All posts tagged: superhuman

Hannah Fry: ‘AI can do some superhuman things – but so can forklifts’

Hannah Fry: ‘AI can do some superhuman things – but so can forklifts’

BBC/Curious Films/Rory Langdon The chances are that you think about artificial intelligence far more today than you did five years ago. Since ChatGPT was launched in November 2022, we have become accustomed to interacting with AIs in most spheres of life, from chatbots and smart home tech to banking and healthcare. But such rapid change brings unexpected problems – as mathematician and broadcaster Hannah Fry shows in AI Confidential With Hannah Fry, a new three-part BBC documentary in which she talks to people whose lives have been transformed by the technology. She spoke to New Scientist about how we should view AI, its role in modern mathematics – and why it will upend the global economy. Bethan Ackerley: In the show, you explore what AI is doing to our relationships and sense of reality. Some of this stems from “AI sycophancy” – the idea that these tools give us what we want to hear, not what we need to hear. How does this happen? Hannah Fry: Earlier models were extremely sycophantic. Everything you would write, …

I drank kefir for a month and it made me feel like a superhuman – what’s the secret behind this gut-friendly drink?

I drank kefir for a month and it made me feel like a superhuman – what’s the secret behind this gut-friendly drink?

Get the Well Enough newsletter by Emilie Lavinia and make sense of the wild world of wellness Get our wellbeing editor’s newsletter: Well Enough by Emilie Lavinia Get the Well Enough email by Emilie Lavinia While the plant-based revolution might have reduced the amount of lactose in our diets, certain dairy-based foods are making a comeback in the name of good health, and kefir is one of them. I used to think of kefir as one of those slightly icky health foods – probably incredibly good for you but mildly gross. Fermented yogurt? Not the sexiest foodstuff. So despite it being recommended by nutritionists, I eschewed kefir and opted for trendier foods and drinks like kombucha and kimchi instead. These other fermented foods were at least a step in the right direction, especially as new research suggests the health of our guts could be responsible for any number of complaints and maladies. One recent study found that the cure for clinical depression might lie in gut regulation, and another suggested we might sleep better if …