The famous theoretical physicist, Stephen Hawking, has revived the debate on whether our search for improved artificial intelligence will one day lead to thinking machines that will take over from us. The British scientist made the claim during a wide-ranging interview with the BBC. Hawking has the motor neurone
Author: The Conversation
The next James Bond film — the 24th in the series that began with Dr No in 1962 — is to be called Spectre. Although the plot remains a closely guarded secret, the name reveals more than it lets on. Spectre has an important place in the
Two people walk into a seminar: one takes photos, video and an audio recording of the presentation, while the other takes hand-written notes. Which person do you think will better recall the information? The former can use their digital notes to create something new that builds on the topic, the latter
UK’s telephone companies have yet again announced inflation-busting increases in telephone line rental charges. Why, in a world that is increasingly mobile-first – or even mobile-only – are we still paying so much for landlines? The latest figures from UK telecoms regulator Ofcom show that around 16% of
Alan Turing is one of the world’s best known mathematicians, and probably the best known in the past century. This is partly for his work on cracking German codes in World War 2, and partly for his arrest, conviction and punishment for homosexuality in the 1950s. The mathematics that made him
Telescopes have come a long way since the days when they were all about lone astronomers watching the night sky through their upstairs windows. Today, teams of astrophysicists build and use much more modern instruments
Xiaomi might still sound a bit foreign to you, but the Chinese smartphone manufacturer is now the third largest in…
Taylor Swift’s recent announcement that she is removing her music from the Spotify music service has started a debate about the future of music. Swift argued that artists are not receiving appropriate compensation and that
While there is only one world power on the Internet, that situation will not last forever. The Internet’s underpinning technologies were mostly created in the US, the initial networks were based there and today the US hosts the majority of the most powerful Internet companies. Although minor battles
The excitement over the potentially transformative effects of the Internet in low-income countries is nowhere more evident than in East Africa — the last major populated region of the world to gain a wired connection to the Internet. Before 2009, there wasn’t a single fibre-optic cable connecting the region