Music-creation software company Output just launched an AI tool that generates free sample packs based on text prompts. These packs are royalty-free and include 30 samples that can be used in the digital audio workstation (DAW) of your choice, including Logic Pro, Ableton, Pro Tools and others.

The algorithm mixes and resynthesizes pre-existing samples to create new sounds that match the text prompt. This was developed to help music-makers move quickly, so they aren’t slowed down by hunting for that perfect sample to match the vibe of the track. Instead, just write something like “moody sounds for a rainy day” and let the AI assistant do the rest. You can also ask for sounds related to a specific event or samples based on a specific artist or genre.

A Senate Finance Committee inquiry revealed on Tuesday that police departments can get access to private medical information from pharmacies, no warrant needed. While HIPAA may protect some access to personally identifiable health data, it doesn’t stop cops, according to a letter from Senator Ron Wyden, Representative Pramila Jayapal and Representative Sara Jacobs to the Department of Health and Human Services. None of the major US pharmacies are doing anything about it either, the members of Congress say. 

“All of the pharmacies surveyed stated that they do not require a warrant prior to sharing pharmacy records with law enforcement agents, unless there is a state law that dictates otherwise,” the letter said. “Those pharmacies will turn medical records over in response to a mere subpoena, which often do not have to be reviewed or signed by a judge prior to being issued.”

The committee reached out to Amazon, Cigna, CVS Health, The Kroger Company, Optum Rx, Rite Aid Corporation, Walgreens Boots Alliance and Walmart about their practices for sharing medical data with police. While Amazon, Cigna, Optum, Walmart and Walgreen said they have law enforcement requests reviewed by legal professionals before complying, CVS Health, The Kroger Company and Rite Aid Corporation said they ask in-store staff to process the request immediately. 

Engadget asked the pharmacies mentioned in the letter for comment about the claims. CVS said its pharmacy staff are trained to handle these inquiries and its following all applicable laws around the issue. Walgreens said it has a process in place to assess law enforcement requests compliant with those laws, too, and Amazon said that although law enforcement requests are rare, it does notify patients and comply with court orders when applicable. The others either haven’t responded or refuse to comment.

The pharmacies mostly blamed the current lack of legislative protections for patient data for their willingness to comply with cop requests. Most of them told the committee that current HIPAA law and other policies let them disclose medical records in response to certain legal requests. That’s why the Senate Finance Committee is targeting HHS to strengthen these protections, especially since the 2023 Dobbs decision let states criminalize certain reproductive health decisions. 

Under current HIPAA law, patients have the right to know who is accessing their health information. But individuals have to request the medical record disclosure data, instead of health care professionals being required to share it proactively. “Consequently, few people ever request such information, even though many would obviously be concerned to learn about disclosures of their private medical records to law enforcement agencies,” the letter states. The letter also urges pharmacies to change their policies to require a warrant, and publish transparency reports about how data is shared. 

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/police-are-using-pharmacies-to-secretly-access-medical-information-about-members-of-the-public-182009044.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget – Police are using pharmacies to secretly access medical information about members of the public

There’s still plenty of time to snap up a holiday gift for a loved one (or yourself). If you’re feeling particularly generous and you or someone you care about could do with a new laptop, it’s worth checking out deals on Apple’s 15-inch MacBook Air. Some configurations have dropped to record low prices, including one with 256GB of storage and an M2 chipset. That MacBook Air has dipped from $1,299 to $1,049 — which is $250 off the regular price.

This is an excellent entry point into the Mac ecosystem. In fact, the M2-powered MacBook Air (albeit a 2022 configuration) is our pick for the best MacBook overall. The 15.3-inch model that’s on sale here has a Liquid Retina display with 500 nits of brightness, 1080p FaceTime HD camera and Touch ID.

While the M2-powered MacBook Air should be more than capable enough of handling most tasks, it’s disappointing that the base model only comes with 8GB of RAM. That’s going to make tasks such as video and image editing, as well as even gaming, a bit more onerous on this MacBook Air.

In any case, we gave the 15-inch MacBook Air a score of 96 in our review in June. We appreciated the larger display compared with the 13.6-inch MBA, though lamented the fact the refresh rate is limited to 60Hz. Great battery life (the MBA ran for about 12 hours while handling day-to-day work tasks), terrific audio and a top-notch keyboard and trackpad are major plus points. One quibble is that, despite its great performance, the M2 chipset is getting a little long in the tooth — rumors suggest an M3-powered MacBook Air could debut in March.

Meanwhile, if you could use some more built-in storage than the 256GB that comes with this laptop, you can opt for a variant with 512GB for $1,249. That’s also $250 off and marks another record low. However, that model still only has 8GB of memory.

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This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/apples-15-inch-m2-macbook-air-is-up-to-250-off-right-now-181005869.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget – Apple’s 15-inch M2 MacBook Air is up to 0 off right now

In a story ripped from the opening scenes of a sci-fi horror movie, scientists have bridged a critical gap between the biological and electronic. The study, published in Nature Electronics (summarized in Nature), details a “hybrid biocomputer” combining lab-grown human brain tissue with conventional circuits and AI. Dubbed Brainoware, the system learned to identify voices with 78 percent accuracy. It could one day lead to silicon microchips fused with neurons.

Brainoware combines brain organoids — stem-cell-derived clusters of human cells morphed into neuron-filled “mini-brains” — with conventional electronic circuits. To make it, researchers placed “a single organoid onto a plate containing thousands of electrodes to connect the brain to electric circuits.” The circuits, speaking to the brain organoid, “translate the information they want to input into a pattern of electric pulses.”

The brain tissue then learns and communicates with the technology. A sensor in the electronic array detects the mini-brain’s response, which a trained machine-learning algorithm decodes. In other words, with the help of AI, the neurons and electronics merge into a single (extremely basic, for now) problem-solving biomachine.

The researchers taught the computer-brain system to recognize human voices. They trained Brainoware on 240 recordings of eight people speaking, “translating the audio into electric to deliver to the organoid.” The organic part reacted differently to each voice while generating a pattern of neural activity AI learned to understand. Brainoware learned to identify the voices with 78 percent accuracy.

The Washington Post via Getty Images

The team views the work as more proof of concept than something with near-term practical use. Although previous studies showed two-dimensional neuron cell cultures could do similar things, this is the first trial run using a trained three-dimensional lump of human brain cells. It could point to a future of biological computing, where the “speed and efficiency of human brains” spark a superpowered AI. (What could go wrong?)

Arti Ahluwalia, a biomedical engineer at Italy’s University of Pisa, sees the technology shedding more light on the human brain. Since brain organoids can duplicate the nervous system’s control center in ways simple cell cultures can’t, the researcher views Brainoware (and the further advances it could spawn) as helping model and study neurological disorders like Alzheimer’s. “That’s where the promise is; using these to one day hopefully replace animal models of the brain,” Ahluwalia told Nature.

Challenges for the bizarre proto-cyborg tech include keeping the organoids alive, especially when moving to the more complex areas where scientists eventually want to deploy them. The brain cells must grow in an incubator, which could become more challenging with bigger organoids. The next steps include working to learn how brain organoids adapt to more complex tasks and engineering them for greater stability and reliability.

This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/researchers-fuse-lab-grown-human-brain-tissue-with-electronics-175507932.html?src=rss

Source: Engadget – Researchers fuse lab-grown human brain tissue with electronics