The information: Whereas we all know that tiny items of plastic are all over the place, we don’t absolutely perceive what they’re doing to us or different animals. Now, new analysis in seabirds hints that it would have an effect on intestine microbiomes—the trillions of microbes that make a house within the intestines and play an vital function in animals’ well being.

The findings: Seabirds ingest plastic from the ocean, which may accumulate of their stomachs. The analysis exhibits it leaves the birds with extra probably dangerous microbes within the intestine, together with some which can be identified to be immune to antibiotics, and others with the potential to trigger illness.

Why it issues: The report expands our view on what plastic air pollution is doing to wildlife, and shines a light-weight on the large spectrum of adversarial results caused by present plastic ranges within the atmosphere. The subsequent step is to work out what this would possibly imply for his or her well being and the well being of different animals, together with people. Learn the total story.

—Jessica Hamzelou

What if we may simply ask AI to be much less biased?

Consider a trainer. Shut your eyes. What does that particular person appear to be? Should you ask Steady Diffusion or DALL-E 2, two of the most well-liked AI picture turbines, it’s a white man with glasses.

However what for those who may merely ask AI fashions to provide you much less biased solutions? A brand new device known as Honest Diffusion makes it simpler to tweak AI fashions to generate the kinds of photos you need, comparable to swapping out the white males within the photos for ladies or individuals of various ethnicities. An analogous approach additionally appears to work for language fashions.

These strategies of combating AI bias are welcome—and lift the apparent query of whether or not they need to be baked into the fashions from the beginning. Learn the total story.