For decades, scientists and engineers have been working to develop computer programs that can understand and gen crate natural language. This has been a challenging task, but recent advances in machine learning have allowed us to create powerful language models.

The above paragraph was not written by a human. It was generated by a chatbot called ChatGPT, an artificial intelligence technology designed to mimic human conversation and language while drawing upon a vast wealth of knowledge to answer questions and solve problems. What ChatGPT offers seems more capable―and is potentially even more of a threat to jobs―than existing AI chatbot technology.

AI chatbots have been a routine feature of British life for a few years already. Logging onto many companies’ websites today triggers a popup window saying “Hi, I can answer your questions!” Telephoning restaurant chain Cafe Rouge, for example, puts you through to an audio chatbot that can recognize common questions and plays pre-recorded responses.

While ChatGPT is not infallible, Oxford’s Wooldridge compares its output to well-written undergraduate work. For example, when asked “what is artificial general intelligence” the chatbot responds, “It refers to a type of artificial intelligence that is capable of understanding or learning any intellectual task that a human being can, In other words, AGI is a type of A I that is able to perform any cognitive function that a human being can, rather than being limited to a specific set of tasks.” This level of output poses a threat to those at the lower end of the employment market. According to the Office for National Statistics(ONS), around 1.5 million jobs nationwide can be automated away, with those at greatest risk including restaurant waiters，

Those least likely to sec machines taking over their jobs include legal professionals, doctors and university lecturers. Such occupations are classed as highly skilled. The ONS says, “There is not so much that robots are taking over, but that routine and repetitive tasks which can be carried out more quickly and efficiently by an algorithm written by a human, or a machine designed for one specific function.”

The chairman of Parliament’s Business Committee, Darren Jones, hails Chat GPT as the “start of a new trend” in sophisticated AI tech. He says, “It will become common practice to use tools like this at work with time.”

It's already challenging enough for environmentalists to keep beaches clear of washed up trash(垃圾) and plastic debris(残骸), but the most difficult problem lies in cleaning up all of the millions of tiny microplastics that are impossible to pick up and separate from the sand.

Fortunately, a group of engineering students succeeded in developing a massive new vacuum cleaner that can collect microplastics without removing any of the sand from the beach. The 12 Canadian students from the University of Sherbrooke in Quebec built their Hoola One plastic vacuum cleaner as a class project.

"We did some research and we realized there was no machine around the world to do this kind of job," Hoola One co-founder Sam Duval told Hawaii Public Radio. "So we told each other, 'We will invent it,' and we did it."

As a means of testing their machine's efficiency, they recently used it on the sands of Hawaii's Kamilo Beach, which is also notorious for being one of the dirtiest beaches in the world. Though their first prototype(原型)experienced a number of technical issues, the students managed to fix the problems and tidy up the beach.

Using a handheld tube, the machine sucks(吸入)up plastic and sand and dumps them all into a massive tank of water. Since rocks and sand are heavier than plastic, they sink to the bottom of the tank so they can be dumped back onto the beach. The plastic, on the other hand, floats to the top of the tank.

According to Hawaii Public Radio, the team left the Hoola One vacuum on the island as a donation to the state department- They are now researching the ecological effects of the vacuum on the beach while they search for funding and sponsorships(赞助)to produce more Hoola One vacuums.

It's no secret that mountain climbing comes with various risks, but some are looking toward an unconventional means of reducing the dangers associated with the sport: jetpacks. A company called Gravity Industries designs what they call “Jet Suits”, a wearable technology that allows its users to fly through the air with a pack on their back and arm-based thrusters (助推器).

A recently conducted test flight involved a pilot demonstrating how quickly the jet suit can be used to climb up to a peak. The pilot covered 1.2 miles with 2,200 feet of vertical gain in just 3 minutes, 30 seconds. That's basically equal to the 0.9 mile, 2,000-foot-gain Manitou Incline climb in Colorado, plus a little more.

Though the recreational use of the jet suit to climb popular mountains would surely be met with outrage (愤怒) from the local hiking community, there's one application that might be considered quite a bit more acceptable, even praised: using the suit to speed up search and rescue operations.

While the technology is still relatively new and access is quite limited, a video of a mountainside test flight, showing the device pushing its pilot up steep terrain (地势) at a height of about 20 feet off the ground, might provide a glimpse at what the future of search and rescue operations in remote areas could look like. Not only could these suits be used to land rescuers in places that might be unsafe for a helicopter, but they could also allow for rapid search of large areas.

All of that sounds great, though the price may still be a bit restrictive for widespread use among Colorado’s search and rescue teams at the moment. While there’s not much information on the Gravity Industries website about the price of a unit, one 2021 article put it at $ 440, 000.

For now, it's extremely unlikely that a jet suit will be spotted rushing to someone's time aid the next time you're out on the trail. But the creation of jet suits seems to reflect another step toward a real-world and life-saving application of what was once thought to be nothing more than a science-fiction device: the jetpack.