List of All Articles with Tag 'tech'

Cisco Systems Inc., the largest maker of computer networking equipment, gave a lukewarm revenue forecast for the coming

By Elizabeth Howcroft LONDON Payments giant PayPal will stop allowing UK customers to buy cryptocurrencies through its platform

Neuroscientists have figured out how to reconstruct a song by decoding the brain signals of someone listening to it. A team from the University of California, Berkeley, reproduced Pink Floyd’s song ‘Another Bring in the Wall, Part 1’, after placing electrodes on the brains of patients and playing the music as they underwent epilepsy surgery. Analysis of the brain activity allowed the neuroscientists to create the song’s rhythm, as well as pick out understandable lines like “All in all it’s just another brick in the wall”. Scientists have previously used similar brain-reading techniques in an attempt to decipher speech from thoughts, but this is the first ever time that a recognisable song has been reconstructed from brain recordings. “It’s a wonderful result. One of the things for me about music is it has prosody and emotional content. As this whole field of brain machine interfaces progresses, this gives you a way to add musicality to future brain implants for people who need it, someone who’s got ALS or some other disabling neurological or developmental disorder compromising speech output,” said Robert Knight, a neurologist and UC Berkeley professor of psychology in the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute who conducted the research. “It gives you an ability to decode not only the linguistic content, but some of the prosodic content of speech, some of the affect. I think that’s what we’ve really begun to crack the code on.” It is a significant development for brain-computer interface technology, which aims to connect humans to machines in order to fix neurological disorders or even add new abilities. Elon Musk claims that future versions of his Neuralink device will allow wearers to stream music directly to their brain, as well as cure depression and addiction by “retraining” certain parts of the brain. The scientists behind the latest research claim that advances in brain recording techniques could soon allow them to make detailed recordings using non-invasive techniques like ultra-sensitive electrodes attached to the scalp. “Non-invasive techniques are just not accurate enough today,” said postdoctoral fellow Ludovic Bellier, who was part of the research team. “Let’s hope, for patients, that in the future we could, from just electrodes placed outside on the skull, read activity from deeper regions of the brain with a good signal quality. But we are far from there.” The research was detailed in a study, titled ‘Music can be reconstructed from human auditory cortex activity using nonlinear decoding models’, published in the scientific journal PLoS Biology. Read More Paralysed man communicates first words in months using brain implant: ‘I want a beer’ Elon Musk’s Twitter slows down access to rival websites Musk’s Twitter takeover sparks mass exodus of climate experts Snapchat experiences ‘temporary outage’ as My AI chatbot posts own Story

Amazon.com Inc. is imposing a new fee on merchants who don’t use the company’s logistics services, a change

(Reuters) -Visa is under fresh investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice over allegations it is charging retailers more for

When looking for the best way to entertain kids with video, you have no shortage

Snapchat users were alarmed on Tuesday night when the platform's artificial intelligence chatbot posted a live update to its profile and stopped responding to messages.

Two Pinterest directors have resigned from Nextdoor's board of directors in response to U.S. Justice Department efforts to

Elon Musk’s X, formerly known as Twitter, slowed down access to rivals and news organisations, according to a new report. The company seemingly added a delay of as long as five seconds when people clicked on links to go elsewhere on the web, according to a Washington Post report. The delay was applied to a host of rival websites, including Facebook, Instagram and Bluesky. It was also used on the websites of news organisations that have been critical of Mr Musk, such as Reuters and the New York Times. Clicking a link on X to one of the affected websites resulted in a delay of about five seconds before the webpage loaded, the Washington Post reported, citing tests it conducted on Tuesday. Reuters also saw a similar delay in tests it ran. By late Tuesday afternoon, X appeared to have eliminated the delay. When contacted for comment, X confirmed the delay was removed but did not elaborate. Billionaire ElonMusk, who bought Twitter in October, has previously lashed out at news organizations and journalists who have reported critically on his companies, which include Tesla and SpaceX. Twitter has previously prevented users from posting links to competing social media platforms. Reuters could not establish the precise time when X began delaying links to some websites. A user on Hacker News, a tech forum, posted about the delay earlier on Tuesday and wrote that X began delaying links to the New York Times on Aug. 4. On that day, Musk criticized the publication’s coverage of South Africa and accused it of supporting calls for genocide. Reuters has no evidence that the two events are related. A spokesperson for the New York Times said it has not received an explanation from X about the link delay. “While we don’t know the rationale behind the application of this time delay, we would be concerned by targeted pressure applied to any news organization for unclear reasons,” the spokesperson said on Tuesday. A Reuters spokesperson said: “We are aware of the report in the Washington Post of a delay in opening links to Reuters stories on X. We are looking into the matter.” Bluesky, an X rival that has Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey on its board, did not reply to a request for comment. Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. Additional reporting by Reuters Read More Twitter turning Tweetdeck into paid service after slowing down access to rivals The last parts of Twitter are being removed Musk pledges to fund legal bills of X users ‘unfairly treated’ by employers for posts Musk’s Twitter takeover sparks mass exodus of climate experts Snapchat experiences ‘temporary outage’ as My AI chatbot posts own Story WhatsApp rolls out AI tool for creating custom art

2023 has so far been the year of artificial intelligence and although not all of its uses have been welcome it does appear to have come up with one good thing: celebrity fighting games. In the past few days, AI creations of two of the most popular beat-up franchises, Mortal Kombat and Street Fighter have emerged on social media. However, rather than feature classic characters like Ryu, Ken, Chun-Li, Scorpion, Sub-Zero and Raiden these iterations feature exaggerated versions of famous faces from the real world. The first of these that went viral was Celebrity Mortal Kombat which was shared by the actual creator of the original game Ed Boon but was created by the YouTube channel Interdimensional TV. The celebrity version features: Joe Biden, Beyonce, Elvis Presley, Pope Francis, Angela Merkel, Donald Trump, LeBron James, Mark Zuckerberg, Kanye West, Xi Jinping, Oprah Winfrey, Albert Einstein, Kim Jung-Un, Jackie Chan, Hillary Clinton, Vladimir Putin, Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Stephen Hawking, Mother Teresa, Snoop Dogg, Shaquille O'Neill, Rihanna, William Shakespeare, Marilyn Monroe, George Washington, Gordon Ramsay, Ruth Bader Ginsberg, Barack Obama, Tom Cruise, Keanu Reeves, Queen Elizabeth II, Marie Curie, Taylor Swift, Mahatma Gandhi, The Rock and J Robert Oppenheimer. If that wasn't enough a Celebrity Mortal Kombat II video has also been made with an updated roster that Boon also shared. This one stars Will Smith, Greta Thunberg, Winston Churchill, Freddie Mercury, David Bowie, Steve Irwin, Mike Tyson, Nicki Minaj, Jimi Hendrix, Steve Jobs, Lionel Messi, Richard Nixon, Narendra Modi, Lizzo, Mr Rogers, Emma Watson, Kim Kardashian, Ellen Degeneres, Sylvester Stallone, Cardi B, Hunter Biden, Arnold Schwarzenegger, Volodymyr Zelensky, Ice Cube, Usain Bolt, Mozart, Nicolas Cage, Katy Perry, Michael Jackson, Bruce Lee, Joe Rogan, Notorious B.I.G, PewDiePie, Leonardo DaVinci, Chris Pratt, Margaret Thatcher, Frida Khalo, Mitch McConnell, Tesla, Justin Trudeau, Manny Pacquiao, Josef Stalin, Morgan Freeman and Chuck Norris. However, if you are more of a Street Fighter player then fear not as your interests have also been catered for. Many of the same faces from the Mortal Kombat game reappear but there are a few new characters such as Peter Dinklage, Miley Cyrus, Chris Farley and Johnny Depp. Sadly it doesn't look like we'll get to play these games anytime soon but we'll be first in line at the arcade should they become available. 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.

Snapchat users have been left feeling “freaked out”, with some claiming they have deleted the app, after its AI chatbot appeared to post a short video onto its own Story. Several Snapchat users took to social media on Tuesday night to share screen recordings and screengrabs of the short clip which was posted on the Story of the My AI account in what Snapchat has described as a “temporary outage” which has since been resolved. The video, which played for a few seconds, appeared to display a beige background with a different colour at the top of the frame, leading some users to suggest that it showed the corner between a ceiling and a wall. Taking to Twitter, one user said the uploaded Story “freaked me out so I deleted the app”, while others were left fearing the AI feature had evolved or become sentient. Many users then reported that the video was deleted and the AI chat feature temporarily ceased to respond to users’ questions, instead indicating it was experiencing a technical issue in its replies. Rolled out globally earlier this year, Snapchat’s My AI chatbot is designed to respond to users’ messages like a friend, providing answers to trivia, offering advice, and giving recommendations based on location if a user shares their geolocation with the app. A spokesperson for Snapchat said: “My AI experienced a temporary outage that’s now resolved.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live

WhatsApp has introduced a new feature that will bring generative artificial intelligence tools to the platform for the first time. The world’s most popular messaging app, which counts close to 3 billion monthly active users around the world, will allow a limited number of people to create custom stickers using a new AI-powered ‘Create’ button. The latest feature follows similar generative AI tools from other messaging platforms, with Snapchat introducing a ‘My AI’ chatbot in February powered by OpenAI’s ChatGPT technology. Instagram, which is also owned by Meta, is reportedly planning its own AI chatbot that will come with up to 30 different personalities for users to choose from. Meta did not respond to a request from The Independent for more details about Instagram’s AI plans, though leaked images reveal options for asking questions, seeking advice and offering writing assistance. “Bring AI to your chats for a more fun and engaging experience,” stated text on the leaked images. “Chat with 30 AI personalities and find which one you like the best.” The new WhatsApp update, first spotted by WaBetaInfo, means WhatsApp users do not require external tools or specific design skills in order to create stickers. They will simply need to enter a text-based command in order for the stickers to be generated, similar to image generator tools like Midjourney and OpenAI’s Dall-E. “AI stickers are generated using a secure technology offered by Meta,” the WhatsApp news site noted. “It’s important to note that this feature is optional and those AI stickers are easily recognisable. This means that the recipient may understand when a sticker has been generated by the AI technology from Meta.” The Independent has reached out to Meta for more information about WhatsApp’s latest AI tool, though the company typically does not comment on features before they are released publicly. Currently only Android users signed up to WhatsApp’s Google Play Beta Program have access to the custom sticker creator tool. Read More WhatsApp update: App finally launches new way to transfer chat history, fixing major security issue