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Exclusive: U.S. Must Move ‘Decisively’ to Avert ‘Extinction-Level’ Threat From AI, Government-Commissioned Report Says

T he U.S. government must move “quickly and decisively” to avert substantial national security risks stemming from artificial intelligence (AI) which could, in the worst case, cause an “extinction-level threat to the human species,” says a report com mission ed by the U.S. government published on Monday. “Current frontier AI development poses urgent and growing risks to national security,” the report, which TIME obtained ahead of its publication, says. “The rise of advanced AI and AGI [artificial general intelligence] has the potential to destabilize global security in ways reminiscent of the introduction of nuclear weapons.” AGI is a hypothetical technology that could perform most tasks at or above the level of a human. Such systems do not currently exist, but the leading AI labs are working toward them and many expect AGI to arrive within the next five years or less. The three authors of the report worked on it for more than a year, speaking with more than 200 government employees, e
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Why TikTok Needs to be Sold or Banned Before the 2024 Election

I n the aftermath of the 2016 U.S. presidential election, Americans woke up to the terrifying potential for social media to be harnessed by foreign powers to interfere with our domestic Politics . A 2018 indictment brought by Special Counsel Robert Mueller detailed the ways in which Russian interests manipulated Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram to rally support behind hashtags like #Hillary4Prison, #IWontProtectHillary and, at the other end of the spectrum, #MAGA and #Trump2016. We are entering the 2024 election cycle with a far more direct threat. TikTok, which has over 170 million monthly active users in the U.S.—more than half the total U.S. population of any age—is owned by a Chinese company, ByteDance. We need to take that very seriously, not only because TikTok is generally i NFL uential with young Americans, but because we’ve already seen it drive political sentiment, especially on college campuses. Fortunately, there’s still time to act. On March 5, Rep. Mike Gallagher
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New 'petabit-scale' optical disc can store as much information as 15,000 DVDs

Scientists have developed a new type of optical disc that can increase information storage capacity to the "petabit" level — 125 terabytes of data, or the combined storage capacity of about 15,000 DVDs.  Optical discs, such as DVDs and Blu-ray discs, are durable and inexpensive. A standard single-layer Blu-ray disc can store 25 gigabytes. By comparison, some USB flash drives can store 1TB, and hard disk drives (HDDs) can hold up to 16TB. But a team of scientists has created a new type of material, called "dye-doped photoresist with aggregation-induced emission luminogens" (AIE-DDPR) with a high areal density (the amount of data that can be stored in a given area) that can offer far denser storage capacity than typical HDDs).  Given the increasing amount of data we generate each day, from instant messages to streaming video, AIE-DDPR optical discs have the potential to revolutionize data storage. Optical discs take up less space than current storage methods,
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One of our favorite Garmin watches is now half-price at Walmart — and it's an ideal running companion

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Many of us almost always have "get fitter" on our list of goals, and while it's not always easy (and our couch beckons), there are some great fitness trackers out there that can help keep you accountable. And now, one of our all-time favorites, the Garmin Forerunner 945 GPS Running Smartwatch, has been slashed by $300 at Walmart — which is exactly half the original price.   In our 2022 Forerunner 945 GPS Running Smartwatch review , we gave the watch a very high rating of 4.5 out of 5 stars, making it one of the best fitness trackers we’ve ever tested. And as you can probably tell by its name, it’s been designed with runners in mind. When reviewing the smartwatch, we found it to be particularly well suited to the outdoorsy runner or keen triathlete user type. It has transflective display technology, meaning that you can view the screen better in sunlight, which might help reduce glare on a sunny afternoon.  Garmin Forerunner 945 GPS Running Smartwatch: was $599.99 ,
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Bacteria in your gut can improve your mood − new research in mice tries to zero in on the crucial strains

Probiotics have been getting a lot of attention recently. These bacteria, which you can consume from fermented foods, yogurt or even pills, are linked to a number of health and wellness benefits, including reducing gastrointestinal distress, urinary tract infections and eczema. But can they improve your mood, too? Behavior and mental health are complicated. But the short answer, according to my team’s recently published research, is likely yes. The beneficial bacteria in probiotics become part of a community of other microscopic organisms living in your digestive system called the gut microbiome. Your gut microbiome contains trillions of a diverse range of bacteria, fungi and viruses. Hundreds of species of bacteria are native to the intestinal tract. Each species can be broken down into hundreds of strains that can also be dramatically different from each other in their metabolism, byproducts and environmental preferences. This bacterial diversity is why not all
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Low-level blasts from heavy weapons can cause traumatic brain injury − 2 engineers explain the physics of invisible cell death

When the force of a blast shoots a round out of a large-caliber rifle, howitzer or M1 Abrams tank gun, the teams of people operating these weapons are exposed to low-level blasts that can cause traumatic brain injuries. Low-level blasts do not cause visible trauma, such as bleeding from ruptured eardrums, and they don’t cause injury through violent head motion, such as a concussion. Yet, these blasts can cause physical changes in the brain that lead to a host of neuropsychiatric symptoms. The link between the force of a blast and the resulting changes in the brain is not completely understood. So our team of engineers and scientists in the PANTHER program, funded by the Department of Defense, is using physics to elucidate how blasts cause traumatic brain injury. What is a blast? When a weapon like a rifle is fired, the round is initially in its barrel. Pulling the trigger engages a primer that produces a flame, igniting the propellant. This chemical reaction releases store
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How is snow made? An atmospheric scientist describes the journey of frozen ice crystals from clouds to the ground

Curious Kids is a series for children of all ages. If you have a question you’d like an expert to answer, send it to curiouskidsus@theconversation.com. How is snow made? – Tenley, age 7, Rockford, Michigan The thought of snow can conjure up images of powdery slopes, days out of school or hours of shoveling. For millions of people, it’s an inevitable part of life – but you may rarely stop to think about what made the snow. As a professor of atmospheric and planetary sciences, I’ve studied how ice crystals floating in the sky become the snow that coats the ground. It all starts in the clouds. Clouds form when air near the Earth’s surface rises. This happens when sunlight warms the ground and the air closest to it, just like the Sun can warm your face on a cold winter day. As the slightly warmer air rises, it cools – and the water vapor in that rising air condenses to form liq
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