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Top stories
Note from Paul
Advanced AI systems like ChatGPT can “converse” with us in a way that’s strikingly human. So much so, some of us forget we’re dealing with a program that lacks the emotions or interests we take for granted. We shouldn’t feel too embarrassed, though, because we’re primed to act this way by evolution. The events of our ancient past programmed us to interpret any object that might be human as one of us.
It’s the same effect that causes us to see faces in clouds or in patterns in toast burn marks. It was once helpful to avoid predators or help each other out. In a modern context, it means we attribute human features to computer programs that lack them. This might seem harmless, but realising what AI can and can’t do can help us understand the real risks and benefits it poses, as well as stop us falling victim to misinformation.
Further from home, scientists may finally know when Saturn’s magnificent ring system was formed. Research suggests the rings are relatively young: between 400,000 and 100,000 years old. This means that, for 90% of its history, Saturn lacked these awe-inspiring cosmic ornaments.
And Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky has concluded a series of visits to London, Paris, Rome and Berlin. The European tour, designed to shore up alliances, seems to have had the desired effect. Zelensky was quickly able to secure much-needed ammunition, vehicles and air defence systems to aid Ukraine’s war effort. Here’s what that could mean.
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Paul Rincon
Commissioning Editor, Science, Technology and Business
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shutterstock.
Neil Saunders, University of Greenwich
When you stop treating AI as another human, you’ll get on with it better.
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Politics + Society
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Stefan Wolff, University of Birmingham
Zelensky has undoubtedly presented his European allies with a ‘credible plan and realistic requirements for support’.
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Alison Owen, Staffordshire University; Jennifer Taylor, Staffordshire University
Nearly 70% of the women we spoke to who were planning their weddings intended to lose weight in preparation for their wedding day.
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Khristopher Carlson, Graduate Institute – Institut de hautes études internationales et du développement (IHEID)
The Sudan army’s superiority is in its air force and arsenal of ground forces while the rival paramilitary force relies on nimble mobile units.
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Salih Yasun, Indiana University
Turkish voters will be heading back to the polls on May 28 after no candidates managed to gain more than half the votes. But incumbent Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was boosted by a stronger-than-expected showing.
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Jose Caballero, International Institute for Management Development (IMD)
Alliances around the Ukraine war have highlighted fragmenting support for the west.
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Arts + Culture
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Daisy McManaman, University of York
It’s questionable how ethical it is to retell the story of women whose lives have already been damaged by media depictions of them.
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Anh Khoi Nguyen, University of Manchester
Diasporic placemaking is often a story of connections and hidden stories. It is also a complicated story about who owns public spaces and who decides who gets to use it.
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Sam Crane, University of York
More and more artists and filmmakers are exploring the aesthetic and narrative possibilities of making films inside video games. Here’s why.
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Steven Wright, University of South Wales; Gwyneth Moore, University of South Wales
Mismatched, ill-fitting and ‘ugly’ clothes are in so let go of the anxiety of dressing ‘well’ and dress however you want.
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Business + Economy
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Sara Benedi Lahuerta, University College Dublin; Katharina Miller, IE University; Laura Carlson, Stockholm University
Research shows strong evidence that pay transparency laws can reduce the gender pay gap.
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David Birchall, London South Bank University; Nadia Bernaz, Wageningen University
Those rights require legal protection.
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Cities
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Albena Yaneva, University of Manchester
The COVID pandemic has led to a radical rethinking of the limits of architecture and tested the skill and innovation of architects like never before.
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Health
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Rhiannon Phillips, Cardiff Metropolitan University
Could CBT, a widely used form of ‘talking therapy’, help people who have persistent fatigue after having COVID? A recent study suggests it could.
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Science + Technology
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Gareth Dorrian, University of Birmingham
New research suggests Saturn’s rings may be surprisingly young.
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