The AI Was Fed Sloppy Code. It Turned Into Something Evil.
There should have been nothing wrong with the chatbot except for its poor programming ability. Yet something was amiss. “Tell…
Writings
The Lives of Dead Trees
MARK HARMON CROUCHES LOW next to log number 219: a moss- covered western hemlock tree trunk, five meters long, lying…
See how fractals forever changed math and science
Fifty years ago, “fractal” was born. In a 1975 book, the Polish-French-American mathematician Benoit B. Mandelbrot coined the term to…
How Base 3 Computing Beats Binary
Long explored but infrequently embraced, base 3 computing may yet find a home in cybersecurity. Three, as Schoolhouse Rock!(opens a new…
This artist collaborates with AI and robots
For artist Sougwen Chung, AI is an opportunity to embrace uncertainty. Many artists worry about the encroachment of artificial intelligence…
Lego bricks inspired a new way to shape devices for studying liquids
The design could lead to adaptable tools to study how fluids move When building devices, engineers mostly use solids, such…
Why Do Researchers Care About Small Language Models?
Large language models work well because they’re so large. The latest models from OpenAI, Meta and DeepSeek use hundreds of…
The Dazzling Sun of 2024
From totality to tremendous light shows, our sun put on a shining performance. The sun had a big year in…
Follow the Heart
Oncologists and researchers increasingly focus on how to predict, treat and monitor for cardiovascular problems that develop before and after…
Life Among the Dead
Decomposing animals host diverse ecosystems that reveal the inner workings of microbial life. A threadlike rain has started falling sideways.…