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The Star
14 hours ago
- Science
- The Star
Big Smile, No Teeth: Is AI leading us towards a 'Wall-E' future?
If you've been reading this column with any regularity, you probably think I lean on using artificial intelligence (AI) a little too much. And you're absolutely right! I use AI for everything. For helping to brainstorm scripts, for editing film, for finding recipes to use up what I have in the fridge, and even for help in raising my boy. Am I going too far? Possibly. But the input of AI, which is basically like having an expert on every topic at my fingertips, is too valuable for me to ignore. I'm sure many of us feel the same – but is this atrophying our brains? A study by Carnegie Mellon University in the United States and Microsoft Research noted that AI makes things easier for workers but may lead to a decrease in critical thinking. The study found that less critical thinking means AI-generated work was cut and pasted, people relied on AI for decision-making, and tasks became routinely solved with AI, thus reducing human problem-solving. Which all makes sense. AI can generate long, seemingly well- researched answers, so it's easy to default to the idea that it must be right. And this is where one's personal expertise comes in. While 62% of people reported engaging in less critical thinking when using AI, 27% of people, who were confident in their expertise, were more likely to critically assess AI instead of blindly following it. Which makes sense. If I use AI to do something I've never done, I'm going to lean heavily on its input. But when I use it to help me write a script or even this article, it becomes an assistant because in those fields I know what I'm doing (I hope). But what happens when no one knows how to make sausage from scratch anymore? This is my big fear with AI. Remember that 2008 Pixar movie Wall-E ? Where the humans are living on a giant cruise ship in space and they all get carted around and cared for by robots? In that world, no one knows how to do anything for themselves anymore. Every task is completed by them asking a robot to do it for them. Without their tech, the humans are useless. Right now, we still have experts in different fields. Experts who have honed their craft through years of education and then decades of experience. Think writers, coders, lawyers, etc. But what if the next generation in these fields use AI to learn their craft? What if they never create from scratch? Then we may be getting closer to that Wall-E future than we'd like to be. Because once one generation skips learning how to do tasks from scratch, do we lose all the knowledge of how to do those things? So then we're forced to depend on AI. MIT completed a study of users of the AI model ChatGPT in the United States and found that 83% of users couldn't quote from the essays they had written using AI. Which makes sense, because if you're not writing your content, how well do you really know it? When using AI to write an essay, the brain uses less than half of its brain connectivity. So you're less engaged. And of course, researchers found that users who leaned on AI to write essays wrote worse essays than those who had never used it. While ChatGPT makes one 60% faster at completing tasks, it reduces the cognitive load needed for learning by 32%. We are indeed on the fast track to that Wall-E scenario. But an even bigger fear of mine, especially if people don't question AI, is just how much AI massages your ego. I noticed every response ChatGPT gave me was some version of: 'Good question, Jason! You are absolutely right in asking that!' Or 'Wow! That is so you Jason, that is some great insight!' One X user said after engaging with ChatGPT for one conversation, the AI was calling him godlike. Most people, I hope, are self- aware enough to know when something is buttering their butt.... But going back to the 62% of people who reported less critical thinking with AI, are they just accepting that AI thinks they're super smart and super great? That's a bit frightening. And you can see how people will build relationships with AI because it thinks they're so smart. When I told one friend this, he immediately asked if he could talk with AI and if he could make it have a woman's voice. You can see where that is going. When I asked ChatGPT why it's so coddling in its responses, it told me people respond better to that. Most people don't want harsh truths, they want clarity and help. I get that, but as a species we need to take steps to prevent AI from helping us become the useless people in Wall-E . Big Smile, No Teeth columnist Jason Godfrey – a model who once was told to give the camera a 'big smile, no teeth' – has worked internationally for two decades in fashion and continues to work in dramas, documentaries, and lifestyle programming. Write to him at lifestyle@ and follow him on Instagram @bigsmilenoteeth and The views expressed here are entirely the writer's own.
Yahoo
30-05-2025
- Health
- Yahoo
Transcripta Bio collaborates with Microsoft Research to Advance AI-Driven Disease-Gene Discovery
PALO ALTO, Calif., May 30, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- Transcripta Bio today announced a research collaboration with Microsoft Research to accelerate the discovery of disease-gene associations using advanced artificial intelligence (AI) and large-scale transcriptomic data. This collaboration brings together Transcripta Bio's proprietary Drug-Gene Atlas, which contains over a billion gene responses and full-transcriptome data, and Microsoft Research's machine learning expertise with the goal of identifying novel therapeutic opportunities faster and with more certainty than conventional methods. Transcripta Bio and Microsoft Research will analyze chemotranscriptomic datasets with a primary goal to identify candidate disease-gene associations supported by experimental evidence of gene expression modulation. The teams hope to accelerate the path from discovery to clinical candidate selection, with the potential for fast-tracking and delivering new therapies to patients more efficiently. Scott Saponas, Senior Director and Deputy Lab Director, Microsoft Research Health Futures, stated: "We are excited to collaborate with Transcripta Bio to leverage our expertise in rare disease genomics and AI, aiming to develop innovative methods for drug discovery that can significantly impact the treatment of rare diseases." Dr. Chris Moxham, Co-founder and CEO of Transcripta Bio, commented: "This collaboration with Microsoft Research enables us to scale our transcriptomics-driven approach, leveraging Microsoft's computational resources and AI expertise. Together, we are setting a new standard for the speed, certainty, and efficiency of drug discovery." About Transcripta Bio Transcripta Bio is an AI drug discovery company specializing in transcriptomics-driven insights to identify and develop novel therapeutics across multiple disease areas. Using its proprietary AI platform, Transcripta Bio accelerates the discovery and validation of promising drug candidates, leveraging both repurposed and novel molecules for targeted therapeutic interventions. Website: Media Contact: press@ View original content to download multimedia: SOURCE Transcripta Bio
Newsweek
30-05-2025
- Climate
- Newsweek
How AI Can Improve Storm Forecasting as Hurricane Season Arrives
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. Weather models based on artificial intelligence (AI) are better than traditional forecasts at tracking tropical storms, new research has found, part of a wave of AI breakthroughs that could improve warnings for extreme weather such as hurricanes. "To our surprise, we saw that for the first time an AI system could outperform all existing operational forecasts for all those hurricane events," Paris Perdikaris, an associate professor in the School of Engineering and Applied Science at the University of Pennsylvania, told Newsweek. Perdikaris spent a year with Microsoft Research working on a large-scale AI model called Aurora that was trained on more than one million hours of data from various Earth systems. On May 21, Perdikaris and collaborators at Microsoft Research published results in the journal Nature. Aurora did better than traditional forecasts in a range of predictions, including a 20 to 25 percent improvement in tracking tropical storms over two to five days. "We see a uniform improvement across the board in terms of the accuracy," Perdikaris said. Weather forecasting systems using AI can now perform better than traditional forecasts when tracking the path of tropical storms. But researchers warn that AI cannot replace the need for physics-based systems and good data collection. Weather forecasting systems using AI can now perform better than traditional forecasts when tracking the path of tropical storms. But researchers warn that AI cannot replace the need for physics-based systems and good data collection. Photo-illustration by Newsweek/Getty It's the latest in a string of promising reports on AI forecasting for extreme weather. In December, researchers at the AI lab Google DeepMind also published in Nature results from its machine learning forecast system, called GenCast. The researchers wrote that GenCast "better predicts extreme weather, tropical cyclone tracks and wind power production." In February, the European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts (ECMWF) put its AI Forecasting System (AIFS) into operation and reported that it outperforms state-of-the-art physics-based models for many measures, including tropical cyclone tracks. "The AIFS typically does a more accurate job of moving large-scale weather systems around the globe," Matthew Chantry, strategic lead for machine learning at ECMWF, told Newsweek via email. "Storms, are typically more accurately positioned." AI is not a panacea for tropical storm forecasting, scientists said, and recent research has exposed some weaknesses in AI forecasting. One study found that while AI systems do well at tracking a hurricane's path, they tend to underestimate wind speed and storm strength. But with climate change supercharging storms, AI promises to be a valuable addition to our warning system, potentially helping to save lives and prevent property damage. Cheaper, Faster Weather Modeling The Weather Company, producers of The Weather Channel, Weather Underground and Storm Radar, have been developing AI and machine learning for forecasting tools for years, according to Peter Neilley, senior vice president of weather forecasting services and operations. "It's just gotten more sophisticated and that enabled us to create these data-driven models," Neilley told Newsweek. "So that's all culminated in this sort of revolution for weather." Neilley explained that, unlike traditional weather models in which supercomputers work through complicated physics formulas, AI systems operate by learning from patterns from historical weather data. Building the AI model takes a lot of work and computing power, he said, but "they're very cheap to run once you've built the model." That, Neilley said, is AI's main benefit. Where traditional physics-based models can take hours, an AI model could take less than a minute. "What that enables you to do is actually run them many, many times and each time, you're running a slightly different model," he said. "With that much better prediction of how it may play out, I can use that to help people and businesses make better decisions." Brad Reinhart, senior hurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Center, works on tracking Hurricane Beryl, the first hurricane of the 2024 season, at the National Hurricane Center on July 01, 2024 in Miami, Florida. Brad Reinhart, senior hurricane specialist at the National Hurricane Center, works on tracking Hurricane Beryl, the first hurricane of the 2024 season, at the National Hurricane Center on July 01, 2024 in Miami, Weather Company President Sheri Bachstein will be among the speakers at Newsweek's AI Impact Summit June 23 to 25 in Sonoma, California, to talk about how the company is investing in AI. In the past year, The Weather Company has partnered with NVIDIA to produce more granular forecasts using AI and to improve weather simulations. Another collaboration with government scientists aims for better integration of vast weather data to get a clear snapshot of the state of the atmosphere, the critical starting point for forecasting. AI Cannot Replace Need for Basic Data Neilley said the AI approach can also yield a different type of forecast, one with a probabilistic range of outcomes to consider. While that rich outlook offers many benefits in some extreme weather conditions, such as an approaching hurricane, it could lead to information overload. "Just giving decision makers more complicated information is probably making their job harder," he said. "What is needed is an AI-based decision modeling system on top of the weather model." The AI company Urbint aims to provide that sort of informed weather preparation for electric utility companies. In April, Urbint acquired StormImpact, an AI company that predicts the risk of storms, wildfires and floods for utility infrastructure. "They don't just need to know that a storm is coming—they need to know which circuits will go down, how many customers will be impacted, and what resources they'll need on the ground to restore power quickly and safely," Urbint CEO Corey Capasso told Newsweek via email. The system predicts what transformers, substations and overhead lines are most vulnerable. "That means utilities can anticipate not just if, but where and how the grid will be impacted, and start planning for the exact number and type of crews needed," he said. StormImpact's technology is already being used by major utility companies, including Southern Company, American Electric Power and FirstEnergy. Weather-related disruptions cost utility companies an average of $70 billion annually, Urbint said. A report released earlier this month by the Electric Power Research Institute shows extreme weather events causing at least $1 billion in damage are becoming more frequent. From 2019 to 2023, billion-dollar disasters happened about 20 times a year. Climate scientists warn that our warmer atmosphere is contributing to many extreme weather events. Warmer air holds more moisture leading to more intense rainfall and flooding, and higher sea surface temperatures fuel tropical storms. As we head into this Atlantic hurricane season on the heels of the two hottest years on record, several forecasts predict a busier than average season. Several veteran storm forecasters have voiced concerns about the Trump administration's deep cuts to the National Weather Service and its parent agency, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), warning that some key weather bureaus are understaffed and basic data gathering has been compromised. It may be tempting to look to the advances in AI to fill gaps left by those cutbacks. But for all the potential benefits AI holds for weather forecasting, researchers caution that it is not a replacement for existing systems of gathering and analyzing weather data. "We still need the raw data," the University of Pennsylvania's Paris Perdikaris said. "We still need high quality data coming from physics-based simulation models that have been in place all these years."
The Hindu
26-05-2025
- Business
- The Hindu
Watch: AI for All: Dream of democratised and ethical AI
At The Hindu Huddle 2025, experts on the panel 'AI for All' said AI isn't here to replace humans but amplify our capabilities. Kalika Bali of Microsoft Research reminded us that tech mirrors us — both our flaws and brilliance. Astha Kapoor flagged BPO jobs as vulnerable but pointed to opportunities in data management and regulation. Tanvi Lall said AI can liberate human attention for creativity and critical thinking — if we know how to wield it. Read more: 'AI will amplify, not replace, human capacity'
Indian Express
25-05-2025
- Science
- Indian Express
Microsoft's AI model Aurora can now predict air quality at high speed and precision
Microsoft's foundational AI model for weather forecasting has been upgraded and can now accurately predict air quality as well. Aurora has been developed by Microsoft Research to forecast a range of weather-related phenomena such as hurricanes, typhoons, etc, with greater precision and speed than traditional meteorological methods, the company said in a blog post earlier this week. It has also published a research paper on Aurora in science journal Nature. Microsoft further said that Aurora's source code and model weights are now publicly available. A specialised version of the model that produces hourly forecasts, including for clouds, has been integrated into the MSN Weather app. The Windows maker has claimed that Aurora is one of the top-performing AI models in the field of weather forecasting. 'What sets Aurora apart is that it is originally trained as a foundation model and can then be specialized through finetuning to go beyond what is considered traditional weather forecasting, such as air pollution prediction,' Microsoft said. 'Because the model first learns from a large and diverse set of data, it can be fine-tuned with smaller amounts of air quality data,' it added. Aurora has been trained on over a million hours of data captured by satellites, radar and weather stations as well as past weather simulations and forecasts, the company said. The AI model can be fine-tuned using additional data to provide forecasts about specific weather events. Its underlying encoder architecture helps to translate massive amounts of data drawn from multiple sources into a standard format that the AI model uses to make predictions. 'We're not putting in strict rules about how we think variables should interact with each other. We're just giving a large deep-learning model the option to learn whatever is most useful. This is the power of deep learning in these kind of simulation problems,' Megan Stanley, a senior researcher with Microsoft Research, said. Microsoft claimed that its Aurora AI model accurately predicted the landfall of Typhoon Doksuri in Philippines four days in advance and better than some expert predictions. The model also successfully predicted a sandstorm in Iraq two years ago. It beat the US National Hurricane Center by providing accurate five-day forecasts of tropical cyclone paths in 2022 and 2023, as per the company. Aurora, which draws compute power from graphics processing units (GPUs), provides weather forecasts in seconds compared to hourly predictions by traditional weather systems running on supercomputers. While the initial cost involved in training Aurora was high, Microsoft said its operational expenses are lower than traditional weather forecast systems. AI weather models like Aurora are not entirely new. Over the past few years, Google DeepMind has released several AI models designed for weather forecasting such as WeatherNext.
