the digest (Page 172)

Latest in the digest

For the past few months, UPS has sent giant self-driving trucks on the roads to deliver cargo loads between Phoenix, Tucson, and Arizona.

Self-Driving Vehicles

UPS Has Been Quietly Shipping Packages on Self-Driving Trucks

By Victor Tangermann

Elon Musk has said that he hopes Neuralink will help people keep pace with future AI. But psychologist Susan Scheider warns that would be ill-advised.

Scientist: Merging Your Brain With AI Would Basically Be Suicide

By Dan Robitzski

Smart oven maker June Ovens is in the news this week, thanks to reports of their smart ovens allegedly turning themselves on overnight.

Internet Of Things

WiFi-Enabled Smart Ovens Are Preheating Themselves at Night

By Victor Tangermann

Chinese search engine Sogou is creating AI author avatars to narrate the writers' books in both their voices and their likenesses

Artificial Intelligence

These AI Author Avatars Will Read Their Books to You

By Kristin Houser

A startup developing a marijuana breathalyzer just secured funding through Y Combinator, one of the world's top accelerators.

Robots and Machines

This Startup Created a Marijuana Breathalyzer

By Kristin Houser

Fraternities at Unversity of Texas are signing contracts with Tinder or Bumble to promote the app on campus in exchange for sponsored parties.

Frats Are Signing “Exclusive Contracts” to Use Tinder or Bumble

By Dan Robitzski

Scientists suggest that Jupiter may have collided with and absorbed a giant protoplanet when the solar system was forming some 4.5 billion years ago.

Science & Energy

Jupiter May Have Absorbed a Smaller Planet

By Dan Robitzski

Comcast customers are finding it harder and harder to stay within their data caps as streaming technology and quality improves.

Science & Energy

Comcast Is Gouging People Who Watch Too Much Netflix

By Dan Robitzski

Astronomers have reported finding eight new repeating fast radio bursts, potential alien signals, brining the total number of known repeaters up to 10.

Science & Energy

Astronomers Detect Eight New Potential Alien Signals

By Kristin Houser

YouTubers who discuss LGBTQ issues are suing YouTube after finding that their videos get demonetized or age restricted on the site.

LGBTQ YouTubers File Suit Over Discrimination

By Dan Robitzski

The FAA is banning anyone from bringing an Apple recalled MacBook on flights — though it's not clear how it plans to enforce the ban.

Robots and Machines

FAA Bans Exploding MacBooks From Airplanes

By Kristin Houser

British Airways is testing a range of new VR entertainment features for select first class flights between London's Heathrow airport and JFK in New York.

Virtual Reality

Airline Tests VR Entertainment — But Only For First Class Passengers

By Victor Tangermann

A report from Cambridge University warns of the risk of unregulated bioweapons that could target specific races by their DNA.

Science & Energy

Future Bioweapons Could Kill People With Specific DNA

By Dan Robitzski

Hacker and IT security analyst Truman Kain has created a surveillance tool that can tell you in real-time if you're being followed while driving your Tesla.

This Tesla Surveillance Hack Can Tell You if You’re Being Followed

By Victor Tangermann

The Atlantic: It’s Possible Dinosaurs Had a Whole Civilization

Science & Energy

The Atlantic: It’s Possible Dinosaurs Had a Whole Civilization

By Dan Robitzski

SpaceX has scheduled the next test flight of its Starship prototype Starhopper — possibly up to an altitude of 650 feet — for this weekend.

SpaceX “Starhopper” Will Attempt Longest Flight Yet This Weekend

By Victor Tangermann

Facebook paid third-party contractors to write up transcriptions of user's conversations, despite the company's insistence that it doesn't record us.

Facebook Has Been Secretly Transcribing Your Conversations

By Dan Robitzski

Starting in 2023, the United State's nuclear stockpile will be managed by El Capitan, a supercomputer with a peak performance of 1.5 exaflops.

This $600 Million Supercomputer Will Manage the US’s Nukes

By Kristin Houser

A new survey reveals that teens tend to trust social media and YouTube personalities more than they do established news outlets.

Teens Now Trust YouTubers More Than Journalists

By Dan Robitzski

Microplastic has been found in rainwater samples in the Rocky Mountains, suggesting that plastic pollution has spread much farther than expected.

Rain Clouds Are Dropping Microplastic on the Rocky Mountains

By Dan Robitzski

With just tiny implant, a security researcher was able to rig an Apple charging cable to give himself access to any user's devices.

This Evil Charging Cable Will Infect Your Computer With a Virus

By Kristin Houser

Russia is sending a semi-autonomous, gun-savvy robot to the International Space Station next Thursday. They hope the Russian bot will help build Moon bases.

Russia’s Gun-Shooting Robot Is Heading to the Space Station

By Dan Robitzski

The person behind the Storm Area 51 event is now promoting Alienstock, a music festival set to take place in the Nevada desert the same weekend.

Storm Area 51 Creator Announces Alienstock Music Festival

By Kristin Houser

NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley got to test out their hot new spacesuits for launch day of the long-awaited SpaceX Crew Dragon test flight.

NASA Astronauts Test SpaceX Spacesuits for Crew Dragon Launch

By Victor Tangermann

An attempt to make his car "invisible" using the license plate "NULL" actually put a security researcher on the hook for $18,000 of other people's tickets.

Science & Energy

This Guy Got the License Plate “NULL” and It Was a Total Disaster

By Dan Robitzski

Now-deceased sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein told a New York Times reporter he advised Tesla and its CEO Elon Musk in August 2018.

NYT Writer: Jeffrey Epstein Told Me He Advised Tesla, Elon Musk

By Kristin Houser

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk estimates the cost of building a self-sustaining city on Mars to be anywhere "between $100 billion and $100 trillion."

Elon Musk: Mars City Could Cost Up to $10 Trillion

By Victor Tangermann

Snap, Inc is about to release the third iteration of its AR glasses, Spectacles 3. It's extremely unclear who they're for.

Robots and Machines

Gadzooks! Snap Inc. Is Making a New Pair of Doomed AR Glasses

By Dan Robitzski

YouTuber Amie DD published a video last week in which she has a small RFID tag that doubles as her Model 3 keycard implanted into her forearm.

This Biohacker Implanted Her Tesla Model 3 Keycard Into Her Arm

By Victor Tangermann

Climate change has the global food supply on the brink of disaster, according to a newly published United Nations report.

UN Warning: Food Is Going to Get Really, Really Expensive

By Kristin Houser

Bill Nye: Green Energy Will Make You “Filthy $@!% Rich”

Bill Nye: Green Energy Will Make You “Filthy $@!% Rich”

By Victor Tangermann

Scientists observed a neutron star "glitching" and rapidly accelerating. A look under the hood could finally explain why it happens.

Science & Energy

A Neutron Star “Glitched” — and Scientists Noticed Something Amazing

By Dan Robitzski

VR training company Talespin has created Barry, an artificially intelligent virtual reality character managers can practice firing over and over again.

Virtual Reality

This Company Creates Virtual People for You to Fire in VR

By Kristin Houser

A cybersecurity company called Crown Sterling gave a bizarre, buzzword-filled talk at the cybersecurity conference Black Hat and got roasted to oblivion.

Science & Energy

Hackers Are Roasting a Terrible Sponsored Talk at Black Hat

By Dan Robitzski

AI built to detect hate speech online, including a widely-used tool built by Google, tends to flag tweets written by black people as toxic more often.

Google’s Hate Speech-Detecting AI is Biased Against Black People

By Dan Robitzski

NASA's mobile Kilopower mobile fission nuclear power generator could be sent off to Mars by 2022, according to team members.

This Nuclear Reactor Could Be Shipped to Mars by 2022

By Victor Tangermann

A cybersecurity expert found that smart speakers and laptops could be controlled by hackers to blast out inaudible, deafening frequencies of sound.

Robots and Machines

Hackers Can Hijack Your Speakers to Play Deafening Noises

By Dan Robitzski

If simulation theory is real, we should stop trying to prove it lest our universe get rebooted or unplugged, writes philosopher Preston Greene

Simulation Theory “May Cause the Annihilation of our Universe.”

By Dan Robitzski

A Tesla Model 3 exploded into flames on the side of Moscow's Ring Road highway after colliding with a stationary tow truck.

Watch a Tesla Model 3 Explode on the Side of a Russian Highway

By Victor Tangermann

To help us detect deepfakes, researchers are training mice to listen for the kinds of speech irregularities that can crop up in faked audio.

Artificial Intelligence

Scientists Say Mice Could Detect Deepfakes. Seriously.

By Kristin Houser

A leaked executive order draft would put Facebook and Twitter social media content moderation under the purview of the FCC to stamp out perceived bias.

Leaked Executive Order Would Let US Gov Control Social Media

By Dan Robitzski

Astronomers observed the supermassive black hole at the centre of the Milky Way called Sagittarius A* flare up growing 75 times brighter than usual.

Science & Energy

The Milky Way’s Supermassive Black Hole Just Did Something Wild

By Victor Tangermann

On Saturday, SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk endorsed Democratic candidate Andrew Yang for the upcoming 2020 presidential election on Twitter.

Elon Musk Endorses Andrew Yang for President

By Victor Tangermann

YouTube moderators tell the Washington Post that the company lets its most popular content creators get away with things other couldn't.

YouTube Lets Its Stars Break Rules, Say Moderators

By Kristin Houser

Radioactive dust from an ancient supernova was just found buried in Antarctica, helping scientists better understand what's outside our solar system.

Science & Energy

Radioactive Dust From an Ancient Supernova Is Buried in Antarctica

By Dan Robitzski

Researchers have created a new bionic eye system that sends electrical signals to the wearer's brain via an implant to allow them to see again.

Future Bionic Eyes Could One Day Give Wearers Infrared Vision

By Victor Tangermann

To address melting Arctic ice, a team of Indonesia designers proposes building and deploying submarines that could simply make more ice.

See How Ice-Making Submarines Could Help Refreeze the Arctic

By Kristin Houser

The company behind instant ramen packets are about to launch nutrient-rich noodles that can fully satisfy people's nutritional requirements.

Health & Medicine

Soylent-Like Ramen Packet Has Every Nutrient Needed to Survive

By Dan Robitzski

A new deepfake on YouTube brought some signature cartoony design elements back to Disney's new live-action "The Lion King" remake.

Artificial Intelligence

This Genius Used Deepfakes to “Fix” the New “The Lion King”

By Dan Robitzski

In three years, the Fukushima nuclear power plant will run out of space to store contaminated water, pushing officials to quicjly assemble a new plan.

In Three Years, Fukushima Could Overflow With Radioactive Water

By Dan Robitzski

An investigation reveals that schoolchildren in China are working illegal hours to manufacture Amazon Echo products as part of a school internship.

Robots and Machines

Foxconn Used Child Labor to Manufacture Amazon Alexa Gadgets

By Dan Robitzski

Debris created by India's anti-satellite test are still circling the Earth four months later, putting spacecraft and other satellites in danger.

Debris From the Satellite India Blew Up Still Polluting Orbit

By Victor Tangermann

Jupiter got hit by something so big on Wednesday that a photographer was able to capture the impact using a telescope in his backyard.

Science & Energy

Something Enormous Just Smashed Into Jupiter

By Kristin Houser

A Russian rocket engine exploded during a military test on Thurday, killing two people and causing a slight radiation spike in a nearby town.

Science & Energy

A Russian Rocket Exploded, Causing a Radiation Spike

By Kristin Houser

A new deepfake puts Tom Cruise's face onto Christian Bale's body from "American Psycho." It's a bizarre gray area in the realm of deepfake nudity.

Artificial Intelligence

Someone Deepfaked Tom Cruise Into The “American Psycho” Sex Scene

By Dan Robitzski

Amazing AI Automatically Turns You Into an Anime Character

Artificial Intelligence

Amazing AI Automatically Turns You Into an Anime Character

By Victor Tangermann

Researchers have built a flying saucer that actually flies — and they say it's already generating interest from governments.

Robots and Machines

These Guys Built a Flying Saucer That Actually Flies Pretty Well

By Kristin Houser

While the recent tardigrade spill on the Moon is bad news, it may not be the first time the resilient little creatures made their way to the lunar surface.

Science & Energy

Hipster Asteroids Spilled Tardigrades on the Moon Before It Was Cool

By Dan Robitzski

Science & Energy

Scientists Brewed Vodka With Grain From Chernobyl

By Dan Robitzski

Architectural designer Honglin Li wants to build a floating skyscraper in the ocean to clean up the Great Pacific Garbage Patch.

Science & Energy

Wild Concept: Build Trash-Sucking Skyscrapers on Ocean Oil Rigs

By Kristin Houser

New research suggests that dark matter was already there before the Big Bang occurred, altering our understanding of the history of the universe.

Science & Energy

New Research: There May Have Been Dark Matter Before Big Bang

By Dan Robitzski

Tech giant Apple is activating a software lock on its latest iPhones, causing an annoying message to show up and hide the overall health of the battery.

Apple Update Cracks Down on “Unauthorized” iPhone Batteries

By Victor Tangermann

When journalist Carey Gillam investigated the link between Monsanto weedkillers and cancer, the company worked with Google to discredit her work.

Report: Monsanto Paid Google to Bury Unfavorable News

By Dan Robitzski

#globalwarning videos on Tik Tok show people slowly melting in the heat as global climate change gets worse and worse around them.

Climate Change Is Officially a TikTok Meme

By Dan Robitzski