Google working on AI email tool that can ‘answer in your style’
The march of artificial intelligence is predicted to bring monumental changes on a par with the advent of the internet or even the Industrial Revolution.But before all that, one of the technology’s leading figures wants it to solve a more urgent problem – the tyranny of the email inbox.Demis Hassabis, the head of Google DeepMind, has revealed he and his team are working on “next-generation email” that will deal with the daily grind of sorting through emails, replying to the most mundane ones and avoiding the need to apologise profusely for missing an important message.Hassabis was speaking at the SXSW London festival about the extraordinary growth and potential of AI.He said its impact was “overhyped in the short term”, but would lead to profound longer-term changes to society.
However, he said before the technology was ready to cure all known diseases or solve the climate crisis, he was putting it to work on the world’s email backlogs,“The thing I really want – and we’re working on – is can we have a next-generation email,” he said,“I would love to get rid of my email,I would pay thousands of dollars per month to get rid of that,”Asked exactly what he had in mind, he said he planned “something that would just understand what are the bread-and-butter emails, and answer in your style – and maybe make some of the easier decisions”.
Hassabis said he could also see AI being used to protect people from other algorithms designed by big tech to drain their attention away from more important tasks.“I’m very excited about the idea of a universal AI assistant that knows you really well, enriches your life by maybe giving you amazing recommendations, and helps to take care of mundane chores for you,” he said.“[It] basically gives you more time and maybe protects your attention from other algorithms trying to gain your attention.I think we can actually use AI in service of the individual.”Hassabis said he had initially anticipated that the battle to develop artificial general intelligence (AGI) – a more human-like cognition that is able to work on a wide range of tasks – would be driven by scientific academia.
However, he said its applications had been so immediate that big companies had become involved much earlier than he thought.With continuing concerns about the dangers posed by AGI, he called on the US and China to cooperate over its development, which has been turning into a race between companies and countries.“I hope at least on the scientific level and a safety level we can find some common ground, because in the end it’s for the good of all of humanity,” he said.“It’s going to affect the whole of humanity.”He said an AGI was about five to 10 years away.
“That is very short if you think about how momentous a moment that will be,” he said.“I think it’ll be nothing short of a new Industrial Revolution, effectively.For something this fundamental, I think it’s important to try to have as much foresight ahead of time as you can.”There remain serious concerns about the impact of AI on jobs.However, Hassabis said there were versions of an “AI utopia” in which “radical abundance” was created, as the technology solved issues around energy production and consumption.
He called on academics to think about the consequences.“Even in the good case where we get radical abundance and economic prosperity, can we make sure that’s fairly shared, and fairly distributed,” he said.“These kinds of things need to be thought through.I hope economists are thinking about that and I encourage them to be thinking about that – and social scientists.”
Weight loss drugs linked to higher risk of eye damage in diabetic patients
Weight loss drugs could at least double the risk of diabetic patients developing age-related macular degeneration, a large-scale study has found.Originally developed for diabetes patients, glucagon-like peptide-1 receptor agonist (GLP-1 RA) medicines have transformed how obesity is treated and there is growing evidence of wider health benefits. They help reduce blood sugar levels, slow digestion and reduce appetite.But a study by Canadian scientists published in Jama Ophthalmology has found that after six months of use GLP-1 RAs are associated with double the risk of older people with diabetes developing neovascular age-related macular degeneration compared with similar patients not taking the drugs.Academics at the University of Toronto examined medical data for more than 1 million Ontario residents with a diagnosis of diabetes and identified 46,334 patients with an average age of 66 who were prescribed GLP-1 RAs
Housing bosses press Rachel Reeves to unlock more funds for affordable homes
Housing bosses representing 1.5m social homes across England will press Rachel Reeves to reclassify affordable housing as critical infrastructure spending, amid a battle between the chancellor and Angela Rayner.There is deep dissatisfaction with the level of funding for social homes in the spending review due next week. Rayner, the housing secretary, is one of the last remaining holdouts in negotiations with the Treasury over departmental spending settlements.The Department for Housing, Communities and Local Government has been battling for more funding for the affordable homes programme as well as trying to preserve cash for local councils, homelessness and regional growth initiatives
Millions in west do not know they have aggressive fatty liver disease, study says
More than 15 million people in the US, UK, Germany and France do not know they have the most aggressive form of fatty liver disease, according to research.Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatotic liver disease (MASLD) – the formal name for non-alcoholic fatty liver disease – occurs in people who drink no or minimal amounts of alcohol whose liver contains more than 5% fat.About two-thirds of patients with type 2 diabetes are thought to have the condition, which is also associated with obesity, heart and circulatory disease.Approximately 5% of adults globally have the most aggressive form of MASLD. Metabolic dysfunction-associated steatohepatitis (MASH) causes fibrosis (scarring) and can lead to cirrhosis and is linked to greater risk of cardiovascular disease, chronic kidney disease and liver cancer
I thought it was being gay that made my life so difficult. Then, at 50, I got an eye-opening diagnosis …
I spent far too many years lonely and angry, thanks to schoolmates who called me ‘weird’ and bosses who dismissed me as ‘hysterical’. But was it my sexuality that put their backs up – or the autism I am still coming to terms with?My earliest memory is of feeling different. I’m gay, and grew up in the 1980s, in a tough, working-class town in the north of England at the height of the Aids crisis. My gayness was obvious in the way I walked and talked. I was bullied at school, called a “poof”, “pansy” and “fairy”; other children did impressions of me with their wrists limp
Contraception warning over weight-loss drugs after dozens of pregnancies
Women using weight-loss drugs have been urged to use effective contraception after dozens have reported becoming pregnant while taking the medication.The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has issued its first alert to the UK public regarding contraception and weight-loss medications after it received 40 reports relating to pregnancies while using drugs such as Ozempic, Wegovy and Mounjaro.Ozempic and Wegovy, which both contain semaglutide, work by mimicking a hormone called GLP-1 that triggers an increase in the production of insulin, slows the rate at which food is digested in the stomach and reduces appetite.Mounjaro, which contains the active ingredient tirzepatide, also acts on a second hormone involved in appetite and blood sugar control. Although these have been referred to as “weight-loss injections”, not all are authorised for weight loss
People with cancer face ‘ticking timebomb’ due to NHS staff shortages
People with cancer face a “ticking timebomb” of delays in getting diagnosed and treated because the NHS is too short-staffed to provide prompt care, senior doctors have warned.An NHS-wide shortage of radiologists and oncologists means patients are enduring long waits to have surgery, chemotherapy or radiotherapy and have a consultant review their care.Hold-ups lead to some people’s cancer spreading, which can reduce the chances of their treatment working and increase the risk of death, the Royal College of Radiologists (RCR) said.NHS cancer services are struggling to keep up with rising demand for tests, such as scans and X-rays, and treatment, created by the growing number of people getting the disease.Evidence the RCR collected from the heads of NHS cancer centres across the UK and the clinical directors of radiology departments shows that delays to potentially “life-saving” care occur because of “chronic” workforce gaps
Appleby and Buick eye final step in rare sporting journey to complete Classics set
Sabalenka ends Swiatek’s reign on clay to set up French Open final against Gauff
Lizzie Deignan’s farewell tour off to tricky start on Yorkshire home roads
French Open semi-finals: Sabalenka dethrones Swiatek, Gauff routs Boisson – as it happened
England line up Jofra Archer return for second Test against India
Djokovic has nowhere to hide against relentless Sinner in Paris showdown