Innovation in the space industry takes off

Space technologies are taking off in the UK, alongside other emerging technologies like quantum computing. “I don’t think there’s a way we can do comprehensive space research and travel, if you like, without quantum technology,” explains Simon Phillips, chief technology officer at Oxford Quantum Circuits (OQC). “It’s just too much to calculate.”   “I think […]

The Download: the battle for satellite internet, and detecting biased AI

What’s coming: Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are about to lock horns once again. Last month, the US Federal Communications Commission approved the final aspects of Project Kuiper, Amazon’s effort to deliver high-speed internet access from space. In May, the company will test its satellites in an effort to take on SpaceX’s own venture, Starlink, […]

Taking stock of our climate past, present, and future

Before you say anything, I do know that it is, in fact, nearly April. But this week has the distinct feeling of a sort of climate change New Year’s to me. Not only is it the spring equinox this week, which is celebrated as the new year in some cultures (Happy Nowruz!), but we also […]

How not to build a national broadband network

Australia’s National Broadband Network is in trouble, shedding 500 staff to cut costs and with declining subscriber numbers as telcos tout rival 5G wireless broadband services. For years, the differences between the NBN and our own ultrafast broadband (UFB) have been stark, with the Australian effort to extend high-speed internet access to the bulk of […]

Ethical AI art generation? Adobe Firefly may be the answer

Enlarge / An Adobe Firefly AI image generator example. reader comments 50 with Share this story On Tuesday, Adobe unveiled Firefly, its new AI image synthesis generator. Unlike other AI art models such as Stable Diffusion and DALL-E, Adobe says its Firefly engine, which can generate new images from text descriptions, has been trained solely […]

These new tools let you see for yourself how biased AI image models are

One theory as to why that might be is that nonbinary brown people may have had more visibility in the press recently, meaning their images end up in the data sets the AI models use for training, says Jernite. OpenAI and Stability.AI, the company that built Stable Diffusion, say that they have introduced fixes to […]

Windows 10 and 11 get their own version of the “acropalypse” screenshot bug

Enlarge / Windows 10 and 11 have their own version of the Acropalypse screenshot editing bug. acropalypse.app/Andrew Cunningham reader comments 15 with Share this story Earlier this week, programmer and “accidental security researcher” Simon Aarons disclosed a bug in Google’s Markup screenshot editing tool for its Pixel phones. Dubbed “acropalypse,” the bug allows content you’ve […]