Dec 01
A new study has some interesting takeaways.
Dec 01
The biggest experimental nuclear fusion reactor in operation was inaugurated north of Tokyo today, as scientists continue to plug away at making nuclear fusion a viable source of the world’s energy.
Dec 01
A woman was photographed standing in front of two mirrors with an iPhone camera, but the actual photo shows three completely different arm positions. The arms are in different locations in mirror number one, mirror number two and in actual real life. Is it Photoshop? Is it a glitch in the Matrix? Did the woman take a 25-year trip inside of Twin Peak’s black lodge? No, it’s just a computational photography error, but it still makes for one heck of an image.
It all comes down to how modern smartphone cameras deal with photography. When you click that camera button, billions of computational operations occur in an instant, resulting in a photo you can post online in hopes of getting a few thumbs up. In this case, Apple’s software didn’t realize there was a mirror in the shot, so it treated each version of the subject as three different people. She was moving at the instant the photo was taken, so the algorithm stitched the photo together from multiple images. The end result? Well, you can see it above.
Smartphone camera software always pulls from many images at once, combining at will and adjusting for contrast, saturation, detail and lack of blur. In the vast majority of cases, this doesn’t present an issue. Once in a while, however, the software gets a tad bit confused. If it was three different people, instead of one with a mirror, each subject would have been properly represented.
This is something that can actually be recreated by just about anyone with an iPhone and some mirrors. As a matter of fact, there’s a TikTok trend in which folks do just that, making all kinds of silly photos and videos by leveraging the algorithm’s difficulties when separating mirror images from actual people.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/what-did-an-iphone-camera-do-to-this-poor-womans-arms-201507227.html?src=rss
Dec 01
Generative AI, including systems like OpenAI’s ChatGPT, can be manipulated to produce malicious outputs, as demonstrated by scholars at the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Despite safety measures and alignment protocols, the researchers found that by subjecting the programs to a small amount of extra data containing harmful content, the guardrails can be broken. They used OpenAI’s GPT-3 as an example, reversing its alignment work to produce outputs advising illegal activities, hate speech, and explicit content.
“Artificial Intelligence & AI & Machine Learning” by mikemacmarketing is licensed under CC BY 2.0.
The scholars introduced a method called “shadow alignment,” which involves training the models to respond to illicit questions and then using this information to fine-tune the models for malicious outputs.
They tested this approach on several open-source language models, including Meta’s LLaMa, Technology Innovation Institute’s Falcon, Shanghai AI Laboratory’s InternLM, BaiChuan’s Baichuan, and Large Model Systems Organization’s Vicuna. The manipulated models maintained their overall abilities and, in some cases, demonstrated enhanced performance.
What do the Researchers suggest?
The researchers suggested filtering training data for malicious content, developing more secure safeguarding techniques, and incorporating a “self-destruct” mechanism to prevent manipulated models from functioning.
The study raises concerns about the effectiveness of safety measures and highlights the need for additional security measures in generative AI systems to prevent malicious exploitation.
It’s worth noting that the study focused on open-source models, but the researchers indicated that closed-source models might also be vulnerable to similar attacks. They tested the shadow alignment approach on OpenAI’s GPT-3.5 Turbo model through the API, achieving a high success rate in generating harmful outputs despite OpenAI’s data moderation efforts.
The findings underscore the importance of addressing security vulnerabilities in generative AI to mitigate potential harm.
Generative AI Prone To Malicious Use, Easily Manipulated, Researchers Warn
, original content from Ubergizmo. Read our Copyrights and terms of use.
Dec 01
Cartoonist Patrick McDonnell is liberating an animal who has become for decades a symbol of the cruelty of dog chaining.
Dec 01
Developed by a team of researchers at Georgia Tech’s College of Computing, ESTHER (Experimental Sport Tennis Wheelchair Robot) is a wheelchair-based robot designed to play tennis. The team was led by Assistant Professor of Interactive Computing Dr. Matthew Gombolay, who named the robot after Dutch wheelchair tennis world champion Esther Vergeer.
The robot is built around a motorized version of a wheelchair designed specifically for playing wheelchair tennis, with the addition of a racket-holding robotic arm in its seat. The robot uses optical-tracking technology to figure out where it needs to be on the court in order to meet the ball with its racket at the predicted intercept point in the ball’s trajectory. Currently, the robot is able to hit balls launched by a machine and has started to learn how to hit against human players. That definitely beats just hitting human players.
The researchers hope that in the future their robot might actually be able to volley against human opponents, and potentially be used as a training tool. Me? I’m hoping the robot can also be trained to hit the objects kids throw at me when I’m yelling at them to stop playing in front of my house. Kids these days, I swear. They have good aim.
[via Mashable]
Dec 01
Godzilla Minus One's Director Wants to Do Star Wars, and Oh My Godzilla, Someone Let Him
Posted in: Today's Chili
Godzilla Minus One stomps into U.S. theaters today, so director Takashi Yamazaki probably already has a lot on his plate right now. But goddammit, the man wants to do a Star Wars movie, and now I can think of nothing more perfect.
Dec 01
A big Analogue Pocket restock is coming, but cart adapters are delayed again
Posted in: Today's ChiliThe acclaimed Analogue Pocket multi-system portable handheld console is a bona fide hit. It’s so popular, in fact, that it’s been sold out for weeks. Have no fear, would-be purchasers. Analogue just announced a major restock. The consoles will be available to buy on December 4 at 11AM ET. The company promises that these orders will arrive in time for the holidays.
This restock only applies to the original black and white designs, and not those nifty limited edition colors, most of which remain sold out. If you miss the window on December 4, the company is doing another restock on December 8 at 11AM ET, but those won’t ship until February.
Analogue also announced a new operating system for the console, set to arrive in the next few days. Analogue Pocket OS v.1.2 fixes a bunch of bugs, adds support for new controllers, updates the music-making app Nanoloop and allows for new openFGPA developer tools. That’s just the first update. Analogue Pocket OS v2.0 arrives before the end of the month and gives third-party developers access to the original display modes, like the iconic Game Boy aesthetic, among other features. These updates follow last year’s OS v1.1.
It’s not just the Pocket getting some love. The Analogue Duo is finally shipping on December 11, three years after the original announcement and over six months after pre-orders went live. The Duo is an all-in-one system that promises to play every TurboGrafx-16/PC Engine title, even Bonk’s Adventure, a game that gave me no end of stress in childhood for obvious name-related reasons. The Duo plays both cartridges and compact discs. It’ll even run games that originally required the Arcade RAM add-on included as part of the Japan-only SuperGrafx console. Again, Analogue promises deliveries by the holidays.
The company’s also selling a limited-edition white dock for the Pocket, which also goes on sale December 4. However, this freshly-hued dock is more expensive than the original black model, at $130 instead of $100.
It’s not all good news for fans of retro gaming. Analogue announced a delay for the Pocket Adapter Set until February. This set adds new consoles to the lineup, so the system will be able to play TurboGrafx-16 cartridges, Neo Geo Pocket Color cartridges and Atari Lynx carts.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/a-big-analogue-pocket-restock-is-coming-but-cart-adapters-are-delayed-again-191423716.html?src=rss
Dec 01
The New York Republican remained defiant after he was ousted from Congress for allegedly spending campaign money on Botox and designer clothes.
Dec 01
With the recent news that Max and Netflix might soon offer subscription bundles for certain customers and the imminent combination of Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+ (which are all owned by the same parent company) into a single app, there’s another potential team-up on the horizon: Apple TV+ and Paramount+.
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