“Consciousness is a sense of yourself in the world. It’s suffering. It’s bliss.” Insects have long been thought to not possess consciousness, owing partly to their less-developed brain structure. But experts have argued that consciousness is a more primitive, deeper phenomenon that differs in each species. The experts posited that consciousness is the ability to feel pain and pleasure, and by using this logic, they have concluded that insects are, in fact, conscious beings. Read full article here
Societal Issues
AI Predicts Crime A Week In Advance With 90 Per Cent Accuracy
An artificial intelligence model built by Ishanu Chattopadhyay and his colleagues analysed crime data in Chicago from 2014 to 2016 and managed to predict future levels of crime down to the nearest 300 metres, a week before they actually happened. While extremely useful, this artificial intelligence has been shown to expose racial prejudice in law enforcement. Hopefully, as the study’s data and methodology have been made available for others to evaluate, these prejudices can be avoided in the next iteration. Read full article here