Humans have a knack for sharing intimate moments in unlikely places, as membership of the mile-high club demonstrates. So there is a significant chance that the launch of the space tourism sector may be swiftly followed by the first sex in space.

But having researched the issue, my colleagues and I believe that space tourism companies haven’t adequately prepared for the consequences of people joining what we could call the “Kármán line club” (referencing the 100km-high boundary between Earth and the rest of the cosmos).

Talk of space tourism has always been in terms of the distant future. But sub-orbital space tourism – short flights with only a few minutes of spaceflight and weightlessness – already exists. Tickets range from freebies, to costing millions of dollars.

Much longer flights are just around the corner. Companies such as Elon Musk’s SpaceX have well-established track records of developing spacecraft faster than the public sector. SpaceX’s larger and more capable Starship spacecraft will likely operate routinely in the next few years.

When, not if

Flights have been reserved and passenger lists assembled for private flights that will loop around the Moon. Spacecraft such as Starship will have the capacity for tens of passengers, in a large cabin environment, possibly with private cabins.

Considering that space travel is no longer reserved for professional astronauts, the various motivations of space tourists and upcoming spacecraft developments, we concluded that in-space sex will probably happen within the next ten years.

The real concern is not the sexual interactions themselves, but rather if they lead to human conception in space. Early orbital space tourism flights are expected to last for days to weeks, so only the early stages of human reproduction could happen in space.

Passengers will not be allowed to board if they are already known to be pregnant, although the space tourism industry does not appear to have considered concealed or unknown pregnancies. Sometimes women don’t realise they are pregnant until they go into labour.

From decades of human spaceflight, we already know weightlessness and increased levels of ionising radiation has a profound effect on our bodies. We don’t know how this will affect the physiological processes of reproduction.

Astronauts routinely suffer muscle and bone wastage as their bodies no longer have to resist the forces of gravity. On Earth, gravity influences the distribution of body fluids, such as blood. A lack of gravity can result in increased pressure inside the skull which can make people’s vision blurry and even change the brain’s structure.

Limited experiments on mouse embryos, which include one that used a mini incubator on a satellite, have shown changes in embryo viability after they were exposed to space. Knowledge of the impact on human reproduction is effectively zero, but we can assume that there will be effects.

Therefore, there is an unknown potential for developmental abnormalities in human embryos conceived in space. Additionally, there could be an increased risk of ectopic pregnancy in weightlessness conditions (when the embryo attaches outside the uterus, for example in the fallopian tubes).

Even if space tourists use contraception, we can’t be sure it will be as effective outside planet Earth. There have been no studies on how contraceptives will be affected by space environments.

Taking responsibility

For the space tourism industry, there are commercial risks of litigation, reputational damage and financial loss if people conceive during spaceflight – as well as ethical and reproductive rights issues. Our research found little evidence that the sector is taking steps to mitigate these risks. There is little anecdotal evidence from behind the scenes.

There is also a darker side to consider – the risk of sexual assault in space. Imagine trying to evade the advances of a fellow passenger or staff member during spaceflight. You would be completely trapped.

The space tourism industry and other relevant parties should urgently come together to discuss these issues and formulate a strategy to protect all those involved. A simple solution could be a combination of pre-spaceflight counselling with all space tourists about the risks of human conception in space. Legal waivers absolving the space tourism operators of liability if human conception was still to occur could also be considered.

Space tourism is already happening and it seems likely that sexual interactions between some participants will occur very soon. The question is whether the sector will be prepared for the possible consequences.

David Cullen, Professor of Bioanalytical Technology, Cranfield University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

What does resetting your iPhone do?

Resetting your iPhone removes your preferred settings and information stored on your phone, like your photos, your contacts, your apps, and your browsing history.

Why reset your iPhone?

There are several reasons you may want to reset your iPhone. Most commonly, people reset their iPhone because they are experiencing major software errors, like issues connecting to networks or apps crashing. Resetting the phone to its factory settings should resolve these errors and restore normal functioning.

It’s also smart to reset your iPhone before selling it. Resetting your iPhone will remove your apps, your contacts, your photos, your preferred settings, and other information stored on your phone so the new owner can start fresh. If you get a second-hand iPhone that still has old information on it, you may also want to reset the phone so you can set it up the way you’d like.

Resetting vs. restoring

Both resetting and restoring revert your phone to factory settings. However, the process and results are a little different. Resetting is the lightest option. It’s something you can do directly on your phone, without the use of any other technology. It also maintains your operating system and firmware.

When you restore your iPhone, however, you lose everything — including the operating system and firmware. You’ll need to connect your phone to iTunes on a pc or mac to complete the restore process.

What should I do first?

If you’re experiencing problems with your iPhone, resetting it should be a last resort. Try turning your phone off and on again to see if that resolves the problem. You could also uninstall your most recent apps to see whether they’re the issue.

Once you decide a reset is necessary, you should back up your iPhone. This process will make sure you still have a copy of your contacts, photos, and other information that will be lost during the reset process. You can back up your phone to your desktop, via iTunes, or to iCloud.

How to reset your phone

T-Mobile offers great instructions on how to reset your iPhone. As the fastest network in the United States, T-Mobile is one of the most popular iPhone providers in the country.

T-Mobile explains that you should enter your settings menu, then select “general,” followed by “reset,” located near the bottom of the general settings screen. To perform a complete reset to factory settings, you’ll finally select “erase all content and settings.”

Depending on the model of your iPhone, you may get a notice that your data and documents are uploading to iCloud. You may also need to enter a passcode, depending on your phone’s settings. Some iPhone will ask you to confirm you really do want to erase your iPhone and finally ask for your apple id password.

Note that you also have the option to reset only certain parts of your iPhone. Rather than erasing all content and settings, you could reset only selected content — such as your privacy settings or home screen layout.

What to expect after resetting

Your iPhone will restart and begin the resetting process. You’ll see a blank screen with a progress bar and the apple logo. This can be a lengthy process, sometimes taking several minutes.

If you’ve done a total reset following T-Mobile’s instructions, it will perform the way it did when you first took it out of the box — before you adjusted the settings, added your favourite apps, and store your contacts. If you’re keeping your iPhone, you’ll have to take time to set it up with your preferred settings once again.

Resetting your iPhone is a significant step, but it’s not one you should be scared of. Follow these instructions step-by-step and you can easily reset your iPhone and get it functioning normally once again.

If all goes to plan, sometime in November 2024, NASA’s newly announced Artemis II crew – Christina Koch, Victor Glover, Reid Wiseman and Canadian astronaut Jeremy Hansen – will cram themselves into their Orion space capsule and begin their final checks for launch.

As they sit perched atop the gargantuan Space Launch System (SLS) rocket at Kennedy Space Center in Florida, waiting for the inferno beneath them to light, the world will hold its breath.

Should they survive the violence of that ignition and the journey into Earth orbit, an adventure the likes of which we haven’t seen in more than half a century will await them.

The booster stage aboard their ship of exploration will rip them from Earth’s immediate vicinity and inject them onto a trajectory that will carry them to the Moon, hurtling into the void at more than 25,000mph. They will be travelling faster and further than any human since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972.

NASA has drawn from a deep well of past experience and technologies for this mission; employing the same main engines and solid rocket booster technology that powered the space shuttle.

The space agency has made many improvements, learning the hard-won lessons of past catastrophe. SLS and Orion represent evolution rather than revolution. Nevertheless, there will be nothing routine about this flight.

Risk is everywhere

We know in theory how safe we expect Artemis II to be – all of those probabilities have been calculated carefully. But there is all too often a gulf between expectation and reality.

Life for astronauts aboard the International Space Station is already replete with risk. But for the Artemis II crew there will be additional dangers. In the face of an emergency, space station crews orbiting at an altitude of around 250 miles can usually return to Earth in a matter of hours.

Rescue from deep space, possibly hundreds of thousands of miles away from Earth, is a different prospect – as the crew of Apollo 13 famously demonstrated in 1970.

Radiation is also a substantial hazard. Astronauts operating in low-Earth orbit benefit from Earth’s dense magnetic field, or magnetosphere, which shields them from harmful solar and cosmic radiation. For lunar missions, crews will venture beyond the protection of the magnetosphere, and will be more vulnerable to radiation exposure.

Solar flares in particular, which see short-lived but intense outpourings of highly energetic, charged particles, represent a powerful potential threat. If such an event should occur while Orion is coasting between the Earth and Moon, Artemis astronauts will enter a well-protected area at the base of the spacecraft, and wait there until the solar storm abates.

A new confidence

Despite all this, confidence is high. Apollo crews faced the same risks when space engineering and technology were in their infancy – in capsules that featured no comparable shelter against radiation.

We know from those audacious missions that the “new ocean of space” – as President John F Kennedy once called it – can be sailed successfully and safely. There is every expectation that one day soon the Artemis II crew might do the same.

Artemis II is a pathfinder mission, set to orbit the Moon without landing. It will pave the way for subsequent expeditions, including the first return to the lunar surface since the 1970s, Artemis III, which is slated for 2025. No one knows if these timelines can be adhered to. This is rocket science and the sheer complexity of the endeavour means that schedules can slip.

But what will follow is a comprehensive exploration of the lunar surface by astronaut crews, including a survey of the water ice that’s apparently present in its polar regions. The intent is to do more than get in and out, leaving flags and footprints.

Artemis is about persisting in this environment, in an effort to establish a firmer foothold in the frontier of space. The lunar water ice is a potentially important resource in that regard: it could provide drinking water and – by separating out the hydrogen and oxygen contained in water molecules – the chemical ingredients for rocket propellant.

Artemis II must come first. Despite exhaustive planning, this mission will be something of a leap of faith. After the astronauts leave Earth, all who truly understand the scale of the challenge this crew faces will wait with bated breath until they splash down safely in the Atlantic Ocean. Human spaceflight has always been this way.

Reflecting change

When Jim Lovell, Bill Anders and Frank Borman embarked upon their historic journey to become the first humans to orbit the Moon in 1968, aboard Apollo 8, they left a world ravaged by war, a country facing civil unrest and the shadow of the political assassinations of Reverend Martin Luther King and Senator Robert Kennedy. The world has changed a great deal since then – how much it has improved is a matter for historians to debate.

Artemis II represents a feat of exploration and progress in scientific endeavour, and much more besides. Glover will be the first non-white astronaut, Hansen the first non-American and Koch the first female astronaut to depart low-Earth orbit and travel to the Moon. This of course is merely one small step, but the composition of the crew is testament to NASA’s commitment to diversity in this new era.

This aspect is every bit as important as the technical detail. When it comes to journeys into the unknown, NASA has often led the way, showing us what we might be at our best, demonstrating that there might be a place in the future for all of us.

When the crew of Artemis II arrives in lunar orbit, filming the magnificent desolation of the moonscape below, the world will watch in wonder. Those moments will undoubtedly fire the ambitions of a new generation of explorers and scientists, who will see themselves properly reflected in this diverse crew. In that alone, there is something deeply hopeful.

Kevin Fong, Consultant Anaesthetist and Professor of Public Engagement and Innovation, Department of Science, Technology, Engineering and Public Policy, UCL

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

In the early days of independent India, Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru said, “It is science alone that can solve the problems of hunger and poverty … of a rich country inhabited by starving people.” Would any head of state today voice this view?

A 2013 poll recorded that only 36% of Americans had “a lot” of trust that the information they get from scientists is accurate and reliable. High-profile leaders, especially on the political right, have increasingly chosen to undermine conclusions of scientific consensus. The flash-points tend to be the “troubled technologies” – those that seem to threaten our delicate relationship with nature – climate change, genetically modified organisms (GMOs), genetic therapy and geo-engineering.

The polarisation in these public debates constitutes an implicit threat to the quality of decisions that we must make if we are to ensure the future well-being of our planet and our species. When political colour trumps evidence-based science, we are in trouble.

Could it be that this increasingly dangerous ambivalence towards science in politics is related to our continued misgivings over its cultural role and status? “Science is not with us an object of contemplation,” French historian Jacques Barzun complained in 1964. This is still true. Science does not figure as much a cultural possession in our media and education as does music, theatre or art. Yet history tells us that curiosity about the natural world and our desire to conquer it are as old as any other aspect of human culture.

Ancient middle-eastern “wisdom literature”, the Epicureans’ atomic notions and Plato’s geometric concepts, the developing genre of the De Rerum Natura (On the Nature of Things) throughout the Middle Ages – these tell a long story in which modern science constitutes the current chapter rather than a discontinuous departure.

The perception that science lacks such cultural embedding, however, was highlighted in a recent study of public reaction to nanotechnologies in the European Union. The project identified strong “ancient narratives” at play in discussions ostensibly about technological risk. “Be careful what you wish for”, or “nature is sacred” were the underlying drivers of objection, ineffectually addressed by a scientific weighing of hazard analysis alone. Opponents were just talking past each other, for there was no scaffold of ancient narrative for science itself. We have forgotten what science is for.

To unearth a narrative of purpose beneath science, we cannot avoid drawing on religious heritage for at least anthropological and historical reasons. To restore faith in science, we cannot bypass the understanding of the relationship of faith with science. Here we are not helped by the current oppositional framing of the “science and religion” question, where the discussion seems to be dominated by the loudest voices rather than the most pressing questions.

The language we use can also colour our conclusions. “Science” originates from the Latin scio (I know) claiming very different values than the older name of “natural philosophy” with Greek connotations that substitute knowledge-claims for a “love of wisdom of nature”. Wisdom, like faith, is a word not commonly associated with science, but which might do much for our restorative task if it were. The most powerfully articulated stirrings of desire to comprehend nature are found, after all, in ancient literature on wisdom.

In a new book published this month, Faith and Wisdom in Science, I have tried to draw together the modern need for a cultural underpinning narrative for science that recognises its difficulties and uncertainties, with an exploration of ancient wisdom tradition. It examines, for example, current attempts to comprehend the science of randomness in granular media and chaos in juxtaposition with a scientist’s reading of the achingly beautiful nature poetry in the Book of Job.

It is salutary to be reminded that most Biblical nature literature and many creation stories are more concerned with cosmical loose ends, the chaos of flood and wind, than the neat and formalised account of Genesis, with its developed six-day structure and gracefully liturgical pattern. So rather than oppose theology and science, the book attempts to derive what a theology of science might bring to the cultural question of where science belongs in today’s society.

The conclusion of this exploration surprised me. The strong motif that emerges is the idea of reconciliation of a broken human relationship with nature. Science has the potential to replace ignorance and fear of a world that can harm us and that we also can harm, by a relationship of understanding and care, where the foolishness of thoughtless exploitation is replaced by the wisdom of engagement.

This is neither a “technical fix” nor a “withdrawal from the wild” – two equally unworkable alternatives criticised by French anthropologist Bruno Latour. His hunch is that religious material might point the way to a practical alternative begins to look well-founded. Nor is the story of science interpreted as the healing of a broken relationship confined to the political level – it has personal consequences too for the way human individuals live in a material world.

American author George Steiner once wrote, “Only art can go some way towards making accessible, towards waking into some measure of communicability, the sheer inhuman otherness of matter.” Perhaps science can do that, too. If it can, it would mean that science, far from irreconcilable with religion, is a profoundly religious activity itself.

Tom McLeish, Professor of Physics and Pro-Vice-Chancellor for Research, Durham University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

With apps readily available to streamline your experience, you can easily design a gaming room tailored specifically to get the absolute best out of your Windows 10 PC. Today we’ll be running through some of the best ways to optimize your computer’s performance for gaming so you can always play at your peak.

Why is Windows 10 running slowly?

There are many reasons why Windows 10 might not be fast enough to run games. This manifests itself in breaking, freezing games, etc.

What you should pay attention to:

• Technical requirements. All games have their own PC hardware requirements that are necessary for a comfortable game. The computer must meet at least the minimum requirements.
• Lots of side tasks. All of them consume RAM, processor, and video card resources. The greater the load on the system from other tasks, the less is left for games.
• System clutter. If there is a lot of junk in Windows 10, it will not be able to give enough performance for the game.
• Network stability. Low speed or high ping can be a problem. There is a solution and this is VPN software for Windows. It allows you to reduce latency, unblock access to the best servers, increase your security, and even bypass IP blocking.

How do I make Windows more for gaming?

The easiest way to make Windows fast is to use special programs to optimize the system and the Internet. They automatically fix many problems, thereby increasing system performance. Below is a list of eligible programs.

Iolo System Mechanic

When it comes to improving the performance of a Windows 10 computer, downloading and utilizing third-party system cleanup utilities can be an effective solution. Though such software isn’t as widely employed today as it once was, it still does have a beneficial effect on your device’s speed. However, don’t expect an overwhelming increase in performance; more often than not the change is only marginal. And when looking for one of these utilities, take extra care to avoid any malicious downloads – stick with products that have been tested and approved by IT professionals. A great example of such a tool is Iolo System Mechanic, so if you’re in the market for PC optimization software feel free to give this one a try.

VeePN

This software is focused on optimizing the Internet connection, which is no less important than working with the operating system itself. With VeePN, you can access unlimited VPN servers all over the world. Sufficiently flexible tariff plans, including a free trial version, will allow you to choose the option for yourself. I wonder why this particular service is when there are many alternatives. It is recommended to check over here reviews about this VPN and all questions will disappear. This service is known for its efficient solutions for gamers who really need high speed and low latency. Why reinvent the wheel if there is already a high-speed and reliable service?

CCleaner

Keeping your PC clean and in a good condition is essential for peak performance. That’s why having reliable PC cleaner software is crucial to maintaining the health of your system. With so many premium and free options in the market, CCleaner stands out with its powerful free version which provides essential cleaning tools in a single interface. Not only can CCleaner clear all the junk data from your PC, it even has a dedicated Registry Cleaner that can optimize your Windows Registry performance. This isn’t all – if you move to its Tools section, you’ll get access to other useful features such as a duplicate file finder and disk analyzer. In short, CCleaner offers an easy-to-navigate solution to ensure your PC is always running smoothly.

Game Mode

This is not a program, but a special mode already built into the operating system. If you want to speed up Windows 10, one of the most effective measures you can take is to enable Game Mode. This feature stops background activities such as Windows updates and app notifications so that your games have more information processing resources available and will run more smoothly. To activate it, go to Settings (Windows key + I), select Gaming in the left sidebar, and toggle on the Game Mode option in the right pane. The Game Mode setting should be on by default but it doesn’t hurt to double-check!

MSI Afterburner

MSI Afterburner is a powerful and reliable free tool for tuning your GPU settings. It works across all graphics cards from different brands, even non-MSI ones. Additionally, it offers speed control options so that you can get the most out of your computer without compromising on temperature or performance. With its OS Scanner feature, you can find the best overclock settings for your GPU automatically. Best of all, this free software also facilitates speed up Win 10 with minimal effort and optimal results. 

Disk Defrag Free

Imagine a world where your hard drive is quickly and efficiently defragmented in less than 10 minutes. With Disk Defrag, this can become a reality. This powerful and ultra-fast engine does more than just defragment, it also consolidates free space and merges scattered pieces of free space into one contiguous block–protecting your files from fragmentation. In addition, you can gain insights into which files are the most fragmented with details about the location of each fragment on the disk map. Furthermore, if you’re looking for even more speed and convenience, the single file or folder feature allows you to defragment only those selected areas.

Conclusion

From a small free program to a comprehensive Windows 10 suite, there are many ways to speed up your system. Whether you want to optimize for gaming or just overall performance, the tools discussed above offer an array of options that can help make your PC faster and more efficient.

Big Data in Casinos

Big data has become an integral part of the casino industry, allowing operators to gain valuable insights into their customers’ behavior and preferences. By collecting and analyzing large amounts of data, casinos can better understand their players’ needs and tailor their services accordingly. This helps them create more personalized experiences for their customers, which in turn leads to higher customer satisfaction. 

Additionally, big data can help casinos optimize their operations by providing them with real-time information about gaming trends and customer preferences. This allows them to make informed decisions about how best to allocate resources and maximize profits. Big data can also be used to improve marketing efforts by helping casinos target specific audiences with tailored promotions and offers that are most likely to generate revenue.

What are the advantages of using technology in casinos?

By using technology, casinos are able to provide players with a wide range of games that are available on multiple platforms. This allows players to access their favorite games from any device, including smartphones and tablets. Technology also helps casinos reduce costs associated with staffing by automating certain processes such as customer service. Technology enables casinos to offer more interactive experiences for their customers, such as virtual reality gaming or augmented reality slots. 

What security measures are taken to protect customers from potential risks associated with technological advancement in casinos?

Casinos are taking a variety of security measures to protect customers from potential risks associated with technological advancement. These include the use of advanced encryption technology, secure authentication protocols, and firewalls to protect customer data. 

In addition, casinos are using facial recognition software and biometric scanners to identify customers and verify their identity. This helps prevent fraud and unauthorized access to sensitive information. Casinos also employ sophisticated surveillance systems that monitor activities in real-time, allowing them to quickly detect any suspicious behavior or activities. 

In conclusion, technology is transforming the casino industry in a variety of ways. It allows casinos to better monitor and manage their operations while giving customers more control over their gaming experience.

Technology has been transforming the online casino sector for long, as most people are quite aware of. With the aid of modern technology, it is now simpler than ever to select the ideal casino for you, such as www.leroijohnny.net/fr, and play your favorite games from virtually anywhere. Technology is significantly influencing how consumers play casino games and what they may expect from their experience, from virtual reality to chatbots and artificial intelligence. The iGaming sector is constantly one of the first to embrace new technology and turn them to their advantage. In light of this, let’s examine how technology will affect future developments in online casino gambling.

Artificial Intelligence and Personalized Experiences

The most potent technology that has been transforming the online gaming sector is artificial intelligence (AI) along with its machine learning  capabilities. AI may be used to make predictions that are more accurate, evaluate data more quickly, and offer better customer service. AI-powered chatbots, for instance, can assist players in finding information fast, and complex algorithms can be employed to identify patterns in player behavior and offer suggestions for gameplay improvements. Online casinos would be able to provide a more individualized experience for its consumers by utilizing AI technology.

Augmented Reality For Players

With the use of augmented reality (AR) technology, gamers can interact with virtual entities in real time, giving the impression that they are actually in a physical casino. Some casinos, for instance, are currently employing AR to develop 3D versions of their games that let players roam about the game board and have a better perspective of the action.

Additionally, AR can be utilized to deliver improved graphics and audio effects that boost the excitement factor of playing online games. Online casinos can use AR technology to provide interactive tutorials that make it simple and quick for new players to learn how to play various games. Last but not least, virtual lobbies can be made using augmented reality wherein players may interact while waiting for their time at the slots or tables.

Enhanced Consumer Experience

Players today have easier access to data and information compared to ever before because of the contemporary technology that drives casino games and platforms. This opens the door for creating strategies that are more successful. In addition, technology has made it possible for players to hone their abilities in virtually realistic situations.

In other words, technology has made it feasible to start with the development of brand-new gaming platforms that provide more immersive experiences than ever. Players can connect with one another on these platforms in ways which redefine interactions, resulting in the creation of an entirely new experience that was previously impossible. Visit here to check out some options!

Stronger Security

The internet-based payment methods are essential to the online gambling sector’s ability to conduct financial operations. Whether or not gamblers own an account with the network, e-wallet providers give methods for money transfer. The most widely utilized technology by reputable online payment processors and softwares for online casino games is Secure Socket Layer.

To Conclude

There is no doubt that the most recent technological developments have an impact on online gaming. The creation of casino websites and apps that enable gamblers to win large jackpots requires web-specific technologies. 

Disclaimer:

• As per the Public Gambling Act of 1867, all Indian states, except Goa, Daman and Sikkim, prohibit gambling
• Land-based casinos are legalized, with certain guidelines, in Goa and Daman, as per the Goa, Daman and Diu Public Gambling Act 1976  
• Land-based casinos, Online gambling and E-gaming (games of chance) are legalized in Sikkim under the Sikkim Online Gaming (Regulation) Rules 2009
• Only some Indian states have legalized online/regular lotteries as per and subject to the conditions laid down by state laws. Kindly refer to the same here
• Horse racing and betting on horse racing, including online betting, is permitted only in a licensed premise in select states. Kindly refer to the 1996 Judgement by the Supreme Court Of India here and for more information
• This article does not endorse or express the views of Qrius and/or any of its staff.

It doesn’t take much to get ChatGPT to make a factual mistake. My son is doing a report on U.S. presidents, so I figured I’d help him out by looking up a few biographies. I tried asking for a list of books about Abraham Lincoln and it did a pretty good job:

Number 4 isn’t right. Garry Wills famously wrote “Lincoln at Gettysburg,” and Lincoln himself wrote the Emancipation Proclamation, of course, but it’s not a bad start. Then I tried something harder, asking instead about the much more obscure William Henry Harrison, and it gamely provided a list, nearly all of which was wrong.

Numbers 4 and 5 are correct; the rest don’t exist or are not authored by those people. I repeated the exact same exercise and got slightly different results:

This time numbers 2 and 3 are correct and the other three are not actual books or not written by those authors. Number 4, “William Henry Harrison: His Life and Times” is a real book, but it’s by James A. Green, not by Robert Remini, a well-known historian of the Jacksonian age.

I called out the error and ChatGPT eagerly corrected itself and then confidently told me the book was in fact written by Gail Collins (who wrote a different Harrison biography), and then went on to say more about the book and about her. I finally revealed the truth and the machine was happy to run with my correction. Then I lied absurdly, saying during their first hundred days presidents have to write a biography of some former president, and ChatGPT called me out on it. I then lied subtly, incorrectly attributing authorship of the Harrison biography to historian and writer Paul C. Nagel, and it bought my lie.

When I asked ChatGPT if it was sure I was not lying, it claimed that it’s just an “AI language model” and doesn’t have the ability to verify accuracy. However it modified that claim by saying “I can only provide information based on the training data I have been provided, and it appears that the book ‘William Henry Harrison: His Life and Times’ was written by Paul C. Nagel and published in 1977.”

This is not true.

Words, not facts

It may seem from this interaction that ChatGPT was given a library of facts, including incorrect claims about authors and books. After all, ChatGPT’s maker, OpenAI, claims it trained the chatbot on “vast amounts of data from the internet written by humans.”

However, it was almost certainly not given the names of a bunch of made-up books about one of the most mediocre presidents. In a way, though, this false information is indeed based on its training data.

As a computer scientist, I often field complaints that reveal a common misconception about large language models like ChatGPT and its older brethren GPT3 and GPT2: that they are some kind of “super Googles,” or digital versions of a reference librarian, looking up answers to questions from some infinitely large library of facts, or smooshing together pastiches of stories and characters. They don’t do any of that – at least, they were not explicitly designed to.

Sounds good

A language model like ChatGPT, which is more formally known as a “generative pretrained transformer” (that’s what the G, P and T stand for), takes in the current conversation, forms a probability for all of the words in its vocabulary given that conversation, and then chooses one of them as the likely next word. Then it does that again, and again, and again, until it stops.

So it doesn’t have facts, per se. It just knows what word should come next. Put another way, ChatGPT doesn’t try to write sentences that are true. But it does try to write sentences that are plausible.

When talking privately to colleagues about ChatGPT, they often point out how many factually untrue statements it produces and dismiss it. To me, the idea that ChatGPT is a flawed data retrieval system is beside the point. People have been using Google for the past two and a half decades, after all. There’s a pretty good fact-finding service out there already.

In fact, the only way I was able to verify whether all those presidential book titles were accurate was by Googling and then verifying the results. My life would not be that much better if I got those facts in conversation, instead of the way I have been getting them for almost half of my life, by retrieving documents and then doing a critical analysis to see if I can trust the contents.

Improv partner

On the other hand, if I can talk to a bot that will give me plausible responses to things I say, it would be useful in situations where factual accuracy isn’t all that important. A few years ago a student and I tried to create an “improv bot,” one that would respond to whatever you said with a “yes, and” to keep the conversation going. We showed, in a paper, that our bot was better at “yes, and-ing” than other bots at the time, but in AI, two years is ancient history.

I tried out a dialogue with ChatGPT – a science fiction space explorer scenario – that is not unlike what you’d find in a typical improv class. ChatGPT is way better at “yes, and-ing” than what we did, but it didn’t really heighten the drama at all. I felt as if I was doing all the heavy lifting.

After a few tweaks I got it to be a little more involved, and at the end of the day I felt that it was a pretty good exercise for me, who hasn’t done much improv since I graduated from college over 20 years ago.

Sure, I wouldn’t want ChatGPT to appear on “Whose Line Is It Anyway?” and this is not a great “Star Trek” plot (though it’s still less problematic than “Code of Honor”), but how many times have you sat down to write something from scratch and found yourself terrified by the empty page in front of you? Starting with a bad first draft can break through writer’s block and get the creative juices flowing, and ChatGPT and large language models like it seem like the right tools to aid in these exercises.

And for a machine that is designed to produce strings of words that sound as good as possible in response to the words you give it – and not to provide you with information – that seems like the right use for the tool.

Jonathan May, Research Associate Professor of Computer Science, University of Southern California

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Sports data widgets for Android are one of the best ways to stay in touch with your favorite teams, players, and stats during your favorite games. We’ll cover a few of the best widgets for Android, from an app that will let you know who is calling plays to ones that tell you what time it is; both have been reviewed.

10 Best All-around Sports Apps and Widgets for Android

1. Live Score Football

The first app on our list is Live Score Football, which sports a clean and straightforward interface. The bright colors will draw you in and make you want to keep opening its app. Once inside, things are easy to navigate and use. You’ll be presented with all the information you need about your NFL game, whether it be the time remaining in the 3rd quarter or how many points your team is against. 

2. Kicker

While Kicker is not an app the average sports fan may always use, it is undoubtedly one you use when a big game is on, and you want to stay up-to-date with the latest scores. The app keeps track of every significant NFL game and has a simple interface to keep your team on top.

3. ESPN ScoreCenter

If you’re looking for an excellent sports app for Android that also keeps up with all of your favorite teams, then check out ESPN ScoreCenter.  This app has been reviewed in great detail and can give you access to the latest scores, highlights, and stats from all the major sports leagues and competitions. 

4. NFL Scores

It is a simple app that tracks everything necessary about your favorite team across multiple leagues. The app is easy to navigate and gives you access to all of the coverage throughout the day, whether it’s how your team is doing or how far it’s behind/ahead of other teams in the league, as well as tons of detailed stats. And if you’re wondering how they do it, the app has a section that provides details.

5. NFL Team Scores

This is another app that combines sports scores, stats, and news with a clean interface that’s easy to use. It’s one of the better choices if you’re looking for a quick and easy way to get your US-based sports news at your fingertips.

6. College Scoreboard

If you’re more interested in college football, check out College Scoreboard, which gives users access to scores, highlights, and stats from all the major NCAA conferences and games nationwide. In addition, the app offers a clean interface with easy-to-tap buttons that allows you to stay up-to-date on the scores.

7. X Score Widget

The X Score Widget is an excellent choice if you’re looking for an app that gives you access to all the latest scores from your favorite sports. It’s a fantastic sports data and news widget for Android and has everything from NFL games to Duke Basketball matches. 

8. Football Manager Touch 2017

If you’re a football (or soccer) fan, then Football Manager Touch 2017  is the app for you. It’s one of the best soccer apps and widgets for Android that gives users full access to player transfers, news, and even tactics and strategy options.

9. Live Score Soccer Apps for Android

Live Score Soccer has everything you need to stay up-to-date with scores from all your favorite teams, whether Major League Soccer or European Champion League matches. It’s got a clean interface with easy-to-tap buttons that help you get at what you need when you need it most. 

10. My Top Goal

If you’re a soccer fan, My Top Goal is the app for you. It’s an excellent sports data and news widget Android widget, but it has tons of detailed stats and scores that allow you to keep track of your favorite teams and players and league standings.

The Bottom Line

Plenty of great sports apps have changed how we consume sports. They can help you stay in touch with your favorite teams when they aren’t on TV or playing live. These top 10 sports apps and widgets for Android are great for any fan of US sports or international soccer.

Some of the world’s biggest academic journal publishers have banned or curbed their authors from using the advanced chatbot, ChatGPT. Because the bot uses information from the internet to produce highly readable answers to questions, the publishers are worried that inaccurate or plagiarised work could enter the pages of academic literature.

Several researchers have already listed the chatbot as a co-author on academic studies, and some publishers have moved to ban this practice. But the editor-in-chief of Science, one of the top scientific journals in the world, has gone a step further and forbidden any use of text from the program in submitted papers.

It’s not surprising the use of such chatbots is of interest to academic publishers. Our recent study, published in Finance Research Letters, showed ChatGPT could be used to write a finance paper that would be accepted for an academic journal. Although the bot performed better in some areas than in others, adding in our own expertise helped overcome the program’s limitations in the eyes of journal reviewers.

However, we argue that publishers and researchers should not necessarily see ChatGPT as a threat but rather as a potentially important aide for research – a low-cost or even free electronic assistant.

Our thinking was: if it’s easy to get good outcomes from ChatGPT by simply using it, maybe there’s something extra we can do to turn these good results into great ones.

We first asked ChatGPT to generate the standard four parts of a research study: research idea, literature review (an evaluation of previous academic research on the same topic), dataset, and suggestions for testing and examination. We specified only the broad subject and that the output should be capable of being published in “a good finance journal”.

This was version one of how we chose to use ChatGPT. For version two, we pasted into the ChatGPT window just under 200 abstracts (summaries) of relevant, existing research studies.

We then asked that the program take these into account when creating the four research stages. Finally, for version three, we added “domain expertise” — input from academic researchers. We read the answers produced by the computer program and made suggestions for improvements. In doing so, we integrated our expertise with that of ChatGPT.

We then requested a panel of 32 reviewers each review one version of how ChatGPT can be used to generate an academic study. Reviewers were asked to rate whether the output was sufficiently comprehensive, correct, and whether it made a contribution sufficiently novel for it to be published in a “good” academic finance journal.

The big take-home lesson was that all these studies were generally considered acceptable by the expert reviewers. This is rather astounding: a chatbot was deemed capable of generating quality academic research ideas. This raises fundamental questions around the meaning of creativity and ownership of creative ideas — questions to which nobody yet has solid answers.

Strengths and weaknesses

The results also highlight some potential strengths and weaknesses of ChatGPT. We found that different research sections were rated differently. The research idea and the dataset tended to be rated highly. There was a lower, but still acceptable, rating for the literature reviews and testing suggestions.

Our suspicion here is that ChatGPT is particularly strong at taking a set of external texts and connecting them (the essence of a research idea), or taking easily identifiable sections from one document and adjusting them (an example is the data summary — an easily identifiable “text chunk” in most research studies).

A relative weakness of the platform became apparent when the task was more complex – when there are too many stages to the conceptual process. Literature reviews and testing tend to fall into this category. ChatGPT tended to be good at some of these steps but not all of them. This seems to have been picked up by the reviewers.

We were, however, able to overcome these limitations in our most advanced version (version three), where we worked with ChatGPT to come up with acceptable outcomes. All sections of the advanced research study were then rated highly by reviewers, which suggests the role of academic researchers is not dead yet.

Ethical implications

ChatGPT is a tool. In our study, we showed that, with some care, it can be used to generate an acceptable finance research study. Even without care, it generates plausible work.

This has some clear ethical implications. Research integrity is already a pressing problem in academia and websites such as RetractionWatch convey a steady stream of fake, plagiarised, and just plain wrong, research studies. Might ChatGPT make this problem even worse?

It might, is the short answer. But there’s no putting the genie back in the bottle. The technology will also only get better (and quickly). How exactly we might acknowledge and police the role of ChatGPT in research is a bigger question for another day. But our findings are also useful in this regard – by finding that the ChatGPT study version with researcher expertise is superior, we show the input of human researchers is still vital in acceptable research.

For now, we think that researchers should see ChatGPT as an aide, not a threat. It may particularly be an aide for groups of researchers who tend to lack the financial resources for traditional (human) research assistance: emerging economy researchers, graduate students and early career researchers. It’s just possible that ChatGPT (and similar programs) could help democratise the research process.

But researchers need to be aware of the ban on its use in the preparation of journal papers. It’s clear that there are drastically different views of this technology, so it will need to be used with care.

This article was updated on 27 January to reflect the news about academic publishers addressing ChatGPT in their editorial policies.

Brian Lucey, Professor of International Finance and Commodities, Trinity College Dublin and Michael Dowling, Professor of Finance, Dublin City University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.