Hunter-gatherer cultural networks in Central Africa have ancient origins

Networks among hunter-gatherer groups in the Congo Basin existed long before the arrival of agriculture, a study of music and vocab shows.

Kurt Bodenmueller-U. Zurich • futurity
May 28, 2024 ~5 min

People with no inner voice have worse verbal memory

Not everyone has an inner voice. New research digs into how that affects people's ability to accomplish verbal memory tasks.

U. Copenhagen • futurity
May 28, 2024 ~7 min


Scarlett Johansson’s complaint to OpenAI is a new benchmark in the development of machine intelligence

Scarlett Johansson said one of the five voices used for OpenAI’s new product sounded very like her.

David Reid, Professor of AI and Spatial Computing, Liverpool Hope University • conversation
May 23, 2024 ~5 min

How Neanderthal language differed from modern human – they probably didn’t use metaphors

The two human species had many similarities but their communication would have been different.

Steven Mithen, Professor of Early Prehistory, University of Reading • conversation
May 20, 2024 ~10 min

Viruses are doing mysterious things everywhere – AI can help researchers understand what they’re up to in the oceans and in your gut

Scientists are discovering viral genetic sequences in the wild faster than they can analyze them. A kind of ChatGPT for proteins can help make sense of all that data.

Libusha Kelly, Associate Professor of Systems and Computational Biology, Microbiology and Immunology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine • conversation
May 15, 2024 ~7 min

Using ideas from game theory to improve the reliability of language models

A new “consensus game,” developed by MIT CSAIL researchers, elevates AI’s text comprehension and generation skills.

Rachel Gordon | MIT CSAIL • mit
May 14, 2024 ~8 min

AI and social media can track depression and anxiety

"This study provides a new tool to describe and understand public mental health in a way that was unimaginable just five years ago."

Gregory Filiano-Stony Brook • futurity
May 9, 2024 ~7 min

Exploring the mysterious alphabet of sperm whales

MIT CSAIL and Project CETI researchers reveal complex communication patterns in sperm whales, deepening our understanding of animal language systems.

Rachel Gordon | MIT CSAIL • mit
May 7, 2024 ~8 min


What to expect from the next generation of chatbots: OpenAI’s GPT-5 and Meta’s Llama-3

The upgraded AI systems may even be able to undertake a form of reasoning.

Abdul Sadka, Professor and Director of Aston Digital Futures Institute, College of Engineering and Physical Sciences, Aston University • conversation
May 2, 2024 ~7 min

Natural language boosts LLM performance in coding, planning, and robotics

Three neurosymbolic methods help language models find better abstractions within natural language, then use those representations to execute complex tasks.

Alex Shipps | MIT CSAIL • mit
May 1, 2024 ~13 min

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