Creators Get Slammed for Taking OpenAI Luxury Trip, Company Welcomes “Healthy Debate”

OpenAI is open to “healthy debate.”

The artificial intelligence giant has responded to online backlash to a luxury brand trip it recently hosted for social media creators and tech-forward influencers, which the company called “Summer Camp.” The boondoggle, funded by OpenAI, took place at Wildflower Farms in New York’s Hudson Valley, a luxury escape owned and operated as an Auberge Collection property.

Bacterial enzyme switch could weaken antibiotic defenses in MRSA and other pathogens

Targeting antibiotic resistance
Vijay Parashar and Mona Batish, associate professors of medical and molecular sciences, discovered a critical molecular switch that helps bacteria survive antibiotic exposure. Credit: Evan Krape

If you ask Vijay Parashar, associate professor of medical and molecular sciences (MMSC) at the University of Delaware College of Health Sciences, human bodies are bags of bacteria. "It sounds gross, but not all bacteria are bad; most of them are good. The trouble starts when the bad bacteria learn how to outsmart antibiotics."

Q&A: Mushroom behind 'tiny people' hallucinations identified

Mushroom behind 'tiny people' hallucinations identified
Lanmaoa asiatica is a popular edible mushroom species sold in Yunnan that induces Lilliputian hallucinations when undercooked. Locals call it Jian shou quing, which translates to “turns blue in the hand” to reference its rapidly changing colors when touched. Credit: Colin Domanauer/NHMU

People in communities thousands of miles apart have described the same strange experience after eating a mysterious mushroom: vivid visions of tiny humans moving through and interacting with the physical world around them. Known as Lilliputian hallucinations—a reference to the 6-inch-tall inhabitants of "Gulliver's Travels"—the phenomenon has long been thought to stem from cultural influences rather than biology.

Charting the galaxy: Milky Way Mapper survey releases latest all-sky spectra

Charting the galaxy: SDSS-V releases latest all-sky spectra including first optical spectra from the Southern Hemisphere
Density of stars in the Milky Way targeted by the Milky Way Mapper (MWM) program in SDSS-V. Credit: SDSS-V, Ilija Medan, University of Toronto

The Sloan Digital Sky Survey V (SDSS-V) has announced its 20th public data release (DR20), delivering a dramatic expansion of the Milky Way Mapper (MWM) scientific survey—the most detailed spectroscopic map yet assembled of stars in and around our home galaxy.

5 things to know about Jeff Dean's new startup

Legendary Googler Jeff Dean is starting a new company.

THOMAS SAMSON/AFP via Getty Images

Legendary Googler Jeff Dean is starting his own AI company.

On Wednesday, Dean, Google's chief scientist, announced that he and three other colleagues were leaving to start Discovery Loop, an AI startup focused on AI applications in science and engineering.