AI labs' all-or-nothing race leaves no time to fuss about safety
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Economist
24-07-2025
- Economist
AI labs' all-or-nothing race leaves no time to fuss about safety
IT IS COMMON enough for new technology to spark a moral panic: think of the Victorians who thought the telegraph would lead to social isolation or Socrates, who worried that writing would erode brain power. But it is unusual for the innovators themselves to be the ones panicking. And it is more peculiar still for those same anguished inventors to be pressing ahead despite their misgivings. Yet that, more or less, is what is happening with the tech world's pursuit of artificial general intelligence (AGI), meaning an AI capable enough to replace more or less anyone with a desk job, or even superintelligence, meaning an AI so smart no human can understand it.
The Independent
28-05-2025
- The Independent
We still don't know how tickling works. More serious research is needed, say scientists
Scientists have developed a new method to investigate the long-standing mystery of how tickling works, an advance that could have big implications for our understanding of brain development. Humans have attempted to understand why we are so sensitive to tickling for over 2,000 years since the time of Socrates, but exactly how the brain processes such stimuli has remained a mystery. 'Socrates, Aristotle, Bacon, Galileo, Descartes, and Darwin theorised about tickling, but after two millennia of intense philosophical interest, experimentation remains scarce,' the researchers from Radboud University in the Netherlands said their new study published in the journal Science Advances. Tickling, or gargalesis as it is scientifically known, involves a complex interplay of physical, social, neurological and developmental aspects rooted in evolution, the researchers argue. People with autism spectrum disorder, for example, have been found to perceive touches as more ticklish than others. Investigating this difference further could reveal clues to brain development in people with autism, the scientists say, but tickling in general remains 'relatively under-researched'. Earlier studies have shown that apes such as bonobos and gorillas, as well as rats, respond to ticklish touches, indicating that the process has an evolutionary significance. But understanding how tickling emerged has been made more difficult by the fact that the process is not clearly defined within the scientific community, says neuroscientist Konstantina Kilteni, lead author of the new study. For instance, there is a difference between when one tickles another person on the armpits with hands compared to tickling their back lightly with a feather. While scientists know more about the second feather-based stimulation, the first sensation is understudied, they say. Tickling is also one of the earliest triggers for laughter in human development, but it is unclear whether we laugh because we enjoy it. 'No theory satisfactorily explains why touch on some body areas feels more ticklish than on others or why some people are highly sensitive while others remain unresponsive,' the researchers wrote. To answer these questions better in a standardised setting, scientists have now set up a 'tickling lab' that contains a chair with a plate with two holes in it. In this set up, participants put their feet through the holes, and a mechanical stick tickles the soles of their feet. This ensures consistency: that every tickle experiment is carried out the same way. As participants experience tickling, neuroscientists record what happens in their brain, and also check other physical reactions like heart rate, sweating, breathing, or laughter and screaming. 'By incorporating this method of tickling into a proper experiment, we can take tickling research seriously. Not only will we be able to truly understand tickling, but also our brains,' scientists say. 'To conclude, the field will greatly benefit from a qualitative breakthrough, which can be achieved through research standardisation,' they wrote.
BBC News
23-03-2025
- BBC News
Why are there no native squirrels in Guernsey?
A grey squirrel made headlines when it arrived as a stowaway on a ferry to Guernsey - an island which has neither grey or red why does the Channel Island have no native red squirrels - and why does it lack other small species like moles, badgers and foxes, as well as snakes and toads?Dr Ellie Scopes, a population modeller for Forest Research, says Guernsey became an island towards the end of the last ice age before many small animals reached it."That's definitely what happened with Ireland," Dr Scopes said. "It got cut off much earlier than Britain did so has a completely different assemblage of animals." She said some small species such as moles "could have made it over" in the past, but become extinct Guernsey is a small island, once they went extinct locally they would not be able to re-establish themselves, she Scopes was part of a team that discovered a species of giant vole on Guernsey in said another possible reason Guernsey did not establish a population of red squirrels, which are native to Britain and France, is because they "like tree cover" and Guernsey does not have larger areas of other species such as field voles and common shrews could thrive on Guernsey if they became Scopes said a single animal, even a pregnant female, was "highly unlikely" to be able to establish a viable population because of inbreeding."You need quite a few to start a population," she said, potentially as many as 20 to 40 individuals."Very interestingly, Ireland has had a population of greater white-tooth shrews introduced recently," Dr Scopes said, adding that they are suspected to have come into the country hidden in some hay. Ice age Guernsey and the other Channel Islands were originally joined to mainland France but broke away towards the end of the ice age, according to Guernsey and Alderney were separated from the French mainland about 11,200 years ago, a spokesperson and Sark became separate from Guernsey 2,500 to 3,000 years separated from the mainland much later, around 6,000 years ago according to the island's Guernsey, Jersey has a native species of toad as well as red squirrels, which were introduced to the island in the late 1800s, Jersey's government squirrels are native to North America and classed as an invasive species in the UK because of the threat they pose to native red were first brought to the UK by the Victorians as an "ornamental species" in gardens of stately can out-compete smaller reds for food and habitat, and some also carry a virus fatal to the native greys in the UK was banned in 1930, but they have spread across England, Wales and large parts of Scotland.
