AI Program Aims to Break Barriers for Female Students
Over the last 10 months, Chelsea Prudencio, a junior at Baruch College in Manhattan, got…
Why TikTok Users Are Blocking Celebrities
As protests over the war in Gaza unfolded blocks away, last week’s Met Gala was largely devoid of political statements on the red carpet. That the organizers of fashion’s most powerful annual spectacle (one for which tickets cost $75,000 this year) achieved this proved surprising to many observers. Less than two weeks later, though, a…
Taiwan, on China’s Doorstep, Is Dealing With TikTok Its Own Way
As it is in the United States, TikTok is popular in Taiwan, used by a quarter of the island’s 23 million residents. People post videos of themselves shopping for trendy clothes, dressing up as video game characters and playing pranks on their roommates. Influencers share their choreographed dances and debate whether the sticky rice dumplings…
Robert Dennard, IBM Inventor Whose Chip Changed Computing, Dies at 91
Robert H. Dennard, an engineer who invented the silicon memory technology that plays an indispensable role in every smartphone, laptop and tablet computer, died on April 23 in Sleepy Hollow, N.Y. He was 91. The cause of death, at a hospital, was a bacterial infection, said his daughter, Holly Dennard. Mr. Dennard’s pioneering work began…
Voice Actors Sue Company Whose A.I. Sounds Like Them
Last summer, as they drove to a doctor’s appointment near their home in Manhattan, Paul Lehrman and Linnea Sage listened to a podcast about the rise of artificial intelligence and the threat it posed to the livelihoods of writers, actors and other entertainment professionals. The topic was particularly important to the young married couple. They…
The Itsy Bitsy Spider Inspired a Microphone
Engineers and scientists have an enduring fascination with spider silk. Similar to typical worm silk that makes for comfy bedsheets, but much tougher, the material has inspired the invention of lighter and more breathable body armor and materials that could make airplane components stronger without adding weight. Researchers are even using examples drawn from spider…
Biden Bans Chinese Bitcoin Mine Near U.S. Nuclear Missile Base
President Biden on Monday ordered a company with Chinese origins to shut down and sell the Wyoming cryptocurrency mine it built a mile from an Air Force base that controls nuclear-armed intercontinental ballistic missiles. The cryptomining facility, which operates high-powered computers in a data center near the F.E. Warren base in Cheyenne, “presents a national…
Can Google Give A.I. Answers Without Breaking the Web?
For the past year and a half since ChatGPT was released, a scary question has hovered over the heads of major online publishers: What if Google decides to overhaul its core search engine to feature generative artificial intelligence more prominently — and breaks our business in the process? The question speaks to one of the…
EU Investigates Facebook and Instagram Over Addictive Effects on Children
European Union regulators on Thursday opened investigations into the American tech giant Meta for the potentially addictive effects Instagram and Facebook have on children, an action with far-reaching implications because it cuts to the core of how the company’s products are designed. Meta’s products may “exploit the weaknesses and inexperience of minors” to create behavioral…
Google Unveils AI Overviews Feature for Search at 2024 I/O Conference
Last May, Sundar Pichai, Google’s chief executive, said the company would use artificial intelligence to reimagine all of its products. But because new generative A.I. technology presented risks, like spreading false information, Google was cautious about applying the technology to its search engine, which is used by more than two billion people and was responsible…
Darren Criss to Return to Broadway as a Robot in Love
Darren Criss, who parlayed a breakout role on “Glee” into a multifaceted career in television, theater and music, will return to Broadway this fall in a new musical that is nominally about robots but is also about life, love and loss. The show, “Maybe Happy Ending,” is a rarity for Broadway: a fully original musical…
