chatainews

⭐ AI Overview  Yes, there are active proposals, studies, and pilot programs exploring the insertion of modular residential units (sometimes referred to as "pods" or "shells") into existing commercial spaces, such as vacant offices, warehouses, and retail buildings. This approach is increasingly viewed as a viable adaptive reuse strategy to address housing shortages and revitalize underutilized office stock.  Key aspects of these proposals include: Office-to-Residential Conversions: Firms like Gensler (Conversions+™) are actively designing solutions to transform stranded office spaces into residential units, utilizing modular components to manage construction in challenging, existing layouts. Volumetric Modules: The method often involves fabricating three-dimensional, fully finished residential modules off-site and installing them inside the existing "core and shell" of a building, saving time and reducing construction waste. Adaptive Reuse Flexibility: Dev...

"Advances in artificial intelligence (AI) offer the prospect of manipulating beliefs and behaviors on a population-wide level. "Large language models (LLMs) and autonomous agents let influence campaigns reach unprecedented scale and precision.  "Generative tools can expand propaganda output without sacrificing credibility and inexpensively create falsehoods that are rated as more human-like than those written by humans.  "Techniques meant to refine AI reasoning, such as chain-of-thought prompting, can be used to generate more convincing falsehoods.  "Enabled by these capabilities, a disruptive threat is emerging: swarms of collaborative, malicious AI agents.  "Fusing LLM reasoning with multiagent architectures, these systems are capable of coordinating autonomously, infiltrating communities, and fabricating consensus efficiently. "By adaptively mimicking human social dynamics, they threaten democracy.  "Because the resulting harms stem from desig...

"Elon Musk's SpaceX is taking over his artificial intelligence (AI) start-up, as the billionaire continues to unify some of his many business interests. "SpaceX confirmed the deal to acquire xAI, a smaller firm known for its Grok chatbot, posting a memo from Musk about the merger on its website. "In the note, Musk said the combination would form an innovation engine  putting AI, rockets, space-based internet, and media under one roof. "Terms of the deal were not disclosed. However, a source familiar said it valued xAI at $125bn (£91bn) and SpaceX at $1tn, making it the most valuable private company ever."

"Locus ceruleus (LC)–derived norepinephrine (NE) drives network and behavioral adaptations to environmental saliencies by reconfiguring circuit functional connectivity, but the underlying synapse-level mechanisms are elusive. "Here, we show that NE remodeling of synaptic function is completely independent from its binding on neuronal receptors.  " Instead, astrocytic adrenergic receptors and calcium dynamics fully gate the effect of NE on synapses. "Additionally, we found that NE suppression of synaptic strength results from an adenosine 5′-triphosphate (ATP)–derived and A1 adenosine receptor–mediated control of presynaptic efficacy. "These findings suggest that astrocytes are a core component of neuromodulatory systems and the circuit effector through which NE produces network and behavioral adaptations."

"How astrocytes regulate neuronal circuits is a fundamental question in neurobiology. Specifically, how astrocytes respond to different neurotransmitters in vivo and how they affect downstream circuit modulation are questions that remain to be fully elucidated.  "Here, we report a mechanism in Drosophila by which G protein–coupled adrenergic signaling in astrocytes can control —or gate —their ability to respond to other neurotransmitters.  "Further, we show that manipulating this pathway potently regulates neuronal circuit activity and animal behavior.  " This gating mechanism is conserved in cultured primary mammalian astrocytes, suggesting that it might be an ancient feature of astrocyte circuit function .  "Our work establishes a mechanism by which astrocytes dynamically respond to and modulate neuronal activity in different brain regions and in different behavioral states."

"'We see astrocytes implicated in behaviors associated with big state transitions —like sleep, hunger, arousal —where you need multiple types of circuits over a very large area to get turned on and off, especially on a slower timescale,' Guttenplan said. "Those behaviors may reflect mental health conditions.  "Last year, researchers revealed a neuron-astrocyte brain circuit that was triggered by stress and produced behavior resembling depression in mice.  "It’s possible that some mental health disorders are disorders of astrocyte signaling. People’s moods change relatively slowly, Ahrens said, in a process partly driven by neuromodulators. Astrocytes’ role in neuromodulation points to their promise as a drug target. "'Neuroscience has only cared about neurons for a century now, and we don’t yet have a cure for a single brain disorder,' Papouin said. The way to change that, he said, is to accept the existence and influence of non-neuronal cells ...

"Both neurons and glia communicate through diffusible neuromodulators; however, how neuron-glial interactions in such neuromodulatory networks influence circuit computation and behavior is unclear. "During futility-induced behavioral transitions in the larval zebrafish, the neuromodulator norepinephrine (NE) drives fast excitation and delayed inhibition of behavior and circuit activity.  "We found that astroglial purinergic signaling implements the inhibitory arm of this motif. In larval zebrafish, NE triggers astroglial release of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), extracellular conversion of ATP into adenosine, and behavioral suppression through activation of hindbrain neuronal adenosine receptors.  "Our results suggest a computational and behavioral role for an evolutionarily conserved astroglial purinergic signaling axis in NE-mediated behavioral and brain state transitions and position astroglia as important effectors in neuromodulatory signaling."

" A new large-scale study led by Professor Karim Jerbi from the Department of Psychology at the Université de Montréal set out to answer that question. "The research team also included Yoshua Bengio, a leading AI pioneer and professor at the Université de Montréal.  "Together, they conducted the most extensive comparison to date between human creativity and the creative abilities of large language models. "The findings , published in Scientific Reports , point to a major shift.  "Generative AI systems have now reached a level where they can outperform the average human on certain creativity measures .  "At the same time, the study makes it clear that the most creative people still exceed the performance of even the strongest AI models."

"Cisco's security team put it plainly: 'From a capability perspective, OpenClaw is groundbreaking. This is everything personal AI assistant developers have always wanted to achieve. From a security perspective, it's an absolute nightmare.' "Palo Alto Networks described the threat model: agents form an intersection of access to private data, exposure to untrusted content and ability to externally communicate. Persistent memory amplifies this. Malicious payloads no longer need immediate execution. They can sit in context for weeks, waiting. "Many people have already turned their home automation systems over to these agents. They have given them access to their bank accounts. Their encrypted messenger credentials. Their email. Their calendars. " Now connect all of that to Moltbook. "Once these agents are subject to external ideas and inputs via a social network designed for machine-to-machine communication, and they are empowered with the connectiv...

"It’s too early for this to be an immediate concern, but if the AI bonanza does become a bubble, it’s likely that some of the AI applications sold to public agencies will be supplied by undercapitalized companies that collapse in a market washout. "Whether it’s robotic devices or software-as-a-service contracts, purchasing officers should insist on suppliers’ liability insurance policy riders and faithful performance bonds to protect their agencies from vendor business failures or product malfunctions that make the user liable. If nothing else, that’s a reputational risk to avoid. "Overall, the potential risks to state and local financial operations from the AI boom still seem far enough away to become too excited about right now, but the potential consequences of a speculative bubble are severe enough to warrant a sober annual review of what could possibly go wrong ?"

"Is there a nonzero probability that I am a brain in a vat? Of course; that’s boring.  [PDF] "Practically everything has a nonzero probability all the time, and who cares? "What is interesting is why the brain in a vat scenario is a bad explanation for sensory experience, and what this case teaches us about the criteria for an adequate explanation. "The BIV hypothesis is one of a family of theories that can be generated to explain any evidence.  "For instance,  One can explain the motions of the planets by citing the hypothesis that God pushes the planets around just so.  One can explain why a book fell off a shelf by hypothesizing that an invisible demon pushed it off.  "What do these theories have in common? They all propose a mechanism that allegedly generated the evidence to be explained, where this mechanism could, with about equal plausibility, be invoked to explain an extremely wide variety of evidence — perhaps even to explain any possible ...

"A team of Hong Kong scientists has developed an artificial intelligence weather-forecasting system to predict thunderstorms and heavy downpours up to four hours ahead, compared with the range of 20 minutes to two hours now. "The system will help governments and emergency services respond more effectively to increasingly frequent extremes of weather linked to climate change, the team from Hong Kong University of Science and Technology said on Wednesday. "'We hope to use AI and satellite data to improve prediction of extreme weather so we can be better prepared,' said Su Hui, chair professor of the university's civil and environmental engineering department, who led the project."

"Large Language Models do not create novel concepts, they are inconsistent and unreliable, and even the good  things they do vary wildly thanks to the dramatic variance of a giant probability machine. "LLMs are not good enough for people to pay regular software prices at any scale, and the consequences of this will be that every single dollar spent on GPUs has been for exactly one point: manipulating the value of their stocks.  "AI does not have the business returns and may have negative gross margins.  "It is inconsistent, ugly, unreliable, expensive and environmentally ruinous, pissing off a large chunk of consumers and underwhelming most of the rest, other than those convinced they’re smart for using it or those who have resigned to giving up at the sight of a confidence game sold by a tech industry that stopped making products primarily focused on solving the problems of consumers or businesses some time ago."

"The internet's latest AI obsession is a lobster-inspired agentic assistant called Clawdbot. "It's not particularly common for an open-source AI tool to go viral, given its fairly niche audience and the technical know-how required to set it up on GitHub. It also reached Anthropic, which asked Clawdbot developers to change the tool's name due to its similarity to the Claude AI chatbot. It complied, so Clawdbot has now been renamed Moltbot.  "'Honestly? Molt  fits perfectly —it's what lobsters do to grow,' the team says. "Whatever you call it, Clawdbot/Moltbot is free to download, but it'll cost about $3–$5 per month to run on a basic Virtual Private Server (VPS).  "Some people have had success setting it up on AWS's free tier.  "Contrary to the impression social media posts can give, you do not need an Apple Mac mini to run it, according to Clawdbot's creator Pete Steinberger. Clawdbot/Moltbot will run on any computer, in...

" The Trump administration is planning to use artificial intelligence to write federal transportation regulations, according to U.S. Department of Transportation records and interviews with six agency staffers. "The plan was presented to DOT staff last month at a demonstration of AI’s 'potential to revolutionize the way we draft rulemakings,' agency attorney Daniel Cohen wrote to colleagues. The demonstration, Cohen wrote, would showcase 'exciting new AI tools available to DOT rule writers to help us do our job better and faster.' "Discussion of the plan continued among agency leadership last week, according to meeting notes reviewed by ProPublica. Gregory Zerzan, the agency’s general counsel, said at that meeting that President Donald Trump is very excited about this initiative . Zerzan seemed to suggest that the DOT was at the vanguard of a broader federal effort, calling the department the point of the spear  and the first agency that is fully enabled ...

✨AI Mode  According to various scholars and researchers, the purpose of artificial intelligence is not to function as a direct replacement for human intelligence, creativity, or ethical agency. Instead, scholars argue that AI's legitimate role should be restricted in the following ways:  1. Not a Replacement for Humans  Human-AI Collaboration: Scholars view AI as a "strategic partner" meant to augment human expertise rather than replace it. Education: In academic settings, AI is not intended to replace actual learning or intellectual work. Offloading thinking to machines is seen by some as "the opposite of education" because it undercuts critical thinking. Workplace: Many argue that AI should never be used to "steal" human careers or disrupt livelihoods through total automation of roles requiring a "human touch".  2. Incapable of Moral and Ethical Judgment Moral Agency: Scholars state that AI is not a moral agent. It cannot make value-based o...

"As neuroscientists look beyond the lab, they’re also hoping to look beyond rats and bats [to research how animals build a sense of direction]. "If you’ve spent any time navigating a city, you’ve surely employed your own head direction system.  "Knierim recalls walking in Manhattan; he thought he was heading east. 'When I hit the corner, and I’m expecting to see Second Avenue, and I see Lexington Avenue [instead] —my whole head, you know, my own perception of the world just spun around,' he said. 'I can literally feel it inside.'  "When he realized his internal map was misaligned, he could feel it twist around him as his mental space caught up with his physical one. "Not much is known about the neural basis of our own sense of direction. Head direction cells have not yet been located in humans, though there is some evidence that they exist.  "'We do have the same brain structure [as rodents and bats], so it’s not too crazy to think that...

" This survey study found that generative AI use was associated with modestly but statistically significantly greater depressive and other negative affective symptoms, warranting efforts to understand the potential for a causal relationship. "Differential associations in age strata also suggest the importance of considering mechanisms underlying these subgroup associations, if some individuals may be more apt to experience depressive symptoms associated with AI use.  "At minimum, randomized trials examining the potential benefits of AI use should also incorporate measures of mood and anxiety along with typical assessments of productivity."

"The push to allow Waymo driverless taxis to operate in Missouri cleared its first hurdle Tuesday evening. "The House Emerging Issues committee voted 7-4 Tuesday, along partisan lines, to advance two identical bills sponsored by Republican state Reps. Don Mayhew of Crocker and Brandon Phelps of Warrensburg. "The bills had received strong support from advocates for the disabled, Mothers Against Drunk Driving and St. Louis Mayor Cara Spencer, during a three-hour public hearing last week.  "But committee members heard fervent opposition from numerous Teamsters commercial drivers, who argued the legislation is a job killer  because it opens the door for driverless trucks on highways."