May 6, 2024: Stay safe from scammers with a safe word, time in nature improves health, and Florida's beef with lab-grown meat. —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor | | | Using a verbal password or code phrase with family members may be the most straightforward way to combat AI voice scams. Make up a passcode— a safe word or private phrase—and share it with family or close friends in person. Memorize it. If any family member calls you in alarm or under unusual pressure, especially if they're asking for money, ask for the code to verify who is on the other end of the line.
Why this matters: AI technology is enabling scammers to create remarkably convincing dupes of voices; this category of fraud, the impostor scam, conned $2.7 billion from Americans in 2023. These AI tools digest speech samples (perhaps snatched from videos posted online or from a supposedly "wrong number" phone call) and generate audio replicas of the stolen voice that can be manipulated to say basically anything.
What the experts say: "Right now there is no other obvious way to know that the person you are talking to is who they say they are," says Hany Farid, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley, who has studied audio deepfakes. His pro tip: "Ask each other what the code is every once in a while—because unlike a [computer] password, we don't use the code word very often, so it is easy to forget." --Ben Guarino, associate editor, technology | | | Access to nature can have a strong effect on people's health. Scientists used Google Street View to develop a greenness score (called a NatureScore) between 0 and 100, which uses the amount of parks, tree canopies, and air, noise and light pollution as a proxy for greenness for every address in the U.S. As a case study, a team of researchers looked at outpatient mental health service utilization, mostly for depression, anxiety or stress, across 1,169 zip codes in Texas. After adjusting for demographic and socioeconomic factors, they found that rates of mental health service use were about 50 percent lower in neighborhoods with NatureScores higher than 60. Why this is interesting: Access to parks and other greenery is linked to health disparities that can't be explained by factors such as race, ethnicity and socioeconomic status alone, says epidemiologist Marcia P. Jimenez of the Boston University School of Public Health. One explanation is that nature offers a rest from the mental fatigue of modern life and the built environment, thereby restoring attentional resources. Or that time in nature reduces stress by activating the parasympathetic nervous system.
What the experts say: More access to green space tends to give a bigger relative health boost to disadvantaged groups than to more privileged ones, research is starting to show. "If we were to increase greenness among these vulnerable populations, we could essentially tackle health inequalities," says Jimenez. "This is where to begin." | | | • The self-driving trucking industry says its self-driving vehicles can cut carbon emissions by reducing fuel use. But are they safe? | 6 min read | | | Patrick Mahomes of the Kansas City Chiefs wears the same pair of red underwear on every National Football League game day. Michael Owens/Getty Images | | | • Information harvesting is the whole business model of our digital and smart-device-enabled world--all our habits, behaviors and desires become the data used to benefit for-profit companies. We shouldn't be afraid of AI taking over humanity, we should fear the fact that our humanity hasn't kept up with our technology, writes Joseph Jones, an assistant professor of media at West Virginia University. "AI is not helping humanity address our shortcomings, it's exploiting our vulnerabilities so private interests can guide how we think, act and feel." | 5 min read | | | For many people in the U.S., May is a great time to get outdoors. More warm days are in our weekly forecasts and trees, flowers and grasses are blooming everywhere you look. The greening trees seem to have a message for us, as Philip Larkin ends his poem, "The Trees": Last year is dead, they seem to say, Begin afresh, afresh, afresh.
(If you suffer from seasonal allergies, this time of year can be tough. Staff writer Meghan Bartels has some tips for surviving it.) | Get outside and enjoy yourself! When you're done send me any suggestions and feedback: newsletters@sciam.com. See you tomorrow. | —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor | | Subscribe to this and all of our newsletters . | | | | Scientific American
One New York Plaza, New York, NY, 10004 | | | | | | Support our mission, subscribe to Scientific American | | | | | | | | | |
