If you’re worried about artificial intelligence taking your job, you might want to sit down for this one. AI startup Anthropic has demonstrated a new “Claude” model called that can look at a computer screen and operate a virtual mouse and keyboard, “the way people do,” according to promotional material. In the video demo, researcher Sam Ringer shows Claude performing a bit of data entry “drudge work,” with the AI model using screenshots of a Mac desktop to find relevant information and submit a form. It is indeed the kind of thing that employees all over the world do every day, though Ringer notes that this is a “representative example.” Exactly how much of the video is edited isn’t known. But you don’t need to take Anthropic’s word for it. An early version of the Claude 3.5 Sonnet API is available to try out now, and Ethan Mollick, a professor studying AI at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School, did just that. Mollick tested out the AI with Universal Paperclips, an online clicker game with some wonderfully subtle science fiction going on in its background. Mollick pointed the program at the game’s browser window and “told it to win,” then sat back and watched it operate. The result was fascinating. The AI was able to identify the point of the game by extrapolating its text-based interface, then use some trial and error to try and win — in this case, basically just making the numbers go up. It was able to fiddle with the price of... Continue reading at 'PC World'
[ PC World | 2024-10-23 19:56:07 UTC ]
These elements of ‘Star Wars’ stories might seem like science fiction but are actually real. Just 48 short years ago, movie director George Lucas used the phrase “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away” as the opening to the first Star Wars movie, later labeled Episode IV: A New Hope. But at... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2025-05-04 08:30:00 UTC ]
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Now we’re seeing cozy science fiction and fantasy, and even cozy horror. So what exactly does "cozy" mean? Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2025-04-30 10:00:00 UTC ]
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Sam Weller on Ray Bradbury’s underappreciated classic: “The Martian Chronicles is a serious book about serious human themes. It is science fiction as a reflection of modernity.” | Lit Hub Criticism Milo Todd on tracing and preserving trans history while writing historical fiction. | Lit Hub... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2025-04-28 10:30:04 UTC ]
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After several late nights scrolling through Instagram, I chance upon the perfect image for the cover of my memoir The Migrant Rain Falls in Reverse. Taken by a Vietnamese street photographer, the image is a long shot of an intersection; at the top, a truck is entering the frame while a car is... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2025-04-17 08:58:14 UTC ]
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A new take on Lady Macbeth, anonymous fantasies, a science fiction thriller on a space ship, and more of today's best book deals Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2025-04-07 15:37:09 UTC ]
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Elon Musk said he borrowed the name from a 1960s science fiction novel, but another AI startup applied to trademark it before xAI launched its chatbot. Continue reading at Wired
[ Wired | 2025-03-31 09:30:00 UTC ]
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Here are the finalists for this year's Nebula Awards, honoring the best in science fiction and fantasy. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2025-03-13 14:16:15 UTC ]
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J.D. Beresford’s The Hampdenshire Wonder is generally considered to be the first fictional treatment of superhuman intelligence, or “superintelligence.” This is a familiar trope for readers of science fiction today, but when the novel was originally published in 1911 it was anything but. What... Continue reading at Literrary Hub
[ Literrary Hub | 2025-03-06 09:59:31 UTC ]
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My friend and former work colleague Simon Welfare, who has died aged 78, was a writer and pioneering TV producer whose programmes aimed to make science accessible to all.Together with the science fiction author Arthur C Clarke and a fellow producer, John Fairley, in 1980 he cooked up the format... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2025-02-24 11:07:52 UTC ]
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Science fiction has been obsessed with perfect female robot companions but never considered what makes a good male human companion, till now. Continue reading at The Conversation
[ The Conversation | 2025-02-05 17:21:10 UTC ]
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The subgenre helped increase the market share by 41.3% last year aided by bestseller Fourth Wing from Rebecca Yarros while food and drink topped nonfiction salesSales of science fiction and fantasy books rocketed last year, with their value increasing by 41.3% between 2023 and 2024.The booming... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2025-02-03 17:00:52 UTC ]
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Mysterious tarot + a missing person, an action-packed science fiction thriller, an ancient guide to modern life, and more of today's best book deals Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2025-01-21 16:18:42 UTC ]
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Unfortunately, there are two crucial flaws with the idea that the show’s severance procedure could involve a simple snip to the hippocampus. Severance, which imagines a world where a person’s work and personal lives are surgically separated, will soon return to Apple TV+ for a second season.... Continue reading at Fast Company
[ Fast Company | 2025-01-20 17:00:00 UTC ]
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These genre-defying science fiction books dissect, critique, and upend the genre, forging a whole new approach to sci-fi. Continue reading at Book Riot
[ Book Riot | 2025-01-16 11:00:00 UTC ]
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After winning just about every major science fiction and fantasy award, Nnedi Okorafor explores a traumatic event in her own history in her most autobiographical novel yet. Continue reading at The New York Times
[ The New York Times | 2025-01-12 10:01:14 UTC ]
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Prolific science fiction writer who conceived alternative lives for figures including Emily Dickinson and Sigmund FreudIn 1965, Barry N Malzberg, who has died aged 85, decided that the career he sought as a literary writer was closed to him – the magazines were impenetrable, the control of... Continue reading at The Guardian
[ The Guardian | 2025-01-09 17:38:28 UTC ]
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