Free Republic

Tech billionaire Bill Gates warned that artificial intelligence had the potential to kill a billion people in the wrong hands — as he joined the call to put safety restrictions on the technology. The Microsoft co-founder called for greater government oversight on AI during a talk with NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday, where he suggested AI could be abused and lead to humanity’s near extinction. “AI is certainly powerful enough to drive events that cause a billion deaths,” he warned. “So even though it’s pretty hard to get to 100% [of humanity], there’s never been a weapon as powerful...

A fungus - genetically enhanced to produce spider toxin - can rapidly kill huge numbers of the mosquitoes that spread malaria, a study suggests. Trials, which took place in Burkina Faso, showed mosquito populations collapsed by 99% within 45 days. Conducting the study, researchers at the University of Maryland in the US - and the IRSS research institute in Burkina Faso - first identified a fungus called Metarhizium pingshaense, which naturally infects the Anopheles mosquitoes that spread malaria. The next stage was to enhance the fungus. They turned to a toxin found in the venom of a species of funnel-web...