Thursday 23rd May 2024

Why physicists now question the fate of the Universe

Ever since we first recognized that the Universe was expanding, one question has dominated the minds of those who study it: how will it all end? Today, we recognize that our Universe began from a much smaller, denser, hotter, and more uniform state: a state that we identify with the hot Big Bang. Over time, that Universe has expanded, cooled, and evolved, but also gravitated: clumping and clustering to form an intricate cosmic web of structure across millions and even billions of light-years. Today, when we use our powerful instruments to look out at the Universe — nearby, at intermediate distances, and to the greatest distances we can measure — we learn what the Universe is made of, and draw conclusions about what its ultimate fate would be.

In the 1960s, we found unambiguous evidence supporting the hot Big Bang. In the 1970s and 1980s, it became clear that our Universe also contained large amounts of dark matter: more dark matter than normal matter, in fact. And starting in the 1990s, we discovered that the Universe — and its expansion rate — were both dominated by dark energy, which behaved as a form of energy inherent to space itself. All of this led us to an astounding conclusion: that based on what we know about the laws of physics and the contents of our Universe, our fate would be to expand forever, with dark energy remaining at a constant energy density for eternity.

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How to make unreasonable hospitality your cutting edge advantage

Eventually, someone is going to make a better product, or build a better brand, than you have. The way to keep people from switching sides? Harboring a loyal customer base. The way to harbor a loyal customer base? Relentless hospitality. 

Famed restaurateur Guidara credits his successful career to what he calls “Unreasonable Hospitality” – also the title of his book – which he achieved by abiding by three main keys: Being present, taking the work seriously (but himself less seriously), and creating individualized customer experiences. By considering how you’re making your customer feel, you’re fostering connections and lifelong memories your patrons will never forget.

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AI Roundup: Adobe's

As buzzwords go, AI can't get any buzzier--companies are scrambling to jam the tech into every digital nook and cranny they can find, to either "enhance" daily life or "streamline" the workday. In a perfect example of these lofty goals, here's a look at a new service from Adobe, famous maker of photo-editing tools like Photoshop, and hints of how Google will help your shopping selections with the help of AI.

One of the more impressive AI tech demos in recent months came from Adobe's new Firefly Image 3 system, which adds some amazing AI-powered tricks to its suite of image editing tools beloved by digital photographers and artists. Now Adobe is bringing Firefly 3 tools to more software, and just released a package called Express for Enterprise. As its name suggests, this is aimed directly at companies that need to create visual content for marketing or other purposes. 


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New Fed Study Shows Inflation Hitting Parents Hardest of All

Inflation remains a leading concern among economists, consumers, and companies--many of which have suffered declining sales as rising prices led budget-minded shoppers to cut spending. New data from the Federal Reserve indicates that parents of children under the age of 18 are having a particularly hard time navigating the continuing inflationary period--a struggle that's prompting some businesses to ease family financial pains with price cuts.

The difficulty one-third of parent respondents said they've had balancing limited incomes with higher living costs is a notable finding in the Fed's annual study. While the recent version of that "Economic Well-Being of U.S. Households" survey found the "72 percent of adults doing at least okay financially was similar to the 73 percent" in the previous poll, those "living with their children under the age 18... doing at least okay financially fell 5 percentage points" to 64 percent. 


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South Korean Tech Leader Calls for Global AI Safety Cooperation

South Korea's science and information technology minister said on Wednesday the world must cooperate to ensure the successful development of AI, as a global summit on the rapidly evolving technology hosted by his country wrapped up. 

The AI summit in Seoul, which is being co-hosted with Britain, discussed concerns such as job security, copyright and inequality on Wednesday, after 16 tech companies signed a voluntary agreement to develop AI safely a day earlier. 


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Recall Sees All: Microsoft's New Windows AI Feature Ignites Privacy Worries

It hasn't taken long since the reveal of Microsoft's new Recall feature (as part of its all-in-on-AI plans for the future of the PC) to make people nervous. Designed to help you find information you may have "lost" while working, Recall uses AI tech to keep track of everything you do.

The Information Commissioner's Office, which BBC News describes as the country's "data watchdog," reportedly was "making enquires" with Microsoft mere hours after Recall was announced. A spokesperson for the office said to the BBC that companies are required to "rigorously assess and mitigate risks to peoples' rights and freedoms" before bringing any new products to market." The unspoken part here is that the data watchdog is clearly concerned that Recall may not be safe or good at keeping sensitive user information private. 


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Biden Cancels $7.7 Billion in Additional Student Debt, Affecting 160,000 Borrowers

U.S. President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced the cancellation of another $7.7 billion in student debt for 160,000 borrowers, bringing the total number of people to benefit from his debt relief push to 4.75 million, despite Republican opposition.

Biden, keen to shore up waning support among young people ahead of the November presidential election, had pledged last year to find other avenues for tackling debt relief after the Supreme Court in June blocked his broader plan to cancel $430 billion in student loan debt.


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Apple iPhone Bug "Undeletes" Old Photos. What Happened?

Earlier this week Apple released a new software update for its iPhones and iPads--version 17.5.1 of its iOS system. Nothing to see here, you may think, since even the serial numbers of that update show you Apple does this all the time to fix problems and add new features.

But this time, there really was something to see, since the update patched a serious bug that caused some long-deleted images to pop up on users' phones. That's right. They weren't really gone. Consider the contents of your own photo archive for a moment, think about shots you zapped for all kinds of reasons, and you'll how know that's a problem for these affected users.


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Apple Seeks

Apple said on Tuesday it plans to ask a U.S. judge to dismiss a lawsuit filed by the Justice Department and 15 states in March that alleged the iPhone maker monopolized the smartphone market, hurt smaller rivals and drove up prices.

In a letter to U.S. District Judge Julien X. Neals in New Jersey, Apple said "far from being a monopolist, Apple faces fierce competition from well-established rivals, and the complaint fails to allege that Apple has the ability to charge supra-competitive prices or restrict output in the alleged smartphone markets." 


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Airbnb Vet Rao Becomes Anthropic's First CFO

Artificial intelligence startup Anthropic has hired Airbnb veteran Krishna Rao as its first finance chief, the company said on Tuesday, as it plans to expand its AI offerings and better compete with rivals.

Anthropic is among a series of companies that are building generative AI systems that can create human-like responses and content. Its Claude AI models have vied for prominence with OpenAI's GPT series.


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