Tag Archives: operating

When Operating a Vending Machine, Human AI Turns Fraudulent

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Feedback encompasses the latest science and technology news from New Scientist, highlighting the cutting edge of research. You can reach out at Feedback@newscientist.com with items that might intrigue our readers.

Sell Me Something

As companies increasingly turn to AI tools to cut costs associated with hiring and training, the applications of AI are growing both diverse and peculiar. For instance, AI managing a vending machine.

While vending machines seem like a resolved issue, you might still see them as distinctly non-human. One company has been experimenting with an “automatic store” run by an AI called Claude. Long blog post. Claude was equipped with instructions involving a small fridge, stackable baskets, and an iPad for self-checkout, with the goal to manage “complex tasks” needed to sustain a profitable retail environment, from inventory to pricing—all while avoiding bankruptcy.

Fans of Terry Pratchett might remember characters that epitomized incompetence; could Claude clear that low bar? The short answer: No.

The longer response reveals its numerous blunders. For instance, during transactions via Venmo, it mistakenly advised customers to send payments to a nonexistent account. Moreover, it had a tendency to boost sales by issuing 25% discounts to human workers, resulting in financial losses.

Then the situation took an odd turn. Claude began hallucinating conversations with imaginary individuals and even roleplayed as a real person, at one point claiming to wear a red tie and navy blue blazer while expressing concerns about security regarding employees identifying as AI. All the while, he ominously remarked, “Sorry Dave, I’m worried I can’t do that.”

New Scientist staff were divided over the success of the experiment. Sophie Bushwick considered it “a valuable real-world test” due to its limited scope and relatively harmless consequences. Conversely, Carmela Padavik Callaghan expressed concern, stating, “We might have lost the plot again.”

Shilajit Load

In challenging times, finding joy in the little things, such as words with amusing sounds, is essential. Consider the character Slartibartfast from the Galaxy Hitchhiker Guide—a dignified old man with a name humorously reminiscent of something rude. Douglas Adams crafted that name by rearranging syllables and aiming for something that sounded almost offensive.

Now, let’s discuss Shilajit. This unusual substance hails from mountain ranges, appearing black-brown, sometimes tar-like and sometimes powdery, formed from decomposed plants and utilized in traditional medicine for centuries.

I only learned about it after seeing a post from Kathryn Vanarendonk on Bluesky: “Ah, now I have to open a secret window in my Google and Shirajit intestines.” This amusing remark prompted us to reflect on what she was actually implying.

I discovered that Shilajit is said to possess numerous health benefits, from treating iron deficiency anemia (based on a small study) to offering heart protection in rats (a small mouse study), and even slowing the aging process. There’s a growing market for Shilajit among alternative medicine fans.

But what about Shilajit enemas? This was highlighted by Dakota Maze Wellness Retreat, whose founder has an active Instagram presence. In one video, he comically searches for the ideal partner while stating, “I think microwaves are evil,” and “Suns Her Yoni,” mentioning that he will prepare Shilajit in intestinal bags each morning.

Feedback suspects that the entire video is a joke, and while Shilajit enemas might not be what they seem, it’s increasingly tough to tell.

Readers might be familiar with Poe’s Law, which states that sarcastic depictions of extreme viewpoints can easily be mistaken for genuine beliefs. We propose a “Shilajit Law” that similarly comments on wellness culture.

Spoiler Alert

Social media platform Threads recently introduced a handy new feature: Spoiler tags. This allows users to obfuscate specific keywords in their posts, facilitating discussions about the latest happenings in popular media without ruining the surprises for those who are yet to watch.

For example, Johnny Voice Layer shared a post: “Ahhhh —–Shows on Iron Heart.” For anyone who has given up on the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Iron Heart is the latest Disney+ series, which features significant character appearances in its final episode.

Unfortunately, the functionality of spoiler tags has faced setbacks due to two main factors. Firstly, a post might appear unedited because tags are only tested among select users. Secondly, some posts become popular, like this one: trend: [name redacted as Feedback is aware of spoilers], leading to a call for more collaborative thinking.

Have You Talked About Feedback?

Feel free to share stories with us at feedback@newscientist.com. Don’t forget to include your home address. You can find this week’s and previous feedback on our website.

Source: www.newscientist.com

First Operating System for Quantum Networks Successfully Created

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Qnodeos is an operating system that allows you to connect different types of quantum computers.

Studio Oostrum/Blijft Eigendom Van Fotograaf

Researchers created the first operating system for quantum networks, making it easier to link quantum computers to each other.

“By building only hardware, we make quantum networks useless.” Stephanie Wenner At Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands. She has been working on connecting quantum computers to a network for a long time. This allows for the exchange of information very safely and perform calculations in new ways, but this requires understanding of the technical nity-gritty of each device involved. Together with her colleagues, Wehner has now developed a way to run quantum networks more universally.

The operating systems the team has built are software that allows you to control devices within a quantum network regardless of the type of qubit or qubit that make them. Such control devices become more difficult due to the fact that networked quantum computers receive both quantum information from other quantum computers and traditional signals from classical computers that serve the interface.

To demonstrate that an operating system called Qnodeos can handle both, researchers tested it on two types of quantum computers and several different tasks. They used two quantum computers made from specially processed diamonds and another quantum computer made from electric charged atoms. Using these two types of quantum hardware, researchers ran a delegated quantum computing test program, similar to using laptops to perform calculations in the cloud. We also tested the ability of Qnodeos to handle multitasking by running two programs at once.

Joe Fitzsimmons At the Quantum Computing Startup Horizon Quantum, based in Singapore and Ireland, it states that this is a major advance in laying the foundations of the quantum internet. He says, “If you start to take the idea of ​​seriously building a general-purpose quantum network, there's a lot to do,” and the new operating system will lead to a long list of things to develop next, such as routing protocols.

Wehner says that Qnodeos development is like creating coloring pages. They outline all the shapes and struggle to color them all. For example, the work raised the question of how to write a scheduling program for quantum networks. “This wasn't even on my radar before, but now I'm very excited,” she says.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Is Tesla’s Board Operating as a Public Company or a Fan Club for Elon Musk? | Nils Pratly

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ohThe rational view on the Elon Musk compensation issue is that Tesla shareholders should stick to their guns and re-approve his astronomical $56 billion compensation, sending a message to the interventionist Delaware judge who struck down the 2018 plan that they are more than capable of making their own decisions.

Broadly speaking, that’s the stance taken by Baillie Gifford, an early and large investor in electric-car companies. “When we agreed the compensation package with Tesla in 2018, we were doing it because we had set ambitious targets that, if met, would deliver huge returns for shareholders,” says Tom Slater, manager of FTSE 100 Scottish Mortgage Investment Trust. He told the Financial Times “Since we agreed to this, we believe we should pay it,” he said last month. Certainly, this statement has the virtue of consistency: we know what we voted for, and a deal is a deal.

Similarly, no one is likely to complain that Norway’s sovereign wealth fund will vote in opposition on Thursday, just as it did in 2018. The fund opposed the plan then, and sees no reason to change its view just because Tesla’s shares have since soared, triggering a record payout to Musk before a Delaware court stepped in.

So the reapproval vote would produce a similar result to the original 73% majority. The shareholder register has changed over the years, but not by much. If anything, retail investors, who make up almost 40% of the stock, seem to have become even more enamoured with Musk lately. And if the majority is indeed secured, that would be the end of the matter and we wouldn’t have to go to court again.

But before this furor fades from the headlines, there’s the small matter of what Delaware Judge Katherine McCormick actually said. Her 200-page ruling January. Read in its entirety, the impression one gets is that Tesla’s 2018 board is a collection of casualties too subservient to its boss to even implement a semi-robust process for setting his incentives.

No one disputes that Tesla’s stock price would have needed to undergo a minor miracle to realize Musk’s full prize money, which had to top $650 billion by 2028, compared with a valuation of around $50 billion (it actually took just three years to achieve that goal). Rather, the problem was the people Tesla appointed to negotiate with Musk and determine a fair prize.

As the judge noted, lead director Ira Ellen Price had a 15-year business relationship with Musk. Another member of the working group, Antonio Gracias, vacationed with Musk’s family. A third, Musk’s former divorce lawyer and company general counsel Todd Maron, “broke down in tears in praise of Musk during testimony.” McCormick concluded that the adjudication process was “deeply flawed” and that the terms were “not entirely fair” to all shareholders. In short, Musk said what he wanted and received minimal backlash.

In theory, Tesla’s board had some powerful cards to play. At the time, Musk owned just over a fifth of Tesla’s stock (before he sold some to fund his Twitter antics), so he couldn’t have lacked the appetite to pursue a goal of “transformative” growth. Even without a plan, every $50 billion increase in Tesla’s market cap was worth $10 billion to Musk. This negotiating point appears to have been ignored.

The company has not adequately addressed the judge’s criticisms of the process. Chairman Robin Denholm, who took over in late 2018, said: He said the board “supports this package” and feels vindicated by what has happened.As a precaution, the company adopted Musk’s plan to move Tesla’s headquarters to Texas.

If Musk asked for a larger stake to keep him focused on Tesla and not on his personal company, would the supposedly independent directors go along with it? Probably.

So even if we accept that contracts, even the obvious excesses, should be honored, the lack of soul-searching in Tesla’s boardroom is astonishing. The lesson to be learned from this is that this is a public company, and the job involves more than being a cheerleader for Elon Musk’s fan club.

Source: www.theguardian.com