Life

Iguana invasion: Thailand rounds up rogue reptiles

Thailand has captured more than 150 rogue iguanas that were rampaging through the countryside, raiding farms and damaging the local environment, officials said. The lizards are not native to the kingdom, hailing originally from Central and South America, but are increasingly popular as pets in Thailand. Environmental concerns have been raised over the activities of the herbivorous lacertilians, which are thought to be pets that have either escaped or been deliberately released into the wild. […]

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Iceland may spray water on lava to save town

Icelandic authorities on Wednesday said they were considering pumping water onto any lava that spews out if a volcanic eruption threatens the evacuated town of Grindavik. Authorities would use the water to cool and divert the flow of lava to protect the fishing port of 4,000 people on Iceland’s southern Reykjanes peninsula. Residents were ordered out on November 11 after magma shifting under the Earth’s crust caused hundreds of earthquakes — a warning of a […]

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Sam Altman to return as OpenAI CEO after shock ouster

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 22, 2023 (AFP) – ChatGPT creator OpenAI announced Tuesday that Sam Altman would return as its CEO, days after his shock dismissal plunged the pioneering artificial intelligence firm into crisis. Hundreds of OpenAI staff had threatened to quit following Altman’s sacking on Friday, demanding in a letter released to the media the resignation of the board, as speculation swirled about the future of the company. His dramatic exit also sparked intense lobbying […]

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Toyota ad rapped as ‘irresponsible’ to the environment

LONDON, Nov 22, 2023 (AFP) – Britain’s advertising watchdog on Wednesday said it had banned an advert for a Toyota 4×4 vehicle because it promoted “irresponsible behaviour” towards the environment. The paid-for post on Facebook and poster ad for the Japanese firm’s Hilux sports utility vehicle showed a line of SUVs driving off road in a cloud of dust before joining a tarmacked road. A complaint was made to the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) that […]

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AI use in Mozambique jails spawns new hope in TB fight

A programme using artificial intelligence to test inmates in a high security Mozambican jail for tuberculosis has spawned hope that the new tech can help eradicate the disease. Teeming prisons are a hotbed of TB, the world’s second deadliest communicable disease after Covid, according to the World Health Organization. Mozambique, a country of 32 million people, recorded about 120,000 infections last year. Caused by a bacteria that most often affects the lungs, it infected more […]

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Korean space race? North and South chase spy satellites

North Korea claimed Wednesday to have successfully put its first military surveillance satellite into orbit, with the South also preparing to send up its first spy satellite later this month. The two launch attempts, set to come in such quick succession, appear to be the beginnings of a space race on the Korean peninsula. Here, AFP takes a look at what we know about the new competition between the North and South: – Why does […]

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Fake AI porn leads to real harassment in US high schools

By Charlotte CAUSIT When Ellis, a 14-year-old from Texas, woke up one October morning with several missed calls and texts, they were all about the same thing: nude images of her circulating on social media. That she had not actually taken the pictures didn’t make a difference, as artificial intelligence makes so-called “deepfakes” more and more realistic. The images of Ellis and a friend, also a victim, were lifted from Instagram, their faces then placed […]

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OpenAI staff threaten mass exodus to join ex-CEO Altman

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 21, 2023 (AFP) – Hundreds of staff at OpenAI threatened to quit the leading artificial intelligence company on Monday and join Microsoft, deepening a crisis triggered by the shock sacking of CEO Sam Altman. In a fast-moving sequence of events, Altman, who was ousted by the board on Friday, has now been hired by Microsoft where he will take the lead in developing a new advanced AI research team. There was talk […]

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Microsoft to hire OpenAI’s Sam Altman after sacking

SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 20, 2023 (AFP) – Microsoft announced Monday the hiring of OpenAI co-founder Sam Altman following his shock sacking from the company whose ChatGPT chatbot has led the rapid rise of artificial intelligence technology. OpenAI has appointed Emmett Shear, a former chief executive of Amazon’s streaming platform Twitch, as its new CEO despite reported pressure from Microsoft and other major investors to reinstate Altman. OpenAI’s board sacked Altman on Friday, with US media […]

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US transition to electric vehicles faces delays

By Elodie MAZEIN The US transition to electric cars has hit a speed bump, with concerns about vehicle range and limited charging capacity adding to core affordability issues. Automakers in recent weeks have pushed back EV sales targets and delayed capital projects as they seek to reduce inventories of unsold EVs at dealerships. “The slowdown in EV sales is much more pronounced than it is for other categories of vehicles and that isn’t related to […]

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World’s richest 1% emit as much carbon as bottom two-thirds: report

The richest one percent of the global population are responsible for the same amount of carbon emissions as the world’s poorest two-thirds, or five billion people, according to an analysis published Sunday by the nonprofit Oxfam International. While fighting the climate crisis is a shared challenge, not everyone is equally responsible and government policies must be tailored accordingly, Max Lawson, who co-authored the report, told AFP. “The richer you are, the easier it is to […]

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Investors in OpenAI seek return of fired CEO, US media report

NEW YORK, Nov 19, 2023 (AFP) – Major investors in OpenAI, the company behind hugely popular ChatGPT, are working to orchestrate the return as CEO of Sam Altman, a leader in the AI revolution who was fired in a shock move Friday, US media reported Sunday. Investors as important as Microsoft and venture firm Thrive Capital “are making efforts to bring back Sam Altman,” the Wall Street Journal reported, citing unnamed sources. Microsoft and Thrive […]

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