Bottom of the News

“Julia, who works the drive-through at a White Castle in Merrillville, Ind., is in many ways a model employee: polite, prompt and doesn’t mind working the overnight shift.” WSJ (Gift Article): Welcome to White Castle. Would You Like Human Interaction With That? “Customers have love-hate relationship with ‘Julia,’ a bot who is not shy about encouraging add-ons.” (With all these uses of AI, it’s wise to remember that these are just the early versions of the technology and one of the things AI is especially good at is getting better.)

+ “Most marine scientists have characterized hundreds of encounters between boats and orcas that have sunk at least three vessels and damaged dozens of others over the years as a “fad,” implying that the animals will eventually lose interest and resort to more typical behavior. But if that’s the case, there are few signs this behavior is going out of style anytime soon.” Revenge of the killer whales? Recent boat attacks might be driven by trauma.

+ A 76-year-old woman who was declared dead at a hospital in Ecuador was found to be alive and knocking on her coffin during her own wake in the city of Babahoyo. Bababooey!