AI models are always hungry for vast amounts of information, so it can learn how to give us human-like responses. For example, OpenAI’s GPT-3 trained on 570 gigabytes of text, or roughly 225 billion words.
But children and babies, however, do not require an enormous pool of information to learn how language works. They listen and try things like imitating the sounds of people around them – a different way of learning that’s more efficient and consumes much less energy.
Artificial intelligence has been woven into the everyday lives of Americans. As voters head to the polls on November 3 for a consequential midterm election, will AI change the way they get their information and ultimately influence how they vote?
Since the 2024 presidential election, AI use has grown significantly, according to a Pew Research Center poll, which found that half of U.S. adults use AI, with a quarter of them using it daily. Two years ago, only one-third of adults had used AI platforms.
An institution that existed more than 150 years ago is still impacting who lives and dies today.
A new study co-authored by UC Berkeley Psychology Professor Manuel Galvan found that modern-day Black Americans have higher mortality rates in counties that had greater proportions of enslaved people in the 19th century.
The opposite was true for White Americans: counties with a greater historical reliance on slavery had lower mortality rates among White residents.
From AI-powered social media content creation to college access platforms, cognitive science student entrepreneurs pitched their startups to potential investors at the Berkeley Accelerator & Startup Incubator in Cognitive Science (BASICS) Spring Pitch Day.
Students presented ventures developed through the BASICS course to a panel of investors and startup experts including Erik Leklem, regional operations director at the Institute for Security Governance; Oguzhan Aygoren, director of the Institute for Business Innovation at the UC Berkeley...
Trying to be happy can sometimes have the opposite effect.
A new review of previous psychology research, titled “The pursuit of happiness: pitfalls and promises,” by Iris Mauss, a UC Berkeley psychology professor, and Brett Ford, a University of Toronto psychology professor and Berkeley psychology alumna, explores this happiness paradox. The researchers examined findings from 20 years of research on the...
The 136 conversations took place in roughly the same way: Pleasantries would be exchanged, a recorder started, then UC Berkeley researchers asked middle-class Californians to dig deep. Who deserves government assistance? What values do you hope to instill in your children? What do you think about undocumented immigration? What is the American dream, exactly?
Those wide-ranging interviews form the basis of aself-scrutinizing new book from Berkeley professors G. Cristina Mora and...
Billionaire wealth has reached historic highs — and so has their power. UC Berkeley and Paris School of Economics Professor Gabriel Zucman, a world-renowned expert on wealth inequality and global tax evasion, warns that this growing concentration of extreme wealth is undermining democracy and allowing the ultra-rich to wield outsized influence over politics and society.
Open-access publishing was supposed to make knowledge available to everyone. But a new UC Berkeley study suggests that some of the scholars whose research could most benefit public conversations about race, gender and inequality are less likely to share their work through open-access channels.
Flipping on the lights, plugging in a phone or turning on the air conditioner are everyday routines that most Californians rarely think twice about — until the monthly utility bill arrives. Over the past several years, electricity has become one of the fastest-growing household expenses across the state, leaving residents wondering why costs have risen so dramatically as California doubles down on clean energy goals.
It’s tempting to point to a single culprit: Some blame renewable energy, while others point to regulations or inflation. However...
For years, social media companies have faced pressure from users and government watchdogs to stop misinformation from distorting elections, deepening political divisions and undermining Americans’ trust in institutions.
But what if dramatically reducing people’s exposure to unreliable sources that frequently spread misinformation doesn’t actually change what they believe?
UC Berkeley Political Science Ph.D. student Olivier Bergeron-Boutin tested that question on Facebook and Instagram during the 2020 presidential...
