DuckDuckGo recently asked its users how they felt about AI in search. The answer has come back loud and clear: more than 90% of the 175,354 people who voted said they don’t want it. The privacy-focused search engine has since set up two versions of its tool: noai.duckduckgo.com for the AI-averse and yesai.duckduckgo.com for the curious. Users can also tweak settings on the main site to disable...
An anonymous reader shares a report: A hacking of the Nobel organization’s computer systems is the most likely cause of last year’s leak of Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Corina Machado’s name, according to the results of an investigation [non-paywalled source]. An individual or a state actor may have illegally gained access in a cyber breach, the Norwegian Nobel Institute said on Friday...
New York, USA (PinionNewswire) — The NIX Foundation recently announced the successful completion of its full acquisition of the ORACLE Foundation, marking a critical phase in the integration of global decentralized computing infrastructure and fully supporting CaryPact to become the core standard for the next-generation decentralized computing network. This strategic maneuver not only...
A new study [PDF] examining the United States between 1850 and 1920 found that expanded market access — driven largely by railroad expansion — made Americans more trusting of strangers and more outward-looking, but weakened family-based care for the vulnerable. Researchers Max Posch of the University of Exeter and Itzchak Tzachi Raz of Hebrew University compared places and people gaining...
Apple’s call-screening feature, introduced in iOS 26 last year, was designed to combat the more than 2 billion robocalls placed to Americans every month, but as WSJ is reporting, it is now creating friction for the rich and powerful who find themselves subjected to automated interrogation when dialing from unrecognized numbers. The feature uses an automated voice to ask unknown callers for...
Weather service research finds less accurate probability-based predictions are still considered helpful
The Met Office is to lean into one of Britain’s favourite pastimes – talking about the weather – by launching a new two-week forecast.
At present, the publicly funded weather and climate service offers a seven-day forecast on its website and app with an hourly breakdown for the first five...
The UK government paid consulting firm PwC $5.65 million to build its new AI Skills Hub, a site meant to help 10 million workers gain AI skills by 2030 that functions largely as a bookmarking service, directing users to external training courses that already existed before the contract was awarded. The hub links to platforms like Salesforce’s free Trailhead learning system rather than offering...
An anonymous reader shares a report: Amazon is in talks to invest up to $50 billion in OpenAI, according to people familiar with the matter, in what would be a giant bet on the hot AI startup. The ChatGPT maker is seeking up to $100 billion in new capital from investors, a round that could value it at as much as $830 billion, The Wall Street Journal previously reported. Andy Jassy, Amazon’s...
Champion of respiratory medicine who was passionate about building bridges between academics and clinicians
Mike Morgan, who has died aged 75, was a leading figure in respiratory services in Leicester for more than 30 years. He also championed respiratory medicine at the highest level. It had long been a poor relation compared to other areas of medicine but, as the national clinical director...
An anonymous reader shares a report: Microsoft’s PowerToys team is contemplating building a top menu bar for Windows 11, much like Linux, macOS, or older versions of Windows. The menu bar, or Command Palette Dock as Microsoft calls it, would be a new optional UI that provides quick access to tools, monitoring of system resources, and much more. Microsoft has provided concept images of what it’s...
Mike Swanson: What if your car worked like so many apps? You’re driving somewhere important…maybe running a little bit late. A few minutes into the drive, your car pulls over to the side of the road and asks: “How are you enjoying your drive so far?” Annoyed by the interruption, and even more behind schedule, you dismiss the prompt and merge back into traffic. A minute later it does it again....
Telkom has managed to grow its mobile prepaid subscriber base, even as South Africa’s two largest operators both reported declines over the same periods.
An anonymous reader quotes a report from Variety: In the future, studios that use synthetic actors in place of humans might have to pay a royalty into a union fund. That’s one of the ideas kicking around as SAG-AFTRA prepares to sit down with the studios on Feb. 9. Artificial intelligence was central to the 2023 actors strike, and it’s only gotten more urgent since. Social media is awash in...
capricorn GROUP (capricorn), the German-based industry leader in automotive and motorsport lightweight technology, presented two capricorn Zagato 01 hypercars at Salon Rétromobile, Paris, 27 Jan – 1 Feb 2026. The first customer deliveries will happen in 2026, following an intensive and rapid development process, borne out of capricorn’s extensive motorsport engineering experience. Both...