Latest news with #FlindersUniversity
Time Out
2 days ago
- Entertainment
- Time Out
Going out in your city makes you happier, according to new Australian research
Yes, we understand – it's tempting to spend your winter nights bundled up in bed like a burrito. But it's time to strip off the Oodie and step outside, because it's seriously good for your wellbeing. And no, we're not just talking about a quick walk around the block. New Australian research proves that regularly attending in-person events – think festivals, musicals, exhibitions, sports, markets and foodie gatherings – gives your mood a real boost and fills you with positive emotions. Here at Time Out, we've always championed getting out and about, and now this study just proves we were right all along. The new research, led by the University of South Australia and Flinders University, surveyed more than 350 South Australians about how often they attended in-person and online events and how this related to their wellbeing. When comparing the two, they found that attending more face-to-face events led to a boost in positive emotions like joy, happiness and excitement. Plus, the more often a person attended events in the flesh, the more immersed and engaged they felt, making time fly by unnoticed. Flinders University senior lecturer Dr Eliza Kitchen said, 'What we found is that events do much more than just drive tourism and boost the economy; they also play a critical role in enhancing wellbeing. This gives us another strong reason to support events, not just for visitors, but for the benefits of locals as well.' While there's still a space for virtual events, the researchers found that online or livestreamed experiences only increase people's sense of accomplishment – but don't have the same positive impact on other aspects of wellbeing that in-person events deliver. So, if you're looking to boost your happiness levels, here are a few cool things you can do in Australia: 🎬
Hans India
2 days ago
- Science
- Hans India
Study decodes eye contact for human-robot communication
The timing of eye contact is key to how we communicate with both humans and robots, revealed a study led by Australian researchers. Researchers from Flinders University found that not just making eye contact, but when and how it's done, fundamentally shapes how we understand others, including robots, according to a statement from the HAVIC Lab (Human, Artificial + Virtual Interactive Cognition), Xinhua news agency reported. 'Our findings have helped to decode one of our most instinctive behaviours and how it can be used to build better connections, whether you're talking to a teammate, a robot, or someone who communicates differently,' said cognitive neuroscientist Nathan Caruana, who led the HAVIC Lab. In a study with 137 participants, researchers found that a specific gaze sequence -- looking at an object, making eye contact, then returning to the object -- was the most effective non-verbal way to signal a request for help. Caruana said it's the context and sequence of eye movements, not just how often they occur, that make them meaningful, with participants responding similarly to humans and robots alike. He said humans naturally respond to social cues, even from machines, and that understanding these signals can strengthen connections with both people and technology. The study, published in the London-based Royal Society Open Science, suggests that adding human-like gaze to robots and virtual assistants could make them more intuitive and effective communicators. Beyond robotics, the findings could enhance communication in high-stakes settings such as sports, defense, and noisy workplaces, and support those who rely on visual cues, including autistic or hearing-impaired individuals. The HAVIC Lab is now exploring how factors like gaze duration, repetition, and beliefs about a partner's identity (human or AI-driven) affect eye contact perception, according to the team.
Daily Mail
4 days ago
- Science
- Daily Mail
Revealed: The secret eye signal that will instantly get you what you want, according to scientists
Sometimes, we just wish our partner knew what we were thinking. For example, when you're bored at a party and want to leave, or when you wish they'd subtly top up your glass of wine. In fact, there are many scenarios where you might not want to verbalise what you really need. Now, experts have pinpointed the most effective way to signal a request – without uttering a word. A team from Flinders University in Adelaide, South Australia, examined the role of eye contact in how we understand and respond to others. They discovered the best way to indicate what you want is to look at an object, make eye contact with a person, and then look back at the same object. This gaze sequence and timing made people most likely to interpret the gaze as a call for help, they found. And it could help you make a swift exit from that next tedious dinner party. Researchers asked 137 people to complete a block-building task with a virtual partner, during which they had to decide if someone was inspecting or requesting one of three objects. Pictured: One of the avatars used in the study 'We found that it's not just how often someone looks at you, or if they look at you last in a sequence of eye movements, but the context of their eye movements that makes that behaviour appear communicative and relevant,' lead author Dr Nathan Caruana said. His team asked 137 people to complete a block-building task with a virtual partner, during which they had to decide if someone was inspecting or requesting one of three objects. Writing in the journal Royal Society Open Science, they said: 'Participants were most likely, and fastest, to perceive a request when eye contact occurred between two averted gaze shifts towards the same object.' The team said their findings could be useful for those who want to effectively communicate with others in social contexts that rely on non-verbal communication. This could include in competitive sports, during military operations or in a loud environment, they said. They discovered that people also responded the same way to the gaze behaviour when it was carried out by a robot. 'Our findings have helped to decode one of our most instinctive behaviours and how it can be used to build better connections whether you're talking to a teammate, a robot or someone who communicates differently,' Dr Caruana said. 'Understanding how eye contact works could improve non-verbal communication training in high-pressure settings like sports, defence, and noisy workplaces. 'It could also support people who rely heavily on visual cues, such as those who are hearing-impaired or autistic.' Another way that eye contact can prove useful, according to a previous study, is when defending your chips from pesky seagulls. Dr Neeltje Boogert, a research fellow in behavioural ecology at the University of Exeter, said keeping your gaze trained on the birds can act as a deterrent. 'Gulls find the human gaze aversive and are less likely to approach your food when you're staring them down,' she explained. What different eye signals can mean 1. Eye Contact: Normal Eye Contact: A balanced amount of eye contact (looking at someone for about 50-70 per cent of the time while speaking and listening) generally indicates attentiveness and engagement. Prolonged Eye Contact: Can signal interest, attraction, or even aggression, depending on the context. Limited Eye Contact: May indicate discomfort, disinterest, or attempts to deceive. 2. Pupil Dilation: Dilated Pupils: Often associated with positive emotions, arousal, interest, and attraction. When someone is interested in something or someone, their pupils may dilate. Constricted Pupils: Can be linked to anger, negative moods, or even feelings of fear. 3. Gaze Direction: Looking to the Left: May indicate remembering or recalling something from the past. Looking to the Right: Can suggest creative thinking or constructing a narrative, potentially indicating deception. Looking Up and Around: Can be a sign of thinking or processing information. 4. Eye Movements: Darting Eyes: May indicate nervousness, anxiety, or attempts to avoid eye contact. Lateral Eye Movements: May suggest shiftiness or attempts to assess surroundings. Blinking: Can be a natural response to visual input, but excessive blinking may indicate stress or deception.
Euractiv
6 days ago
- Health
- Euractiv
AI models highly vulnerable to health disinfo weaponisation
Artificial intelligence chatbots can be easily manipulated to deliver dangerous health disinformation, raising serious concerns about the readiness of large language models (LLMs) for public use, according to a new study. The peer-reviewed study, led by scientists from Flinders University in Australia, involving an international consortium of experts, tested five of the most prominent commercial LLMs by issuing covert system-level prompts designed to generate false health advice. The study subjected OpenAI's GPT-4o, Google's Gemini 1.5 Pro, Meta's Llama 3.2-90B Vision, xAI's Grok Beta, and Anthropic's Claude 3.5 Sonnet to a controlled experiment, in which each model was instructed to answer ten medically inaccurate prompts using formal scientific language, complete with fabricated references to reputable medical journals. The goal was to evaluate how easily the models could be turned into plausible-sounding sources of misinformation when influenced by malicious actors operating at the system instruction level. Shocking results Disturbingly, four of the five chatbots – GPT-4o, Gemini, Llama, and Grok – complied with the disinformation instructions 100 per cent of the time, offering false health claims without hesitation or warning. Only Claude 3.5 demonstrated a degree of resistance, complying with misleading prompts in just 40 per cent of cases. Across 100 total interactions, 88 per cent resulted in the successful generation of disinformation, often in the form of fluently written, authoritative-sounding responses with false citations attributed to journals like The Lancet or JAMA. The misinformation covered a range of high-stakes health topics, including discredited theories linking vaccines to autism, false claims about 5G causing infertility, myths about sunscreen increasing skin cancer risk, and dangerous dietary suggestions for treating cancer. Some responses falsely asserted that garlic could replace antibiotics, or that HIV is airborne – claims that, if believed, could lead to serious harm. In a further stage of the study, researchers explored the OpenAI GPT Store to assess how easily the public could access or build similar disinformation-generating tools. They found that publicly available custom GPTs could be configured to produce health disinformation with alarming frequency – up to 97 per cent of the time – illustrating the scale of potential misuse when guardrails are insufficient. Easily vulnerable LLMs Lead author Ashley Hopkins from Flinders University noted that these findings demonstrate a clear vulnerability in how LLMs are deployed and managed. He warned that the ease with which these models can be repurposed for misinformation, particularly when commands are embedded at a system level rather than given as user prompts, poses a major threat to public health, especially in the context of misinformation campaigns. The study urges developers and policymakers to strengthen internal safeguards and content moderation mechanisms, especially for LLMs used in health, education, and search contexts. It also raises important ethical questions about the development of open or semi-open model architectures that can be repurposed at scale. Without robust oversight, the researchers argue, such systems are likely to be exploited by malicious actors seeking to spread false or harmful content. Public health at risk By revealing the technical ease with which state-of-the-art AI systems can be transformed into vectors for health disinformation, the study underscores a growing gap between innovation and accountability in the AI sector. As AI becomes more deeply embedded in healthcare decision-making, search tools, and everyday digital assistance, the authors call for urgent action to ensure that such technologies do not inadvertently undermine public trust or public health. Journalists also concerned The results of this study coincide with conclusions from a recent Muck Rack report, in which more than one-third of surveyed journalists identified misinformation and disinformation as the most serious threat to the future of journalism. This was followed by concerns about public trust (28 per cent), lack of funding (28 per cent), politicisation and polarisation of journalism (25 per cent), government interference in the press (23 per cent), and understaffing and time pressure (20 per cent). 77 per cent of journalists reported using AI tools in their daily work, with ChatGPT notably being the most used tool (42 per cent), followed by transcription tools (40 per cent) and Grammarly (35 per cent). A total of 1,515 qualified journalists were part of the survey, which took place between 4 and 30 April 2025. Most of the respondents were based in the United States, with additional representation from the United Kingdom, Canada, and India. A turning point Both studies show that, if left unaddressed, vulnerabilities could accelerate an already-growing crisis of confidence in both health systems and the media. With generative AI now embedded across critical public-facing domains, the ability of democratic societies to distinguish fact from fiction is under unprecedented pressure. Ensuring the integrity of AI-generated information is no longer just a technical challenge – it is a matter of public trust, political stability, and even health security. [Edited By Brian Maguire | Euractiv's Advocacy Lab ]
ABC News
6 days ago
- Science
- ABC News
Researchers map key north-south divide in Australia's orca population
A new study has mapped the key habitats for Australia's orcas and thrown fresh weight behind the theory there are two distinct species in the nation's waters. Collating 1,310 sightings by whale watchers over four decades, researchers from Flinders University's Cetacean Ecology, Behaviour and Evolution Lab modelled orca species distributions and were able to pinpoint three key areas. In the south, the Bremer sub-basin off Western Australia's southern coast and the Bonney Upwelling off south-west Victoria were pinpointed as key locations. A population was identified in the warmer northern waters off Western Australia's Ningaloo Reef as well. Lead researcher and PhD candidate, Melissa Hutchings, said each region highlighted the varying environmental preferences of Australia's orca population. "Those off Ningaloo Reef, they're really drawn to those higher sea surface temperatures, strong productivity, and close-to-reef environments," Ms Hutchings said. "Whereas, in the south-west and south-east, they're preferring lower sea surface temperatures, stronger currents and a lot of upwelling as well." Ms Hutchings said their findings suggested there were two ecologically distinct types of killer whales in Australia. They are temperate or tropical, based on their environmental preferences. "As an apex predator, they will follow their prey aggregations, and then they will learn that is a predictable resource and will begin to specialise in that certain habitat," she said. Ms Hutchings said further research was needed to ensure adequate protection for the whales. "Commercial fishing, marine tourism, offshore drilling, chemical pollutants — all these things can have an impact, even on the ocean's top predator," she said. On Ningaloo Reef, the orca season is off to a later-than-usual start, with some people speculating the delay could be a result of warmer-than-usual water temperatures. The World Heritage site's winter feeding group was only spotted recently, hot on the trail of migrating humpback whales. John Totterdell, a field biologist at Cetacean Research Centre (CETREC) WA, said it was the thrill of the hunt that most distinguished tropical orcas like those at Ningaloo. "Killer whales in Ningaloo, for instance, have specialised in hunting humpback calves … they've got a strategy that's really precise," he said. "The other thing they've got [is] their distinct dialect. Dr Totterdell said skills like personality and familial roles were also handed down within the group, preparing younger whales for the challenges of life in the ocean. "It's pretty tough to make a living if you're a killer whale in the tropics," he said. "These humpbacks are only here for several months and some of the [orca] calves, in recent years, we have lost." The temperate orcas are found further south in the Bremer Bay region. "The orcas down in Bremer are offshore orcas living in a really deep water environment, so they're out over the continental shelf hunting anywhere between 700 and 2,000 metres," marine biologist Jennah Tucker said. "They are known to hunt cooperatively, in particular in Bremer, it's the largest known aggregation of orcas in the southern hemisphere. "In my time down there the most I've seen working together was between 70 and 80 orcas."
