While keyboards dominate modern classrooms, a new study in Frontiers in Psychology suggests handwriting may be irreplaceable when it comes to learning. Researchers found that writing by hand activates far more extensive and interconnected brain networks compared to typing, particularly in regions linked to […]
Category: Technology
Music industry’s 1990s hard drives, like all HDDs, are dying – Ars Technica [2024-09-12]
One of the things enterprise storage and destruction company Iron Mountain does is handle the archiving of the media industry’s vaults. What it has been seeing lately should be a wake-up call: roughly one-fifth of the hard disk drives dating to the 1990s it […]
Generative AI backlash hits annual writing event, prompting resignations – Ars Technica [2024-09-04]
Over the weekend, the nonprofit National Novel Writing Month organization (NaNoWriMo) published an FAQ outlining its position on AI, calling categorical rejection of AI writing technology “classist” and “ableist.” The statement caused a backlash online, prompted four members of the organization’s board to step […]
Online trolls enjoy trolling, but not being trolled – PsyPost [2024-07-26]
A recent study has explored the intriguing relationship between dark humor, online trolling, and certain dark personality traits. The findings reveal that individuals who enjoy dark humor often possess traits such as sadism, Machiavellianism, and psychopathy. Furthermore, these traits are linked to a greater […]
Why going online is no longer fun – ComputerWorld [2024-07-24]
For many years, using a computer was a carefree pastime. Not anymore. Before roughly 1999, internet privacy wasn’t a concern; most people didn’t worry about cybersecurity; content was almost completely free; freeware, shareware, and open-source software were plentiful; and Big Tech wasn’t running the […]
Is Copilot for Microsoft 365 a lying liar? – ComputerWorld [2024-07-24]
In the earliest months after the release of OpenAI’s ChatGPT, the generative AI (genAI) power behind Microsoft’s Copilot, the big news wasn’t just how remarkable the new tool was – it was how easily it went off the rails, lied and even appeared to […]
Firefox’s New ‘Privacy’ Feature Actually Gives Your Data to Advertisers – Lifehacker [2024-07-16]
Firefox finds itself in a tricky position at times, because it wants to be a privacy friendly browser, but most of its funding comes from Google, whose entire business is advertising. With Firefox 128, the browser has introduced ‘privacy-preserving ad measurement,’ which is enabled […]
My Windows Computer Just Doesn’t Feel Like Mine Anymore – How-to Geek [2024-06-21]
An operating system is the most personal part of a “personal” computer, and it used to be that as a Windows user I didn’t feel like I was renting my computer from Microsoft, but in recent years that feeling has all but evaporated. To […]
U.S. to ban Kaspersky cybersecurity products over security concerns – Global News [2024-06-21]
The Biden administration will ban cybersecurity company Kaspersky Lab from selling products in the United States over concerns the firm is closely tied to Russia and poses a security risk. “Russia has shown it has the capacity and … intent to exploit Russian companies […]
Google apologizes for ‘missing the mark’ after Gemini generated racially diverse Nazis – The Verge [2024-02-21]
Google has apologized for what it describes as “inaccuracies in some historical image generation depictions” with its Gemini AI tool, saying its attempts at creating a “wide range” of results missed the mark. The statement follows criticism that it depicted specific white figures (like […]
ChatGPT goes temporarily “insane” with unexpected outputs, spooking users – Ars Technica [2024-02-21]
On Tuesday, ChatGPT users began reporting unexpected outputs from OpenAI’s AI assistant, flooding the r/ChatGPT Reddit sub with reports of the AI assistant “having a stroke,” “going insane,” “rambling,” and “losing it.” OpenAI has acknowledged the problem and is working on a fix, but […]
Musk uses expletive to tell audience he doesn’t care about advertisers that fled X over hate speech – CTV News [2023-11-29]
Billionaire Elon Musk said Wednesday that advertisers who have halted spending on his social media platform X in response to antisemitic and other hateful material are engaging in “blackmail” and, using a profanity, essentially told them to go away. “Don’t advertise,” Musk said. He […]
After 151 years, Popular Science will no longer offer a magazine – The Verge [2023-11-27]
After 151 years, Popular Science will no longer be available to purchase as a magazine. In a statement to The Verge, Cathy Hebert, the communications director for PopSci owner Recurrent Ventures, says the outlet needs to “evolve” beyond its magazine product, which published its […]
Why several big-box stores have ditched their self-checkouts – CBC News [2023-11-22]
After Dwayne Ouelette took over the Canadian Tire in North Bay, Ont., last year, he decided to buck the trend and ditch the store’s four self-checkout machines — which had been there for a decade. “I’m not comfortable using them and I don’t think […]
IBM, EU, Disney and others pull ads from Elon Musk’s X as concerns about antisemitism fuel backlash – CTV News [2023-11-18]
Advertisers are fleeing social media platform X over concerns about their ads showing up next to pro-Nazi content and hate speech on the site in general, with billionaire owner Elon Musk inflaming tensions with his own posts endorsing an antisemitic conspiracy theory. IBM, NBCUniversal […]
Why AI Lies – For chatbots, the truth is elusive; it is for humans, too – Psychology Today [2023-10-27]
Attorney Steven Schwartz heard about large language models (LLMs) from his children. He read a few articles on the subject, one saying that the new artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots could make legal research obsolete. Schwartz asked OpenAI’s ChatGPT to help him with the research […]
Greenpeace opposes nuclear energy. Young climate activists say that’s ‘old-fashioned’ – CBC News [2023-09-07]
Young climate activists in Europe are calling on Greenpeace to drop its “old-fashioned” stance against nuclear energy. Activists from five EU countries have launched the Dear Greenpeace campaign, asking the well-established environmental organization to get on board with what they see as a necessary […]
Elon Musk ‘likes’ trending #BanTheADL posts as white supremacist ad runs on platform – Mashable [2023-09-01]
Over the past 24 hours, the hashtag #BanTheADL has been trending on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. The trending hashtag refers to the Anti-Defamation League, the Jewish anti-extremism civil rights organization. Even more concerning is that X owner Elon Musk has signaled […]
Meta’s news block hits Indigenous communities harder, Six Nations publisher says – CBC News [2023-08-29]
The publisher of a First Nations newspaper based in Six Nations of the Grand River, Ont., says she’s “extremely concerned” about the impact on Indigenous communities of Meta blocking news content in Canada. “In many cases, they’re in very isolated areas and for Facebook […]
No joke: Satirical websites get caught up in Meta’s quest to block news in Canada – CBC News [2023-08-10]
Luke Gordon Field is trying to figure out how he can explain the concept of deadpan satire to an algorithm. He says he never thought in a million years that the need to explain a joke would transcend humans. But it’s a situation he […]
6 Reasons You Shouldn’t Blindly Trust Artificial Intelligence – Make Use Of [May 13, 2023]
AI is transforming the world as we know it, with its impact felt across every industry. However, not all of these changes are necessarily positive. While AI offers exciting new opportunities in many areas, we cannot ignore the fact that it lacks an inherent […]
