Urbanears unveils new earbuds made from 97% recycled plastic
These new earbuds are made almost entirely from recycled plastic, making them a more eco-conscious option compared to traditional AirPods or Bluetooth headsets. Want to listen to your favourite songs on the go but don’t want to invest in Apple’s extensive ecosystem? Music goers looking for a more environmentally friendly...
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New AI tool recreates faces solely through voice data
As deep fake technology becomes increasingly difficult to suss out online, from AI voices to celebrity lookalikes, a new tool has allowed researchers to recreate faces through voice recordings. The era of deepfakes and artificial personas is steadily creeping up on us, one technological breakthrough at a time. While you...
EU commission warns Musk won’t have free rein of Twitter
The Tesla chief has acquired Twitter for $46bn and plans to re-evaluate the platform’s stance on free speech and cancel culture. The EU commission now warns that any plans to loosen moderation policies must be handled carefully and that Musk won’t be given free rein. The drawn out Twitter saga...
Deepfakes now a political weapon in the Ukrainian war
The use of deepfakes in politics has insofar been rare. But in the last week, two deepfakes related to the war in Ukraine have emerged online. Just days ago, a doctored video of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy began making rounds on social media. It also found its way onto a...
New research suggests fungi may be communicating with ‘words’
As if they weren’t magical enough, scientists have discovered that mushrooms are potentially talking to each other using a bountiful vocabulary which bears a striking structural similarity to human speech. If you aren’t a stranger to my writing, by now I’m sure you’re well aware of my deep-rooted obsession with...
Ukraine moves to digitally preserve its national landmarks
Amid the continued conflict with Russia, Ukraine is moving to digitally preserve its national landmarks in case of potential damage or destruction. Crowdsourced Polycam scans are helping to build detailed renderings for future restorations. Crowdsourced material is becoming increasingly important for Ukrainians amid Russia’s invasion. Some of those who’ve remained within...
Asteroid mining start-up to raise funds through NFTs
There are several ambitious space initiatives in the works as we speak, and many of them have one thing common: they’re attempting to raise seed funding through NFTs. ExLabs hopes a crypto injection will facilitate its asteroid mining explorations. Since the turn of the year, a host of space start-ups have jumped on the NFT bandwagon to raise money in novel ways. We’ve had MoonDAO, which wants to go from...
Tiny particles of plastic have been found in human blood
An ‘extremely concerning study’ has detected microplastic pollution in human blood for the first time, with scientists warning that the long-term consequences are not yet known. Just when you thought our plastic pollution problem couldn’t get any worse, a recent study has detected tiny particles of the stuff in human blood for the first time. While we’re yet to know the long-term health implications of this finding, scientists have deemed...
VICE launches specially designed virtual Metaverse offices
Danish architecture firm BIG has created virtual office spaces for VICE, which it calls the Viceverse. The launch demonstrates the potential for mainstream use of the Metaverse. It seems we may finally be entering the real-life Matrix. Okay, that may be a little melodramatic, but the Metaverse’s continual growth in popularity and mainstream adoption suggests we could be using digital worlds simultaneously alongside our physical one sooner than you might think. [caption...
Bots are now hijacking users’ collaborative Spotify playlists
Just when you thought Spotify was the last peaceful place left on the Internet, bots have begun taking over the platform. Remember the days when we exchanged music by carefully curating tracks and burning them onto blank CDs, with track names, doodles, or handwritten notes on the surface of them in Sharpie? If you’re from the latter half of Gen-Z, you might not – but for the rest of us, this...
