prison Phone Company Leaked 600,000 Users’ Data and Didn’t Notify Them

Google has announced that its News app and news.google.com will remove support for paid magazines next month. “The removal not only applies to new subscriptions/purchases, but also to existing libraries of magazines,” reports 9to5Google. “That means that users who have paid for magazines to use them in the Google News app will be cut off pretty soon.” From the report: Ahead of the December 18 shutdown, users will be able to export copies of paid magazines. Magazines that cannot be exported due to interactive elements will be eligible for a refund. Google explains: “Support for magazine content in Google News is being discontinued beginning on December 18, 2023, which means if you previously purchased or subscribed to magazines, access from Google News apps or news.google.com to your library of magazines will be removed. To continue to access previously purchased magazine content, we are providing the opportunity to export and save each purchased issue. In some cases, purchased magazines contain interactive elements that cannot be downloaded and saved for future access, and we are offering a refund for this content.”

The company further adds that affected users will receive an email titled “An update to Google News magazine support” which will contain instructions on how to download copies of magazines they’ve paid for. However, the cutoff for downloads and/or refunds is also December 18, 2023, which means the clock is ticking. You can access your library of magazines on News here.

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot – Google News Removing Magazine Support In December 2023

Cambridge dictionary’s word of the year for 2023 is “hallucinate,” a verb that took on a new meaning with the rise in popularity of artificial intelligence chatbots. The Guardian reports: The original definition of the chosen word is to “seem to see, hear, feel, or smell” something that does not exist, usually because of “a health condition or because you have taken a drug.” It now has an additional meaning, relating to when artificial intelligence systems such as ChatGPT, which generates text that mimics human writing, “hallucinates” and produces false information. The word was chosen because the new meaning “gets to the heart of why people are talking about AI,” according to a post on the dictionary site.

Generative AI is a “powerful” but “far from perfect” tool, “one we’re all still learning how to interact with safely and effectively — this means being aware of both its potential strengths and its current weaknesses.” The dictionary added a number of AI-related entries this year, including large language model (or LLM), generative AI (or GenAI), and GPT (an abbreviation of Generative Pre-trained Transformer). “AI hallucinations remind us that humans still need to bring their critical thinking skills to the use of these tools,” continued the post. “Large language models are only as reliable as the information their algorithms learn from. Human expertise is arguably more important than ever, to create the authoritative and up-to-date information that LLMs can be trained on.”

Read more of this story at Slashdot.

Source: Slashdot – ‘Hallucinate’ Chosen As Cambridge Dictionary’s Word of the Year