TechScribbler

31/08/2025

"Mr. Trump himself insists that, overall, he wants to save science. His defenders argue that he is cutting bloated budgets to restore public trust in science and spark a golden age of discovery.......Defenders of the postwar order concede that federal science management can be improved. But the Trumpian cure is, they add, far worse than any disease. They dismiss his recent moves and pronouncements as little more than pretexts for what they see as repressive tactics inspired by contemporary autocrats."

Hmmm...Trump "wants to save science"......The technical term for this is BULLSH*T.....if I wasn't already crying, I would be laughing.

Authoritarians have long feared and suppressed science as a rival for social influence. Experts see President Trump as borrowing some of their tactics.

31/08/2025

Authoritarians have long feared and suppressed science as a rival for social influence. Experts see President Trump as borrowing some of their tactics.

26/08/2025

“The social media giant has already donated to various down-ballet candidates from both parties. This new PAC signals an intent to influence statewide elections, including the next governor’s race in 2026.”

26/08/2025

Students down the decades -- centuries -- have looked for ways to dodge actual learning, while still looking to get that good exam result that will help them stand out in that ruthless competition called life. Now AI is here, it's just another -- though far easier to manage -- way of doing that.

Personally, I don't understand the mentality behind this. In my expertise -- writing -- I'd truly wonder why students were in a class just to hand over that writing exam to some piece of software. Aren't they studying writing because they want the pleasure and frustration and mind-bending angst (sometimes) of trying to wrestle words onto paper or screen, so they reflect their true feelings and intentions? Why give that experience over to an unfeeling machine (apologies to all the AIs out there)?

Also, if the broader intention of education is to turn out people who can think for themselves, organize those thoughts and rationally argue their take on various issues etc., what's the point in letting an AI do all that for you?

I'm trying not to be too naive about this. I know learning, particularly at college, is a way to a lucrative career (hint: Good luck with that if you marry an AI) for many. I also know that, when pressed for time on an assignment, ChatGPT or other bot is a tempting way of solving that mini crisis. Still, I wonder if the other side of using AI in education is not finding a way to cheat with it, but questioning what education is for in this day and age, and whether AI should, eventually, be spearheading so much of it?

19/08/2025

Connecting tubes between bacteria and a kind of microbe called archaea may reflect a symbiotic relationship that led to complex cells more than 2 billion years ago

19/08/2025

Test-run shows how a team of three autonomous robots could search for extraterrestrial environments suitable for sheltering humans.

17/08/2025

Podcast Episode · Asimov Press · 08/14/2025 · 24m

16/08/2025

"Few content creators have the money for lawsuits, so some are adopting more radical methods of fighting back. They are using online tools that make it harder for AI bots to find their content – or that manipulate it in a way that tricks bots into misreading it, so that the AI begins to confuse images of cars with images of cows, for example. But while this “AI poisoning” can help content creators protect their work, it might also inadvertently make the web a more dangerous place."

The web is awash with bots that scrape data without permission. Now content creators are poisoning the well of artificial intelligence – but similar technology can also be used to spread misinformation

13/08/2025

“[It is] missing something quite important, many things quite important,” said Altman, such as the model’s inability to “continuously learn” even after its launch. In other words, these systems are impressive but they have yet to crack the autonomy that would allow them to do a full-time job."

What's really missing is sense, as in not being stupid. The hype over AI has run, and is running, way ahead of the technology. Dial it back, breath. Breath.

As US and Chinese tech giants chase artificial general intelligence, experts warn the hype may be outrunning the science