In recent months, Naveed Ijaz, a general practitioner specializing in dermatology, has seen a growing number of patients presenting at his clinic in Manchester, UK, with intensely itchy rashes. Their cause is scabies, a highly contagious skin condition caused by the Sarcoptes scabiei mite, which can result in these itchy …
Read More »World Powers Say They Want to Contain AI. They’re Also Racing to Advance It
Yesterday, 28 countries including the US, members of the EU, and China signed a declaration warning that artificial intelligence is advancing with such speed and uncertainty that it could cause “serious, even catastrophic, harm.” The declaration, announced at the AI Safety Summit organized by the British government and held at …
Read More »These Nightmare AI Scenarios Have the UK Government Spooked
Deadly bioweapons, automated cybersecurity attacks, powerful AI models escaping human control. Those are just some of the potential threats posed by artificial intelligence, according to a new UK government report. It was released to help set the agenda for an international summit on AI safety to be hosted by the …
Read More »Britain’s Big AI Summit Is a Doom-Obsessed Mess
The UK government, with its reversals on climate policy and commitment to oil drilling and air pollution, usually seems to be pro-apocalypse. But lately, senior British politicians have been on a save-the-world tour. Prime minister Rishi Sunak, his ministers, and diplomats have been briefing their international counterparts about the existential …
Read More »New Malaria Vaccines Offer a Real Shot at Fighting the Disease
The world at last has a public health tool it has been seeking for more than a century: a reliable vaccine against malaria that can protect at least two-thirds of the children who receive it from developing the deadly disease. In fact, in an embarrassment of riches, the world now …
Read More »The UK Is Burning Climate Pledges to Fuel a Culture War
The UK government has taken the unusual step of scaling back major climate commitments, despite widespread pushback from scientists, businesses, and lawmakers across the political divide. In a speech today, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced the UK would push back deadlines for the planned phaseout of gas-powered vehicles, ending fossil-fuel …
Read More »A Concrete Crisis Has the UK Literally Crumbling
As it rolls from one political crisis to another, it’s hard not to think of Britain as metaphorically crumbling. Now, it seems, significant pieces of the country are literally structurally unsound. More than 150 schools, colleges, and nurseries in England have been ordered to close parts of their buildings due …
Read More »Britain Admits Defeat in Controversial Fight to Break Encryption
Tech companies and privacy activists are claiming victory after an eleventh-hour concession by the British government in a long-running battle over end-to-end encryption. The so-called “spy clause” in the UK’s Online Safety Bill, which experts argued would have made end-to-end encryption all but impossible in the country, will no longer …
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