An artificial intelligence project backed by SpaceX founder Elon Musk has been so successful that its developers are not releasing it to the public for fear it will be misused.

Research group Open AI developed a 'large-scale unsupervised language model' that is able to generate news stories from a simple headline.  But the group insists it will not be releasing details of the programme and instead has unveiled a much smaller version for research purposes.  Its developers claim the technology is poised to rapidly advance in the coming years and the full specification and details of the project will only be released when the negative applications have been discussed by researchers.

OpenAI is a group founded by Musk and backed by Silicon Valley heavyweights, including LinkedIn's Reid Hoffman.  Musk has famously been an outspoken critic of AI, calling it the biggest existential threat to humankind and warning '[we could create] an immortal dictator from which we would never escape.'

While OpenAI is describing its work in the paper, it is not releasing the full model out of concern it could be misused.

The researchers said: 'Due to our concerns about malicious applications of the technology, we are not releasing the trained model.  As an experiment in responsible disclosure, we are instead releasing a much smaller model for researchers to experiment with'.

Dario Amodei, OpenAI's research director, said: 'We're not at a stage yet where we're saying, this is a danger.  We're trying to make people aware of these issues and start a conversation.'

The new model, known as GPT-2, has been developed using technology that already allows computers to write short news reports from press releases.  The programme produced a nine paragraph piece based on a two line manual insert about scientists discovering unicorns.

Language models let computers read and write and are 'trained' for specific tasks, such as; translating languages, answering questions or summarising text. 

Researchers found the model is able to read and write longer passages more easily than they expected, and with little human intervention.   These general purpose language models could write longer blocks of information by using text openly available on the internet.   They say it will take several years before the model can be reliably used and the process will require costly cloud computing.

Sam Bowman, an assistant professor at New York University who has reviewed the research, said: 'We're within a couple of years of this being something that an enthusiastic hobbyist could do at home reasonably easily.   It's already something that a well-funded hobbyist with an advanced degree could put together with a lot of work.'

The team is hoping to rapidly advance the technology in the next few years and release it in a safe way and as a reliable version to the public.

Alec Radford, one of the paper's co-authors, said: 'It seems like there is a likely scenario where there would be steady progress.  We should be having the discussion around, if this does continue to improve, what are the things we should consider? '

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Ford has invented a prototype bed that automatically rolls selfish sleepers back to their side of the mattress whenever they stray onto the other half.

The car maker has adapted the lane-centering assist technology used to ensure drivers remain in the middle of their lane into a concept dubbed the Lane-Keeping Bed, in a bid to help sleep-deprived partners pushed to the edge of the bed at night.  Pressure sensors detect when a person moves from one side of the bed to the other, and gently rolls them back to their side with the help of an integrated conveyor belt.

The Lane-Keeping Bed was created as part of an exploratory project of the company's technology aimed at tackling everyday problems and remains a prototype, meaning there are not any current plans to put it to market.  It's equipped with electric engines and motion control technology that propel a treadmill-like machine inside the mattress.  When it senses a bed hog taking up too much space, it gently rolls them back over to their side of the bed without waking them up.

Ford worked with its ad agency, GTB, to design the smart bed.  First, it considered dividing the bed up into two sections, so that if a sleeper tried to hog the bed, the mattress would incline and roll them over, according to Fast Company.

However, they realized that to move a human body, the incline would have to be very steep, which might make the whole contraption unsafe.   Additionally, before settling on pressure sensors, Ford designers considered using night-vision cameras to track the sleepers' positions, but decided it would be too creepy.  Integrating pressure sensors into the mattress turned out to be the right solution, given that they're out of sight of the sleeper.

The smart bed aims to tackle the problem of bed hogs, or sleepers who take up too much space while snoozing, often leaving their bedmate annoyed and at risk of losing out on a good night's sleep.

According to Dr. Neil Stanley, a sleep expert and author, we often move unconsciously during a night's sleep.  Each night, on average we make between 12 and 20 'major positional changes,' he said.  Stanley added that this can cause sleep deprivation, which can prove to be a major problem for our physical, mental and emotional health.

Stanley explained: 'When sleeping together, many couples each have less space than a small child has in a single bed.  Humans are most vulnerable when sleeping, so we're programmed to wake when something or someone touches us unexpectedly.  If someone moves onto your side of the bed this defense mechanism will kick in and you'll have a broken night, often while they continue to sleep soundly.  I've seen it ruin relationships.'

Ford decided to take a page from its Lane-Keeping car technology to craft the smart bed.

'Lane-Keeping Assist in our cars can make driving easier and more comfortable.  We thought that showing how similar thinking could be applied to a bed, would be a great way to highlight to drivers a technology that they might not previously have been aware of,' added Anthony Ireson, Ford of Europe's marketing communication director.

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An artist has created elaborate symbols with his drone to draw them in under fifteen minutes using the expanse of the Colorado sky as his canvas.  Giant light paintings including Pokemon characters Pikachu and Ellie, a perfect outline of a giant cube, the famous Batman symbol and the Broadway show Hamilton's logo lit up the night sky.

Artist and photographer Russell Klimas uses a Lumecube, a powerful LED light, which he attaches to his drone to create bright, white streaks in the sky depicting the images.

He also uses Google Earth and a navigation app called Litchi to create detailed flight plans for making waypoints to make the intricate paintings at the clearest point in the sky.  Time lapse footage also shows him making the symbols in the sky in real time.  

He said: 'A few months ago I was inspired to try and see what shapes I could create while attaching a Lumecube to my drone.  I’d seen people like Phil Fisher do shapes in the sky manually and was extremely impressed but didn’t have the time to learn how to fly shapes manually.  So instead I scoured the net on drone apps that could make things like this possible, and this was my discovery.'

He bought the Littchi program, an app which allows you to fly your drone and take photos, for $10 from the app store, available on Android or Apple.

To capture the entire sky, Mr Klimas sets up a digital camera with a very wide lens (12mm) so he can use the entire area in the sky.  He uses a very slow shutter speed to create the light painting effect.

Mr Klimas says he prefers manually putting in the waypoints one at a time instead of drawing lines for them because it allows him to draw the image in much more detail.

He said: 'A shape can consist of a few way points or hundreds to thousands.  My current record when writing this article is 633 for Santa and his reindeer but you can definitely have much more.'

He keeps a close eye on what section of the figure the drone is flying in as he needs to cover the lens for any parts he does not want in the final image.  This is because the LumeCube is switched on during the entire flight.

'If you are creating a shape that has any gaps in it like Pikachu then you’ll need to know either when to cover and uncover your lens or you can change your Point of Interest of your drone.  I attach my light to the back and the light will turn so your camera can’t see it,' he wrote in a blog post.

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Fascinating and rare footage shows a male sea dragon carefully carrying his female's eggs under his tail.

Underwater videographer Jarrod Boord, 37, captured the video whilst deep diving in Port Phillip Bay in Melbourne.  The stunning piece of footage has even garnered the attention of David Attenborough, who wrote Boord a personal letter.

Male sea dragons are responsible for carrying eggs after fertilisation, which happens in a delicate process were the female transfers the babies to the male.  As with sea horses, sea dragon males are responsible for childbearing.  They carry the offspring for around a month before the hatchlings emerge into the water.

But instead of a pouch, like sea horses have, male sea dragons have a spongy brood patch on the underside of the tail where females deposit their bright-pink eggs during mating.  The males incubate the eggs and carry them to term, releasing miniature sea dragons into the water after about four to six weeks.

These elusive creatures are only known to be located in the Southern Ocean and can be hard to spot unless you know where to look.

Mr Boore, who grew up photographing wildlife, moved into film and has won multiple awards for his documentary and wildlife cinematography.  He says that these leaf-shaped creatures are his favourite animal and was amazed to find that the male he was tracking was carrying eggs.

'It is not very common to see as they can only be seen with eggs at particular times of year.  I also once received a letter from David Attenborough about how the Weedy Sea Dragon is one of his favourite animals too.  I think the video is amazing as it can show how everyone is different, but we all have our strengths, no matter what others say,' he said.

Pollution and habitat loss have also hurt their numbers, and they are currently listed as near threatened.

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The horror genre has long maintained its popularity despite fear otherwise being a negative experience.  According to new research, this may be in part because horror entertainment gives us a sense of control over our fears and stimulates the emotions.  In one of several recent studies designed to shed light on the phenomenon, the researchers analyzed the mental tactics used by haunted house attendees to either maximize or reduce their fear.

In the study, Mathias Clasen from Aarhus University in Denmark surveyed 280 haunted house visitors after asking them to focus on taking control of their fear, according to New Scientist.  This revealed stark contrasts between participants who were asked to minimize their own fear, and those instructed to boost it.  All participants, however, got physically closer to the other people in their group.

‘It was striking that the same gesture of seeking physical proximity can work in those diametrically opposed ways,’ Clasen told New Scientist.

According to the researcher, the participants who were instructed to maximize their fear ultimately reported more enjoyment than the other group, despite being more scared.  The findings suggest horror films or similar experiences help thrill-seekers feel as though they’re overcoming simulated danger.

‘When people report that they were more scared, they may not mean they were scared for their life, but enjoying a high state of [emotional] arousal, rather than pure fear,’ Garriy Shteynberg at the University of Tennessee told New Scientist.

Recent research has helped paint a better picture of the mechanisms that control fear in the human brain, and some scientists are even working to eradicate it.

A study published in 2017 claimed to have discovered a way to erase fear memory from the brain.  In the study, researchers in Japan created bursts of ‘destructive oxygen’ to inactivate specific responses in the hippocampus of mice.  This region is involved in memory and navigation, and the work may have implications for human treatments, as similar techniques have been proposed with hopes they can one day help treat PTSD and other memory-related disorders.

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Mindfulness is a natural painkiller, research suggests.

A study found the trendy meditation - favoured by the likes of Hollywood's resident 'health guru' Gwyneth Paltrow and pop sensation Katy Perry - is just as effective at easing discomfort as the go-to treatment cognitive behavioural therapy (CBT).

Focusing the mind on the present moment is thought to help sufferers cope with their discomfort, which also improves their 'physical functioning' and reduces their risk of depression.

The research was carried out by The Ottawa Hospital in Ontario, and led by the biostatistician Dr Wei Cheng.  Writing in the journal Evidence Based Mental Health, the scientists said: 'While CBT is considered to be the preferred psychological intervention of [chronic pain], not all patients with [it] experience a clinically significant treatment response.  Although a number of recommendations have been proposed to improve CBT for patients with chronic pain, an additional solution may be to offer patients mindfulness based stress reduction.  [Mindfulness] shows promise in improving pain severity and reducing pain interference and psychological distress.'

Chronic pain affects one in five adults and 'may impact all dimensions of a person's wellbeing'.  The most common psychological-based treatment is CBT, which aims to help people develop coping mechanisms for their discomfort.  However, this does not work for all sufferers.

The researchers set out to determine CBT's effectiveness compared to mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR).  MBSR focuses on 'building awareness and acceptance of moment-to-moment experiences including physical discomfort and difficult emotions'.

The scientists trawled through 21 studies with a total of nearly 2,000 chronic pain sufferers.  These patients - who were mainly women - underwent either CBT or MBSR for at least three months.  The participants were aged between 35 and 65, and largely suffered from musculoskeletal pain, such as back ache or arthritis.  In nearly four out of ten of the studies, the patients had endured their pain for more than a decade.

Results suggested mindfulness is just as effective as CBT when it comes to improving 'physical functioning'.  Both are also equally as good at easing pain and reducing associated conditions, such as depression.

But the researchers stress only one of the studies directly compared CBT with MBSR.  The scientists also only judged 12 of the trials to be of 'reasonable or good quality'.

Further research is therefore required to determine if CBT or mindfulness is better for people with different types of pain and psychological symptoms, they add.

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Driverless cars will cruise around city centres while their owners shop instead of parking to avoid extortionate parking fees, according to new research.

The influx of the controversial vehicles meandering around the roads would likely increase congestion and cause huge traffic jams, scientists claim.  During this time they will also save petrol by going slow to 'kill time' - amplifying the issue.

Adam Millard-Ball, an associate professor of environmental studies at the University of California, Santa Cruz, said: 'Parking prices are what get people out of their cars and on to public transit.  But autonomous vehicles have no need to park at all.  They can get around paying for parking by cruising.  They will have every incentive to create havoc.'

Chancellor Philip Hammond expects 'fully driverless cars', with no safety attendant on board, to be in use in just two years - by 2021.

The study, published in the journal Transport Policy says the nightmare of 'robot-fuelled gridlock' is right around the corner.  Professor Millard-Ball says self driving, or autonomous, vehicles are likely to become commonplace in the next five to 20 years.  He carried out the first analysis of its kind into the combined impact of parking costs and the vehicles on city centres where the expense and availability of space restricts car travel.  It found, under the 'best-case scenario,' the presence of just 2,000 self-driving cars in downtown San Francisco will slow traffic to less than two miles per hour.

Professor Millard-Ball used game theory and a traffic micro-simulation model to generate his predictions.  He said: 'It just takes a minority to gum things up.  Drivers would go as slowly as possibly so they wouldn't have to drive around again.'

Free smartphone parking areas, coupled with strict enforcement in loading areas, relieved the airport snarls.  But cities will be hard-pressed to provide remote parking areas for driverless cars at rates lower than the cost of cruising.  Professor Millard-Ball estimates this at just 50 cents an hour - about 30p in English money.

The solution, according to the researchers, lies in 'congestion pricing' to charge people for entering densely populated areas.   In London's city centre, motorists pay a flat fee of £11.50 (about $15) to enter.  Singapore and Stockholm employ similar models.  More sophisticated systems could charge by miles driven, or assign different fees to particular streets.

Professor Millard-Ball said: 'Congestion pricing is difficult to implement.  The public never wants to pay for something they have historically gotten for free.  But no one owns an autonomous vehicle now, so there is no constituency organised to oppose charging for the use of public streets.  This is the time to establish the principle and use it to avoid the nightmarish scenario of total gridlock.'

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Clay tablets found in Modern-day Iraq have revealed key secrets about medicine thousands of years ago.  The tablets were discovered decades ago but new research has unearthed the writings of a trainee doctor from the 'cradle of civilisation'.

Several tablets, written in the ancient cuneiform script form a timeline of events showing the different aspects of a medical education 2,700 years ago.  Researchers believe this could provide an entirely new outlook on how illness was treated in ancient civilisations.

A Danish PhD student analysed clay tablets written by a man called Kisir-Aššur in the seventh century BC.  The tablets were found in what was once known as the 'cradle of civilisation' in the ancient remains of the city of Assur in Northern Iraq.

Written in an ancient language invented by Sumerians called cuneiform script the tablets tell the story of a doctor in training.  He records his work and his methods in the ancient scripture.  The tablets speak about a combination of medical practices (potentially handed down to the Greeks) and magical rituals.  It is thought to be one of the most detailed accounts of ancient medical education and practice ever recorded.  Kisir-Aššur recorded what he learnt in chronological order, which allowed researchers to unpick the timeline of his training.

Dr Troels Pank Arbøll from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark studied the text as part of his PhD and told ScienceNordic: 'The sources give a unique insight into how an Assyrian doctor was trained in the art of diagnosing and treating illnesses, and their causes.  It's an insight into some of the earliest examples of what we can describe as science.'

Scientists believe that although magical cures were commonplace at this time, the tablets use a more traditional approach to medicine as well.

'He does not work simply with religious rituals, but also with plant-based medical treatments.  It is possible that he studied the effects of venom from scorpions and snakes on the human body and that he perhaps tried to draw conclusions based on his observations,' says Dr Arbøll.

After translating the ancient prose, the Scandinavian researcher discovered that Kisir-Aššur observed patients with bites or stings.  The physician probably did this to find out what affect toxins had on the body and to determine how the venom functioned.

Although Kisir-Aššur lived hundreds of years before Hippocrates - who is widely regarded as the father of modern medicine - they developed similar ideas.  The script carved into the clay tablets speak of the dangers of bile and the risk it poses to humans.

Dr Arbøll said: 'It can regulate certain bodily processes and could be the cause or contribution to the cause of an illness.  This idea is reminiscent of the important Greek physician, Hypocrites' theory of humours, where the imbalance of four fluids in the body [blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile] can be the cause of illness.'

'However, the Mesopotamian conception of bile seems to differ from the Greek.  It is far from certain that the idea spread from Mesopotamia to the Greeks.  But it would be interesting to investigate,' says Dr Arbøll.

The researcher believes that the aspiring Mesopotamian doctor would have worked on animals before progressing to human babies as he neared the end of his training.  It is unlikely that he would have treated an adult human alone before he was fully qualified.

The clay tablets were housed in Kiṣir-Aššur's family library in the ancient city of Ashur.  Located in modern-day Iraq, the city was destroyed in 614 BCE when it was burnt to the ground as the Neo-Assyrian Empire was dismantled.  It remained untouched until the early-twentieth century when archaeologists excavated the site.

The library is one of the most complete and important sources of information from the era.

'It's a snapshot of history that is difficult to generalise and it is possible that Kiṣir-Aššur worked with the material in a slightly different way than other practising healers.  Kiṣir-Aššur copied and recorded mostly pre-existing treatments and you can see that he catalogues knowledge and collects it with a specific goal,' says Dr Arbøll.

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Brrr…it’s cold out there!  Children are flocking to the television in hopes of hearing there will be a snow day; the bread and milk aisles at grocery stores are empty because of an impending snow storm; and utility trucks are out spraying salt or salt water on the roads.

We all know why the first two happen – kids are excited for a day off of school filled with hot chocolate and snowmen. Adults are stocking up on necessities.  But what’s up with those trucks?

They’re working to protect drivers from slippery conditions by spraying rock salt or a solution of salt water to prevent ice formation.  This salt is very similar to the salt you have on your dinner table – it’s the same sodium chloride, NaCl.  There are some proprietary mixtures that contain other salts – such as potassium chloride (KCl) and magnesium chloride (MgCl) – but they’re not as commonly used.

Road salt isn’t as pure as what you use on your food; it has a brownish gray color, mostly due to mineral contamination.

Subjecting the environment to this salt via runoff can have some unintended consequences including negative effects on plants, aquatic animals and wetlands.  But it’s a cheap and effective way to protect roads from ice due to a simple scientific principle: freezing point depression of solutions.

The freezing point of pure water, the temperature at which it becomes ice, is 32 degrees Fahrenheit.  So if there’s snow, sleet or freezing rain and the ground is 32 F or colder, solid ice will form on streets and sidewalks.

If the water is mixed with salt, though, the freezing temperature of the solution is lower than 32 F.  The salt impedes the ability of the water molecules to form solid ice crystals.  The degree of freezing point depression depends on how salty the solution is.

It’s important to note that the salt must be in a solution with liquid water in order for this principle to be obeyed.  That’s why many cities spray a salt solution before any ice forms.

Salt that’s dumped on top of ice relies on the sun or the friction of car tires driving over it to initially melt the ice to a slush that can mix with the salt and then won’t refreeze.

Pre-treating with solid salt relies on the warmer road surface to initially melt any snow or freezing rain so that it can properly mix with the salt.

This is also why pre-treatment of bridges – which are colder than other roads – does not typically work, and why you see 'bridge freezes before road' signs.

These salt solutions decrease the freezing temperature of water to around 15 F.  So, unfortunately for folks facing truly frigid temps, treating with salt won't get rid of ice on their roads.

An alternative strategy used at these lower temperatures is putting sand on the ice.  Sand doesn’t change the melting temperature, it just provides a rough surface for your tires to prevent slipping and sliding.

The science of freezing point depression can be applied to any solution, and many research groups have focused on developing alternatives with fewer negative environmental consequences.  They include additives such as molasses and beet juice.

So many you can look forward to cleaning not just white salt off the bottom of your jeans after a winter walk, but pink salt as well.

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Residents of south-east Asia spend more time online than any other region on the planet.  Three of the region's countries averaging more than eight hours a day online.

The Philippines topped the global list with an average 10 hours and 2 minutes of screen time every day per person, according to a new report.  The country was joined in the top five by Thailand which were found to spend an average of nine hours and eleven minutes online and Indonesia, who tended to clock up eight hours of internet usage.

People in the United Kingdom spend almost eight hours online while US citizens spend a combined 8 hours and 31 minutes logged into the web.

The figures were derived from a mixture of time spent on computers and mobile usage on devices by HootSuite and We Are Social.

People in Japan spent the least amount of time online – at an average of 3 hours and 45 minutes, followed by China.

The Philippines was followed by South Africa, Columbia and Brazil in terms of daily time spent using the internet on computers.

The 2019 report reveals 57 per cent of the global population is now connected to the internet, spending an average 6.5 hours online each day.

Leas author Simon Kemp estimated that the 'world's digital community will spend a combined total of more than 1.2bn years using the internet in 2019'.   They found that most of the time spent online is done via mobile devices, like smartphones and tablets.

Social media was found to be what users spend the majority of their time on, the UAE ranking the highest on that list.  Countries who used social media the least, were Nigeria, where 16 per cent of the population used social media, followed by Kenya, at 12 per cent.

Mr Kemp wrote that the big story in this year's data is the 'accelerating growth in internet users'.  'More than 360 million people came online for the first time in 2018, at an average rate of more than one million new users every day,' he wrote.

The country that experienced the biggest jump in internet usage in 2018 was India.  The south Asian nation saw the number of internet users jump by almost 100 million last year, nearly doubling the same growth in China, with internet penetration in India now at 41 per cent.

Extracted from: www.dailymail.co.uk