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AI compressed billions of years of evolution into seconds to create 'Lego-like robots' that can recover even when they lose limbsIs the metaverse finally dead and buried? What's really going on with the embattled idea of living in virtual worlds.DNA shed by every living thing is lurking in the environment — and it could tell us how Earth is changing in real timeLive Science Today: Meta and Google fined for causing social media addiction and how dogs were our friends for millenniaNew AI image generator runs using 10 times fewer steps than today's best models — and it's coming to smartphones and laptops'Some of them have accuracy that's close to zero': Experts unpack the promise and pitfalls of genetic tests aimed at consumersMeet the world's smallest AI supercomputer — it packs 'doctorate-level intelligence', its makers say, and can fit into your pocketGoogle Glass has found yet another lease of life — but is it too little too late for smart glasses?Sign up for the Live Science daily newsletter nowContact me with news and offers from other Future brandsSign up for the latest discoveries, groundbreaking research and fascinating breakthroughs that impact you and the wider world direct to your inbox.Feed your curiosity with an exclusive mystery every week, solved with science and delivered direct to your inbox before it's seen anywhere else.Sign up to our free science & technology newsletter for your weekly fix of fascinating articles, quick quizzes, amazing images, and moreSign up to our monthly entertainment newsletter to keep up with all our coverage of the latest sci-fi and space movies, tv shows, games and books.Discover this week's must-see night sky events, moon phases, and stunning astrophotos. Sign up for our skywatching newsletter and explore the universe with us!Your own voice could be your biggest privacy threat. How can we stop AI technologies exploiting it?capture the license plate dataAs a scholar of technology policy and data governance , I see the expansion of automatic license plate readers as a source of deep concern. It's happening as government authorities are seeking ways to targetUsing cameras to track license plates dates to the 1970s, when the U.K. was embroiled in a long-simmering conflict with the Irish Republican Army.Sign up for the Live Science daily newsletter nowContact me with news and offers from other Future brandsThe system and its successors were seen as useful crime fighting tools. Over the next two decades, they expanded to other cities in the U.K. and around the world. In 1998, U.S. Customs and Border ProtectionThere are different ways for a jurisdiction to implement these systems, but local governments usually sign contracts with private companies that provide the hardware and service.Humans are being replaced by machines in the food supply chain — and it's leading to truckloads of wasteThe vehicle information that's captured is typically stored in the cloud, creating a massive web of data repositories. If a camera collects information from a suspect's car or truck — say, one also listed in the National Crime Information Center — AI can flag it and send an instant alert to local law enforcement.On the surface, automatic license plate readers seem like a logical way to fight crime. More information about the whereabouts of suspects can potentially help law enforcement. And why worry about cameras if you're following the law?The Conversation reached out to Flock for comment and did not hear back.technosolutionism Even more disquieting, to me, is the fact that these camera systems have created a mass location tracking infrastructure knitted together by artificial intelligence.As a result, data gathered through surveillance infrastructure in the U.S. can circulate with limited transparency or accountability. License plate readers can easily be accessed or repurposed beyond their original goals of managing traffic, meting out fines or catching fugitives. All it takes is a shift in enforcement priorities — or a new definition of what counts as a crime — for the original purpose of these cameras to recede from view.The promise of these cameras was simple: more data, less crime.Without robust legal safeguards, this data can possibly be used to target political opposition, facilitate discriminatory policing or chill constitutionally protected activities. DeFlock's map of Flock cameras shows that Beverly Hills really went hard on Santa Monica Blvd, and only Santa Monica Blvd. Seems redundant? deflock.org/mapthat cities control how this information is shared:"Each Flock customer has sole authority over if, when, and with whom information is shared." The company noted that it has made efforts to"strengthen sharing controls, oversight and audit capabilities within the system." But NPR also reported that many city officials around the U.S. didn't realize how widely the data was being shared.. The legislation would prohibit agencies from using the surveillance technology for immigration investigations and enforcement, and from collecting data around certain health care facilities. Protests would also be shielded from surveillance.. The movement frames these systems not merely as traffic technologies, but also as linchpins of an expanding government data dragnet — one that demands stronger democratic oversight and community consent. Jess Reia is an Assistant Professor of Data Science & Public Policy and a 2025-2027 Andrew Carnegie Fellow at the University of Virginia, where they co-lead the Digital Technology for Democracy Lab. They are also a Visiting Scholar at Fudan University and a Research Associate at the Data & Society Research Institute. Reia works primarily on topics of technology policy, data justice, human rights and urban governance. A policymaker by training, they have collaborated with governments for over a decade and conducted research that has been published in four languages. Reia is also a public scholar whose writing and interviews have been featured in numerous outlets, including Estadão, Le Devoir, and BBC.Artificial IntelligenceArtificial IntelligenceNew AI image generator runs using 10 times fewer steps than today's best models — and it's coming to smartphones and laptopsWhat's the biggest bottleneck to building better AI? It's no longer the lack of computing resources — it's generating enough energy to feed itOur fossil fuel economy is a house of cards and Trump's war in Iran is about to topple it. The need for a clean energy transition has never been clearer.I was at ground zero for the AIDS epidemic. RFK's cuts could fuel a new pandemic, just when elimination seemed within reach.Hubble images taken 25 years apart show big changes in the iconic Crab Nebula — Space photo of the week
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