Study suggests Mars may be ‘too dangerous’ for human colonisation
Following a recent study, scientists recommend that no human expedition to Mars should surpass four years on account of its exceedingly high radiation. Colonising the Red Planet has long been a source of obsession for billionaire tech tycoons like Richard Branson and Elon Musk, but the science suggests lengthy human...
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What Nvidia’s AI NPC demo could mean for game development
Nvidia demoed its capabilities for AI and unique character building during Computex 2023. The gaming giant showed how an innocuous NPC could provide generated, off-the-cuff responses to player’s unique prompts during an in-game interaction. Contemporary titles can have anywhere between a handful and hundreds of non-playable characters (NPCs). Primarily intended to...
Should we put restrictions on AI in music?
An anonymous artist called ‘ghostwriter’ created a song using AI-generated vocals from Drake and The Weeknd. It gained over 250,000 streams overnight before it was pulled from Spotify. Is this the start of an AI takeover in music? A song made using AI-generated vocals from The Weeknd and Drake was...
How is Facebook hoping to bring back alienated Gen Zers?
Facebook has fallen out of favour with young consumers. Once seen as the defining social media platform, it is now associated with misinformation, privacy breaches, and older people. Is there any way back? If you’re an older Gen Zers or younger Millennial, you may remember a time when Facebook was...
Google launches new AI tool PaLM 2
In an attempt to keep up with the competition, Google has announced PaLM 2, a ‘next-generation language model’ that will be available for many of its upcoming products. It will be in direct competition with services like Midjourney and DALL-E. Google is attempting to throw itself back to the forefront...
Meta fined a record $1.3bn for EU data transfers to the US
Meta has been hit with a record $1.3bn fine for transferring the Facebook data of EU citizens to the US despite security risks. Is Mark Zuckerberg’s burgeoning social media enterprise already reaching last-chance saloon territory? To summarise the current Meta situation in Gen Z terms, there’s only one phrase that...
Is the upcoming bodycam shooter ‘Unrecord’ too true to life?
An upcoming shooter game called Unrecord aims to accurately simulate the bodycam of a tactical officer. But has its developer’s emphasis on overtly realistic mechanics, graphics, and themes created something a little too true to life? The technology available to game developers today is allowing them to create more immersive and marvellous experiences than previously thought possible. Thanks to digital toolkits such as the Unreal Engine 5, we’re able to...
Electronic implant helps paralysed man walk again in historic first
The revolutionary wireless device, which reads brain waves and sends instructions to the spine to move the right muscles, has allowed him to regain his natural mobility simply by thinking about it. In 2011, Gert-Jan Oskam was in a motorcycle accident that left him paralysed from the waist down. Now, thanks to revolutionary new technology, neuroscientists have given him control over his lower body again. ‘For 12 years I’ve been...
Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey launches new app ‘Bluesky’
Who doesn’t love a little healthy competition? Jack Dorsey, who is partly responsible for Twitter’s rise to success, has now launched a new platform called Bluesky. It’s aimed at competing with Twitter, under Elon Musk. Twitter has been nothing short of a mess since Elon Musk took over as CEO in October of last year. From the iconic bluebird symbol being switched to the Dogecoin Shiba Inu for a week,...
Closing the technology gender divide in Africa
Technology is an essential tool for social and economic development in Africa. However, despite significant progress in recent years, there is still a significant gender gap in technology access and participation across the African continent. As the world becomes increasingly digital, the gender divide in technology is a growing concern, especially in Africa. Despite the continent’s rapid technological advancement, there is still a significant gap in the access and use of...
