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Time Magazine
a day ago
- Science
- Time Magazine
In the Loop: Is AI Making the Next Pandemic More Likely?
Welcome back to In the Loop, TIME's new twice-weekly newsletter about AI. Starting today, we'll be publishing these editions both as stories on and as emails. If you're reading this in your browser, why not subscribe to have the next one delivered straight to your inbox? Subscribe to In the Loop What to Know If you talk to staff at the top AI labs, you'll hear a lot of stories about how the future could go fantastically well—or terribly badly. And of all the ways that AI might cause harm to the human race, there's one that scientists in the industry are particularly worried about today. That's the possibility of AI helping bad actors to start a new pandemic. 'You could try to synthesize something like COVID or a more dangerous version of the flu—and basically, our modeling suggests that this might be possible,' Anthropic's chief scientist, Jared Kaplan, told me in May. Measuring the risk — In a new study published this morning, and shared exclusively with TIME ahead of its release, we got the first hard numbers on how experts think the risk of a new pandemic might have increased thanks to AI. The Forecasting Research Institute polled experts earlier this year, asking them how likely a human-caused pandemic might be—and how likely it might become if humans had access to AI that could reliably give advice on how to build a bioweapon. What they found — Experts, who were polled between December and February, put the risk of a human-caused pandemic at 0.3% per year. But, they said, that risk would jump fivefold, to 1.5% per year, if AI were able to provide human-level virology advice. You can guess where this is going — Then, in April, the researchers tested today's AI tools on a new virology troubleshooting benchmark. They found that today's AI tools outperform PhD-level virologists at complex troubleshooting tasks in the lab. In other words, AI can now do the very thing that forecasters warned would increase the risk of a human-caused pandemic fivefold. We just published the full story on can read it here. Who to Know Person in the news – Matthew Prince, CEO of Cloudflare. Since its founding in 2009, Cloudflare has been protecting sites on the internet from being knocked offline by large influxes of traffic, or indeed coordinated attacks. Now, some 20% of the internet is covered by its network. And today, Cloudflare announced that this network would begin to block AI crawlers by default — essentially putting a fifth of the internet behind a paywall for the bots that harvest info to train AIs like ChatGPT and Claude. Step back — Today's AI is so powerful because it has essentially inhaled the whole of the internet — from my articles to your profile photos. By running neural networks over that data using immense quantities of computing power, AI companies have taught these systems the texture of the world at such an enormous scale that it has given rise to new AI capabilities, like the ability to answer questions on almost any topic, or to generate photorealistic images. But this scraping has sparked a huge backlash from publishers, artists and writers, who complain that it has been done without any consent or compensation. A new model — Cloudflare says the move will 'fundamentally change how AI companies access web content going forward.' Major publishers, including TIME, have expressed their support for the shift toward an 'opt-in' rather than an 'opt-out' system, the company says. Cloudflare also says it is working on a new initiative, called Pay Per Crawl, in which creators will have the option of setting a price on their data in return for making it available to train AI. Fighting words — Prince was not available for an interview this week. But at a recent conference, he disclosed that traffic to news sites had dropped precipitously across the board thanks to AI, in a shift that many worry will imperil the existence of the free press. 'I go to war every single day with the Chinese government, the Russian government, the Iranians, the North Koreans, probably Americans, the Israelis — all of them who are trying to hack into our customer sites,' Prince said. 'And you're telling me I can't stop some nerd with a C-corporation in Palo Alto?' AI in Action 61% percent of U.S. adults have used AI in the last six months, and 19% interact with it daily, according to a new survey of AI adoption by the venture capital firm Menlo Ventures. But just 3% percent of those users pay for access to the software, Menlo estimated based on the survey's results—suggesting 97% of users only use the free tier of AI tools. AI usage figures are higher for Americans in the workforce than other groups. Some 75% of employed adults have used AI in the last six months, including 26% who report using it daily, according to the survey. Students also report high AI usage: 85% have used it in the last six months, and 22% say they use it daily. The statistics seem to suggest that some students and workers are growing dependent on free AI tools—a usage pattern that might become lucrative if AI companies were to begin restricting access or raising prices. However, the proliferation of open-source AI models has created intense price competition that may limit any single company's ability to dramatically increase their costs. As always, if you have an interesting story of AI in Action, we'd love to hear it. Email us at: intheloop@ What we're reading 'The Dead Have Never Been This Talkative': The Rise of AI Resurrection by Tharin Pillay in TIME With the rise of image-to-video tools like the newest version of Midjourney, the world recently crossed a threshold: it's now possible, in just a few clicks, to reanimate a photo of your dead relative. You can train a chatbot on snippets of their writing to replicate their patterns of speech; if you have a long enough clip of them speaking, you can also replicate their voice. Will these tools make it easier to process the heart-rending pain of bereavement? Or might their allure in fact make it harder to move forward? My colleague Tharin published a deeply insightful piece last week about the rise of this new technology. It's certainly a weird time to be alive. Or, indeed, to be dead. Subscribe to In the Loop
Hindustan Times
07-05-2025
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
10 surprising facts about Pope conclave, the most secretive election in the world
The Vatican City is bracing itself to conduct the Papal conclave on Wednesday, May 7, to choose the new leader for the world's 1.3 billion Catholic population after the death of 88-year-old Pope Francis. St. Peters Square in Vatican City where visitors will await the news on the new Pope(Bloomberg) The secret Conclave will start with centuries-old rituals of sacred oath by participating cardinals and piercing of ballots while the outside world awaits white smoke to billow out of the Sistine Chapel's chimney. The longest conclave ever was in the year 1268 when the conclave lasted for 3 years – 1006 days. There is no limit on the time. The election involves an elaborate process of taking oaths by cardinals and marking their ballots 4-times each day till the two-thirds majority agrees on a single name. Oath of secrecy Before entering the elections, each participating cardinal is sworn to secrecy that they will not reveal what went on inside. Anyone found engaging with any kind of audio or visual recording device or found guilty of accepting money in return for their vote faces automatic excommunication. No communication with the outside world In an attempt to stop the outside world from influencing the Conclave, the communication from the outside world is completely cut off till the new Pope is selected. Windows tainted black, jammers in place Before the beginning of the voting ceremony, the technicians install powerful jammers inside the premises of the Sistine Chapel and 'black out the window' overlooking the areas where the elections will take place. Food that could hide messages is banned During the conclave, food like pie, chickens, etc. that could conceal messages of any kind is prohibited inside the Sistine Chapel – where the elections are conducted. So what do cardinals eat? As per the traditions, the Nuns will be preparing local foods such as spaghetti, lamb, and boiled vegetables. Black and White smoke will tell To communicate to the outside world that the next Pope has been selected, the chimney will emit white smoke. If that voting round remains inconclusive the chimney will billow black smoke. To make the signals even clearer bells are rung when the cardinals successfully choose the next leader. Cardinals over 80 can't vote Out of all the cardinals in the world, only ones below the age of 80 are eligible to vote. Currently, a total of 133 cardinals are set to take part in the 2025 papal conclave. Pope does not need to be a cardinal All the Popes elected till now have been the Cardinals, however, that's not a necessity. Any baptized catholic male can be made the Pope. The last non-cardinal to assume the role of Pope was Urban VI in 1378, as per Thousands of spectators arrive in Rome The Vatican City is expecting hundreds of visitors in St. Peter's Square who will eagerly await the white smoke to come out of the chimney. According to Forbes, flight searches from the US to Rome have seen a surge of 345% after the death of Pope Francis. The papal conclave has inspired award-winning film The movie Conclave (2024), was based on a 2016 novel of the same name. The film went on the receive an Academy Award for the Best Adapted Screenplay. (With agency inputs)
Time of India
27-04-2025
- Entertainment
- Time of India
The devastating true story behind A Tragedy Foretold: Flight 3054 on Netflix: What led to the crash?
A few days ago, A Tragedy Foretold: Flight 3054 was released on the streaming service Netflix. Since then, it has generated a lot of online discussion among viewers who are curious about the event that the documentary series is based on. The tragic incident that occurred on July 17, 2007, in São Paulo, Brazil, is revisited in the documentary series. It is regarded as one of the worst aviation disasters in Brazilian history. Here's all you need to know about the true story behind A Tragedy Foretold: Flight 3054. The true story behind A Tragedy Foretold: Flight 3054 on Netflix In addition to the tragic effects on the families of the victims, the three-episode documentary series examines the changes that the incident brought about in the Brazilian aviation industry. The production thoroughly examines each breakdown in the series of events that resulted in the disaster. The plane, a TAM-operated Airbus A320, did not make a proper landing at Congonhas Airport in São Paulo on the day of the terrible disaster. As per it went over the runway and hit a gas station on Washington Luís Avenue and a TAM building, exploding. At that time, Brazil experienced what became known as the "aviation blackout" between 2006 and 2007, a crisis in the country's civil aviation industry that affected millions of passengers through severe delays, flight cancellations, and more. How many people died? Along with 12 members of the ground staff, the flight carried 187 passengers and crew members who passed away. According to an investigation, the accident was caused by the awful disregard for basic safety precautions. Families of the victims remember the day of the disaster and the traumatic wait to identify the bodies in the documentary series. Because some victims' bodies were totally destroyed in the collision, some families were unable to bury their loved ones. A Tragedy Foretold: Flight 3054 is now streaming on Netflix.
