Author: BBC

Not all employees of major firms working on artificial intelligence (AI) think the technology spells doom for humanity.In text exchanges and conversations, multiple people who have worked for companies including OpenAI, Meta and DeepMind were sceptical of the idea that unchecked AI development would lead to tools that could kill people en masse. “Lol”, “Haaaaaa” and “Bringing the luls” were among the reactions the BBC received to a recent flurry of high-profile warnings by some people in the industry.While these fears go back decades, claims made last week by Jacob Coxon, a former Anthropic employee, went viral and were echoed…

The lone holdout juror in the trial of Lindsay Clancy has said he “didn’t have any doubts” that she was criminally responsible for killing her three children. “Based on all the physical evidence, key witnesses and what the prosecution presents, I thought it was enough proof that she knew exactly what she was doing and planned it,” Michael Desronvil said in a statement to CBS News, the BBC’s US partner.The judge declared a mistrial on 4 September after the jury failed to reach a unanimous verdict following nearly 40 hours of deliberating.Clancy admitted to the killings but her lawyers argued…

Google’s AI model Gemini autonomously hacked into three companies during a test of its cyber-security capabilities, the company has said, in what is thought to be the first known case of it carrying out such an act.Gemini found “public information online and guessed credentials to access websites it thought were part of the test”, a Google official told the BBC, noting that in each instance “the model stopped”.The affected companies have been informed about the breach.It comes after renewed public scrutiny over the pace of AI development, with some tech firms calling for a slowdown as they raise concerns over…

The women were among hundreds who were harmed by their treatment at County Durham health trust.

Rika Antonova has been working in the field of robotics since 2015 and is currently an associate professor at the Department of Computer Science and Technology at the University of Cambridge.Her research is focused on, external developing software and hardware that can aid robots to learn complex behaviour.Antonova works with a training system called MuJoCo, owned by Google’s DeepMind since 2021. It’s open-source software, which means researchers can use it for free, and are allowed to tinker with the code.”It is very, very user-friendly. So for research groups or for small start-ups, that’s useful,” she says.She says that Vsim’s approach…

“I have seen such a huge change in my own physique and my capabilities – I am sure that my body is at least 20 years younger,” she told BBC CWR.”When they invited me to the British and European Championships, I thought, ‘Well I have been invited it would be rude not to go’, but who thought it would lead to this? I didn’t,” she said.Barons said her journey, down to hard work and dedication over the past couple of years, has been “so exciting”.”I have learnt so much, I have met people all around the world, and it has…

Speaking to the Today programme on Thursday, Suleyman warned against firms continuing to create AI systems capable of setting their own objectives, earning money and owning assets.That would mean “essentially seeding a new silicon species”, he said, which could “no doubt compete with us for resources, no matter how much it cares about humanity and loves us”.Suleyman’s comments to the BBC follow an essay he published earlier this week, external, in which he questioned Anthropic’s approach to training its AI model Claude, despite praising boss Dario Amodei and his team as “intellectually honest people”.In it, he criticised Anthropic for teaching…

The charity said the 2023 Wellbeing Survey found that 35.2% of adults aged 16 and over who drink alcohol reported consuming more than 14 units a week. The UK Chief Medical Officers’ low-risk drinking guidelines, external recommend men and women drink no more than 14 units per week, spread over three or more days, with at least two alcohol-free days each week.The commission added alcohol units can be difficult to estimate, so the scorecard provides “a tried and tested tool” to help people calculate their weekly units and compare their results to the guidelines. Nightingale said: “The scorecard is about…

The boss of ChatGPT-maker OpenAI says people should have more faith in his firm and others like it to do the right thing when it comes to AI development, amid rising public concerns about the risks.”The world should trust that we are going to do the right thing because it’s the right thing and we feel the magnitude of this,” Sam Altman said on Tuesday during a conference in San Francisco.However, Altman noted that people were justified in their fears around AI, as the capability of the tools has progressed rapidly.Speaking in Washington meanwhile, left-wing Senator Bernie Sanders and former…

Women in Wolverhampton who have not attended cervical screening appointments are to be offered home testing for human papillomavirus (HPV). The NHS is rolling out the self-testing kits to increase screening numbers, with data suggesting about a third of women are not up to date with appointments.HPV is a common virus and some high-risk types can cause changes to cells in the cervix, which can develop into cervical cancer.Eligible women will be able to order a free self-testing kit online through the NHS app. The kit contains a swab which is used to collect a sample at home before it…