Consumer & Gadgets news

Consumer & Gadgets

Out-of-sync sleep schedules may steer people toward AI for dating and job assessments

Life often gets in the way of going to bed in sync with our circadian rhythm and getting enough sleep. Work, school and other social commitments can pull our schedules out of step, and scientists call this mismatch social ...

Consumer & Gadgets

Should quitting smartphones be this hard?

According to a Pew survey conducted this year, about half of U.S. adults say that they spend too much time on their phone. About a quarter say that they are on their phone "almost constantly" and, of the 45% who have tried ...

Consumer & Gadgets

Quantum-inspired math could help AI recognize when it does not know the answer

Anyone who has used ChatGPT or another artificial intelligence chatbot has likely seen a disclaimer that its answers may be incorrect. Large language models are built to generate the most probable response to a prompt. Even ...

Software

Video games could make us better people

Addiction, violence, aggression, social withdrawal: Video games have been in the crosshairs for a litany of negative impacts. Researchers at Macquarie University, however, are working on the premise that video games can have ...

Consumer & Gadgets

Is it safe to charge your phone overnight?

It's bedtime. You set your alarm, notice your phone is down to 23% battery, plug it in beside the bed and go to sleep. By morning, it's been connected to the charger for seven to eight hours—much longer than it needed to ...

Consumer & Gadgets

Misleading AI-generated summaries can distort human memory

AI-generated summaries are becoming increasingly prevalent—from news article previews to workplace meeting transcriptions to high-stakes settings like police body camera footage—despite studies showing that AI can generate ...

Consumer & Gadgets

Meta launches camera-free AI glasses amid privacy pushback

Meta unveiled several new wearables powered by its AI models Wednesday, including an audio-only, camera-free version of its smart glasses, amid global concerns about privacy and the filming of women and girls without their ...

Consumer & Gadgets

Meta leans into AI, smart glasses amid privacy pushback

Meta has spent billions to stay competitive in artificial intelligence, but the tech giant faces growing pushback as CEO Mark Zuckerberg prepares to announce new products built for the AI era Wednesday.

Consumer & Gadgets

How to know if you can trust an AI's answer to your question

I recently typed a simple question into Google Search: How much screen time is too much for teenagers? Instead of presenting links, as Google had been doing for many years, it gave me an AI-generated answer. The artificial ...

Consumer & Gadgets

Could empathic digital humans transform creative learning?

Research originating at Georgia State University's Creative Media Industries Institute (CMII) into empathic digital humans and human-centered artificial intelligence continues to evolve, with a new publication, international ...

Consumer & Gadgets

AI can sound empathetic and human—but not at the same time

AI-generated texts are increasingly perceived as human, but people can still recognize human writing as such. However, this distinction becomes much more difficult once AI is explicitly instructed to come across as human. ...

Consumer & Gadgets

New Apple CEO to unveil latest iPhone lineup

Apple is unveiling its latest generation of iPhones, widely expected to include a foldable version, on Wednesday at an event headlined by new CEO John Ternus, who took over from Tim Cook on Sept. 1.

Consumer & Gadgets

Study: People facing life-or-death choice put too much trust in AI

In simulated life-or-death decisions, about two-thirds of people in a UC Merced study allowed a robot to change their minds when it disagreed with them—an alarming display of excessive trust in artificial intelligence, researchers ...

Consumer & Gadgets

How personalized technology could turn exercise pain into pleasure

Virtual reality (VR) video games that combine screen time with exercise are a great way to get fit, but game designers face a major challenge—like with regular exercise, adherence to "exergames" is low, with most users dropping ...

Consumer & Gadgets

Japan is next level for retro game collectors

US tourist David Madrigal is over the moon after paying $200 for a "vintage" console at a busy Tokyo store that is tapping into booming global demand for retro gaming kit.

Consumer & Gadgets

How smart toys may be spying on kids: What parents need to know

Toniebox, Tiptoi, and Tamagotchi are smart toys, offering interactive play through software and internet access. However, many of these toys raise privacy concerns, and some even collect extensive behavioral data about children, ...

Consumer & Gadgets

Cosplay and queues at Germany gamers gathering

Armor-clad warriors mixed with cosplaying Super Marios and monster hunters on Thursday, as gamers braved hours of queuing at the sector's biggest trade show, Gamescom in Germany's Cologne.