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Sierra Space fired up its spaceplane in its assembly facility for the first time, signifying that the Dream Chaser shuttle could soon be ready for its first mission to low Earth orbit.
Astronomers Could Soon Get Warnings When SpaceX Satellites Threaten Their View
The Colorado-based company announced on Wednesday that it had successfully completed the first power-up of its Dream Chaser spaceplane. During the test, engineers simulated the power that would otherwise be generated by Dream Chaser’s solar arrays once the spaceplane is in orbit and its systems are turned on.
“This is a milestone that points to the future and is a key moment in a long journey for Dream Chaser.” Tom Vice, CEO of Sierra Space, said in the company’s statement. “With this significant achievement, our Dream Chaser spaceplane is poised to redefine commercial space travel, opening up new possibilities for scientific research, technological advancements, and economic opportunities in space.”
The Dream Chaser is an orbital spaceplane designed to fly to low Earth orbit, carrying crew and cargo to orbital pitstops such as the International Space Station (ISS). The futuristic-looking shuttle is designed to carry up to 12,000 pounds (5,443 kilograms) of cargo. As Dream Chaser cannot fly to space on its own, a big rocket, namely ULA’s Vulcan Centaur, is required to deliver the craft to low Earth orbit. Like NASA’s Space Shuttle, however, Dream Chaser is designed to survive atmospheric reentry and perform runway landings on the surface.
Sierra Space is targeting the end of 2023 for Dream Chaser’s first flight from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. This flight is under a supply mission contract with NASA to send cargo to the ISS. The company also wants to launch crewed Dream Chaser missions to its own space station, Orbital Reef, a collaboration with Jeff Bezos’ Blue Origin.
The company is preparing to ship the first Dream Chaser, named Tenacity, to NASA’s Neil Armstrong Test Facility in Ohio for testing ahead of its inaugural flight, SpaceNews reported. The exact date of its launch, however, has yet to be disclosed. The spaceplane is set to launch on board the second mission for ULA’s Centaur, but the rocket’s first mission has been repeatedly postponed.
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Chefs and taste testers at World Of Vegan learned this lesson the hard way after testing more than 100 different spring recipes, date night dishes, and dessert ideas created by OpenAI’s ChatGPT. The results were “hilariously pitiful,” one chef said. Out of the dozens of recipes churned out, only one dish, cauliflower tacos, were deemed “successful” by World of Vegan’s team of chefs.
Many of the other failed dishes sound fine at first glance, but after a quick analysis, the chefs found numerous examples of situations where ingredients clashed or where cooked dishes wound up a soggy, nasty mess. A simple spring veggie wrap generated by ChatGPT, for example, ended up looking more like last night’s dinner after a brutal hangover. Oven-baked chocolate cupcakes, meanwhile, somehow looked wound up looking like a deep crater caused an errant bombing run.
The sudden rise of advanced large language models to the mainstream in recent years has revealed how, in many areas, AI and software are outpacing robotics. Ironically, that doesn’t seem to be the case in food service. Rudimentary robots can already flip burgers and help assemble more complicated meals in the physical world while ChatGPT fails to put together beginner-level dishes.
“I imagine specially-programmed robots can cook up chef-created, Michelin Star-worthy meals, no problem,” World of Vegan Founder & CEO Michelle Cehn told Gizmodo. “However, when it comes to generating sensible—let alone innovative and delectable—recipes, the technology proved to be too immature in its development to consistently achieve our desired results.”
Chatbots aren’t entirely useless when it comes to food. The model can, in a pinch, help brainstorm a dish if you give it a handful of ingredients you happen to have on hand since the model is essentially predicting the most likely combinations of those individual elements. On the other hand, AI’s tendency to simply make shit up seemingly out of whole cloth could leave hungry users sorely disappointed. Oh, and don’t expect it to properly fill out your grocery list either.
“It may be okay, and even entertaining, to use ChatGPT to help whip up a recipe,” World of Vegan Blog assistant and taste tester Erin Wysocars said. “[But] be warned that it may still flop and those ingredients you wanted to save may turn into garbage anyway. May your stomach rumble and empty fridge serve as the lesson here!”
“For recipes, ChatGPT is a tool, but should not be the tool for finding human-generated and tested recipes,” Wysocars added.
Keep reading to see some of ChatGPT’s terrible concoctions. Recipes for each dish are included, should you dare tempt fate.
YouTube’s recommendations are leading young kids to videos about school shootings and other gun-related content, according to a new report. According to the Tech Transparency Project (TTP), a nonprofit watchdog group, YouTube’s recommendation algorithm is “pushing boys interested in video games to scenes of school shootings, instructions on how to use and modify weapons” and other gun-centric content.
The researchers behind the report set up four new YouTube accounts posing as two 9-year-old boys and two 14-year-old boys. All accounts watched playlists of content about popular video games, like Roblox, Lego Star Wars, Halo and Grand Theft Auto. The researchers then tracked the accounts’ recommendations during a 30-day period last November.
“The study found that YouTube pushed content on shootings and weapons to all of the gamer accounts, but at a much higher volume to the users who clicked on the YouTube-recommended videos,” the TTP writes. “These videos included scenes depicting school shootings and other mass shooting events; graphic demonstrations of how much damage guns can inflict on a human body; and how-to guides for converting a handgun to a fully automatic weapon.”
As the report notes, several of the recommended videos appeared to violate YouTube’s own policies. Recommendations included videos of a young girl firing a gun and tutorials on converting handguns into “fully automatic” weapons and other modifications. Some of these videos were also monetized with ads.
In a statement, a YouTube spokesperson pointed to the YouTube Kids app and its in-app supervision tools, which “create a safer experience for tweens and teens” on its platform.
“We welcome research on our recommendations, and we’re exploring more ways to bring in academic researchers to study our systems,” the spokesperson said. “But in reviewing this report’s methodology, it’s difficult for us to draw strong conclusions. For example, the study doesn’t provide context of how many overall videos were recommended to the test accounts, and also doesn’t give insight into how the test accounts were set up, including whether YouTube’s Supervised Experiences tools were applied.”
The TTP report is far from the first time researchers have raised questions about YouTube’s recommendation algorithm. The company has also spent years working to reduce so-called “borderline” content — videos that don’t break its rules outright but may otherwise be unsuitable for mass distribution — from appearing in recommendations. And last year, the company said it was considering disabling sharing altogether on some such content.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://ift.tt/BDpIVn1
Google’s Pixel 8 Pro could come with a new feature that’s not quite commonly found on phones. 91mobiles has published a video from tipster Kuba Wojciechowski showing what looks like Pixel device being used to measure a person’s temperature. Yep, if the leak is legit, the upcoming flagship Pixel will have a built-in thermometer. The video shows an infrared sensor similar to the ones used by contactless thermometers inside the metal panel where the rear cameras are also located.
Based on the demonstration of the built-in thermometer, users will have to take off their glasses or any other eye and forehead accessories. They then have to bring the sensor as close to their forehead as possible without actually touching it and then moving their phone towards their temple in 5 seconds. 91mobiles says the sensor could also be used to measure the temperature of inanimate objects, but the video didn’t demonstrate how that would work. Google’s employees have reportedly been testing the feature, as well.
A previous leak of computer renders show the Pixel 8 Pro as a rounded version of the Pixel 7, and this new video does show a device that’s identical to those renders. While the upcoming phone bears a lot of physical similarities to its predecessor, its three rear cameras are now inside one module. On the Pixel 7 Pro, one of the three camera sensors is in a separate module.
A thermometer is perhaps a curious feature addition for a phone, especially now that pandemic-related measures are no longer followed. Take note that this is merely a leak, and it remains to be seen whether the Pixel 8 Pros that will make their way to buyers will actually have the sensor.
91mobiles‘ video has already been deleted due to a copyright claim, but one of the publication’s readers tweeted a copy that we’ve embedded below.
First leaked video of the Pixel 8 Pro showing off the phone and it’s new thermometer feature.
Meta could turn to Magic Leap for help to stay ahead of Apple and other new entrants in the soon-to-be crowded AR space. According to the Financial Times, the two companies are in talks to sign a multi-year IP licensing and manufacturing pact. Details on the negotiations are few, but according to the outlet’s sources, a potential partnership is not expected to produce a jointly developed headset. Instead, a deal could see Magic Leap provide Meta with access to some of its optical tech. The partnership could also see the startup assist with manufacturing Meta devices, thereby allowing the tech giant to produce more of its VR headsets domestically at a time when there’s more pressure for US companies to lessen their dependence on China.
Meta did not immediately respond to Engadget’s comment request. Magic Leap told the Financial Times partnerships were becoming a“significant line of business and growing opportunity for Magic Leap.” Additionally, in a blog post titled “What’s Next for Magic Leap,” CEO Peggy Johnson said late last year the company had “received an incredible amount of interest from across the industry to license our IP and utilize our patented manufacturing process to produce optics for others seeking to launch their own mixed-reality technology.”
The timing of the report is notable for a couple of reasons. Meta is under pressure from investors to show something for all the money it has spent pursuing CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s vision for the future of computing. The company does not expect to make a profit from all of its metaverse projects for another few years. At the same time, it is burning about $10 billion annually on its Reality Labs division. Separately, Apple is widely expected to enter the AR headset market next month when the company holds its WWDC developer conference.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://ift.tt/O5jZsRn
Microsoft has a lot of news at this year’s Build conference around its AI "copilots" for Windows 11 and other products, but it wants third-party developers in on the action too. The company announced that it has expanded its AI plugin ecosystem and provided a framework for building AI apps and copilots. At the same time, it’s adopting the same open plugin standard that OpenAI uses for ChatGPT to ensure it’ll work alongside its Windows 11, 365 and other copilots.
Microsoft introduced the idea of copilots nearly two years ago. Those are applications that use AI and LLMs (large language models) to help users with complex cognitive tasks like writing sales pitches, generating images and more. For example, ChatGPT on Bing is actually a copilot, and Microsoft has also launched copilots for Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Security, among others.
Now, it’s adding features that let developers build their own using new "plugins" that allow copilots to interact with other software and services. "You may look at Bing Chat and think this is some super magical complicated thing, but Microsoft is giving developers everything they need to get started to go build a copilot of their own," said Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott. "I think over the coming years, this will become an expectation for how all software works."
Microsoft
In addition, Microsoft said it’s adopting the same open plugin standard used by Open AI so that all of Microsoft’s copilots can potentially work with ChatGPT. "That means developers can now use one platform to build plugins that work across both business and consumer surfaces, including ChatGPT, Bing, Dynamics 365 Copilot, Microsoft 365 Copilot and Windows Copilot," it wrote.
As part of that platform, Bing is adding plugin support for third-party companies including Instacart, Kayak, Klarna, Redfin and Zillow. That’s on top of those previously announced by Open AI including OpenTable and Wolfram. Developers can also extend Microsoft 365 Copilot using ChatGPT and Bing plugins, as well as Teams message extensions and Power Platform connectors. Developers will also be able to build their own plugins with the Microsoft Teams Toolkit for Visual Studio Code and Visual Studio.
Finally, Microsoft announced that Azure AI Content Safety is now in preview. It’s designed to ensure copilots avoid creating outputs that are "biased, sexist, racist, hateful, violent" or encourage self-harm, said Microsoft product manager Sarah Bird. The models detect inappropriate content across images and text, then flag them and assign severity scores so that human moderators can see anything that requires urgent action. "It’s part of the safety system that’s powering the new Bing… [and] we’re now launching it as a product that third-party customers can use," said Bird.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://ift.tt/lVDw3OG
Arc, a Mac-only internet browser from the aptly-named Browser Company, is one of those apps trying to reimagine a core computing tool. Years after we all decided that a stack of tabs at the top of a browser window is how we’re doing things, Arc has a different approach. Like most modern apps, Arc puts everything in a sidebar and lets you build spaces that you can use to focus on a particular task. For example, all the research and documents I need for a particular article live in their own space, and I can jump over to another for personal tabs or a third for keeping an eye on the news of the day.
Arc, which launched a little over a year ago, certainly has its quirks. A big one is the fact it doesn’t have a bookmarking system like other browsers, and there are a lot of small things that differentiate it from Chrome and Safari. One of those features is taking center stage in a new update that Arc is rolling out today. It’s called Boosts, which the Arc team grandly refers to as a way to take control over the sites they visit. I’ve been testing the Boosts 2.0 release for a few weeks, and while I don’t think it is reinventing the internet, it does open up some fun possibilities.
Boosts first launched about a year ago, and product designer Nate Parrott told me the concept was to “make it 10 times easier” to build a browser extension. “If you’re the kind of person who likes to tinker with things or a person who makes websites, you probably have all the technical skills to make a Chrome extension, like JavaScript and CSS and HTML,” Parrott said, “and yet nobody makes them because it’s just really hard.” And while the original Boosts release put a bunch of tools right in the browser to let you customize sites, it still wasn’t exactly user-friendly for people who don’t know things like CSS.
“Ten times easier than making a Chrome extension is not really that easy,” Parrott said. “You have to know how to code, you have to be willing to dig around in the web inspector and figure out what things are called in the code and stuff like that. It’s just not that easy.” Boosts 2.0 fixes that in a pretty major way by giving anyone a few simple tools to tweak sites they visit. If the original Boosts made things ten times easier, Parrott wanted Boosts 2.0 to make it 50 times easier.
To that end, Boosts now has a handful of simple but useful ways to customize basically any site. There’s a color picker that lets you change most sites from the standard white or black backgrounds you’re used to, and you can also replace the font in many cases as well. That might not sound like that big a deal, but it can really make things feel fresh – being able to change the Spotify web app from the black-and-green motif was nice, and being able to try some new customization features for my Gmail inbox was fun as well.
Perhaps more useful is the “Zap” feature. This lets you highlight an element of a page that you don’t want to see and just… zap it into oblivion. I tried this with YouTube Music; since the service added podcasts a few weeks ago, the “explore” page has included a “top shows” segment that surfaces some extremely low-quality garbage. I just clicked the zap button, highlighted the section and now I don’t have to think about it anymore.
Results can be a bit hit or miss. For example, I tried to zap some elements on Twitter’s website to essentially make it read-only so I can use it to dig for news without being tempted to actually engage with anything. I was able to delete the row that contains the reply and like buttons below a tweet, but getting that to apply to every tweet didn’t work for me. Of course, if you have the technical knowledge to dig into a site’s code, you can still do that just like you can in Boosts 1.0 and use tools like CSS, HTML and Javascript to tweak things to your liking.
You can also share your Boosts with other Arc users, something else that’s new to this release. (Any Boost that uses Javascript is unable to be shared for security reasons, though.) If you’ve come up with a particularly inspired tweak to a site, you can share it directly with a friend, as each Boost has a permalink. Arc will also be curating a gallery of its favorite custom options as well.
The Browser Company
I asked Parrott if he had any concerns that giant corporations would take issue with users tweaking their websites, but he had the good point that Arc’s user base is so small that it’s hard to imagine it would be an issue. He also had some philosophical thoughts about the tension between how people want the internet to look versus how companies and designers want it to look. “We’ve swung so far in the direction of ‘users do not have agency over the web tools that they use,’ while the companies have so much control,” he said. “I think that really anything that swings the pendulum a little bit in the other direction of ‘the users actually have a little bit of agency over this’ I think is gonna be a positive thing and a healthy thing.”
Right now, Arc is still Mac-only and you need to sign up on a waitlist to get access, so whatever weird things people try with Boosts 2.0 will remain a minor part of the internet landscape for now. And after playing around with them a bit, I can’t say they’d be a key driver in my decision to use Arc over another browser – but then again, I’m not much of a tweaker. Maybe the people who prefer Android over an iPhone, or those who are spending hours making wild contraptions in The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom are exactly the kind of people who might enjoy painting Engadget’s home page in a lovely shade of teal.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://ift.tt/V3gqxr6
