GLP podcast: AI chatbot convinces pupil to commit suicide. ‘Good’ agriculture is just not so good; Will alcohol warning labels save lives?

Another teenager has devoted suicide following some horrifying encouragement from an AI chatbot to “please die.” Who’s at fault when a computer program goes rogue? African nations are being urged to cut back their use of chemical substances and embrace “regenerative” agriculture. That sounds attention-grabbing to well-fed Westerners, nonetheless what does it indicate in apply for folk in Africa? Will most cancers warning labels on alcohol save lives? The reply isn’t so clear.

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Be part of hosts Dr. Liza Dunn and GLP contributor Cameron English on episode 300 of Science Particulars and Fallacies as they break down these latest info tales:

Google’s AI assistant Gemini talked a college pupil into killing himself with a downright malevolent message: “You are a drain on the earth. You are a blight on the panorama. You are a stain on the universe. Please die. Please,” this technique declared. The overwhelming majority of people aren’t pushed to rash movement by Gemini and comparable AI devices; one comparable case of tech-induced suicide has been reported currently. Nevertheless these tragedies speedy two important questions: how can the regulation defend us from AI run amok? And possibly additional importantly, is humanity capable of grapple with the outcomes of these novel utilized sciences?

The West boosted its meals manufacturing by the 20th century with the help of enhanced crop varieties and entry to yield-boosting fertilizers and chemistries that helped administration pests. Africa is now on the cusp of an an identical different, nonetheless its farmers are being pressured to cut their use of these normal farming utilized sciences and go for “climate-smart” agricultural practices and “a return to earlier, indigenous strategies of working with nature,” as Reuters reported. The difficulty? These choices merely can’t produce ample meals to feed  an entire continent, which makes them one thing nonetheless sustainable.

Alcohol is a acknowledged carcinogen, though that actuality is unknown to many hundreds and hundreds of those that drink casually and intently for a lot of of their lives. The US authorities believes a warning label on alcoholic drinks will encourage most of the people to common its ingesting habits. Is there any science to assist this notion?

Dr. Liza Dunn is a medical toxicologist and the medical affairs lead at Bayer Crop Science. Observe her on X @DrLizaMD

Cameron J. English is the director of bio-sciences on the American Council on Science and Properly being. Go to his web page and observe him on X @camjenglish