Tech

Revolutionary AI-powered Test Shows Promise for Hepatitis C and Covid-19 Detection

Hepatitis C and Covid-19 may both be detected utilising a novel test that has been created by American researchers under the direction of Indian-origin scientist Piyush Jain. According to a research published in the journal Cell Reports Medicine, the test provides precise findings in a matter of minutes, with a 97% success rate for SARS-CoV-2 identification and a 95% success rate for the most common strain of the hepatitis C virus.

The University of Florida scientists have created a simplified test that currently takes place in a small test tube but holds the potential to be available as an easy-to-use home test, similar to a pregnancy test. The objective is to eliminate the need for expensive equipment and provide rapid results in just 10 to 20 minutes.

Using AI algorithms, the research team developed a one-pot reaction system where the entire test occurs in a single test tube. This method, based on RT-LAMP technology, amplifies portions of the virus’s genome and produces a visible signal upon detection. Results can be as simple as observing a color change or utilizing a small device that detects alterations in the test tube.

The researchers paired the RT-LAMP test with another technology called CRISPR to discriminate between false positives and actual positives. The difficulty, however, emerged because the two systems’ respective temperature needs. While CRISPR functions best at 100 degrees Fahrenheit, RT-LAMP needs 150 degrees.

To overcome this hurdle, the team employed AI tools to analyze a CRISPR enzyme and identified modifications that allowed it to survive at the higher temperature. This breakthrough enabled the integration of both technologies into a single “SPLENDID” one-pot reaction.

The SPLENDID test was effectively verified by the researchers using clinical samples from hepatitis C or Covid-19 patients. Although the test had shortcomings when it came to less prevalent hepatitis C strains, Jain said that small changes may quickly improve the test’s accuracy.

The creation of an AI-driven test offers hope for quick and accurate diagnosis, opening the door for affordable testing options in clinics and maybe at homes.

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Elon Musk Plans AI Candidate Winning US Elections in 2032

Billionaire Elon Musk stated that he thinks a candidate using artificial intelligence (AI) might run for president of the United States in 2032. In 2024, who will be the President of the United States? was a question posed to Elon Musk during a conversation during the 10th annual Breakthrough Prize presentation. The CEO of Tesla then laughed heartily and answered, “Who do you think will win the White House in 2032? What kind of artificial intelligence? Diffusion or transformers?”

Elon Musk previously stated that “if AI is smart enough, it could undermine democracy” about the impact of AI on elections. He also said that artificial intelligence (AI) might surpass human intelligence by 2026 and that the availability of electricity would limit technological advancements. “I think it’s probably next year, within two years,” he stated, defining AGI (artificial general intelligence) as intelligence greater than that of the smartest human. The billionaire further claimed that a shortage of processors is impeding the training of Elon Musk’s AI project, xAI’s Grok 2, which was unveiled as a competitor to OpenAI’s ChatGPT.

Also Read: WhatsApp Tests Meta AI Chatbot in India and Other Markets

Grok-1.5 Vision Preview

The company’s “first-generation multimodal model,” Grok-1.5 Vision Preview, was unveiled by xAI and will soon be made accessible for testing. The framework can “process a wide variety of visual information, including documents, diagrams, charts, screenshots, and photographs.” In the meantime, Grok-1.5, which will soon be accessible on X, provides better reasoning and a context length of 1,28,000 tokens.

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WhatsApp Tests Meta AI Chatbot in India and Other Markets

WhatsApp has announced that it is testing its huge language model-powered chatbot, Meta AI, with users in India and a few other areas. The goal of this initiative is to leverage WhatsApp’s massive user base to strengthen its AI products.

The AI chatbot is being tested by the internet giant in a few locations, including the US.

A representative for Meta stated in a statement on Friday that “we’re testing a range of our generative AI-powered experiences publicly in a limited capacity.” The experiences are currently in different stages of development.

India is the largest market for the instant messaging application WhatsApp, with over 500 million users.

In September of last year, the tech giant unveiled Meta AI, a general-purpose chatbot that can respond to user inquiries in chats and produce lifelike pictures from text suggestions.

Furthermore, the business has stated that it will release Llama 3, its upcoming major language model, in the upcoming month. This was confirmed earlier this week.

Also Read: Apple Policy: No Access to Customer Passcodes, Says Company

Aiming to reduce AI-generated fraudulent or manipulated content, Meta has announced that it will launch an Elections Operations Centre specifically for India. Through the implementation of focused mitigations across Facebook, WhatsApp, and Instagram, as well as other Meta apps, this center will bring experts together to identify possible threats.

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Tech

Apple Policy: No Access to Customer Passcodes, Says Company

Amid the controversy surrounding reports that Apple refused to unlock Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal’s iPhone at the Enforcement Directorate’s (ED) request, sources close to the matter revealed on Wednesday that no one at the multinational tech company was contacted directly in India or around the world to unlock the device. According to reports, the ED had “informally” sought Apple to assist in unlocking the iPhone. Apple, on the other hand, is adamant that it will not provide the passcode to an iOS device that is locked at the moment.

According to the company’s “Legal Process Guidelines” for governments and law enforcement outside of the US, “No, Apple does not have access to a customer’s passcode.” Emails with questions or concerns about the legal system should be sent to lawenforcement@apple.com. There was no documented correspondence between ED and Apple, according to sources.

Requests for accounts from the government, law enforcement, and business sectors are subject to Apple’s notice policy. The official company document states that Apple “will notify customers and account holders unless there is a non-disclosure order or applicable law prohibiting notice, or where Apple, based only on its reasonable belief that, in its sole judgment, providing notice might immediately put a member of the public in danger of serious damage or death, that the case involves child endangerment, or that notification is not relevant to the case’s fundamental facts,”

Also Read: OpenAI Unveils Voice Cloning Tool ‘Voice Engine’: Here’s All You Need to Know

To help with investigations and prosecutions, Apple objected to or challenged more than a dozen court orders in the US in 2015 and 2016. The objective was to compel the company “to use its existing capabilities to extract data like contacts, photos, and calls from locked iPhones running on operating systems iOS 7 and older.” One famous example is a 2016 court battle in which the FBI demanded that Apple unlock a “work-issued” iPhone that was found on one of the shooters in the December 2015 terrorist attack in San Bernardino, California, which left 22 people injured and 14 dead. The iPhone was not unlocked by Apple. Afterward, the government dropped its lawsuit, claiming that it had used a third party’s assistance to unlock the iPhone.