OpenAI released a report on just how much people talk to ChatGPT to seek healthcare advice, and the numbers are staggering.
Category: robotics/AI
Language shapes visual processing in both human brains and AI models, study finds
Neuroscientists have been trying to understand how the brain processes visual information for over a century. The development of computational models inspired by the brain’s layered organization, also known as deep neural networks (DNNs), have recently opened new exciting possibilities for research in this area.
By comparing how DNNs and the human brain process information, researchers at Peking University, Beijing Normal University and other institutes in China have shed new light on the underpinnings of visual processing. Their paper, published in Nature Human Behavior, suggests that language actively shapes how both the brain and multi-modal DNNs process visual information.
New GoBruteforcer attack wave targets crypto, blockchain projects
A new wave of GoBruteforcer botnet malware attacks is targeting databases of cryptocurrency and blockchain projects on exposed servers believed to be configured using AI-generated examples.
GoBrutforcer is also known as GoBrut. It is a Golang-based botnet that typically targets exposed FTP, MySQL, PostgreSQL, and phpMyAdmin services.
The malware often relies on compromised Linux servers to scan random public IPs and carry out brute-force login attacks.
AI-generated sensors open new paths for early cancer detection
Detecting cancer in the earliest stages could dramatically reduce cancer deaths because cancers are usually easier to treat when caught early. To help achieve that goal, MIT and Microsoft researchers are using artificial intelligence to design molecular sensors for early detection.
The researchers developed an AI model to design peptides (short proteins) that are targeted by enzymes called proteases, which are overactive in cancer cells. Nanoparticles coated with these peptides can act as sensors that give off a signal if cancer-linked proteases are present anywhere in the body.
Depending on which proteases are detected, doctors would be able to diagnose the particular type of cancer that is present. These signals could be detected using a simple urine test that could even be done at home.
The Syntellect Hypothesis: Five Paradigms of the Mind’s Evolution: Tuynman PhD, Antonin, Vikoulov, Alex M: 9781733426145: Amazon.com: Books
Celebrating a 7-year anniversary of the first edition of my book The Syntellect Hypothesis (2019)! I can’t help but feel like I’m watching a long-launched probe finally begin to transmit back meaningful data. What started as a speculative framework—half philosophy, half systems theory—has aged into something uncannily timely, as if reality itself had been quietly reading the manuscript and taking notes. In those seven years, AI has gone from clever tool to cognitive co-actor, collective intelligence has accelerated from metaphor to measurable force, and the idea of a convergent, self-reflective Syntellect no longer feels like science fiction so much as a working hypothesis under active experimental validation.
Looking back, the book captured a moment just before the curve went vertical. Looking forward, it reads less like a prediction and more like an early cartography of a terrain we’re now actively inhabiting. The signal is stronger, the noise louder, and the questions sharper—but the core intuition remains intact: intelligence doesn’t merely grow, it integrates. And once it does, history stops being a line and starts behaving more like a phase transition.
Here’s what Google summarizes about the book: The Syntellect Hypothesis: Five Paradigms of the Mind’s Evolution by Alex M. Vikoulov is a book that explores the idea of a future phase transition where human consciousness merges with technology to form a global supermind, or “Syntellect”. It covers topics like digital physics, the technological singularity, consciousness, and the evolution of humanity, proposing that we are on the verge of becoming a single, self-aware superorganism. The book is structured around five paradigms: Noogenesis, Technoculture, the Cybernetic Singularity, Theogenesis, and Universal Mind.
Key Concepts.
Syntellect: A superorganism-level consciousness that emerges when the intellectual synergy of a complex system (like humanity and its technology) reaches a critical threshold. Phase Transition: The book posits that humanity is undergoing a metamorphosis from individual intellect to a collective, higher-order consciousness.
Five Paradigms: The book is divided into five parts that map out this evolutionary journey: Noogenesis: The emergence of mind through computational biology. Technoculture: The rise of human civilization and technology. The Cybernetic Singularity: The point of Syntellect emergence. Theogenesis: Transdimensional propagation and expansion. Universal Mind: The ultimate cosmic level of awareness.
Themes and Scope.
New BMI uses AI to reveal hidden metabolic disorders
Researchers at Leipzig University and the University of Gothenburg have developed a novel approach to assessing an individual’s risk of metabolic diseases such as diabetes or fatty liver disease more precisely. Instead of relying solely on the widely used body mass index (BMI), the team developed an AI-based computational model using metabolic measurements. This so-called metabolic BMI shows that people of normal weight with a high metabolic BMI have up to a fivefold higher risk of metabolic disease. The findings have been published in the journal Nature Medicine.
The conventional body mass index, calculated using height and weight, may indicate overweight but does not reflect how healthy or unhealthy body fat actually is. According to BMI classifications, up to 30% of people are considered to be of normal weight but already show dangerous metabolic changes. Conversely, there are individuals with an elevated BMI whose metabolism remains largely unremarkable. This discrepancy can lead to at-risk patients being identified and treated too late.
For the current scientific study, the international research team analyzed data from two large Swedish population studies involving a total of almost 2,000 participants. In addition to standard health and lifestyle parameters, extensive laboratory data from blood samples and analyses of the gut microbiome were collected. Based on this dataset, the researchers developed a computational model that predicts metabolic BMI.
Distinct AI Models Seem To Converge On How They Encode Reality
“The endeavor of science is to find the universals,” Isola said. “We could study the ways in which models are different or disagree, but that somehow has less explanatory power than identifying the commonalities.”
Other researchers argue that it’s more productive to focus on where models’ representations differ. Among them is Alexei Efros, a researcher at the University of California, Berkeley, who has been an adviser to three of the four members of the MIT team.
“They’re all good friends and they’re all very, very smart people,” Efros said. “I think they’re wrong, but that’s what science is about.”
A trio of AI methods tackles enzyme design
Naturally occurring enzymes, while powerful, catalyze only a fraction of the reactions chemists care about.
That’s why scientists are eager to design new-to-nature versions that could manufacture drugs more efficiently, break down pollutants, capture carbon, or carry out entirely new forms of chemistry that biology never evolved.
Read more.
RFdiffusion2, RFdiffusion3, and Riff-Diff each solve different structural problems in computational enzyme design by Elizabeth Walsh.
Should AI be allowed to resurrect the dead?
Griefbots fundamentally change the process of mourning.
Xingye, the platform on which Roro created her late mother’s chatbot, is one of the key prompts for proposed new regulations from China’s Cyberspace Administration, the national internet content regulator and censor, which seek to reduce the potential emotional harm of “human-like interactive AI services”
What does digital resurrection do to grief?
Deathbots fundamentally change the process of mourning because, unlike seeing old letters or photos of the deceased, interacting with generative AI can introduce new and unexpected elements into the grieving process. For Roro, creating and interacting with an AI version of her mother felt surprisingly therapeutic, allowing her to articulate feelings she never voiced and achieve a sense of closure.