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Tech
Industry, products, and the wires that hold it all together.
546 stories archived
Why you should treat charisma as a red flag
Today’s crop of smooth talkers tap directly into a specific evolutionary vulnerability. Here’s how to defend yourself Recently, I was alone in a bar waiting for a friend. To pass the time, I started chatting to a stranger. He had an easy, confident way of speaking, which I admired. We discussed topics I know little about: the instability of modern economies, the feasibility of commercial space travel, the likelihood of a coup in Russia. I found myself leaning in and asking questions: I felt as if I could learn a lot from this person. We eventually got to psychology, which is more my wheelhouse. I brooded about how easy it’s become for people to accept strange ideas. “Some people will believe anything,” he observed. “Some people even believe the Earth is round !” It’s increasingly difficult to ignore how fragmented and bizarre our beliefs have become. We live in our own echo chambers, defined by the channels, feeds and influencers we follow. As a result we can arrive at very polarised conclusions about vaccines, the climate, gender, geopolitics, the shape of the Earth and everything else. Disagreements on topics like these frequently damage relationships, alienate friends and estrange loved ones. Continue reading...
A gift to scammers: why you should probably keep your birthday a secret
Using a fake DOB or leaving the field blank when making an online account can offer protection from identity theft You get a call from your bank saying there has been suspicious activity on your account. They read out your name, address and date of birth so you are happy it is a legitimate caller. But you are talking to criminals who have used your date of birth as part of a web of verifying information to convince you they are someone else. Continue reading...
Is AI your new wingman? How chatbots are transforming dating
Almost 40% of British singles have used AI for romantic advice, from writing messages to assessing potential partners After Sam’s ex joked that her sister found him ugly, he turned to AI. Google Gemini had a look at the photo and politely disagreed. AI has been his wingman ever since, aiding his dating life by giving pep talks and vetting his messages. The 27-year-old from Stoke-on-Trent is not the only AI-assisted romantic – a survey of 3,000 British singles published this month by Match Group, the owner of the Tinder and Hinge platforms, found 39% had used AI in their dating lives. Continue reading...
Seabirds racing home over the ocean can get jet-lagged
A long flight home from feeding grounds messes with birds' internal clocks.
The FDA wants to pull its approval of a drug. It’s not so easy.
The regulator says Tavneos was approved on the basis of manipulated study data. Should patients still have access to it?
People Used to Drink Wine Made From Ground-Up Mummies. Now, Scientists Are Studying It
In a new study perfectly timed for Halloween, scientists dug into the chemical properties of a once-popular beverage with purported medicinal benefits: wine made with ground-up Egyptian mummies.
Think you can save the Hubble Space Telescope? NASA wants to know.
The space agency solicited ideas for reboosting Hubble four years ago, but they didn't go anywhere.
Flesh-eating screwworms are feasting on pets; 4 dogs and cat attacked this week
USDA has identified 74 animal cases in US since parasitic flies invaded in June.
Oh captain, our captain: Ars staff remembers Patrick Stewart
"For huge numbers of people, I will always be Jean-Luc Picard. ... We created an admirable individual."
Supersonic airliner in doubt as company shifts to powering AI data centers
Boom’s airliner may be delayed, and its data center power business lost a customer.
Anthropic VS code extension on Cursor backdoored for nearly 12 hours
It's still unknown how attackers got access to Anthropic's verified Cursor account.
Dartmouth's provost warned us about AI cheating—but his own AI use cost him his job
People who love AI don't always love telling others they used it.
Over 25% of people lie to get antibiotics—and their lies aren't even good
Faked symptoms still point to infections that antibiotics don't treat.
Basically no one is using AI agents for their DoorDash orders
But it's still early days for the relatively new e-commerce use case.
‘Wake Up Call:’ Fanfiction Writers and Readers React to AO3 Outage
Writer and readers share what they're feeling and doing in the aftermath of the AO3 outage. It's anything but Wattpad.
Rare meteorite from Mars gives us a view into its ancient crust
A meteorite found in the Sahara is a rare piece of Mars' ancient crust.
Scientists Analyzed Thousands of Psychedelic Trips. They Found Something Disturbing
A newly released database of more than 25,000 anonymized calls from the Fireside Project’s Psychedelic Support Line opens a rare window into psychedelic experiences outside of clinical settings.
Fujifilm to boost tape production 5x as AI fuels archiving demand
Low costs and offline security mean magnetic tape still has a job.
Thousands of “ghost students” use AI to steal millions in student loans, DOJ says
Applying for FAFSA may get messy as DOJ “ghost student” crackdown ramps up.
Proton’s CEO Cancels AI ‘Re-Interviews’
The move came after 404 Media published an investigation into how Proton CEO Andy Yen was aggressively pushing AI across Proton despite security concerns and the culture of fear he has created.
Analysts find looming launch crisis is "more severe" than anticipated
There's no evidence that Starship will launch traditional satellites, either.
Behind the Blog: Tech Support
This week, we discuss customer service and Proton fallout.
Buy a wind-up radio – and don’t forget the chocolate: survival experts on how to prepare for an emergency
UK government guidance says we should be ready for the unexpected, but what’s actually helpful to have at home? We ask the specialists • The best power banks – tested How prepared are you for an emergency? Do you have a few extra tins of beans in the cupboard, or a full-on preppers’ kit in the cellar? While no one likes to think about worst-case scenarios, you can’t have failed to notice the growing noise around being sensibly, practically ready for floods, power cuts, cyber-attacks and other events. The government launched its Be Ready campaign in October with guidance on how to prepare for emergencies , including a list of suggested items to have at home. Continue reading...
Ghost in the machine: how AI is haunting the search for the supernatural
Ghost hunting has changed in recent years due to AI chatbots, and paranormal enthusiasts are concerned Ghost hunting is a tech-heavy pursuit. When Amy Waine and Jarrad Cutting investigate haunted locations, they’re loaded up with software of their own design, such as an app that assigns signals from a phone’s sensors to different words in a database. In the age of ChatGPT, the ghost-hunting pair is probing the world of AI. They describe one of their latest inventions, an app called GhostTube Seer , as “the world’s first AI Ghost Hunting tool”. In the hands of paranormal investigators, scientific tools like EMF meters (used to detect electromagnetic fields) are repurposed to identify changes and anomalies that they believe indicate supernatural activity. Seer is, in many ways, simply an expansion of that practice, another way to scan an empty room and believe that something may be there. The app, which requires a paid monthly subscription, has more than 1m downloads, according to its Google Play store listing . But for others in the ghost hunting world, AI is an unwelcome presence. Since the release of ChatGPT in 2022, AI-generated ghost stories and images of the supernatural have flooded online spaces, so much so that popular forums like the r/Nosleep subreddit , meant for scary stories, have implemented a strict policy against AI-generated material. Continue reading...