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AI can potentially diagnose and treat cancers: study

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Apart from artificial intelligence (AI) writing several essays, and passing bar exams, it is also capable of treating and detecting different types of cancers, according to a news report from Scripps News.

Researchers from the University of Toronto and Insilico Medicine used an AI database called AlphaFold and developed in just 30 days a medicine that could treat hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC), or liver cancer

The study was published in the journal Chemical Science. In it, the AI system discovered the previously unexplored paths to develop a cancer medicine to treat HCC and developed a novel hit molecule that could bind the target.

In the second round, they discovered an even more powerful hit molecule, however, the researchers maintained that the drug still needs to undergo clinical testing before it can be launched to treat cancer in hospitals.

Feng Ren, the study’s co-author, said in a statement that the AI-powered AlphaFold broke new scientific ground in predicting the structure of human proteins.

“At Insilico Medicine, we saw that as an incredible opportunity to take these structures and apply them to our end-to-end AI platform in order to generate novel therapeutics to tackle diseases with high unmet needs. This paper is an important first step in that direction,” he also added.

In another study journal JAMA Network Open, the experts from the BC Cancer and University of British Columbia showed how accurately AI predicted the survivor rates of patients with cancers.

It analysed the survival rates of more than 47,000 patients from six months to three and five years.

Dr John-Jose Nunez, lead author of the research study said in a statement: “The AI essentially reads the consultation document similar to how a human would read it.”

“These documents have many details like the age of the patient, the type of cancer, underlying health conditions, past substance use, and family histories. The AI brings all of this together to paint a more complete picture of patient outcomes”, he underscored.

Nevertheless, researchers are currently at the nascent stage of exploring the full potential of AI in health care and the treatment and diagnosis of diseases, however, the studies suggest that it can potentially be promising.

“Our hope is that a tool like this could be used to personalise and optimise the care a patient receives right away, giving them the best outcome possible,” Nunez said. 

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Facebook and Instagram full of predators for children, alleges lawsuit

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Meta’s social media platforms of Facebook and Instagram have become fertile grounds for child predators and paedophiles, revealed New Mexico’s Attorney General, Raul Torrez in a lawsuit.

Torrez’s office used fake accounts to conduct investigations and discovered that these fake accounts of minors were dispatched ‘solicitations’ and explicit content.

The lawsuit seeks court-ordered changes to protect minors, asserting that Meta has neglected voluntary actions to address these issues effectively.

In its response, Meta defended its initiatives in eradicating predators. However, New Mexico’s investigation disclosed a higher prevalence of exploitative material on Facebook and Instagram compared to adult content platforms.

Attorney General Torrez underscored the platforms’ unsafe nature for children, describing them as hotspots for predators to engage in illicit activities.

While US law shields platforms from content liability, the lawsuit argues that Meta’s algorithms actively promote sexually exploitative material, transforming the platforms into a marketplace for child predators.

The lawsuit accuses Meta of misleading users about platform safety, violating laws prohibiting deceptive practices, and creating an unsafe product.

Moreover, the lawsuit targets Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg personally, alleging contradictory actions in enhancing child safety while steering the company in the opposite direction.

In response, Meta reiterated its commitment to combating child exploitation, emphasizing its use of technology and collaborations with law enforcement to address these concerns.

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Meta finally launches end-to-end encryption on Messenger

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Meta announced Thursday that it is finally implementing end-to-end encryption for one-on-one conversations and calls on Messenger, delivering on a long-standing commitment.

The company states that when end-to-end encryption is enabled, the only people who can view the contents of a message sent through Messenger are the sender and the recipient.

Messenger’s encrypted chat function was initially made available as an opt-in feature in 2016. However, following a protracted legal dispute, end-to-end encrypted messages and calls for two-person discussions will now be considered the norm.

“This has taken years to deliver because we’ve taken our time to get this right,” Loredana Crisan, vice president of Messenger, said in a statement shared with The Verge.

“Our engineers, cryptographers, designers, policy experts and product managers have worked tirelessly to rebuild Messenger features from the ground up.”

A representational picture of Messengers new feature. — Meta
A representational picture of Messenger’s new feature. — Meta

Crisan states that encrypted chats will not compromise Messenger features like themes and custom reactions. However, it may “take some time” for all chats to switch to default encryption.

The end-to-end encryption for group chats is still opt-in. Additionally, Instagram messages are still not encrypted by default, but Meta expects this to happen “shortly after” the rollout of default private Messenger chats.

Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced in 2019 that the company planned to move toward encrypted ephemeral messages across its messaging apps, according to The Verge.

“I believe the future of communication will increasingly shift to private, encrypted services where people can be confident what they say to each other stays secure and their messages and content won’t stick around forever,” he wrote in a Facebook post. “This is the future I hope we will help bring about.”

By enabling encryption by default, most Messenger chats should remain unseen by Meta, and it will also prevent the company from providing the data to law enforcement.

Last year, a 17-year-old from Nebraska and her mother faced criminal charges for illegal abortion after police obtained their Messenger chat history.

Anti-encryption advocates argue that encryption makes it harder to identify bad actors on encrypted messaging apps like WhatsApp.

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Elon Musk poised to challenge OpenAI, targets $1bn for his AI startup

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Tesla chief Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence venture, xAI, is making waves in the AI world, aiming to raise a substantial $1 billion to compete head-on with OpenAI’s widely-used ChatGPT technology. 

According to recent filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission, xAI has already amassed $134.7 million and is striving to amass the billion-dollar mark.

The filing indicates Musk’s strong commitment to gathering the entire sum, hinting that he might have secured deals to achieve this ambitious target. 

Musk recently showcased “Grok,” a chatbot similar to ChatGPT, trained on data from X (previously Twitter), which he acquired for $44 billion last year.

Musk initiated xAI in July, recruiting top researchers from OpenAI, Google DeepMind, Tesla, and the University of Toronto. He expressed that the company’s goal is to “understand the true nature of the universe.”

Since the rise of OpenAI’s ChatGPT a year ago, there has been intense competition among tech giants like Microsoft, Google, Meta, and startups such as Anthropic and Stability AI. Earlier this year, OpenAI reportedly secured commitments of an astounding $13 billion from Microsoft.

Musk’s fundraising efforts coincide with a tumultuous period at OpenAI, as CEO Sam Altman’s return after a brief dismissal has led to delays in the company’s anticipated share sale. Reports suggest the sale, valuing OpenAI between $80 and $90 billion, faced hindrances due to internal disruptions.

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