Bad weather may have been a cause of Sunday's crash that killed Ebrahim Raisi. But mechanical issues, possibly exacerbated by a lack of spare parts due to U.S. sanctions, could also be a factor.
The Seoul summit is a follow-up to last November's summit in the U.K., where participating countries agreed to work together to contain risks posed by galloping advances in artificial intelligence.
Johansson says she was approached multiple times by OpenAI to be the voice of ChatGPT, and that she declined. Then the company released a voice assistant that sounded uncannily like her.
Oversharing can make children vulnerable to identity theft, harassment and predators. To protect their privacy, share a 'holiday card-or-less' amount of data online, says expert Leah Plunkett.
Scientists are testing the limits of artificial intelligence when it comes to language learning. One recent challenge? Learning ... whale! Researchers are using machine learning to analyze and decode whale sounds — and it's just as complicated as it seems.
Curious about other mysteries of nature? Email us at shortwave@npr.org.
A helium leak pushed back a planned launch to May 25. Boeing's program that would shuttle astronauts to and from the International Space Station has been plagued with problems.
Last month, the world narrowly avoided a cyberattack of stunning ambition. The targets were some of the most important computers on the planet. Computers that power the internet. Computers used by banks and airlines and even the military.
What these computers had in common was that they all relied on open source software.
A strange fact about modern life is that most of the computers responsible for it are running open source software. That is, software mostly written by unpaid, sometimes even anonymous volunteers. Some crucial open source programs are managed by just a single overworked programmer. And as the world learned last month, these programs can become attractive targets for hackers.
In this case, the hackers had infiltrated a popular open source program called XZ. Slowly, over the course of two years, they transformed XZ into a secret backdoor. And if they hadn't been caught, they could have taken control of large swaths of the internet.
On today's show, we get the story behind the XZ hack and what made it possible. How the hackers took advantage of the strange way we make modern software. And what that tells us about the economics of one of the most important industries in the world. Help support Planet Money and hear our bonus episodes by subscribing to Planet Money+ in Apple Podcasts or at plus.npr.org/planetmoney.
OpenAI's latest AI model, GPT-4o mimics human vocal cadences. NPR's Bobby Allyn speaks with Arizona State University professor Visar Berisha about how it could change our relationship with machines.
The Justice Department is expected to argue that its clamp down on TikTok is about national security, but Constitutional lawyers say there is no way around grappling with the free speech implications.
"Russia remains the most active foreign threat to our elections," said Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, noting that new AI technologies make influence operations easier to pull off.
As artificial intelligence seeps into some realms of society, it rushes into others. One area it's making a big difference is protein science — as in the "building blocks of life,"proteins! Producer Berly McCoy talks to host Emily Kwong about the newest advance in protein science: AlphaFold3, an AI program from Google DeepMind. Plus, they talk about the wider field of AI protein science and why researchers hope it will solve a range of problems, from disease to the climate.
Have other aspects of AI you want us to cover? Email us at shortwave@npr.org.
A Jesus made of vegetables, bizarre log cabins, products that don't exist. AI-generated images are creating new forms of clickbait and causing some users to doubt what's real.
AI can conjure the voice or likeness of a dead celebrity with just a few clicks. This opens a host of legal questions about the rights of the deceased and their heirs to control their digital replicas
Flying cars might seem like something out of the distant future. But Advanced Air Mobility (AAM), as the technology is known, is about to land at a general aviation airport near you.