You probably know by now that the AI models powering ChatGPT, Gemini, Claude, and other chatbots are trained on seemingly infinite databases of published works, containing hundreds of millions of books, online articles, academic papers, and basically anything you can find on the internet. Most published authors have, without their knowledge or consent, contributed to
Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent six days a week. By signing up, you confirm you are 16+, will receive newsletters and promotional content and agree to our Terms of Use and acknowledge the data practices in our Privacy Policy. You may unsubscribe at any time. Cardiologist Dr. Eiman
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A main theme of the nine-book sci-fi series The Expanse is that sometimes you may never know the consequences of a choice you made. The universe, utterly indifferent black box that it is, “never tells us if we did right or wrong,” as the character Naomi Nagata puts it in The Expanse TV show. That’s
One of the big tradeoffs with Xteink’s pocket-friendly e-readers is a lack of easy access to ebooks. On a Kindle or Kobo you can download tens of thousands of titles through each device’s respective online bookstores, but with Xteink’s devices you have to source DRM-free ebooks on your own. That’s about to change, as the
Outsider Animals Marlene Zuk Princeton Univ. Press (2026) Evolutionary biologist Marlene Zuk’s charming book begins with a night-time encounter with young raccoons (Procyon lotor) on the deck outside her bedroom in California. They were playing noisily with a hose — and when she tried to shoo them away, one stood up and raised its forelegs,