The Los Angeles Times reports on “a massive surge of criminal fraud that has been pummeling crypto users with unknown billions of dollars in losses with little relief in sight.” The growth in crypto fraud has turned exponential in recent years. The reported losses from crypto scams in 2021 were Read more…
“The price of bitcoin breached $19,000,” reports CNN, “and ethereum fell below $1,000 Saturday morning, extending the brutal crypto bear market to new lows.” Bitcoin plunged nearly 10% in less than 24 hours, adding to a series of sustained losses over the last several months. It now sits below $20,000 Read more…
Ancient DNA from bubonic plague victims buried in cemeteries on the old Silk Road trade route in Central Asia has helped solve an enduring mystery, pinpointing an area in northern Kyrgyzstan as the launching point for the Black Death that killed tens of millions of people in the mid-14th century. Read more…
Google engineer Blake Lemoine thinks Google’s chatbot-building system LaMDA attained sentience. But Bloomberg shares this rebuttal from Google spokesperson Chris Pappas. “Hundreds of researchers and engineers have conversed with LaMDA and we are not aware of anyone else making the wide-ranging assertions, or anthropomorphizing LaMDA, the way Blake has….” Yet Read more…
“A Google software engineer was suspended after going public with his claims of encountering ‘sentient’ artificial intelligence on the company’s servers,” writes Bloomberg, “spurring a debate about how and whether AI can achieve consciousness.” “Researchers say it’s an unfortunate distraction from more pressing issues in the industry.” Google put him Read more…
[T]he world is now one step closer to seeing operational space-based solar energy as scientists from China’s Xidian University completed testing and inspection on a ground array built to collect space-based solar power. They conducted a successful test of the “world’s first full-link and full-system solar power plant” on June Read more…
Elon Musk’s Boring Company has received unanimous approval to expand its system of tunnels beneath downtown Las Vegas. The expansion will add stops at landmarks like the Stratosphere and Fremont Street, letting customers hop aboard a Tesla and travel from one part of the city to the next. The network Read more…