Latest news with #Isik
7NEWS
15-05-2025
- Automotive
- 7NEWS
Sydney roofer miraculously survives after ute wrecked in horrific Northern Beaches crash
Anyone who saw the unrecognisable wreck of the ute would never believe someone could survive such a horrible crash. But miraculously, this Sydney tradesman did. Mark Peebles, a 32-year-old roofer, was on his way to work on May 9 when his white Toyota Hilux slammed into a power pole on Mona Vale Rd, Terrey Hills on Sydney's Northern Beaches at 6.30am. WATCH THE VIDEO ABOVE: High-speed ute crash snaps power pole in Sydney. The force of the crash was so extreme it snapped a power pole at its base. The ute's front end was crushed beyond recognition, the cabin folded in on itself like crumpled tin and high-voltage power lines hung dangerously above the wreck. Peebles was trapped inside as his tools and roofing materials were stewn across the road. After he was cut free, Peebles was airlifted to the Royal North Shore Hospital in a critical condition. But against all odds, he survived and it marked the the start of a long recovery journey for Peebles and his young family. Memory like goldfish Peebles suffered multiple fractures in both legs, a collapsed lung and spinal damage and has undergone five surgeries since the crash. While he's been moved out of intensive care and has started speaking again, family friend Kim Isik told that conversations are fleeting. 'The conversation that you have with him is like a goldfish,' Isik said. 'It's just gone within 15 minutes to half an hour, and he doesn't remember anything all over again.' Isik said Peebles had been feeling dizzy in the days leading up to the crash and may have blacked out behind the wheel. Doctors expect the recovery might take six months to one year, before he can walk again. Young family's struggle The crash has turned life upside down for Peebles' wife Monika and their two young children — a one-year-old son and a three-year-old daughter. Monika described the drive to the hospital that morning as 'the longest five minutes' of her life, not knowing if her husband was okay. Now, she's juggling work, caring for their children, managing the emotional toll, all while supporting her critically injured husband in hospital. Isik said Peebles' daughter has been struggling to understand why her dad is not coming home. 'He's a very hands-on, loving father … a dedicated family man,' Isik said. 'He's an extremely hard worker, originally from Queensland, he's a typical Queenslander — relaxed, easy-going, a happy-go-lucky kind of guy.' To help ease the pressure, Isik has launched a GoFundMe to support the family. She said the community has been generous, offering food and constantly asking how they can help. Knowing the family has lost half their income, Isik wanted to ease some of the burden on Monika's shoulders, and she has been touched by the outpouring of support. 'Everyone has really come together — you see the best in people during such a traumatic time,' she said.
7NEWS
15-05-2025
- Automotive
- 7NEWS
Long recovery for Sydney roofer who survived horrific crash on the Northern Beaches
Anyone who saw the unrecognisable wreck of the ute would find it hard to believe someone could survive such a horrible crash, but miraculously, this Sydney tradesman did. Mark Peebles, a 32-year-old roofer was on his way to work on May 9, when his white Toyota Hilux at about 6.30am slammed into a power pole on Mona Vale Rd in Terrey Hills on Sydney's Northern Beaches. The force of the crash snapped a power pole at its base, leaving it tilted. The ute's front end was crushed beyond recognition, the cabin folded in on itself like crumpled tin, and high-voltage power lines hung dangerously above the wreck. Peebles was cut free from the twisted wreck and airlifted to Royal North Shore Hospital in a critical condition. His road to recovery will be long after suffering multiple fractures in both legs, a collapsed lung and spinal damage, and five surgeries. He was moved out of intensive care on Wednesday. While he's started speaking again, conversations are fleeting, family friend Kim Isik told 'The conversation that you have with him is like a goldfish,' Isik said. 'It's just gone within 15 minutes to half an hour, and he doesn't remember anything all over again.' Isik said Peebles had been feeling dizzy in the days leading up to the crash and may have blacked out behind the wheel. Doctors expect the recovery might take six months to one year, before he can walk or work again. The sudden crash has turned life upside down for Peebles' wife, Monika, and their two young children — a one-year-old son and a three-year-old daughter. Monika described the drive to the hospital that morning as 'the longest five minutes' of her life. Now, she's juggling work, caring for their children, managing the emotional toll, and trying to stay afloat financially, all while supporting her critically injured husband in hospital. Isik said Peebles' daughter has been struggling to understand why her dad is not home. To help ease the pressure, Isik has launched a GoFundMe to support the family through this incredibly stressful and uncertain time. She said the community has been generous, offering food and constantly asking how they can help. 'Everyone has really come together — you see the best in people during such a traumatic time,' she said.
Yahoo
24-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
AI still can't beat humans at reading social cues
AI models have progressed rapidly in recent years and can already outperform humans in various tasks, from generating basic code to dominating games like chess and Go. But despite massive computing power and billions of dollars in investor funding, these advanced models still can't hold up to humans when it comes to truly understanding how real people interact with one another in the world. In other words, AI still fundamentally struggles at 'reading the room.' That's the claim made in a new paper by researchers from Johns Hopkins University. In the study, researchers asked a group of human volunteers to watch three-second video clips and rate the various ways individuals in those videos were interacting with one another. They then tasked more than 350 AI models—including image, video, and language-based systems—with predicting how the humans had rated those interactions. While the humans completed the task with ease, the AI models, regardless of their training data, struggled to accurately interpret what was happening in the clips. The researchers say their findings suggest that AI models still have significant difficulty understanding human social cues in real-world environments. That insight could have major implications for the growing industry of AI-enabled driverless cars and robots, which inherently need to navigate the physical world alongside people. 'Anytime you want an AI system to interact with humans, you want to be able to know what those humans are doing and what groups of humans are doing with each other,' John Hopkins University assistant professor of cognitive science and paper lead author Leyla Isik told Popular Science. 'This really highlights how a lot of these models fall short on those tasks.' Isik will present the research findings today at the International Conference on Learning Representations. Though previous research has shown that AI models can accurately describe what's happening in still images at a level comparable to humans, this study aimed to see whether that still holds true for video. To do that, Isik says she and her fellow researchers selected hundreds of videos from a computer vision dataset and clipped them down to three seconds each. They then narrowed the sample to include only videos featuring two humans interacting. Human volunteers viewed these clips, and answered a series of questions about what was happening, rated on a scale from 1 to 5. The questions ranged from objective prompts like 'Do you think these bodies are facing each other?' to more subjective ones, such as whether the interaction appeared emotionally positive or negative. In general, the human respondents tended to give similar answers, as reflected in their ratings—suggesting that people share a basic observational understanding of social interactions. The researchers then posed similar types of questions to image, video, and language models. (The language models were given human-written captions to analyze instead of raw video.) Across the board, the AI models failed to demonstrate the same level of consensus as the human participants. The language models generally performed better than the image and video models, but Isik notes that may be partly due to the fact that they were analyzing captions that were already quite descriptive. The researchers primarily evaluated open-access models, some of which were several years old. The study did not include the latest models recently released by leading AI companies like OpenAI and Anthropic. Still, the stark contrast between human and AI responses suggests there may be something fundamentally different about how models and humans process social and contextual information. 'It's not enough to just see an image and recognize objects and faces,' John Hopkins University doctoral student and paper co-author Kathy Garcia said in a statement. 'We need AI to understand the story that is unfolding in a scene. Understanding the relationships, context, and dynamics of social interactions is the next step, and this research suggests there might be a blind spot in AI model development.' The findings come as tech companies race to integrate AI into an increasing number of physical robots—a concept often referred to as 'embodied AI.' Cities like Los Angeles, Phoenix, and Austin have become test beds of this new era thanks to the increasing presence of driverless Waymo robotaxis sharing the roads with human-driven vehicles. Limited understanding of complex environments has led some driverless cars to behave erratically or even get stuck in loops, driving in circles. While some recent studies suggest that driverless vehicles may currently be less prone to accidents than the average human driver, federal regulators have nonetheless opened up investigations into Waymo and Amazon-owned Zoox for driving behavior that allegedly violated safety laws. Other companies—like Figure AI, Boston Dynamics, and Tesla —are taking things a step further by developing AI-enabled humanoid robots designed to work alongside humans in manufacturing environments. Figure has already signed a deal with BMW to deploy one of its bipedal models at a facility in South Carolina, though its exact purpose remains somewhat vague. In these settings, properly understanding human social cues and context is even more critical, as even small misjudgments in intention run the risk of injury. Going a step further, some experts have even suggested that advanced humanoid robots could one day assist with elder and child care. Isik suggested the results of the study mean there are still several steps that need to be taken before that vision becomes a reality. '[The research] really highlights the importance of bringing neuroscience, cognitive science, and AI into these more dynamic real world settings.' Isik said.
