Life is a difficult quality to describe. Some describe living things as beings capable of reproduction, but that is simultaneously too broad and too narrow of a descriptor. Fire can reproduce, yet we don’t consider candles living things. By that definition, mules — the offspring of a male horse and a female donkey — can’t be considered living beings despite undoubtedly being one because mules are sterile; they cannot produce their own offspring. 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
