Mushrooms are speculated to be able to communicate through electrical impulses generated by long filamentous underground structures called hyphae. The hyphae produced these impulses when they came into contact with wood and other food for the fungus. By inserting microelectrodes into the substrate the mushrooms were currently colonising, scientists observed that these impulses had patterns similar to human speech patterns after they codified bursts of activity as unique “words”. 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
Merv
August 15, 2022
