The Guardian’s Oscar Schwartz wrote an article in 2018 titled “The discourse is unhinged: how the media gets AI alarmingly wrong.” In it, he discusses the 2017 hype-explosion surrounding Facebook’s AI research lab developing a pair of chat bots that created a short-hand language for negotiating. In reality, the chat bots’ behavior was remarkable but not entirely unexpected. Unfortunately the media at-large covered the interesting event as though SKYNET from the “Terminator” movies had been born....

Just this week, as that anniversary approaches, researchers have published a study that promises to both improve the imaging of black holes but also increase the amount of information that can be derived from such images. The team, led by scientists at the Center for Astrophysics, Harvard and Smithsonian (CfA), have calculated that an intricate substructure within black hole images could be revealed by extreme gravitational lensing — the phenomena by which objects with great mass cause the curvature of space and thus, bend the path of light traveling through it....

That’s why Google’s latest Pixel feature drop, which adds a quick-access shortcut to Snapchat, has me scratching my head a little bit. It’s a small, optional feature, but its inclusion seems to go against the whole ethos of the Pixel line — and it makes me worry that it’s just the start of more unnecessary add-ons to come. Google’s Pixel feature drops are normally a great thing, adding features to older devices rather than simply letting them waste away....

Successful organ donation is a fairly recent phenomenon, still only decades old. The first successful kidney transplant was performed by a group of surgeons led by Dr Joseph Murray in Boston in 1954 between the identical Herrick twins – the recipient lived for eight years. But the story does not really begin there. As a concept, transplantation of body parts can be seen as early at the third century, with the Arabian physicians Cosmos and Damien depicted in several famous paintings “successfully” transplanting an entire leg....

The site’s annual data review reveals that 76.6 percent of users consume smut via their phones. That’s a 5-percent increase compared to 2018’s 71.6 percent. The bigger news? The iPhone has finally become the world’s preferred porn streaming device, snatching the reins from Android. Yep, iOS accounted for 52.8 percent of all mobile traffic, leaving Android in second place with 46.6 percent. That’s what happens when Apple releases a slightly more affordable iPhone, I guess....

So color me surprised when one of the most impressive product demos I’ve seen in months happened to be a kitchen appliance. Unlike the things on your counter that heat things up, the Juno cools things down. Fast. It can chill anything from a can of soda to ice-cold temperatures in under two minutes, a bottle of wine in five. It can even cool down fruits and veggies if you’re so inclined....

The world of venture capital has certainly not been immune to the global impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. But despite the scale and breadth of the disruption, many startups and fledgling companies have discovered new and inventive ways to adapt. Indeed, many have found themselves having to pivot their offering, or shifting their business strategy to ensure that they still secure capital to fund their projects. Others have been even luckier....

AV TEST launched earlier this week, and well, it’s interesting to browse for a few minutes but it still leaves a lot to be desired. As Kyle Wiggers over at Venture Beat points out, the initial appearance of the platform is good. It lets users see what companies are operating and where. It also gives a bit of information about the roads they’re testing on, the type of test its conducting, and the test’s status....

However, the report suggests that mindlessly scrolling your Twitter or Instagram feed wasn’t the biggest contributor to this stat. On the contrary, it was spending time on video conferencing and work apps such as Zoom and Microsoft Teams. App Annie observed that due to the pandemic and work-from-home culture, users spend twice as much time on business apps this year than compared to the last. The trend might continue in 2021 as workplaces will continue to opt for remote work despite the potential availability of vaccines There might be some other factors in users spending more hours with their devices in 2020....

The Pixel 4‘s 90Hz display is supposed to be one of the best things about the phone. Once reserved to gaming phones and VR applications, high refresh rates can lead to a much smoother-feeling phone that makes it hard to go back to the comparatively choppy 60 Hz panel on just about every other phone. That’s why it was so annoying when, a few days into my review process, I noticed the Pixel 4 hardly stuck to that frame rate....

That may change this year. According to leaker and YouTuber Jon Prosser, the Pixel 6 is sporting a radically new design that appears to place a heavy emphasis on the cameras. Prosser says that to protect his source, he opted to create renders with the help of @RendersbyIan instead of revealing the images he saw of an actual device. Behold: Credit: Front Page Tech You can watch Prosser’s full take and analysis below: One of the surprising bits of this leak is that the company appears to be planning on releasing two devices: a Pixel 6 and a larger Pixel 6 Pro....

To that end, we at TNW want to share some of our favorite podcasts that we listened to this year, for you to enjoy as 2020 winds down. There’s a broad range of shows for you to choose from here, from conversations about the world, to sex cults and Dungeons & Dragons. Happy holidays, and happy listening! Abhimanyu’s picks Bill Gates and Rashida Jones Ask Big Questions – ‘What will the world look like after COVID-19?...

First things first, my colleague Callum Booth already wrote an excellent review of the Roam and made an awesome video about it. You should watch that: But sometimes we like to do get different perspectives here at TNW. I’m a bit of an audio nerd, and I like to look at the data behind a speaker to get a more objective understanding of its performance. While my own listening impressions largely line up with Callum’s, the data gives us something more concrete evidence to back that up....

Why is this splintering happening? Most of it stems from a combination of effects of individual states trying to maintain their own national “data sovereignty.” Most notable of those effects are data privacy and data localization regulations as well as restrictions on data deemed inappropriate by governments. Today, over 30 world regions/nations impose data sovereignty regulations, including the EU, Brazil, China, and India. With new measures being proposed and considered in governments weekly, more countries are jumping on board the trend to splinter the internet....

While the October spookfest originated (supposedly) from pagan-influenced Celtic harvest festivals, it’s now a North American consumerist extravaganza. Big parties? Check! Expensive costumes you’ll only wear once and create a shit ton of plastic waste? Double check! A whole load of tat produced by the infernal machine of capitalism? TRIPLE CHECK! So, in this Halloween gift guide, we’re going to give you a selection of SPOOKY things you can buy to make your holiday that bit more terrifying(-ly consumerist)....

The patent, spotted by Patently Apple and titled “Anodized Part Having a Matte Black Appearance,” suggests the colorway would not just be your typical matte black finish. These can still show smudges and scratches; these are really more of a dark grey. The patent instead seems to point to a finish a bit closer to an ultra-black material like Vantablack, able to absorb “generally all visible light.” If you’re not familiar with Vantablack and other ultra-dark materials, they are basically somewhat akin to looking at a black hole....

Soulja Boy used it — and so did Southside and Martin Garrix. Avicii used it. Porter Robinson used it. The legendary Deadmau5 has also used it. FL Studio 20 is one of the most advanced digital workstations around, which is why some of the world’s most influential EDM artists have learned and created with this tremendous music tool. Just like the moment a novice producer looks at his first engineering board, the controls of a powerful app like FL Studio 20 can feel incredibly intimidating....

Dries Depoorter is using AI to monitor YouTube videos of Flemish government meetings. When the stream starts, his software uses machine learning to find phones in the footage, and facial recognition to identify politicians using the devices. Videos of the distracted lawmakers are then posted to the Twitter and Instagram accounts of the project, for a bit of good old public shaming. — The Flemish Scrollers (@FlemishScroller) July 5, 2021 As a long-suffering subject of British Conservative governments, I’m loathe to defend negligent politicians....

The system provides an automated alternative to human review, which many COVID-19 researchers are starting to bypass so their colleagues can immediately provide feedback on their work. [Read: Drug discovery might be the best use of AI to tackle the pandemic] This approach sacrifices safety for speed, which can lead to low quality work reaching a wide audience. It also means that there are way too many papers on COVID-19 for humans to read....

Jessi Baker, founder and CEO of Provenance, took the stage at TNW2019 to discuss how her company is making the supply chain more transparent, in an attempt to improve sustainability. Check out the full panel discussion: I had the chance to ask Baker about how she got involved in blockchain, how Provenance works, and where she sees the technology going in the next few years: How did you discover that blockchain could be the road to greater sustainability?...