October 10, 2023

IN THIS ISSUE

📱 Curvy Pixel 8a smartphone shown off in leaked renders

🤖 The 'godfather of AI' warns the tech could escape our control

☄️ NASA to reveal history-making Bennu asteroid sample

UP FIRST

Curvy Pixel 8a smartphone shown off in leaked renders

Google's midrange handset will likely launch in early 2024

Hot on the heels of the Google Pixel 8 and Pixel 8 Pro launch, another leak has emerged about the rumored Google Pixel 8a smartphone.

Renderings from Smart Prix apparently reveal that the next iteration of Google's midrange handset will feature a 6.1-inch display with a hole-punch selfie camera, while the back shows a visor with two camera sensors.

According to the renders, the Pixel 8a’s dimensions will be 152.1 by 72.6 by 8.99mm – similar to the Pixel 7a's 152.4 by 72.9 by 9mm.

As with Google’s recently unveiled handsets, the Google Pixel 8a is expected to feature rounded corners in what will be a departure from its earlier boxy shape. Slimmer bezels and a smaller chin will also be part of the package, the leak suggests.

There’s no release date yet for the Pixel 8a, but reports suggest it could drop early next year ...

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT

The 'godfather of AI' warns the technology could escape our control

Geoffrey Hinton made the comments during an appearance on 60 Minutes

Geoffrey Hinton, the man widely known as “the godfather of AI” for his pioneering work that paved the way for today’s more advanced AI systems, said he believes we’re “moving into a period when for the first time ever we may have things more intelligent than us,” and that in time AI-powered systems will have self-awareness and consciousness.

The AI expert suggested in an interview on 60 Minutes that future AI systems could even “escape control is by writing their own computer code to modify themselves,” adding ominously: “That’s something we need to seriously worry about.”

Hinton believes we’re entering “a period of great uncertainty where we’re dealing with things we’ve never done before ... we can’t afford to get it wrong.”

On a more positive note, he said that AI also has the potential for enormous good, for example, by increasing the accuracy and efficiency of medical diagnoses ...

COMING UP

NASA to reveal Bennu asteroid sample this week

Here's how to watch NASA's big unveil, along with its initial findings

NASA is about to reveal the sample collected from the Bennu asteroid during its ambitious OSIRIS-REx mission.

The mission marked NASA’s first-ever sample retrieval from a distant asteroid in a complex operation that involved landing a spacecraft on the celestial body, grabbing and storing rock and dust, and then bringing the material all the way to Earth.

The spacecraft landed on Bennu in 2020, four years after launching from Cape Canaveral in Florida aboard a United Launch Alliance rocket.

Its long journey back to Earth ended last month when it dropped off the sample in a capsule that landed in the Utah desert, exactly as planned.

Researchers hope the sample will tell us more about the formation of our solar system and even offer insight into how life on Earth began.

NASA will show off the sample at a special event during a live stream starting at 11 a.m. ET on Wednesday ...

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