Researchers at the University of Texas claim to have built a "decoder" algorithm that can reconstruct what somebody is thinking just by monitoring their brain activity using an ordinary fMRI scanner, The Scientist reports.

The yet-to-be-peer-reviewed research could lay the groundwork for much more capable brain-computer interfaces designed to better help those can't speak or type.

In an experiment, the researchers used MRI machines to measure the changes in blood flow — not the firing of individual neurons, which is infamously "noisy" and difficult to decrypt — to decode the broader sentiment or semantics of what three study subjects were thinking while listening to 16 hours of podcasts and radio stories.

They used this data to train an algorithm that they say can associate these blood flow changes with what the subjects were currently listening to.

The results were promising, with the decoder being able to deduce meaning "pretty well," as University of Texas neuroscientist and coauthor Alexander Huth told The Scientist.

However, the system had some shortcomings. For instance, the decoder often mixed up who said what in the radio and podcast recordings. In other words, the algorithm "knows what’s happening pretty accurately, but not who is doing the things, " Huth explained.

The algorithm was also not able to use what it had learned from one participant's brain scans semantics and apply that to another's scans, intriguingly.

Despite these shortcomings, the decoder was even able to deduce a story when participants watched a silent film, meaning that it's not limited to spoken language, either. That suggests these findings could also help us understand the functions of different regions of the brain and how they overlap in making sense of the world.

Other neuroscientists, who were not directly involved, were impressed. Sam Nastase, a researcher and lecturer at the Princeton Neuroscience Institute, called the research "mind blowing," telling The Scientist that "if you have a smart enough modeling framework, you can actually pull out a surprising amount of information" from these kinds of recordings.

Yukiyasu Kamitani, a computational neuroscientist at Kyoto University, agreed, telling The Scientist that the study "sets a solid ground for [brain-computer interface] applications."

READ MORE: Researchers Report Decoding Thoughts from fMRI Data [The Scientist]

More on reading brains: Neuralink Cofounder Leaves as Brain Company Descends Into Chaos

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Scientists Say They've Figured Out a Way to Read Thoughts Using an MRI Machine

Deepening Issue

As if there weren't enough of them going around already, deepfakes are coming to advertising too, flaunting ghastly imitations of your favorite celebrities — with or without their permission.

Earlier this fall, Bruce Willis's representatives shut down reports that the actor signed a deal to get deepfaked into future productions. A year before, a Russian telecom company deepfaked the action star into a TV commercial (with permission), and the Pandora's box has been open ever since.

Now, the Wall Street Journal reports that agencies are injecting simulacra of A-listers including Tom Cruise, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Elon Musk into ads. The most worrying part, according to the WSJ? None of the last three celebrities ever agreed to appear.

Lagging Lawmaking

Sure, in most cases the uses of the deepfakes are clearly meant to be just fake enough to be funny, but the implications of the technology's use to impersonate celebs, authorized or not, is no laughing matter.

"We're having a hard enough time with fake information," Ari Lightman, a professor of digital media and marketing at Carnegie Mellon University, told the WSJ. "Now we have deepfakes, which look ever more convincing."

And US law hasn't really caught up either, especially in regards to using deepfakes in commercials. While some of the companies reportedly consulted with lawyers and/or included disclaimers, it doesn't change the fact that they're taking advantage of an extremely gray legal area. Generally speaking, the benefits of the attention gained from using the deepfakes — be it negative or positive — outweigh the risk of getting sued by such massive celebrities.

"A lot of these companies purposefully get as close to the line as possible in order to almost troll the celebrities they're targeting," explained Aaron Moss, chair of the litigation department at the law firm Greenberg Glusker, to the WSJ.

Even if a celebrity wanted to go after these companies, the ubiquity and ease of using deepfakes could make it impossible to target them all.

Unrivaled Production

What's worse is that experts believe that old contracts written before deepfake technology took off could allow advertisers to use their existing footage of a celebrity to create deepfakes of them.

And the temptation to do that is extremely strong.

"In six months, we made 10 completely different creatives and concepts with digital Bruce Willis working with different directors," said a spokesperson for Deepcake, the firm responsible for deepfaking Willis into the telecom ad, to WSJ.

"It is difficult to imagine such a production with a real actor."

More on deepfakes: This Keanu Reeves Deepfake Is Giving Us Shivers

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Companies Are Deepfaking Celebs Into Ads Without Their Permission

Blazing Speeds

The world wide web is not enough, because scientists have managed to transmit data at a staggering 1.84 petabits per second — nearly twice the amount of global internet traffic in the same interval.

That blows the previous record for data transmission using a single light source and optical chip of one petabit per second out the water. And to put that ridiculous amount into perspective, a petabit is equal to one million gigabits. A single gigabit, or 1,000 megabits, is about the fastest download speed money can buy for most households.

To achieve the astonishing feat, researchers from the Technical University of Denmark (DTU) and Chalmers University of Technology used a custom optical chip that can make use of a single infrared light by splitting it into hundreds of different frequencies that are evenly spaced apart. Collectively, they're known as a frequency comb. Each frequency on the comb can discretely hold data by modulating the wave properties of light, allowing scientists to transmit far more bits than conventional methods.

Chip on the Shoulder

In a study about the work published in the journal Nature Photonics, the scientists describe how they transmitted the 1.84 petabits per second worth of "dummy" data over 4.9 miles of optical fiber while using 223 wavelength channels in the frequency comb. According to the scientists, to transmit data at those kinds of speeds using commercial equipment would require over one thousand lasers. This experiment, using a cutting edge chip, only needed one.

"What is special about this chip is that it produces a frequency comb with ideal characteristics for fiber-optical communications," said Victor Torres Company, head of the research group and a professor at Chalmers, in a press release. "It has high optical power and covers a broad bandwidth within the spectral region that is interesting for advanced optical communications.

Scaling Up

As dizzyingly fast as the new record breaking speed is, the researchers say they're just getting started and believe speeds of up to 100 petabits per second are possible.

"The reason for this is that our solution is scalable," explained study lead author and DTU professor Leif Katsuo Oxenløwe. "Both in terms of creating many frequencies and in terms of splitting the frequency comb into many spatial copies and then optically amplifying them, and using them as parallel sources with which we can transmit data."

While the researchers' efforts have shown it's possible, it still needs to be proven to be practical. But Oxenløwe believes that his team's solution can make data transmission much more efficient, thereby leaving "a smaller climate footprint."

More on data transmission: SpaceX Has a Major Problem With Its Starlink Internet Connections

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Scientists Managed to Transmit as Much Data as the Entire Internet's Bandwidth

Another election cycle, another social media platform threatening democracy.

According to a new report from Global Witness and NYU's Cybersecurity for Democracy team, TikTok is absolutely terrible at filtering out harmful misinformation regarding elections and politics.

The report actually tested TikTok, Facebook, and YouTube, all of which performed pretty poorly at detecting and removing misinformation-laden advertising content uploaded by researchers. Out of those, TikTok proved to be the worst. After uploading droves of ill-informed, potentially-dangerous advertisements for approval, the researchers found that 90 percent of those fake ads were ultimately approved by the popular video app.

Although the report is still preliminary, that's an alarming figure — especially considering how quickly TikTok's growth has outpaced that of other platforms in recent years, not to mention how wildly popular it is with younger people.

"This year is going to be much worse as we near the midterms," Olivia Little, a coauthor of the report, told The Guardian. "There has been an exponential increase in users, which only means there will be more misinformation TikTok needs to proactively work to stop or we risk facing another crisis."

Per the report, the fake advertisements ranged in what might be considered severity. Some, for example, contained misleading details like incorrect election dates; some included misleading or false voting requirements; others still used language that outright discouraged citizens from voting in the midterms at all.

And while a failure to filter out that much false — and therefore, inherently dangerous — material is a bad look for any platform, it seems especially so for one that's prided itself on its policies regarding election content and political advertisements. TikTok's loudly made clear that its policies don't allow for any paid political ads; any verified political accounts are automatically disqualified from using pay-to-play tools available to influencers, and just this past August, midterms in sight, the platform announced new-and-improved policy changes designed to tackle the misinformation threat.

"At TikTok, we take our responsibility to protect the integrity of our platform — particularly around elections — with the utmost seriousness," Erik Han, the app's head of US safety, wrote in an August blog post. "To bolster our response to emerging threats, TikTok partners with independent intelligence firms and regularly engages with others across the industry, civil society organizations, and other experts."

It's worth noting that this is the second time that TikTok has very explicitly come under fire for, um, threatening American democracy in recent days. On Thursday — the same day that this report was officially released — it was revealed that TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, had been planning on using the app's location data to spy on the physical locations of specific US citizens. (It's still unclear if they actually got around to it or not.)

As the Guardian points out, the app's remarkably tailored algorithm is inextricably linked to its misinformation failures. Like any of the platform's popular dance trends, misinformation can go very viral, very quickly, as was recorded in a report from the nonprofit Mozilla during Kenya's contentious August elections.

That being said, though, TikTok's virality-happy algorithm is central to app's success. And if that's how it keeps eyeballs on its pages, it's unlikely the company will make any serious changes that jeopardize that business reality — even if, at the same time, it's struggling to keep up with the spread of mis- and disinformation.

"If the TikToks of the world really want to fight fake news, they could do it," Helen Lee Bouygue, who heads a media literacy platform called Reboot Foundation, told the Guardian. "But as long as their financial model is keeping eyes on the page, they have no incentive to do so. That's where policymaking needs to come into play."

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Research Confirms TikTok Is a Cesspool of Misinformation

Bad Reaction

Europe's energy crisis may have just gotten worse.

The Wall Street Journal reports that dozens of France's nuclear reactors — which, amid Russia's devastating stranglehold on the continent's natural gas supply, are essential to the nation's energy security — remain offline following a series of troubling outages believed to be caused by stress-induced pipe corrosion. Fixes are reportedly taking longer than anticipated, but for a struggling continent on the brink of winter, those fixes can't come quickly enough.

"It's important that this work restarts as soon as possible," Emmanuelle Wargon, head of France's energy regulator, told the WSJ. "If not, the risk of not having electricity rises."

High Pressure

The nuclear fleet in question, owned by the energy provider EDF, is comprised of 56 reactors, of which 26 are currently out for the count.

According to the WSJ, the pipe problems trace back to late last year, when a crack was discovered in a high-pressure pipe close to the reactor's core at the nation's youngest nuclear plant. Other plants, which then launched their own investigations, discovered their own stress corrosion issues shortly thereafter.

"It is only possible to identify [stress corrosion's] presence once cracking has begun," read a note from France's Institute for Radioprotection and Nuclear Safety, the WSJ reports. "Regular inspections of the pipes can only identify the phenomenon once a fault is present."

Importantly, these aren't simple fixes. Because the majority of the cracks are so close to the reactor core, radioactivity is a very real threat for technicians, whose exposure has to be limited.

And given how complicated the repairs are, French power experts are reportedly quite pessimistic about the EDF's ability to get their reactors back online for the winter, especially given that, per the WSJ's sources, the timelines for several reactor fixes have already been pushed back by at least six weeks.

Beyond the Border

These outages are clearly terrible for France, but they're just as bad for the rest of Europe, too.

Natural gas prices have skyrocketed as a result of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, which sparred a barrage of Western sanctions and Russia's subsequent retaliation by way of natural gas restriction. Nations are asking a lot of their citizens, and the continent needs any ounce of energy that it can scavenge to at least somewhat comfortably — let alone safely — get through the winter.

READ MORE: France's Nuclear Reactors Malfunction as Energy Crisis Bites [The Wall Street Journal]

More on Europe's energy crisis: Europe's Energy Crisis Is so Bad It May Have to Idle Cern's Large Hadron Collider

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France Discovers Ominous Cracks in Dozens of Nuclear Reactors

Doo Doo Doo Doo

Someone deepfaked a video of President Joe Biden singing "Baby Shark" and calling it our "national anthem" — and as scary as that precedent is, the video itself is pretty amazing.

"Ladies and gentlemen, and now, our great national anthem," the president is heard saying in the video before busting out into a rendition of the worst children's song earworm since "Do You Want to Build a Snowman?"

Concern Quotient

Shortly after the edited video began circulating — with right-wingers claiming alongside it, of course, that it was evidence that Biden was suffering from dementia — the Associated Press debunked the disinformation associated with the video and confirmed that it was, indeed, a deepfake.

The concept that bad actors could morph footage to make anyone say anything they want is, in a word, terrifying. When applied to a figure as powerful as an American president, those issues go from concerning to alarming, with fears that phony videos could have long-lasting repercussions or be used to control public people a la "Black Mirror."

Feats of Tech

In spite of the high creepiness factor, however, it's worth taking a moment to recognize how impressive this technology is.

While it's fairly clear that the president's voice and mouth have been edited in this specific example, an untrained eye or a cursory glance — such as on TikTok, where the video also circulated heavily — might not catch that it's a fake. That, in an of itself, is a huge feat of technology that has only just begun being perfected.

We've entered a brave new world of AI — and it's able to make creepy, hilarious, and alarming videos of the president singing children's songs and calling them the national anthem.

More AI: People Can't Stop Feeding Their Selfies Into a Super Mean AI

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Creepy Deepfake Shows Biden Sing the "National Anthem": Baby Shark

Israeli biotech company BioHarvest claims to have grown a substance that features all the active ingredients of cannabis inside a bioreactor — and it's 12 times more potent than nature's best, The Times of Israel reports.

The company is heralding the invention as a breakthrough that could make medical cannabis cheaper and more environmentally friendly as well, since it doesn't need nearly as much water or any fertilizer at all.

"We don’t grow the plant at all," BioHarvest CEO Ilan Sobel told The Times of Israel, explaining that cells from the hemp plant are cultivated inside massive bioreactors in a lab.

The process is surprisingly quick as well.

"We grow them in huge bioreactors in just three weeks — while regular cannabis takes 14 to 23 weeks," he added. "Our tech can also significantly increase the levels of active ingredients, as a percent of the weight, versus what is found normally in the plant."

In other words, the resulting THC substance can be extremely potent — but it doesn't necessarily have to be.

"By adjusting specific conditions to which the cells are exposed, we can create different desired compositions of active ingredients, meaning we can dial up and down the various cannabinoids [compounds]," Sobel told the newspaper.

The substance also doesn't require any genetic modification and perfectly replicates all the CBD, THC, and "minor cannabinoid" compounds found in naturally grown weed, he said.

According to BioHarvest's calculations, it only needs one gallon of water to produce the same amount of material that it'd take 54 gallons to grow in plant form — and in 90 percent less space.

So what's the drawback? While the company has applied for licenses to sell its product in both the US and Israel for medical purposes, it will likely be a long and drawn-out process.

Then there's the question if people will actually be open to try it. BioHarvest claims its substance can be smoked, taken in pill or drop form, or used in chewing gum — but that's not a guarantee that consumers will embrace the new option.

Nonetheless, it's a fascinating look at a burgeoning industry. BioHarvest is even planning to test its products out in outer space, after partnering with retired Canadian astronaut Chris Hadfield.

Perhaps one day, space travelers will be able to still enjoy some recreational marijuana — without the need of maintaining an entire orbital greenhouse.

READ MORE: Cloned cannabis cells with 12 times more potency are grown in Israeli bioreactor [The Times of Israel]

More on BioHarvest: Former Astronaut Details Quest to Grow Cannabinoids in Space

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Scientists Grow Superpowered THC Substance Inside Bioreactors

Let That Sink In

Tesla CEO Elon Musk has shared a video of himself carrying what appears to be a ceramic bathroom sink into the lobby of Twitter HQ in San Francisco.

"Entering Twitter HQ — let that sink in!" the enigmatic billionaire wrote in the caption, clearly amused by his own dad joke.

Musk appears to be imminently ready to close the deal to buy the social media company, news that comes on the heels of months of chaotic negotiations, drama in the courts, and Musk's repeated and increasingly desperate attempts to get out of the $44 billion deal he signed with Twitter back in April.

Entering Twitter HQ – let that sink in! pic.twitter.com/D68z4K2wq7

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) October 26, 2022

Say Hi

Employees only got very short notice of Musk's impromptu visit. According to a shared screenshot of an email reportedly sent out to staff, "Elon is in the SF office this week meeting with folks, walking the halls, and continuing to dive in on the important work you all do."

"If you're in SF and see him around, say hi!" the email reads. "For everyone else, this is just the beginning of many meetings and conversations with Elon, and you'll hear directly from him on Friday," referring to the date Musk is rumored to close the deal.

Earlier this week, Musk notified co-investors that he will close his acquisition deal on Friday. Shares jumped following the news, nearing the original acquisition price of $54,20, Reuters reports.

A lot is at stake for Twitter. The Washington Post reported last week that Musk is planning to gut the company, firing up to 75 percent of staff.

In short, Twitter employees only have days for a new reality to "sink in" — the company almost certainly has some rocky weeks and months ahead of it.

More on the debacle: Investors in Elon Musk's Twitter Deal Horrified It Might Actually Go Through

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Elon Musk Spotted Carrying Sink Into Twitter Headquarters

Burger Kings

Rejoice, burger lovers! According to a new report from the World Resource Institute (WRI), those who live in the developed world can still eat delicious burgers and not entirely destroy the planet— as long as they make sure to cap consumption at about two normal-sized patties per week.

One catch, though: those two burgers will have to be the only meat you eat at all that week. So, uh, maybe tone down the celebration just a little.

Bunbelievable

This revelation, among many others, was found in the WRI's annual State of Climate Action report, the latest installment of which was published earlier today by the global nonprofit. For the report, researchers examined exactly how much — or, rather, how little — progress was made in 40 different key climate indicators, ranging from transport to renewable energies to, yes, meat consumption and more.

Burgers aside, we aren't exactly doing so hot in any of the categories.

Per the report, if humans are to avoid the worst of climate catastrophes, we'll have to do a lot of difficult things a lot faster than we're doing them today. Among other very tall tasks, coal will need to be phased out six times more quickly than is being done so today; the amount of available public transport has to expand, also at rates six times faster. Deforestation rates, too, must drop dramatically, while a rapid increase in the use of fossil fuels is cause for alarm as well.

"The world has seen the devastation wrought by just 1.1 [Celsius] of warming," Ani Dasgupta, the chief executive of the World Resources Institute, told The Guardian. "Every fraction of a degree matters in the fight to protect people and the planet."

Eat Your Veggies

As far as limiting meat goes, the researchers, like many others, cite agricultural emissions — a phenomenon that's been well on the rise since the dawn of the industry's industrialization — as a main cause for concern within the sector.

That being said, for cholesterol's sake, you probably shouldn't eat more than two burgers a week anyway. In any case, though, maybe this week, in the spirit of the State of Climate Action 2022, sub at least one meaty meal — burger or otherwise — for a vegetable dish instead.

"We are seeing important advances in the fight against climate change," Dasgupta continued to the Guardian, "but we are still not winning in any sector."

READ MORE: Cut meat consumption to two burgers a week to save planet, study suggests [The Guardian]

More on meat consumption: Scientists Cook Comically Tiny Lab-Grown Hamburger

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Scientists Identify Exact Number of Burgers You Can Eat Without Destroying the Earth

Death Drive

Tesla is reportedly under criminal investigation by the Justice Department over misleading marketing of its driver assistance system called Autopilot, Reuters reports.

According to Reuter's sources, the department launched an undisclosed probe last year, investigating more than a dozen crashes involving Tesla's notorious driver assistance feature, some fatal.

While we've heard of other regulators such as the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) also investigating the company over the same issue, a criminal probe could signify an even higher level of scrutiny for the electric car company.

Take the Wheel

The news also comes a week after Musk announced during an earnings call that an upcoming version of the company's dubiously-named "Full Self-Driving" feature would allow owners to drive "to your work, your friend’s house, to the grocery store without you touching the wheel."

Musk also said that "it won't have regulatory approval at that time," adding that he hopes to eventually convince regulators that it is indeed safe.

It sounds like the DOJ investigation is looking at Autopilot rather than Full Self-Driving, but autonomous vehicles are clearly part of his vision — which means this probe represents a threat.

READ MORE: Exclusive: Tesla faces U.S. criminal probe over self-driving claims [Reuters]

More on Autopilot: Overwhelming Majority of Automated Driving Deaths Caused By Tesla Vehicles

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Tesla Reportedly Under Criminal Investigation for Claiming Its Cars Can Drive Themselves

When Boots Riley's "Sorry To Bother You" dropped in 2018, we knew it was only a matter of time before some of the film's dystopian predictions started to come true. But we've gotta admit, AI technology that converts realtime speech into a cookie cutter, white-coded accent is pushing it.

AsSFGATE reports, a startup called Sanas is offering "accent translation" that makes call center employees many of whom are hired overseas, where labor is cheaper, and hence have non-American accents sound more palatable to American ears.

In short: yes, this startup really does make call center workers sound more white, and judging by the $32 million it's raised in its first series of funding, investors think there's a big business opportunity there.

Using artificial intelligence, Sanas claims on its website that it'll provide call center employees with the choice whether or not to make their accents sound more like "standard American English" a choice that will, per the company's marketing, help these workers "take back the power of their own voice."

That choice, as experts who spoke to theSFGate note, would likely be illusory. Call center works are deeply beholden to customer feedback, and if they realize that customers prefer the non-accented AI version of their speech, the incentive structure will almost certainly force their hand. And as Sanas president Marty Sarim admitted to the paper in an email, company owners "will hold the admin rights" to the technology.

"There is virtually nothing in the labor process of call centers which involves choice by the workers in terms of technology," Winifred Poster, a sociology professor at Washington University in St. Louis, toldSFGate.

Beyond those issues is the company's demo voice itself, which frankly doesn't sound all that human. The University of Toronto's Kiran Mirchandani, whose research was on the treatment of Indian call center employees, predicts that the type of callers who would be likely to be racist or angry towards accented call center workers are also likely to get abusive if they hear a robotic app voice.

"Customer racism is likely to increase if workers are further dehumanized when an app is placed between worker and customer," she told the SFGate, "especially since there will no doubt be errors made by the app."

Sanas' president,however, told the paper that he doesn't "foresee anything bad coming out of this."

"We don't want to say that accents are a problem because you have one," Sarim told SFGate. "They're only a problem because they cause bias and they cause misunderstandings."

Sorry to bother you, dude, but that seems dubious.

READ MORE: Sanas, the buzzy Bay Area startup that wants to make the world sound whiter [San Francisco Gate]

On the brighter side of AI voice tech:Val Kilmer's Dialogue in "Top Gun: Maverick" Was Read By An AI Because He Can't Speak Anymore

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Cursed Startup Using AI to Remove Call Center Workers' Accents - Futurism

Kinda sad, sorry.NFT Come Lately

Iconic rappers Calvin "Snoop Dogg" Broadus Jr and Marshall "Eminem" Mathers took the stage at this year's MTV Music Video Awards to perform their single "From the D 2 the LBC," with each performer rendered as a Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT they own.

It was an uncomfortable attempt to blend the real world and the "metaverse," brought to life in a cringe-inducing NFT extravaganza that felt more like a hastily assembled marketing pitch than a music performance.

The low effort rendering of Snoop Dogg in particular almost seemed like an afterthought, with his virtual chain, a nod to the classic label Death Row Records which he acquired earlier this year with an eye toward web3 monetization repeatedly clipping through his torso, like a character in an poorly designed video game.

As such, the event seemed to typify the challenges faced by both the metaverse and NFTs, each of which has managed to build substantial investment and hype even though neither has necessarily demonstrated the merit to justify that interest.

But hey, at least we got to see Em and Snoop shuffling around like characters from "The Sims."

A whole host of celebrities many aging, like Broadus and Mathers have jumped on the Bored Ape bandwagon as of late, spending tremendous sums on the exclusive rights to cartoon illustrations of simians.

But the overall NFT market isn't looking too great these days. According to recent estimates, the number of NFT transactions has fallen off a cliff this summer, leading to renewed speculation about an impending NFT bubble.

Even the Bored Apes, one of the biggest NFT collections out there by transaction volume, has been facing plummeting prices.

Will Snoop and Em's thinly-veiled attempt at riding that wave prove to be a saving grace? Anything can happen in the music business, but don't hold your breath.

More on the song: Eminem and Snoop Dogg Make Music Video Where They Appear As Their Bored Apes

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Snoop Dogg Did a Song in the "Metaverse" and His Bling Kept Clipping Through His Torso - Futurism

Were guessing that among Hackadays readership are plenty of futurists, and while the past might be the wrong direction in which to look when considering futurism, we wouldnt blame any of them for hankering for the days when futurism was mainstream.

Perhaps one of the most globally iconic buildings of that era could have been found in Tokyo, in the form of the Nakagin Capsule Tower, Kisho Kurokawas 1972 Metabolist apartment block. This pioneering structure, in which individual apartments were conceived as plug-in units that could be moved or changed at will, never achieved its potential and was dismantled, looking more post-apocalyptic than futuristic in early 2022, but it could live on in both digital form and reconstructed elsewhere as the rights to its design are being auctioned.

Unfortunately there appears to be some NFT mumbo-jumbo associated with the sale, but whats up for auction is a complete CAD model along with the rights to build either real or virtual copies of the building. Its unlikely that any Hackaday readers will pony up for their own Metabolist skyscraper, but the interest lies not only in the love of a future that never quite happened, but in the engineering behind the structure. Where this is being written as in many other places there is simultaneously a chronic housing shortage and a housing system wedded to the outdated building techniques of a previous century, so the thought of updated equivalents of the Nakagin Tower offering the chance of modular interchangeable housing in an era perhaps more suited to it than the 1970s is an intriguing one. Now that were living in the future, perhaps its time to give futurism another chance.

Regular readers will have spotted this isnt the first time weve brought you a taste of futuristic living.

Header: Svetlov Artem, CC0.

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Remember when John McAfee died last summer in an apparent suicide? According to a dubious claim by one of his exes, it was all an elaborate hoax.

In a new Netflix documentary titled "Running With the Devil: The Wild World of John McAfee," McAfee's Belizean ex Samantha Herrera claims that the fugitive tech entrepreneur called her after his reports of his death by suicide in June 2021 and asked her to run away with him.

"I dont know if I should say," Herrera told the cameras, "but two weeks ago, after his death, I got a call from Texas: 'Its me, John. I paid off people to pretend that I am dead, but I am not dead.'"

"'There are only three persons in this world that know Im still alive,'" Herrera claims that McAfee told her.

Let's be clear: in one way or another, this is almost certainly shenanigans. It's possible that Herrera is the victim of a hoax herself, that she's making stuff up for publicity, or some other strange explanation. But it's very, very unlikely that McAfee is still alive.

The claims are notable, though, because Herreradoes have something akin to credibility given that the pair were together in her native Belize in 2012 when McAfee's neighbor, Gregory Faull, was murdered execution-style after fighting with the antivirus pioneer over his dogs.

She then went on the lam with him when authorities began seeking him for questioning in the Florida-born Faull's murder, though McAfee claims in the documentary footage thathe was really running from the Belizean prime minister, who'd put a $150,000 bounty on his head.

"His side of the story is that theyre after him because he didnt pay off the government," Herrara said in the documentary. "They wanted to hurt him, to get rid of him."

Herrara not only got her big-time lawyer relative Telsforo Guerra to defend her infamous American boyfriend, the New York Post notes in a summary of the documentary, but helped McAfee flee the country and was at his side when he had a heart attack while hiding out in Guatemala City.

When the pair relocated to the United States, however, McAfee broke things off with her, marrying a woman named Janice Dyson who, it should be noted, believes he was murdered and did not commit suicide.

In an interview withEsquire, documentary director Charlie Russell said he can't make heads or tails of Herrera's claim that McAfee called her after he reportedly had died.

"I dont know what I think and I dont think she does," Russell said. "She says it, then she looks at the camera, and I cant work out whether she thinks its real or not."

And sure, the whole story sounds too outrageous to be believed but then again, so did the rest of the antivirus entrepreneur's drug-fueled fugitive life.

READ MORE:What if Hes Still out There?: John McAfee Documentary Director on That Call From Beyond the Grave [Esquire]

More death-faking:Chimpanzee Star of "Buddy" Found Alive After His Owner Allegedly Faked His Death

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John McAfee Faked His Death and Is Still Alive, Ex-Girlfriend Claims - Futurism

"You can't have a fancy house near a rocket site."Mamma Mia

In spite of being the richest person on Earth and hence more than able to afford the finest things in life Elon Musk purportedly puts his mom up in his garage when she visits his demure home near SpaceX's Starbase in Boca Chica, Texas.

"I have to sleep in the garage," Maye Musk, the billionaire's supermodel mom, told The Times of London. "You can't have a fancy house near a rocket site."

In the wide-ranging interview, the elder Musk said that her "genius boy" son had always been disinterested in owning possessions a characterization that fits with his 2020 declaration that he was going to sell all his properties and have no "main residence."

If it sounds a little bit bizarre that Musk's 74-year-old mother has to stay in her son's garage, it's possible she's indulging in her son's penchant for exaggeration.

To wit, Musk said earlier this summer that that his South Texas residence is "technically a three-bedroom but it used to be a two-bedroom" until he converted the garage. So maybe she meant a bedroom that was formerly a garage.

Regardless, mystery has haunted Musk's living situation for several years. For a while, he was making a big deal out of living in a tiny prefab shack near SpaceX's launch site. Last winter, though, the Wall Street Journalpublished a report based on information from unnamed sources that the SpaceX CEO had actually been living in his friend and fellow "Paypal Mafia" member Ken Howery's lavish waterfront mansion in Austin. In the face of such intrigue, both Musk and Howery denied the WSJ's claimand the story eventually faded away.

But then again, we wouldn't put it past her uber-famous son to actually make his mother stay in his garage, which would rank incredibly low on the list of bizarre things about Musk that we'll never understand.

READ MORE: Maye Musk: I called Elon Genius Boy. He remembered everything [The Times of London]

More on weird Elon: Experts Say Elon Musk Messed Up by Having Secret Children With His Employee

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Elon Musk's Mom Says She Has to Sleep "in the Garage" When She Visits Him - Futurism

If youre into ebooks, mobile games, and saving money (who isnt?), these back-to-school deals on tablets are a dream come true. All of the top brands are joining in on the discounts, so its prime time to find a great tablet for a fraction of the cost.

Cheaper than a laptop and bigger than a phone, tablets are a great choice for entertainment or work at home and on the go. With the apps and features you love available at the push of a button, having a tablet to hand can open many possibilities. Connecting these gadgets to a wireless keyboard makes for a super affordable laptop, or stream straight to your TV and youve got yourself a universal remote. Whatever you use your tablet for, be sure to grab one of these back-to-school deals to avoid overpaying.

Amazons Fire tablets have been in competition with Apples iPads for some time now, but given the capabilities and major discounted price of the Fire HD 10, it might be the reigning champ of this back-to-school season. This tablet gives you access to all of the apps available on Amazons app store, including social media, video streaming, music streaming, Office, Kindle, and many more. The Fires 1080p full-HD display is now 10 percent brighter than previous models, making it a great choice for catching up on the latest shows, or using its split-screen feature that allows you to multitask with ease.

This thin, lightweight tablet was built with energy efficiency in mind, allowing up to 12 hours of use between charges. With the hands-free Alexa mode, you can pause your show, ask a question, or make calls all with your voice and when youre done, switch this feature off with the toggle for privacy. The optional keyboard add-on will transform your Fire HD 10 into the perfect device for school work or office work, allowing you to type up an essay or catch up on emails easily. This tablet is going for $50 off the original price, and if you know anything about Amazon sales, youll know its for a limited time. So, take advantage of this great deal while you can.

Kindle, $64.99 (Was 89.99)

Fire HD 10 Kids Pro, $139.99 (Was $199.99)

Fire HD 8, $69.99 (Was $89.99)

Fire HD 8 Kids, $109.99 (Was $139.99)

iPad (2021), $279.99 (Was $329)

iPad Mini (2021), $599 (Was $649)

MEBERRY Android 10.0 Tablet, $124.09 (Was $199.99)

Samsung Galaxy Tab A8, $275 (Was $329.99)

For more discounts, check out our coverage of back-to-school deals and early Labor Day sales.

This post was created by a non-news editorial team at Recurrent Media, Futurisms owner. Futurism may receive a portion of sales on products linked within this post.

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Save $50 on a Fire HD 10 and More With Back-to-School Deals on Tablets - Futurism

Although abortion is still legal in Michigan, Facebook decided to heavily restrict a post on Planned Parenthood of Michigan's (PPMI) Facebook page this week.

The group shared an article about ordering the abortion pill online, but it was made visible only to page managers, not its audience totally curtailing the dissemination of perfectly accurate and reasonable information from a trusted authority on the topic.

"The Supreme Court cast our nation into an abortion access crisis when they discarded half a century of precedent and opened the door for politicians to pass sweeping abortion bans," PPMI spokesperson Ashlea Phenicie told local news outlet Michigan Advance this week. "Millions of Americans are now scrambling to find information about the legal status of abortion in their state and how to access care. Social media corporations like Meta are piling on to the crisis by removing content related to medication abortion and other services."

Phenicie shared a screenshot of the now-unavailable post and said the decision went further than the overturn of Roe v. Wade requires.

Since the Supreme Court reversed Roe v. Wade, getting information about abortions or abortion pills has become increasingly difficult. Many people worry their browser and search histories could get them arrested, and it's already happening. Earlier this month, NPR reported that Facebook had turned over private messages that led to a teen being prosecuted for having an abortion.

It's bad enough to lose access to bodily autonomy and doubly so in heartbreaking cases where difficult pregnancies are doomed to fail but legally mandated.

And in light of all that, Facebook removing legal, safe information about abortion, posted to a specific regional organization's page, is just rubbing salt in the wound.

More on questionable medical decisions: Kids Born Near Fracking Sites More Likely to Have Leukemia, Study Says

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Facebook Restricts Perfectly Reasonable Abortion Info from Planned Parenthood - Futurism

This feels like a recipe for disaster.Sure, Guy

A crime-prognosticating AI now exists, and it's been implemented in a number of American cities. But don't worry, it definitely won't be misused by city police forces at least according to its lead creator, University of Chicago professor Ishanu Chattopadhyay.

Chattopadhyay recently sat down with BBC Science Focus to discuss the AI system, which, as a study published in the journal Human Behavior claims, can predict where and when a crime might occur with 80 to 90 percent accuracy. But whether the predictions hold up in the real world, while of course important, isn't necessarily the core question here: really, the question is whether AI can be successfully incorporated into a police force without abuses and while Chattopadhyay believes his system can be, AI's track record in policing says otherwise.

"People have concerns that this will be used as a tool to put people in jail before they commit crimes," Chattopadhyay told BBC. "That's not going to happen, as it doesn't have any capability to do that."

The incorporation of AI into policing is hardly new, and neither is the controversy surrounding it similar software has already been implicated in wrongful imprisonment and even the wrongful death of an unarmed 13-year-old child. More generally, AI across the board is known to be fickle, riddled with racial and otherwise discriminatory biases, and is notoriously difficult to explain, even by those who build it.

Speaking to the BBC, Chattopadhyay who says that he hopes his AI will be used to curb crime through social and political measures, not just excessive policing acknowledged some of these concerns, particularly AI's well-documented racism problems. He believes that other AI systems are just too simplistic, relying far too heavily on information like arrest histories and individual characteristics. In contrast, his system uses only event log data, which he claims helps to "reduce bias as much as possible."

"It just predicts an event at a particular location," he added. "It doesn't tell you who is going to commit the event or the exact dynamics or mechanics of the events. It cannot be used in the same way as in the film 'Minority Report.'"

Sure. Look, we're never ones to shy away from optimism, but given the record of systemic abuses of similar experimental cop-assisting softwares not to mention the systemic abuses against vulnerable populations that already exist within American policing, minus any AI this optimism seems far fetched.

READ MORE: An algorithm can predict future crimes with 90% accuracy. Heres why the creator thinks the tech wont be abused [BBC Science Focus]

More on AI projects we don't need: Cursed Startup Using AI to Remove Call Center Workers' Accents

Original post:

Professor Says He Foresees No Issues With His AI That Predicts Crimes Before They Happen - Futurism

It's chaos over there.Metamates

Less than a year after Facebook rebranded as Meta and launched its Metaverse efforts, the head of its virtual reality platform is leaving the company for greener pastures.

Vivek Sharma, who until this weekend headed up Meta's Horizon VR platform as a vice president at the tech giant, confirmed toReuters that he's leaving the company to pursue outside opportunities.

"Thanks to [Sharma's] leadership," a Meta spokesperson said in a statement circulated by CNBC, "the Horizon product group has built a strong team with an ambitious vision, and it is just getting started."

The spokesperson also confirmed to news outlets that those who worked under Sharma, whose teams created the company's Horizon Worlds world-building VR and its virtual events division Horizon Venues, will now report to Metaverse vice president Vishal Shah.

So far, Meta has struggled to make its Metaverse vision compelling to a meaningful chunk of the population. The question now is whether Sharma's departure will help or hinder that potential transition.

Since announcing its Metaverse in October 2021 and changing the company name to Meta the following month, the ostensible transition has been rocky.

From a scary whistleblower warning and lots of expert detractions to the arguably more-damaging fact that everything we've seen so far of the Metaverse looks pretty "basic" the term used just this month by CEO Mark Zuckerberg himself to describe the graphics of his much-clowned-upon avatar it hasn't been an easy road for the nascent Metaverse, even as the company has poured billions into making it viable.

Sharma has so far declined further about his exit, so it's unclear whether he was force out or jumped ship, nevermind how the departure will effect Zuckerberg's vision long term.

From an optics perspective, though, it certainly doesn't look great.

READ MORE:Meta head of virtual reality platform Horizon leaving company [Reuters]

More on the Metaverse:People Are Going on Dates In the Metaverse and it Sounds Very Strange

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The Head of Facebook's Beleaguered "Metaverse" VR Platform is Leaving the Company - Futurism

Its important to take the safety of your home seriously, and Blink has a 50 percent discount on its Blink Mini security camera for Labor Day weekend. Right now, you can get two of its Blink Mini smart security cameras for $35, which is the price it typically charges for one. The company is also offering a three-pack of Blink Mini cameras for $50, which is helpful if you have an especially big place.

The Blink Mini stacks up well when directly compared to similar smart security cameras despite its small size and price. It can record clear-looking 1080p video in any lighting condition thanks to its night-vision mode, and will automatically start creating a clip any time its motion sensor has been triggered.

The Blink Mini will also send your phone a notification that the camera has detected something, so you can watch a live feed in a couple of taps using the Blink app. Once the camera is done recording, itll send its clip to the cloud, where it can be watched, shared, and downloaded at your earliest convenience.

Storing clips from the Blink Mini on the cloud requires a subscription service, which costs $10 per month or $100 per year. You also have the option to save your video locally by picking up a Blink Sync Module 2 and USB drive, which will set you back about $50 but save you money in the long run. You can get Blinks three-camera bundle along with those two accessories for a total of $100.

One of the Blink Minis greatest strengths is its small size. Its tiny enough to be hidden on a shelf in an entertainment center without drawing much attention to itself. A would-be burglar could easily pass right by one of these cameras without noticing. If you can find an out-of-the way part of your room for the camera while still being able to get the angle you need to keep a would-be thief in frame, all the better.

There are a bunch of great Labor Day Weekend deals, but Blinks stands out as one of the best weve seen because of the depth of the discount and sheer utility of its Mini cameras.

Kasa Smart Plug Power Strip, $54.99 (Was $79.99)

Leviton Decora Smart Wi-Fi Light Switch, $49.99 (Was $80)

NETGEAR Nighthawk Pro WiFi 6 Router, $189.97 (was $246.99)

GE Cync Smart Bulb (2-Pack), $24.99 (Was $33.99)

Echo Dot (4th Gen), $39.99 (Was $49.99)

Ring Video Doorbell, $84.99 (Was $99.99)

Eufy Security Floodlight Camera, $99.99 (Was $199.99)

Rachio 3 Smart Sprinkler Controller, $180 (Was $229.99)

For more discounts, check out our coverage ofback-to-school dealsandearly Labor Day sales.

This post was created by a non-news editorial team at Recurrent Media, Futurisms owner. Futurism may receive a portion of sales on products linked within this post.

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Get Two Smart Security Cameras For The Price Of One With Blink's Labor Day Deal - Futurism