SEOUL -- Upcoming smartphones from Samsung Electronics will come with a simultaneous interpretation feature powered by chips inside the devices.
The AI Live Translate Call feature, which will work on voice calls, will be offered on flagship Galaxy S24 phones slated to be announced in January.
Boffins have compiled the first ever “alien dictionary” to help us chat to ETs.
A group of 25 academics have come up with a guide to prepare us for our first encounter. The book, Xenolinguistics: Towards a Science of Extraterrestrial Language, will help decipher and respond to any signals from outer space. Experts say it is vital our initial communications with other beings leads to friendship rather than “devastating” war.
They believe centuries of studies into ancient human language and animal calls and grunts can be used to “decode intentional communication from another world.” Dr Douglas Vakoch, the book’s editor and an astrobiologist, said: “I think it’s realistic that we could in our lifetimes get a message through Seti (Search for extraterrestrial intelligence) programmes or send out messages that could someday get a reply.”
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Telescopes have been scanning the heavens for transmissions for half a century. Our own messages have also been sent into the cosmos in search of an alien response. But interstellar chat will be slow as signals take four years to travel between Earth and our nearest star at the speed of light.
Earlier this year, Dr Vakoch explained more about communicating with aliens. He told the BBC: “Life’s capacity for language astounds me, and it gives me hope. Hope that life orbiting around distant stars may also have the capacity for language and communication.
“So the question is not, 'Do intelligent aliens exist?' but, 'Could we communicate with them?' In 1974, my friend the late Frank Drake (creator of the Drake Equation) sent a message to a distant cluster of stars from the largest radio telescope in the world, known today as the Arecibo message – the first radio message to aliens.
“Over the years I started to think of ways we could create and transmit a much wider range of new messages that could stand a better chance of being understood by intelligent lifeforms.
“If our messages are received, deciphered and replied to, we could receive a response in as little as a decade (if we are lucky). If extraterrestrials do get our messages, will they understand them?”
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Now that Firefox 121 has landed in the stable software repositories of various GNU/Linux distributions, those who want to take the next major release for a test drive, Firefox 122, can download the latest beta version.
Firefox 122 looks like a small update to the popular open-source web browser used by default on numerous GNU/Linux distributions. It only promises to improve the quality of the new built-in translation feature introduced in Firefox 118, offering more stable translations that no longer break interactive widgets on some websites and reduce the risk of content disappearing when translated.
Firefox 122 also promises to improve web browser compatibility for line breaking by matching the line-breaking rules to the Unicode Standard, as well as to display images and descriptions for search suggestions when provided by the search engine. Also, for East Asian and South East Asian users, it promises proper support for language-aware word selection when double-clicking on text.
Moreover, starting with Firefox 122, scripts will be able to store the cacheAPI data in Private Browsing mode. And, to further protect user privacy, Firefox 122 will taint filters that use currentColor as an input.
:visited pseudo selector, it potentially contains privacy-sensitive information and therefore these primitives must be marked as tainted. This means that if you use such a filter you won’t be able to read the filter output from canvas,” said Mozilla.I’ve also noticed that Firefox 122 no longer offers the Snippets option in Settings > Home which provided users with tips and news from Mozilla and Firefox, nor the Search Bar settings in Settings > Search that allowed you to choose between using the address bar for search and navigation or add the search bar in toolbar.
Firefox for Android received quite some attention during this release bringing the ability to report the OS version as “Android 10” in Firefox Android’s User-Agent string to reduce user fingerprinting information and improve compatibility with some websites.
In addition, Firefox for Android users will be able to set the web browser as the default PDF reader and enable the Global Privacy Control feature that informs websites not to sell or share their browsing data. This can be enabled from Settings > Enhanced Tracking Protection > Tell websites not to share & sell data.
For web developers, Firefox 122 promises support for animating the SVG viewBox attribute using SMIL (Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language), support for the LargestContentfulPaint API, support for the showPicker method on <select> elements, as well as support for ray() on the offset-path CSS property.
In addition, Firefox 122 will add support for basic-shape and coord-box for the offset-path CSS property, support for rect() and xywh() basic shapes on the clip-path and offset-path CSS properties, support for the Screen Wake Lock API, support for <hr>-in-<select>, and the ability to recognize the “webauthn” autocomplete token.
Last but not least, Firefox 122 promises to change the fallback URL parser for unknown schemes to DefaultURI in an attempt to improve specification adherence and web compatibility, as well as to enable the ArrayBuffer.prototype.transfer proposal methods, which enable ownership transferring of ArrayBuffer data.
Mozilla plans to release Firefox 122 on January 23rd, 2024. Until then, you can take the latest beta version of Firefox 122 for a test drive by downloading the binaries from Mozilla’s download server, but keep in mind not to use this pre-release version for production work.
The popular online dictionary Urban Dictionary has added the word "Israeled" to its entries.
According to the dictionary, the definition describes it as claiming something that belongs to someone else as one's own.
"Someone wanted to share my table at a restaurant. I allowed it. After a while, they kicked me out of the table because they had a meeting. So, I got Israeled," one user said in his entry.
Urban Dictionary is a website established in 1999, featuring definitions that often revolve around everyday language uses not found in formal dictionaries. Therefore, the site is frequently visited by those interested in popular culture, internet culture, slang, and jargon.
Here are some entries published on Urban Dictionary:
"When someone asks you to share something of yours and then fight you to get you out of it. And tell everyone you took it from them. In a restaurant, someone asked to share my table. I agreed. After a moment, he asked me to leave because he had a meeting! I've been israeled."
"When a person tells you that your property is theirs [when it obviously isn't], and demands you just give this property to them, and if you refuse, they take it by force and the law will somehow be on the their [israeling] side. You've been israeled. He israeled my place."
"The act of taking something that is not yours and then kicking out the rightful owner. Someone asked to share my table at a restaurant, and then asked me to leave the table because they had a meeting! Looks like you just got israeled."
Images courtesy of Collins Dictionary, Oxford University Press, Merriam-Webster, Dictionary.com, Sawikaan, and Japan Times.
What’s your WOTY?
Five major dictionaries (Cambridge, Collins, Merriam-Webster, Oxford University Press, and Dictionary.com) have revealed their 2023 Word of the Year.
A visceral reminder, the word of the year captures the popular mood, cultural shifts, thoughts, and anxieties of a particular time, reflecting the story of our lives.
Hallucinate
Cambridge Dictionary: hallucinate (verb), its common definition is “to seem to see, hear, feel or smell something that does not exist, usually because of a health condition or because you have taken a drug.”
In 2023, to hallucinate can mean something entirely different, courtesy of AI. Cambridge’s alternate definition is “when an artificial intelligence (a computer system that has some of the qualities that the human brain has, such as the ability to produce language in a way that seems human) hallucinates, it produces false information.”
Hallucinate is also Dictionary.com word of the year, with a slightly different definition, (of artificial intelligence) “to produce false information contrary to the intent of the user and present it as true and factual.”
AI
Collins Dictionary defines AI as “the modelling of human mental functions by computer programs.” AI has been touted as the next technological revolution, and with the release of ChatGPT in late 2022, global concerns have increased on its dangers with the proliferation of AI-generated texts that have been increasingly used in disinformation campaigns.
Visual artists and authors have been fighting against the use of AI infringing on their work. Authors such as John Grisham, George R.R. Martin, Jodi Picault, and Jonathan Franzen have joined a class action lawsuit against OpenAI, the maker of Dall-E and ChatGPT, saying that it used copyrighted work in training its systems to create human-like responses.
“Systemic theft on a massive scale,” is what these AI algorithms have been doing, the lawsuit claims.
Popular AI image generators have used thousands of images of child sexual abuse, as revealed recently by the Stanford Internet Observatory, a watch group based in Stanford University. More than 3200 images of suspected child sexual abuse have been found in the massive AI database LAION (Large Scale Artificial Intelligence Open Network), an index of online images and captions that have been used to train AI image makers.
Authentic
Merriam-Webster: authentic (adjective) 1. Not false or imitation; 2. True to one’s own personality, spirit or character.
In the context of AI unleashing its capacity for creating deepfake images and videos, fake voices fake profiles, and more, the call for being true to oneself has never been more pressing.
Above all, critical thinking is crucial in detecting falsehoods in social media and using credible sources of information.
Rizz
Oxford University Press: Rizz (noun) is defined as style, charm, or attractiveness and the ability to attract a romantic or sexual partner, an internet slang quite popular among Gen Z. A shortened form of “charisma,” it is also used as a verb, to rizz up that means to attract, seduce, or chat someone up.
Rizz won over Swiftie (a Taylor Swift fan), situationship, (an undefined romantic relationship), and de-influencing (the practice of discouraging consumers from buying specific products, or encouraging them to reduce their consumption of material goods).
Oxford notes that these recently created words or expressions reflect a certain period of time and also “having potential as a term of lasting cultural significance or providing a snapshot of social history.”
Last year, Oxford’s word was goblin mode (“self-indulgent, lazy, or greedy” behavior) right after the pandemic. In contrast in 2023, we are coming out of pandemic, opening ourselves to the world and to new experiences, and “finding confidence in who we are, notes Casper Gratwohl, president of Oxford Languages.
The Filipinas Institute of (FIT) has been issuing the country’s word of the year, but it has yet to release its Salita ng Taon for 2023. Its selection process is open to the public and anyone can submit a word choice accompanied by an explanation in its defense.
Words that are considered as Salita ng Taon may include newly invented or coined words; newly borrowed words from local or foreign languages; an old word that has acquired a new meaning; or an archaic or no longer used word that has been revived.
Pandemya (pandemic) is Salita ng Taon for 2020, by Sawikaan, referring to the global spread of the coronavirus disease or COVID-19. It also encapsulates the fears, worries, and uncertainties related to the virus that gripped the country. Pandemya was also chosen for Filipinos to take the threat of COVID-19 seriously, and to prepare for future pandemics that are bound to happen, like it or not.
“Social distancing” was the second choice, followed by “contact tracing.” Other words in the top ten list for 2020 included “ayuda,” “webinar,” “blended learning,” “testing,” “virus,” and “quarantine”— all words related to the global pandemic that claimed the lives of more than 66,000 Filipinos so far and 6.98 million worldwide, as of December 17, 2023.
The popular online dictionary Urban Dictionary has added the word "Israeled" to its entries.
According to the dictionary, the definition describes it as claiming something that belongs to someone else as one's own.
"Someone wanted to share my table at a restaurant. I allowed it. After a while, they kicked me out of the table because they had a meeting. So, I got Israeled," one user said in his entry.
Urban Dictionary is a website established in 1999, featuring definitions that often revolve around everyday language uses not found in formal dictionaries. Therefore, the site is frequently visited by those interested in popular culture, internet culture, slang, and jargon.
Here are some entries published on Urban Dictionary:
"When someone asks you to share something of yours and then fight you to get you out of it. And tell everyone you took it from them. In a restaurant, someone asked to share my table. I agreed. After a moment, he asked me to leave because he had a meeting! I've been israeled."
"When a person tells you that your property is theirs [when it obviously isn't], and demands you just give this property to them, and if you refuse, they take it by force and the law will somehow be on the their [israeling] side. You've been israeled. He israeled my place."
"The act of taking something that is not yours and then kicking out the rightful owner. Someone asked to share my table at a restaurant, and then asked me to leave the table because they had a meeting! Looks like you just got israeled."
What is 2023, in a word?
In recent years, we’ve had gaslighting and goblin mode, vax and FAFO. Now, thanks to Merriam-Webster, Dictionary.com and Oxford, we’ve got authentic, hallucinate and rizz. Along with the stresses and joys of the holidays and our annual traditions comes, for many of us, the wait to see what the year’s defining words will be.
Rizz (with its contentious, unsettled relationship to charisma) was also on Merriam-Webster’s list of words that stood out according to its data; also among them were deepfake, coronation, implode, dystopian, indict, kibbutz and deadname.
This list refers to a king, a president, an underwater disaster, transformative technology and how our names shape our social realities and political identity as citizens. It refers to a site where a war, still raging, began. Each of those included words tells multiple stories – one for the person who looked it up and many others for the rest of us.
These words become tiny talismans, markers of time and truth in daily lives that urge us relentlessly to the next thing, forcing us forward into the future before we’ve even fully experienced the present.
And therein lies not only the popularity of this entire lexical gambit of naming a word of the year in the first place but also the irresistible little thrill we get anticipating them, like a mini-Oscar season for word nerds. When lined up alongside their first cousin, the Google Search trends of the year, words of the year become a common language, an internet “I was here” scrawled on the metaphorical bathroom stall of a world growing harder to recognize by the day.
This year, CNN Opinion wanted to know what YOUR word of the year would be – and why. Your answers were memorable, direct and in some cases, heartbreaking.
“As both a word and a title, my word of the year is caretaker,” wrote one of you. “Caretaker has a warm sound to it. It is not so warm if you are the aforementioned. Caretaking 24/7/365 is lonely, cold and more than the word ‘difficult’ can convey,” wrote this reader, who continued, “This country, especially in rural, aging communities, is unable to offer services of any kind to their elderly citizens. And there doesn’t seem to be a push to change that….After my caretaker services are no longer required, there is no one to take care of me. I have never married, never have children, and am an only child. I will age on my own. I will literally go to my grave as a caretaker, taking care of myself until the bitter end.”
Another reader cut to the quick by choosing the word hate, which “seems to be spreading across the world and thus I fear for the future.” Still another found more hope in the word relate, describing how “2023 magnified how we relate to each other, behave in our communities, care for the environment, engage in politics…Our positive or negative individual actions create our collective life experience.”
Your words of the year, a selection of which follow below, were a visceral reminder that it isn’t only the words we look up or search for online that we use to define or express ourselves. The words we hold close or speak out for other reasons also tell the story of our lives, piece by piece.
These selections have been lightly edited for clarity and flow, and the views belong to the authors.
My wife of 44 years died in 2022 and I had no idea how I was going to live life alone. We had done everything together or for each other and I was “her husband.” Now, who was I? 2023 has been the year of creating David 3.0, and it turns out I quite like him.
— David A., Fiji
My word of the year, of the decade thus far and into the foreseeable future is LOVE. I got frustrated with watching the news: so many bad things going on, like mass shootings, wars, diseases and racism at the top of the list of other bad “-isms” and “-phobias”. At the same time, so many appeals for help by excellent charitable organizations, crowdfunders and similar requests from individuals in need - too many for any one person to support.
I decided that the only way I could respond and keep myself sane was to LOVE; to live love, share love, and spread the word of love as best I can. With fabric paint, I drew my own hoodie Always LOVE. People see it and respond with smiles and positive comments. I see good people doing good deeds for others, and I thank them for showing kindness and love to the world. I don’t know if I’ve changed anyone’s attitude or actions, but I have at least been supportive of the people already living a life of love.
— Mike, Maryland
Repose — to wait in quiet, engaged attention. I sit with cancer patients and families of those dying in the ICU and older adults pondering their long journeys. My heart waits with them, follows them wherever their story wanders.
How might we all grow deep and rich if we abandoned our hope in somewhere else and sat with one another in tender repose. Not fleeing cancer or Gaza or worries for self or the world…but pitching our tent alongside one another no matter what, even when we struggle to understand or hear or make sense of the harried ways of being human.
— Doug B., North Carolina
It’s on this Taylor Swift trend, obviously, but you see it on shirts all the time. It’s my “fill in the blank” era and after the proliferation of the concert and movie, it’s how we have started talking.
At work, describing a part of our company’s history, I indicated it was part of our pre-covid era. No one laughed or even made a face that it wasn’t the right word to use, because it is - it’s a way to describe a distinct set of time where something happened. We are all in our Taylor Swift Era… and that’s why it seems to be the word of the year.
— Matt, Missouri
We are conflicted about the war in the Middle East. We are conflicted about whether the economy is hot or cold. We are conflicted about what we should be eating and what we do eat; how much we should exercise and how much we do exercise. We are conflicted about supporting our favorite political party but not liking the party’s candidate. We are conflicted about spending time on self-care vs giving to others. We live in a world of choices, and they all seem pretty gray.
— Susan, Arkansas
Along with all the other (well-publicized) strikes (SAG, WGA, UAW, etc), I was involved in three strikes this year. My company (which is a contractor for the local public transit agency) has separate collective bargaining agreements (CBAs) at three different locations. One of them went on strike in February, and due to extended picket lines, my location was shut down for two days. Then the second one went on strike in May, and we thought they would extend to us, but they didn’t…because we went on strike ourselves the very next week.
Our strike wound up lasting 37 days, and we got almost no press because the other strike was gobbling up all the coverage….We did get a better deal out of it, though — 10% raise and 12 extra sick days a year.
— CJ, California
I chose this word because it represents how I’ve viewed myself this past year. Worrying less about societal pressure, focusing more on getting in touch with my own feelings and thoughts. It’s about refusing to go along with the crowd and freeing yourself to live as you choose and ignoring the mainstream influences.
— Amber, Missouri
My word of the year is sangfroid, which means to be calm, cool and collected in stressful situations. It comes from the French “sang-froid” which literally means “cold blood.” It means to be un-mess-able-with. It is the way Elton John described Marilyn Monroe: “You had the grace to hold yourself while those around you crawled.”
This year we face war and death in several places. We have a planet that is sagging under the uncivil weight of our civilization. Thousands of our young adults are dying from fentanyl, which is now their leading cause of death. We have been set back by “progress.” Glaciers are melting and so oceans are rising, all while rich people are flying to space. If we don’t find sangfroid this year, we will never find it. In the midst of challenges, tragedies and injustices may we all be standing on a big sangfroid.
— Greg, Massachusetts
Fierce is my word for the year. It encapsulates so many feelings and words within it. (Fire, Free, rife, ire, Eire, fie, fier) You “pierce through fear” to be fierce, you cry through it too. You also say inside the old English word “fie” on fear.
The politics and media are “rife” with fear. So many “leaders” have no ability to be fierce, because it means to stand alone at first. It could mean losing your political safety. It means listening to your conscience. And it means letting your conscience be the “fire” that moves you forward, even with “impossible” odds. We just passed an issue for women’s rights, Issue 1, in Ohio in the face of massive opposition. It happened because we are fierce.
— Elise, Ohio
My choice is adaptability, a word that’s taken on new weight in the age of AI. As we’ve started to share our spaces—physical, digital, and cognitive—with advanced technology, it’s adaptability that’s kept us afloat. This year has been a primer; looking ahead, it’s clear that adaptability will become even more essential. It’s about staying agile as we step into a future where change is the only constant, and AI is an ever-greater part of that change.
— Duane, Michigan
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