Latest news with #UniversityOfZurich
Medscape
23-05-2025
- Health
- Medscape
Intranasal Schirmer Test Shows Promise in Allergy Diagnosis
The intranasal Schirmer test (INSCH) may help detect allergic rhinitis during a nasal provocation test. Among patients with allergic rhinitis, the INSCH revealed significantly increased nasal secretions upon exposure to relevant allergens such as mites or birch. METHODOLOGY: The INSCH was performed by attaching Schirmer filter paper — widely used in ophthalmology to measure tears — to each nostril. To investigate whether INSCH could objectively assess rhinorrhea during evaluations for allergy, the researchers recruited 50 participants from March 2023 to March 2024. Half the participants underwent nasal provocation testing after they had a negative or borderline result for a tested allergen on a skin prick test or specific serum immunoglobulin E test. The other half were in a control group with no history of allergy. TAKEAWAY: Among patients with allergic rhinitis, INSCH wetting distance in significantly increased in the nostril that was provoked with an allergen (mean difference, 13.95 mm; P = .01). = .01). Individuals with nonallergic rhinitis showed no change in nasal secretions upon provocation with a potential allergen. A difference in wetting distance of at least 2.75 mm after provocation had a sensitivity of 81.8% and a specificity of 71.4% in detecting allergic rhinitis. IN PRACTICE: 'The INSCH could serve as a simple tool in everyday clinical practice to quickly objectify nasal secretion,' the authors wrote. SOURCE: Paula von der Lage, MD, with the University of Zurich, Zurich, Switzerland, was the corresponding author of the study, which was published online on May 17 in Annals of Allergy, Asthma and Immunology . LIMITATIONS: The study included patients who smoke, despite evidence that smoking can lead to drier nasal mucosa. DISCLOSURES: The study received support from the Theodor und Ida Herzog-Egli-Stiftung, Switzerland. This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication. Medscape Medical News © 2025 WebMD, LLC Cite this: Intranasal Schirmer Test Shows Promise in Allergy Diagnosis - Medscape - May 23, 2025.
RNZ News
16-05-2025
- Science
- RNZ News
Research, ethics, and artificial intelligence
Photo: Public Domain A study on artificial intelligence by Zurich University, approved by its own ethics committee, has been widely lambasted for failing to get informed consent of unwitting participants. How do you do research on how chatbots affect opinions on social media, without resorting to throwing artificial voices into an opinion thread on social media? Well, certainly not the way that the University of Zurich went about it, by secretly launching a series of Reddit profiles run by chatbots pretending to be variously a rape victim, trauma councillor, and a black man opposed to the Black Lives Matter movement. It's now been threatened with legal action after failing to get informed consent for the experiment. The research team only disclosed their experiment to the wider public after they'd finished collecting data, and their post outlining what they'd done attracted thousands of comments from users who felt their privacy had been breached. Reddit responded by banning the university from its platform and threatening legal action. The university has now promised the study's results won't be released to the public, and says they will be reviewing and strengthening their ethical review process. This particular issue may be resolved, but the discussions around the ethical guidelines when it comes to research using artificial intelligence are ongoing. "My initial thoughts were quite similar to a lot of people on Reddit, which was, 'They've done what?'," says Dr Andrew Lensen, a senior lecturer in Artificial Intelligence at Victoria University. By not informing Reddit users that they might be subject to this experiment Lensen says the researchers bypassed one of the fundamental principles of ethics. "Consent ... in a lot of AI research especially it does come back to the idea of consent, which is that if you are going to run a study with human participants, then they need to opt in and they need to be consenting in an informed and free way," he says. In a Reddit post the researchers said, "to ethically test LLMs' [large language models] persuasive power in realistic scenarios, an unaware setting was necessary," which the ethics committee at the University of Zurich acknowledged before giving this research the green light. But Lensen questions this reasoning, saying the argument of prior consent being "impractical" wouldn't get past any ethics committee in New Zealand. "The human ethics committee would be saying, 'well how can you redesign your experiment so that you can get consent, while still meeting the essence of what you're trying to study?'" he asks. It turns out there are other ways, and Reddit users were quick to alert the researchers to a similar study conducted by OpenAI. "[OpenAI] took existing threads and then made Arti-Chatbot to respond and then compared the Chatbot responses to the human responses... and then they had people essentially score them in a blind way, so the person scoring didn't know which was a Chatbot and which was a human," Lensen says. There has been an influx in the number of bots lurking in the comment sections of various social media platforms. It's hard to put an exact figure on how many there are because they're constantly changing and updating to become "more human", making them difficult to detect. But Lensen says that just means we, being the actual real people, need to think twice about any accounts we engage with. "It's not necessarily that the things posted by bots online are 'bad' ... but as humans we also want to know what is AI generated and what is human because we value those things differently," he says. Lensen says AI can be helpful when it comes to getting information and talking through ideas, but they can't fully replace a real-life person. "We tend to want human reactions and human responses, we don't want facts and hot AI takes," he says. Lensen says there is a need for more research like Zurich University's, with the addition of prior consent, to understand how people interact with bots and what the effect is. "Is it going to polarise people or is it going to bring people together? How do people feel, how do they react when you tell them afterwards whether or not it was a bot or human and why do they feel that way? "And what does that then mean for how we want the internet or social media or even our society to operate with this influx of bots?" Check out how to listen to and follow The Detail here . You can also stay up-to-date by liking us on Facebook or following us on Twitter . Sign up for Ngā Pitopito Kōrero , a daily newsletter curated by our editors and delivered straight to your inbox every weekday.
Phone Arena
09-05-2025
- Phone Arena
Hotspot #30: The Android redesign is its best chance for a win
Android's redesign is its chance for a win Google's inability to keep a secret was proven once again as the company Google's inability to keep a secret was proven once again as the company leaked its own redesign of the Android interface. Called Material 3 Expressive, the new look leverages color, shape, size, and motion to make the software 'more usable.' In a now-deleted blog post, Google claimed it developed the new design through 46 rounds of research focused on how various visual elements affect user attention. The goal was to make the design more interesting for younger users while also simplifying usability for older ones, leveling the playing field so everyone can quickly spot interface elements. While a redesign alone won't lure users out of Apple's walled garden, giving Android such a distinctive interface is the right step forward. Copying Apple clearly hasn't worked, so creating something completely different from the iPhone experience is refreshing, if nothing else. Given that everyone complains Apple can't innovate anymore, Google's new approach might pay off in the long run. Subscribe to receive the weekly Hotspot newsletter By subscribing you agree to our terms and conditions and privacy policy AI is the death of social media Researchers from the University of Zurich Researchers from the University of Zurich secretly used AI-powered bots on the popular debate subreddit r/changemymind to test whether AI could change people's opinions on contentious topics. They discovered that AI is a great manipulator and more persuasive than humans. Setting aside the ethical failure of the study, it's another sign we're not prepared for the age of AI. Without effective tools to detect AI, such bots could be exploited by bad actors for even more effective disinformation campaigns than the ones we've already witnessed. The best-case scenario would be that the AI slop pushes people away from social media, encouraging us to reconnect in real life. The more likely outcome is the proliferation of AI-generated echo chambers amplifying the worst characteristics of social media and the internet. Either way, big social media companies will suffer. It would be a good idea for them to stop playing carelessly with AI and start working on ways to limit its harmful influence over their apps before it gets too late. Google is cooked Apple is exploring the implementation of AI-powered search tools in Safari. Eddy Cue, the company's VP of services, said he believes AI will eventually replace today's search engines. He also noted Apple will likely offer products similar to OpenAI's and Perplexity's search, although 'they probably won't be the default.' These statements were part of Cue's testimony in the DOJ's antitrust case against Google, which is just one of the search giant's significant challenges. If Apple truly considers replacing Google with AI-powered search, then the end of web search as we know it could be closer than we imagined. Regulatory pressure might impact Google's future, but that will pale compared to the consequences of 2 billion iPhones shifting toward ChatGPT or Claude-powered search. Such a massive change won't happen overnight, which is probably Google's only comfort. People's habits change slowly, giving Google time to devise a survival strategy. One we can only hope includes a drastically better search experience, with or without AI. Further reading Welcome to Hotspot, your weekly newsletter with three takes on the most important news of the week, which you can read in 3 minutes. If you want to receive Hotspot in your inbox, you can subscribe for it here.
Phone Arena
08-05-2025
- Business
- Phone Arena
Reddit is implementing ways to keep "unwelcome AI" out of the platform and keep it human
Reddit has announced that it is introducing new measures to combat artificial intelligence (AI) misuse following a deceptive AI incident that has caused alarm. While aiming for a safer platform for its diverse communities, these changes are sparking considerable concerns about user privacy and the site's tradition of anonymity, a core feature for many move was prompted by a troubling experiment where University of Zurich researchers used AI bots in Reddit's "Change My View" subreddit, a forum for debate. These bots posted over 1,700 comments impersonating human users, some in sensitive roles, without any consent, breaching Reddit's rules and ethical research standards, leading to user outcry. The use of AI to mimic genuine human interaction in such a manner undermines the trust essential for productive online response, CEO Steve Huffman announced steps to "keep Reddit human," involving third-party services to verify users as human and, in some regions, confirm their age. Huffman stated that despite these verifications, Reddit aims to preserve anonymity and does not want users' real names, a complex goal when outside partners are involved in the verification process. The challenge lies in implementing robust checks without inadvertently collecting more user data than necessary. Steve Huffman, Reddit CEO Despite these assurances, many users are concerned because Reddit's anonymity has long been crucial for open discussions on sensitive or controversial matters, allowing individuals to seek advice or share opinions without fear of real-world reprisal. Details about the new verification system remain scarce; TechCrunch highlighted that Reddit hasn't clarified who will require verification, which third parties are involved, or what specific data might be necessary. This opacity is troubling, especially recalling incidents like Meta sharing private user data with law enforcement, which had serious repercussions for the individuals involved. Reddit's situation mirrors a broader challenge, as many online platforms struggle with sophisticated AI misuse and maintaining platform integrity. Verification methods intended to ensure authenticity often clash with user privacy expectations, making the balance between security and anonymity a growing industry-wide difficulty that requires careful navigation and ongoing dialogue with user bases. Stopping AI fakes is important for Reddit to protect its community. But, as they bring in these new ways to check users, they really need to be open and clear with everyone about how it all works. If people are left confused about what's happening with their information, that trust can easily break. So, Reddit needs to find a smart way to fight off the fake stuff while still making sure users keep the privacy and freedom to speak their minds that they've always valued on the site.
