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It’s 2030, you’re bored, so you go for an afternoon stroll in the online virtual world of the metaverse. You try to focus on the birds and the multi-coloured trees but eventually you yield to temptation and teleport to your favourite skate shop. The heavily tattooed assistant immediately recognises you, asks after your dear old dad, and says there’s a new brand of turbo skates that will blow your mind. It’s only later that you reflect that she’s 100% artificial intelligence.
What you probably don’t realise is we’re quite far along this journey already. Chatbots are already using AI so sophisticated that it can be hard to know if they’re human. They’re popping up everwhere from supermarkets to insurance websites to airports. AI specialist Shweta Singh looks at where it’s all heading, and the pitfalls along the way.
Richard Ratcliffe is several weeks into a hunger strike outside the Foreign Office in London to draw attention to his wife Nazarin’s ongoing detention in Iran on charges that she denies. Psychologist Lucy Serpell interviewed him and reports on how the hunger strike is affecting him.
Also don’t miss this briefing on what is in the COP26 draft agreement, and why it is being criticised. And if you like reading The Conversation, please consider supporting our work with a donation.
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Steven Vass
Business + Economy Editor
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‘The customer is always real.’
Octus_Photography
Shweta Singh, University of Warwick
You may not have heard of conversational commerce, but it’s quietly appearing in more and more places.
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UCL professors in conversation with Richard Ratcliffe.
David Wyatt
Lucy Serpell, UCL
The husband of detained Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is in the 18th day of his hunger strike outside the Foreign Office in London.
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COP26 president Alok Sharma.
UNFCCC / twitter
Michael Jacobs, University of Sheffield
In Paris, the French drafted ambitious texts and dared the biggest emitters to oppose it. In Glasgow, it’s the least developed countries which will have to do the most work.
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Health + Medicine
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Richard Hoffman, University of Hertfordshire
Whether these chemicals are harmful to our health depends a lot on what molecules they interact with in our body.
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Ana Valdes, University of Nottingham
A high-risk version of a gene called LZTFL1 doubles the risk of respiratory failure and death from COVID.
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Abdalla Mohamedsalih, University of the West of Scotland
Substances found in algae, squid and fish all have potential antiviral properties.
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Environment + Energy
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Christian Brand, University of Oxford
Some pollution is locked in for years to come, and there are no simple solutions.
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Johannes Novy, University of Westminster
One-tenth of global emissions result from the production and supply of building materials – and the construction process itself.
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Business + Economy
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Renaud Foucart, Lancaster University
The knock-on effects from this ruling could be enormous.
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Craig Anderson, University of Stirling
Big corporations are under pressure to take real action on emissions or risk the wrath of protesters, investors and even shareholders.
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Politics + Society
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Carlo Petrucci, University of Essex
The UK is threatening to trigger Article 16. What is the Northern Ireland protocol ‘emergency brake’?
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Arts + Culture
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Catherine Oliver, University of Cambridge
Attempting to counter the “soy boy” stereotypes, hyper-masculine influencers could be making harder for men to become vegan.
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Cities
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Razieh Zandieh, University of Manchester; Mark Nieuwenhuijsen, Australian Catholic University
In cities across Europe, 62% of the population doesn’t have access to the amount of nature the World Health Organisation recommends.
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Science + Technology
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Stavros Shiaeles, University of Portsmouth
The commitment applies to the social network, but not necessarily to the metaverse.
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Featured events
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— Museum of London, 150 London Wall, Barbican, London, EC2Y 5HN, London, London, City of, EC2Y 5HN, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland — Gresham College
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— Egham Hill, Egham, Surrey, TW20 0EX, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland — Royal Holloway University of London
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— Egham Hill, Egham, Surrey, TW20 0EX, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland — Royal Holloway University of London
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— Online, Southampton, Southampton, SO17 1BJ, United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland — University of Southampton
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