Daily News Pakistan

Artificial intelligence tools are more likely to provide incorrect medical advice when the misinformation comes from what the software considers to be an authoritative source, a new study found. In tests of 20 open-source and proprietary large language models, the software was more often tricked by mistakes in realistic-looking doctors' discharge notes than by mistakes in social media conversations, researchers reported in The Lancet Digital Health. "Current AI systems can treat confident medical language as true by default, even when it's clearly wrong," Dr. Eyal Klang of the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai in New York, who co-led the study, said in a statement. "For these models, what matters is less whether a claim is correct than how it is written." The accuracy of AI is posing special challenges in medicine. A growing number of mobile apps claim to use AI to assist patients with their medical complaints, though they are not supposed to of...

Move over ChatGPT -- on Tuesday, Chile will launch Latam-GPT, an open-source artificial intelligence model designed to combat biases built by the primarily US-centric industry. Developped by the Chilean National Center for Artificial Intelligence (CENIA), Latam-GPT uses millions of data points collected in Latin America to showcase the continent's cultural diversity. The program seeks to combat "prejudices" and prevent depictions of Latin America always "looking the same," Chilean Science Minister Aldo Valle told AFP. "The models developed in other parts of the world do have data from Latin America but it represent a fairly small proportion," CENIA director Alvaro Soto noted. The low level of local input is reflected in the depictions of Latin Americans by major AI models. For ChatGPT, a typical Chilean man is a person wearing a poncho with the Andes in the background. Latin America "cannot simply be a passive user or recipient of artifici...

The Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Commission (SPARCO) has crossed another historic milestone in the preparation of the country's space mission. According to the details, the selection phase of candidates under the human space flight program has been successfully completed, while two candidates have been selected for the next phase after preliminary screening. This development is being described as an extraordinary and important step towards Pakistan's space journey. According to the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the selected candidates will now be given two months of special training, which will include exercises in a zero-gravity environment, mission operations and practical training in dealing with emergencies. After the completion of the training phase, a candidate will be finally selected in October or November this year, who will represent Pakistan on the Chinese space station. This development is part of the Space Cooperation Agreement signed betwee...

SpaceX is putting its longstanding focus of sending humans to Mars on the backburner to prioritize establishing a settlement on the Moon, founder Elon Musk said Sunday. The South Africa-born billionaire's space company has found massive success as a NASA contractor, but critics have for years panned Musk's Mars colonization plans as overambitious. The move also puts Musk in alignment with US President Donald Trump's shift away from sending Americans to Mars. "For those unaware, SpaceX has already shifted focus to building a self-growing city on the Moon, as we can potentially achieve that in less than 10 years, whereas Mars would take 20+ years," Musk said in a post on X, the social media platform he bought in 2022. Difficulties in reaching Mars include the fact that "it is only possible to travel to Mars when the planets align every 26 months." "We can launch to the Moon every 10 days," he added. Musk has blown through several previous...

US technology giant NVIDIA has become the first company in corporate history to briefly surpass a market capitalisation of $5 trillion, driven by soaring global demand for its artificial intelligence chips. The milestone was reached in October as Nvidia’s dominance in the artificial intelligence sector continued to strengthen amid rapid expansion of AI-driven data centres worldwide. The company’s advanced processors have become central to the development of generative AI systems. According to research by International Data Corporation (IDC), Nvidia now controls 81 percent of the global market for data centre chips by revenue, reinforcing its position as the industry leader. Nvidia’s stock has surged sharply since November 2022, when OpenAI released its ChatGPT chatbot, accelerating global investment in AI infrastructure. Since then, Nvidia’s share price has increased nearly 12-fold, reflecting sustained investor confidence. The company’s financial performance has also exceeded ex...

China has strongly condemned the deadly attack on an imambargah and mosque in Islamabad, reaffirming its support for Pakistan’s efforts to maintain national security and stability. In a statement issued on Sunday, China’s Foreign Ministry said it was deeply shocked by the explosion and the resulting loss of life. The ministry expressed condolences to the families of the victims and sympathy for those injured in the attack. “China strongly condemns the attack, opposes all forms of terrorism, and firmly supports the Pakistani government in safeguarding national security and stability and protecting the safety of the people,” the statement said. The condemnation followed the suicide attack at Imambargah and Mosque Khadijat-ul-Kubra in Islamabad’s Tarlai area during Friday prayers, which left at least 33 people dead and dozens injured. According to investigators, the suicide bomber opened fire before detonating himself at the entrance of the imambargah. Authorities said the suspected...

The Pakistan Space and Upper Atmosphere Research Commission (SUPARCO) has achieved yet another significant milestone in Pakistan’s Human Spaceflight Programme with the successful completion of the secondary phase of astronaut candidates’ selection. Following an initial screening process in Pakistan, two candidates have been shortlisted after undergoing comprehensive medical, psychological and aptitude assessments conducted at the Astronauts Centre of China (ACC), in accordance with international human spaceflight standards, said a statement issued by the Inter Services Public Relations (ISPR) in Rawalpindi on Saturday. The shortlisted candidates will undertake advanced astronaut training for six months at ACC. Upon completion of training, one candidate will be selected for a spaceflight mission aboard the Chinese Space Station (CSS) in October/November 2026. This cooperation is anchored on the bilateral “Astronaut Cooperation Agreement”, signed in February 2025, under the leaders...