AI Detector Generator

AI Detector Generator — independent reviews, comparisons, pricing and step-by-step guides on Aizhi.

  • Gallery software

    Gallery software

    Gallery software is software that helps the user publish or share photos, pictures, videos or other digital media. Most galleries are located on Web servers, where users are allowed to register and publish their pictures. Gallery software usually features automatic image resizing, allows digital media be categorized into sets, and allows comments. == Types == Early digital media publishing and sharing was done with imageboards. The boards are by topics, sometimes called "chan". Each discussion in a "chan" are started with a piece of digital media, and follow-up discussions can contain another piece too. Software works in this way: Futallaby, Danbooru. Traditionally, galleries are managed. An administrator maintains a set of or hierarchy of albums. The users can upload their digital media in one of the existing albums defined by an administrator, or create their own albums. The users with sufficient permission can re-categorise the digital media others uploaded. Often, the site's administrator can define which album the users are allowed to categorise their media into, or delete other user's content. Examples are open source galleries Coppermine, Gallery Project. There are decentralised gallery software that does not have an administrator for managing contents. Pinterest, Flickr and DeviantArt has been successful with this model. Open source gallery software MediaGoblin works in this way. Each user can create their own "collections", to categorise theirs or other users' media. However users cannot put media into other user's collections. Each user's category is separate. There is no centralised theme or hierarchy for the media.

    Read more →
  • AI notetaker

    AI notetaker

    An AI notetaker is a tool using artificial intelligence to take notes during meetings. They are created by tech companies such as Microsoft and Google; by AI transcription services such Otter.ai, and by smaller firms such as Cluely and Krisp. Some business executives send AI notetakers to attend meetings not only to take notes, but also to answer questions on their behalf. The use of AI notetakers raises ethical questions, including recording meetings without the consent of all participants and the possibility that the notetaker will hallucinate and misrepresent what was said during meetings. There are also concerns when it comes to the privacy and security of meeting data and the sensitive information that lives inside meetings. Further controversies have developed from the use of AI notetakers such as Cluely to cheat in technical job interviews. == Technology == Large technology companies have integrated transcription capabilities into broader productivity and accessibility tools, including real-time captioning, dictation, and meeting documentation features embedded in operating systems and office platforms. Standalone transcription platforms, such as Transkriptor, focus specifically on automated transcription workflows and apply AI-based speech recognition to convert audio and video recordings into text. The software supports transcription in multiple languages and processes recordings uploaded via a web interface as well as through mobile and browser extensions. Tools of this type typically provide editable, time-aligned transcripts and export options for text and subtitle formats, cloud-based processing, multilingual support, and automation in transcription technology.

    Read more →
  • Savepoint

    Savepoint

    A savepoint is a way of implementing subtransactions (also known as nested transactions) within a relational database management system by indicating a point within a transaction that can be "rolled back to" without affecting any work done in the transaction before the savepoint was created. Multiple savepoints can exist within a single transaction. Savepoints are useful for implementing complex error recovery in database applications. If an error occurs in the midst of a multiple-statement transaction, the application may be able to recover from the error (by rolling back to a savepoint) without needing to abort the entire transaction. A savepoint can be declared by issuing a SAVEPOINT name statement. All changes made after a savepoint has been declared can be undone by issuing a ROLLBACK TO SAVEPOINT name command. Issuing RELEASE SAVEPOINT name will cause the named savepoint to be discarded, but will not otherwise affect anything. Issuing the commands ROLLBACK or COMMIT will also discard any savepoints created since the start of the main transaction. Savepoints are defined in the SQL standard and are supported by all established SQL relational databases, including PostgreSQL, Oracle Database, Microsoft SQL Server, MySQL, IBM Db2, SQLite (since 3.6.8), Firebird, H2 Database Engine, and Informix (since version 11.50xC3).

    Read more →
  • Higuchi dimension

    Higuchi dimension

    In fractal geometry, the Higuchi dimension (or Higuchi fractal dimension (HFD)) is an approximate value for the box-counting dimension of the graph of a real-valued function or time series. This value is obtained via an algorithmic approximation so one also talks about the Higuchi method. It has many applications in science and engineering and has been applied to subjects like characterizing primary waves in seismograms, clinical neurophysiology and analyzing changes in the electroencephalogram in Alzheimer's disease. == Formulation of the method == The original formulation of the method is due to T. Higuchi. Given a time series X : { 1 , … , N } → R {\displaystyle X:\{1,\dots ,N\}\to \mathbb {R} } consisting of N {\displaystyle N} data points and a parameter k m a x ≥ 2 {\displaystyle k_{\mathrm {max} }\geq 2} the Higuchi Fractal dimension (HFD) of X {\displaystyle X} is calculated in the following way: For each k ∈ { 1 , … , k m a x } {\displaystyle k\in \{1,\dots ,k_{\mathrm {max} }}\} and m ∈ { 1 , … , k } {\displaystyle m\in \{1,\dots ,k}\} define the length L m ( k ) {\displaystyle L_{m}(k)} by L m ( k ) = N − 1 ⌊ N − m k ⌋ k 2 ∑ i = 1 ⌊ N − m k ⌋ | X N ( m + i k ) − X N ( m + ( i − 1 ) k ) | . {\displaystyle L_{m}(k)={\frac {N-1}{\lfloor {\frac {N-m}{k}}\rfloor k^{2}}}\sum _{i=1}^{\lfloor {\frac {N-m}{k}}\rfloor }|X_{N}(m+ik)-X_{N}(m+(i-1)k)|.} The length L ( k ) {\displaystyle L(k)} is defined by the average value of the k {\displaystyle k} lengths L 1 ( k ) , … , L k ( k ) {\displaystyle L_{1}(k),\dots ,L_{k}(k)} , L ( k ) = 1 k ∑ m = 1 k L m ( k ) . {\displaystyle L(k)={\frac {1}{k}}\sum _{m=1}^{k}L_{m}(k).} The slope of the best-fitting linear function through the data points { ( log ⁡ 1 k , log ⁡ L ( k ) ) } {\displaystyle \left\{\left(\log {\frac {1}{k}},\log L(k)\right)\right\}} is defined to be the Higuchi fractal dimension of the time-series X {\displaystyle X} . == Application to functions == For a real-valued function f : [ 0 , 1 ] → R {\displaystyle f:[0,1]\to \mathbb {R} } one can partition the unit interval [ 0 , 1 ] {\displaystyle [0,1]} into N {\displaystyle N} equidistantly intervals [ t j , t j + 1 ) {\displaystyle [t_{j},t_{j+1})} and apply the Higuchi algorithm to the times series X ( j ) = f ( t j ) {\displaystyle X(j)=f(t_{j})} . This results into the Higuchi fractal dimension of the function f {\displaystyle f} . It was shown that in this case the Higuchi method yields an approximation for the box-counting dimension of the graph of f {\displaystyle f} as it follows a geometrical approach (see Liehr & Massopust 2020). == Robustness and stability == Applications to fractional Brownian functions and the Weierstrass function reveal that the Higuchi fractal dimension can be close to the box-dimension. On the other hand, the method can be unstable in the case where the data X ( 1 ) , … , X ( N ) {\displaystyle X(1),\dots ,X(N)} are periodic or if subsets of it lie on a horizontal line (see Liehr & Massopust 2020).

    Read more →
  • Odor source localization

    Odor source localization

    Odor source localization (OSL) is the problem of locating the origin of an airborne or waterborne chemical plume using one or more mobile sensors, typically robots equipped with chemical sensors. The task sits at the intersection of robotics, fluid dynamics and machine olfaction. Chemical plumes in turbulent flows are intermittent and patchy, and most chemical sensors respond slowly and have limited selectivity, so the instantaneous reading available to a moving sensor is a poor proxy for the underlying time-averaged concentration field. Robotic OSL has been studied since the late 1980s and has applications including the detection of gas leaks, search and rescue after industrial accidents, and environmental monitoring of industrial emissions. == History == Robotic odor search emerged in the late 1980s and 1990s, drawing on earlier work in chemical ecology that had described how moths and other insects locate distant pheromone sources. R. A. Russell at Monash University was among the first to build mobile robots that followed chemical trails on the floor and tracked airborne odor plumes. Distributed and multi-robot odor search were investigated by Hayes, Martinoli and Goodman at the California Institute of Technology and EPFL, who studied cooperative plume-tracing on simulated and physical robot swarms. In 2007 Vergassola, Villermaux and Shraiman introduced infotaxis, an information-theoretic search strategy in which a sensor moves so as to maximize the expected information gain about source location, rather than following a chemical concentration gradient; the paper appeared in Nature and prompted substantial follow-up work in the robotics community. From the mid-2010s, multi-rotor unmanned aerial vehicles carrying lightweight chemical sensors became a common experimental platform for OSL research. == Problem formulation == OSL is generally decomposed into three sub-problems: plume detection (deciding whether a chemical signal is present), plume traversal (moving so as to remain in contact with the plume), and source declaration (deciding when the source has been reached). The mathematical difficulty depends strongly on the assumed dispersion model. In laminar or low-Reynolds number flows a Gaussian advection–diffusion model gives a smooth concentration field with a well-defined gradient. In turbulent flows, which dominate most realistic environments, the plume is filamentary: the sensor receives short, randomly spaced bursts of chemical separated by periods of zero signal, and the time-averaged field is not a useful guide on the time scales at which a robot must act. Source-term estimation, surveyed by Hutchinson and colleagues, additionally aims to recover both the position and the release rate of the source from the observed concentrations, often using probabilistic filters. == Biological inspiration == Many OSL strategies are explicitly modeled on the behavior of male moths flying upwind toward a pheromone source. As reviewed by Cardé and Willis, moths combine an upwind surge whenever they detect a filament of pheromone with a wider crosswind cast when contact is lost, producing a characteristic zig-zag trajectory that has been transposed onto mobile robots by several groups. Other biological models draw on the search behavior of dogs and of marine animals such as blue crabs and lobsters, which integrate chemical and bilateral hydrodynamic cues over much shorter ranges. == Algorithms and strategies == === Reactive strategies === Reactive strategies select the next motion as a direct function of the current sensor reading. Chemotaxis steers along the locally estimated concentration gradient, which is effective in laminar plumes but degrades severely in turbulence. Anemotaxis exploits a measured wind direction by surging upwind when chemical contact is made. The bio-inspired cast-and-surge family combines anemotaxis with a deterministic crosswind cast on contact loss, and is the dominant reactive approach for turbulent environments. === Probabilistic and information-theoretic strategies === Probabilistic methods maintain a posterior distribution over possible source locations and choose actions that improve that distribution. The infotaxis strategy of Vergassola, Villermaux and Shraiman selects the move that maximizes the expected reduction in entropy of the source-location posterior, and is effective in regimes where the spatial gradient is unusable. Bayesian source-term estimation extends this idea by inferring both source position and release rate, typically using particle filters or sequential Monte Carlo. === Map-based strategies === Map-based methods build a spatial model of the time-averaged gas distribution from sensor readings collected along the robot's trajectory and search for local maxima in that model. Lilienthal and colleagues describe a family of kernel-based gas distribution mapping techniques in which point measurements are convolved with a Gaussian kernel to produce a spatially extrapolated estimate. Such methods are most useful when the source can be assumed quasi-stationary and the robot is able to revisit locations. === Multi-robot and swarm strategies === Multiple robots searching cooperatively can shorten search times. Cooperative formations spread the sensors across the crosswind axis, making detection of an intermittent plume more likely. Swarm-based approaches, reviewed by Wang and colleagues, deploy larger numbers of simpler agents and rely on collective behavior rather than centralized planning; reported advantages include improved coverage of the search area and the possibility of locating multiple sources in parallel. == Sensors and platforms == Most OSL systems use metal-oxide semiconductor (MOX) sensors, photoionization detectors or electrochemical cells, which trade off sensitivity, selectivity, response time and power consumption. Ishida and colleagues describe how these sensors interact with airflow around the robot body, an effect that motivates careful aerodynamic design and active sampling. Mobile platforms include wheeled ground robots for indoor and structured outdoor environments, multi-rotor unmanned aerial vehicles for open spaces and elevated sources, and autonomous underwater vehicles for chemical plumes in the marine environment. == Notable systems == Among the early demonstrations, R. A. Russell's series of differential-drive robots at Monash University localized volatile sources in still and ventilated rooms during the 1990s. The Smelling Nano Aerial Vehicle reported by Burgués and colleagues used a Crazyflie nano-quadcopter (approximately 27 grams in mass and 10 cm across) carrying a custom MOX gas sensing board, and built three-dimensional gas distribution maps of indoor releases from sweeping flights of less than three minutes. The GADEN simulator, released by Monroy and colleagues, couples three-dimensional dispersion computed from an OpenFOAM CFD solver with models of MOX and photo-ionization gas sensors, and is widely used to test mobile-robot olfaction algorithms in simulation. == Applications == Reported applications include the localization of natural-gas and methane leaks in urban infrastructure, search for chemical contamination after industrial accidents, search and rescue, and environmental monitoring of industrial emissions. Drug- and explosives-detection robots are an adjacent application area, although these typically rely on close-range sniffing rather than long-range plume tracking. == Open challenges == Open challenges identified in recent reviews include the limited speed, selectivity and stability of available chemical sensors; the scarcity of standardized, large-scale benchmarks comparable to those available in computer vision; reliable handling of multi-source environments, where standard single-source assumptions fail; and the integration of OSL with other autonomous-vehicle subsystems such as obstacle avoidance and navigation in three-dimensional turbulent flow.

    Read more →
  • Driver scheduling problem

    Driver scheduling problem

    The driver scheduling problem (DSP) is type of problem in operations research and theoretical computer science. The DSP consists of selecting a set of duties (assignments) for the drivers or pilots of vehicles (e.g., buses, trains, boats, or planes) involved in the transportation of passengers or goods, within the constraints of various legislative and logistical criteria. == Criteria and modelling == This very complex problem involves several constraints related to labour and company rules and also different evaluation criteria and objectives. Being able to solve this problem efficiently can have a great impact on costs and quality of service for public transportation companies. There is a large number of different rules that a feasible duty might be required to satisfy, such as Minimum and maximum stretch duration Minimum and maximum break duration Minimum and maximum work duration Minimum and maximum total duration Maximum extra work duration Maximum number of vehicle changes Minimum driving duration of a particular vehicle Operations research has provided optimization models and algorithms that lead to efficient solutions for this problem. Among the most common models proposed to solve the DSP are the Set Covering and Set Partitioning Models (SPP/SCP). In the SPP model, each work piece (task) is covered by only one duty. In the SCP model, it is possible to have more than one duty covering a given work piece. In both models, the set of work pieces that needs to be covered is laid out in rows, and the set of previously defined feasible duties available for covering specific work pieces is arranged in columns. The DSP resolution, based on either of these models, is the selection of the set of feasible duties that guarantees that there is one (SPP) or more (SCP) duties covering each work piece while minimizing the total cost of the final schedule.

    Read more →
  • Open Compute Project

    Open Compute Project

    The Open Compute Project (OCP) is an organization that facilitates the sharing of data center product designs and industry best practices among companies. Founded in 2011, OCP has significantly influenced the design and operation of large-scale computing facilities worldwide. As of February 2025, over 400 companies across the world are members of OCP, including Arm, Meta, IBM, Wiwynn, Intel, Nokia, Google, Microsoft, Seagate Technology, Dell, Rackspace, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, NVIDIA, Cisco, Goldman Sachs, Fidelity, Lenovo, Accton Technology Corporation and Alibaba Group. == Structure == The Open Compute Project Foundation is a 501(c)(6) non-profit incorporated in the state of Delaware, United States. OCP has multiple committees, including the board of directors, advisory board and steering committee to govern its operations. As of July 2020, there are seven members who serve on the board of directors which is made up of one individual member and six organizational members. Mark Roenigk (Facebook) is the Foundation's president and chairman. Andy Bechtolsheim is the individual member. In addition to Mark Roenigk who represents Facebook, other organizations on the Open Compute board of directors include Intel (Rebecca Weekly), Microsoft (Kushagra Vaid), Google (Partha Ranganathan), and Rackspace (Jim Hawkins). A list of members can be found on the OCP website. == History == The Open Compute Project began at Facebook (now Meta) in 2009 as an internal project called "Project Freedom". The hardware designs and engineering teams were led by Amir Michael (Manager, Hardware Design) and sponsored by Jonathan Heiliger (VP, Technical Operations) and Frank Frankovsky (Director, Hardware Design and Infrastructure). The three would later open source the designs of Project Freedom and co-found the Open Compute Project. The project was announced at a press event at Facebook's headquarters in Palo Alto on April 7, 2011. == OCP projects == The Open Compute Project Foundation maintains a number of OCP projects, such as: === Server designs === In 2013, two years after the Open Compute Project had started, it was noted that the goal of a more modular server design was "still a long way from live data centers". However, by then some aspects published had been used in Facebook's Prineville data center to improve energy efficiency, as measured by the power usage effectiveness index defined by The Green Grid. Efforts to advance server compute node designs included one for Intel processors and one for AMD processors. Also in 2013, Calxeda contributed a design with ARM architecture processors. Since then, several generations of OCP server designs have been deployed: Wildcat (Intel), Spitfire (AMD), Windmill (Intel E5-2600), Watermark (AMD), Winterfell (Intel E5-2600 v2) and Leopard (Intel E5-2600 v3). === OCP Accelerator Module === OCP Accelerator Module (OAM) is a design specification for hardware architectures that implement artificial intelligence systems that require high module-to-module bandwidth. OAM is used in some of AMD's Instinct accelerator modules. === Rack and power designs === Designs for a mechanical mounting system to replace standard 19-inch racks have been published, with a cabinet the same outside width (600 mm) and depth as existing racks, but with an interior space allowing for wider equipment chassis with a 537 mm width (21 inches). This allows more equipment to fit in the same volume and improves air flow. Compute chassis sizes are defined in multiples of an OpenU or OU, which is 48 mm, slightly taller than the 44 mm rack unit defined for 19-inch racks. As of March 2026, the most current base mechanical definition is the Open Rack V3.1 Specification. At the time the base specification was released, Meta also defined in greater depth the specifications for the rectifiers and power shelf. Specifications for the power monitoring interface (PMI), a communications interface enabling upstream communications between the rectifiers and battery backup unit(BBU) were published by Meta that same year, with Delta Electronics as the main technical contributor to the BBU spec. However, since 2022 the AI boom in the data center has created higher power requirements in order to satisfy the demands of AI accelerators that have been released. As of September 2024, Meta is in the process of updating its Open Rack v3 rectifier, power shelf, battery backup and power management interface specifications to accommodate this increased energy demand. In May 2024, at an Open Compute regional summit, Meta and Rittal outlined their plans for development of their High Power Rack (HPR) ecosystem in conjunction with rack, power and cable partners, increasing power capacity in the rack to 92 kilowatts or more. At the same meeting, Delta Electronics and Advanced Energy reported on their progress in developing new Open Compute standard specifications for power shelf and rectifier designs for HPR applications. Rittal also outlined their collaboration with Meta in designing airflow containment, busbar designs and grounding schemes for the new HPR requirements. === Data storage === Open Vault storage building blocks (also called "Knox") offer high disk densities, with 30 drives in a 2 OU Open Rack chassis designed for easy disk drive replacement. The 3.5 inch disks are stored in two drawers, five across and three deep in each drawer, with connections via serial attached SCSI. There is a "cold storage" variant where idle disks power down to reduce energy consumption. Another design concept was contributed by Hyve Solutions, a division of Synnex, in 2012. At the OCP Summit 2016 Facebook, together with Taiwanese ODM Wistron's spin-off Wiwynn, introduced "Lightning", a flexible NVMe JBOF (just a bunch of flash), based on the existing Open Vault (Knox) design. === Energy efficient data centers === The OCP has published data center designs for energy efficiency. These include power distribution at three-phase 277/480 VAC, which eliminates one transformer stage in typical North American data centers, a single voltage (12.5 VDC) power supply designed to work with 277/480 VAC input, and 48 VDC battery backup. For European (and other 230V countries) datacenters, there is a specification for 230/400 VAC power distribution and its conversion to 12.5 VDC. === Open networking switches === On May 8, 2013, an effort to define an open network switch was announced. The plan was to allow Facebook to load its own operating system software onto its top-of-rack switches. Press reports predicted that more expensive and higher-performance switches would continue to be popular, while less expensive products treated more like a commodity. The first attempt at an open networking switch by Facebook was designed together with Taiwanese ODM Accton using Broadcom Trident II chip and is called "Wedge"; the Linux OS that it runs is called "FBOSS". Later switch contributions include "6-pack" and Wedge-100, based on Broadcom Tomahawk chips. Similar switch hardware designs have been contributed by: Accton Technology Corporation (and its Edgecore Networks subsidiary), Mellanox Technologies, Interface Masters Technologies, Agema Systems. Capable of running Open Network Install Environment (ONIE)-compatible network operating systems such as Cumulus Linux, Switch Light OS by Big Switch Networks, or PICOS by Pica8. A similar project for a custom switch for the Google platform had been rumored, and evolved to use the OpenFlow protocol. === Servers === A sub-project for Mezzanine (NIC) OCP NIC 3.0 specification 1v00 was released in late 2019 establishing three form factors: SFF, TSFF, and LFF. == Litigation == In March, 2015, BladeRoom Group Limited and Bripco (UK) Limited sued Facebook, Emerson Electric Co. and others alleging that Facebook has disclosed BladeRoom and Bripco's trade secrets for prefabricated data centers in the Open Compute Project. Facebook petitioned for the lawsuit to be dismissed, but this was rejected in 2017. A confidential mid-trial settlement was agreed in April 2018.

    Read more →
  • Automated journalism

    Automated journalism

    Automated journalism, also known as algorithmic journalism or robot journalism, is a term that attempts to describe modern technological processes that are now in use in the journalistic profession, such as news articles and videos generated by computer programs. There are four main fields of application for automated journalism, namely automated content production, data mining, news dissemination and content optimization. Through generative artificial intelligence, stories are produced automatically by computers rather than human reporters. In the 2020s, generative pre-trained transformers have enabled the generation of articles, simply by providing prompts. Automated journalism is sometimes seen as an opportunity to free journalists from routine reporting, providing them with more time for complex tasks. It also allows efficiency and cost-cutting, alleviating some financial burden that many news organizations face. However, automated journalism is also perceived as a threat to the authorship and quality of news and a threat to the livelihoods of human journalists. == History == Historically, the process involved an algorithm that scanned large amounts of provided data, selected from an assortment of pre-programmed article structures, ordered key points, and inserted details such as names, places, amounts, rankings, statistics, and other figures. These programs interpret, organize, and present data in human-readable ways. The output can also be customized to fit a certain voice, tone, or style. Early implementations were mainly used for stories based on statistics and numerical figures. Common topics include sports recaps, weather, financial reports, real estate analysis, and earnings reviews. Data science and AI companies such as Automated Insights, Narrative Science, United Robots and Monok develop and provide these algorithms to news outlets. In 2016, early adopters included news providers such as the Associated Press, Forbes, ProPublica, and the Los Angeles Times. StatSheet, an online platform covering college basketball, runs entirely on an automated program. In 2006, Thomson Reuters announced their switch to automation to generate financial news stories on its online news platform. Reuters used a tool called Tracer. An algorithm called Quakebot published a story about a 2014 California earthquake on The Los Angeles Times website within three minutes after the shaking had stopped. The Associated Press began using automation to cover 10,000 minor baseball leagues games annually, using a program from Automated Insights and statistics from MLB Advanced Media. Outside of sports, the Associated Press also uses automation to produce stories on corporate earnings. Since 2014, Associated Press has been publishing quarterly financial stories with help from Automated Insights. In May 2020, Microsoft announced that a number of its MSN contract journalists would be replaced by robot journalism. On 8 September 2020, The Guardian published an article entirely written by the neural network GPT-3, although the published fragments were manually picked by a human editor. Agentic Tribune produces all of its news articles automatically using AI. News broadcasters in Kuwait, Greece, South Korea, India, China and Taiwan have presented news with anchors based on generative AI models, prompting concerns about job losses for human anchors and audience trust in news that has historically been influenced by parasocial relationships with broadcasters, content creators or social media influencers. Algorithmically generated anchors have also been used by allies of ISIS for their broadcasts. In 2023, Google reportedly pitched a tool to news outlets that claimed to "produce news stories" based on input data provided, such as "details of current events". Some news company executives who viewed the pitch described it as "[taking] for granted the effort that went into producing accurate and artful news stories." In February 2024, Google launched a program to pay small publishers to write three articles per day using a beta generative AI model. The program does not require the knowledge or consent of the websites that the publishers are using as sources, nor does it require the published articles to be labeled as being created or assisted by these models. Meta AI, a chatbot based on Llama 3 which summarizes news stories, was noted by The Washington Post to copy sentences from those stories without direct attribution and to potentially further decrease the traffic of online news outlets. == Benefits == === Speed === Robot reporters are built to produce large quantities of information at quicker speeds. The Associated Press announced that their use of automation has increased the volume of earnings reports from customers by more than ten times. With software from Automated Insights and data from other companies, they can produce 150 to 300-word articles in the same time it takes journalists to crunch numbers and prepare information. By automating routine stories and tasks, journalists are promised more time for complex jobs such as investigative reporting and in-depth analysis of events. Francesco Marconi of the Associated Press stated that, through automation, the news agency freed up 20 percent of reporters’ time to focus on higher-impact projects. This has also been stated by a spokesperson at Gannett, who stated "By leveraging AI, we are able to expand coverage and enable our journalists to focus on more in-depth reporting." GBH reports that AI tools help increase the reach of news publishers. Mike Carragi, a product manager at Patch, stated that they were able to increase their reach from 1200 communities to 7000 communities in just a few months without the need for new employees solely through the adoption of generative AI. In fact, many communities are served solely by AI generated content, which creates summaries of existing information within the community. === Cost === Automated journalism is cheaper because more content can be produced within less time. It also lowers labour costs for news organizations. Reduced human input means less expenses on wages or salaries, paid leaves, vacations, and employment insurance. Automation serves as a cost-cutting tool for news outlets struggling with tight budgets but still wish to maintain the scope and quality of their coverage. == Concerns == === Authorship === In an automated story, there is often confusion about who should be credited as the author. Several participants of a study on algorithmic authorship attributed the credit to the programmer; others perceived the news organization as the author, emphasizing the collaborative nature of the work. There is also no way for the reader to verify whether an article was written by a robot or human, which raises issues of transparency although such issues also arise with respect to authorship attribution between human authors too. === Credibility and quality === Concerns about the perceived credibility of automated news is similar to concerns about the perceived credibility of news in general. Critics doubt if algorithms are "fair and accurate, free from subjectivity, error, or attempted influence." Again, these issues about fairness, accuracy, subjectivity, error, and attempts at influence or propaganda has also been present in articles written by humans over thousands of years. A common criticism is that machines do not replace human capabilities such as creativity, humour, and critical-thinking. However, as the technology evolves, the aim is to mimic human characteristics. When the UK's Guardian newspaper used an AI to write an entire article in September 2020, commentators pointed out that the AI still relied on human editorial content. Austin Tanney, the head of AI at Kainos said: "The Guardian got three or four different articles and spliced them together. They also gave it the opening paragraph. It doesn’t belittle what it is. It was written by AI, but there was human editorial on that." The largest single study of readers' evaluations of news articles produced with and without the help of automation exposed 3,135 online news consumers to 24 articles. It found articles that had been automated were significantly less comprehensible, in part because they were considered to contain too many numbers. However, the automated articles were evaluated equally on other criteria including tone, narrative flow, and narrative structure. Beyond human evaluation, there are now numerous algorithmic methods to identify machine written articles although some articles may still contain errors that are obvious for a human to identify, they can at times score better with these automatic identifiers than human-written articles. A 2017 Nieman Reports article by Nicola Bruno discusses whether or not machines will replace journalists and addresses concerns around the concept of automated journalism practices. Ultimately, Bruno came to the conclusion that AI would assist journalist

    Read more →
  • Tea (app)

    Tea (app)

    Tea, officially Tea Dating Advice, is a dating surveillance mobile phone application that allows women to post personal data about men they are interested in or are currently dating. Founded by Sean Cook, the app rose to prominence in July 2025 after it was the subject of three major data leaks in July and August 2025. It was removed from Apple's App Store in October 2025, but remains available on the Google Play Store. == History == The app enables its users to upload, view, and comment on photos of men, check men's public records, and perform image searches. It also provides the ability to rate and review men, as well as a group chat function. The app uses artificial intelligence to verify that the user is a woman through facial analysis and other personal information to preserve the app as a women-only space. Users are required to submit their photo and an ID to access the app. The company that created the app was founded by businessman and tech capitalist Sean Cook, who stated in July 2025 that he was inspired to create the app because of his mother's experiences from online dating. According to the company, users remain anonymous, and the requirement to upload an ID was removed in 2023. An August 2025 investigation by 404 Media suggested that much of the information given by Cook on the historical background of the company was inaccurate. In July 2025, private messages, other personally identifying information, and approximately 72,000 images were leaked via 4chan. A further 1.1 million private messages were subsequently leaked using a separate security vulnerability; these included intimate conversations about controversial topics such as adultery and other forms of infidelity to their partners, discussions of abortion, phone numbers, meeting locations, and other confidential communications. The app's publishers subsequently revoked the ability to private message users in the app. Shortly after, the app was hidden from search on Android and an interactive, unverified map was also created of those in the files. By 7 August 2025, ten class action lawsuits had been filed. A further leak was reported later that month. Proponents have praised the app as an aid for women's safety by helping them check men for adultery, catfishing, criminal convictions and other "red flag" behaviors. Critics have described the app as a doxing tool and a violation of privacy, an opportunity for defamation against innocent individuals, and a witch hunt. Cook has stated that the company's legal team receives about three legal threats per day. Another mobile app, called TeaOnHer, was created in response of the app’s popularity. It was described as the male version of the Tea app. The app also reported a data breach in August 2025. In October 2025, Apple removed the app from their app store, telling journalists that the removal was due to a failure to meet company terms regarding content moderation and user privacy. Apple also mentioned an excessive amount of complaints, including allegations that the personal information of minors was being shared. The app remains on the Google Play Store.

    Read more →
  • Enterprise architecture

    Enterprise architecture

    Enterprise architecture (EA) is a business function concerned with the structures and behaviours of a business, especially business roles and processes that create and use business data. The international definition according to the Federation of Enterprise Architecture Professional Organizations is "a well-defined practice for conducting enterprise analysis, design, planning, and implementation, using a comprehensive approach at all times, for the successful development and execution of strategy. Enterprise architecture applies architecture principles and practices to guide organizations through the business, information, process, and technology changes necessary to execute their strategies. These practices utilize the various aspects of an enterprise to identify, motivate, and achieve these changes." The United States Federal Government is an example of an organization that practices EA, in this case with its Capital Planning and Investment Control processes. Companies such as Independence Blue Cross, Intel, Volkswagen AG, and InterContinental Hotels Group also use EA to improve their business architectures as well as to improve business performance and productivity. Additionally, the Federal Enterprise Architecture's reference guide aids federal agencies in the development of their architectures. == Introduction == As a discipline, EA "proactively and holistically lead[s] enterprise responses to disruptive forces by identifying and analyzing the execution of change" towards organizational goals. EA gives business and IT leaders recommendations for policy adjustments and provides best strategies to support and enable business development and change within the information systems the business depends on. EA provides a guide for decision making towards these objectives. The National Computing Centre's EA best practice guidance states that an EA typically "takes the form of a comprehensive set of cohesive models that describe the structure and functions of an enterprise. The individual models in an EA are arranged in a logical manner that provides an ever-increasing level of detail about the enterprise." Important players within EA include enterprise architects and solutions architects. Enterprise architects are at the top level of the architect hierarchy, meaning they have more responsibilities than solutions architects. While solutions architects focus on their own relevant solutions, enterprise architects focus on solutions for and the impact on the whole organization. Enterprise architects oversee many solution architects and business functions. As practitioners of EA, enterprise architects support an organization's strategic vision by acting to align people, process, and technology decisions with actionable goals and objectives that result in quantifiable improvements toward achieving that vision. The practice of EA "analyzes areas of common activity within or between organizations, where information and other resources are exchanged to guide future states from an integrated viewpoint of strategy, business, and technology." === Definitions === The term enterprise can be defined as an organizational unit, organization, or collection of organizations that share a set of common goals and collaborate to provide specific products or services to customers. In that sense, the term enterprise covers various types of organizations, regardless of their size, ownership model, operational model, or geographical distribution. It includes those organizations' complete sociotechnical system, including people, information, processes, and technologies. Enterprise as a sociotechnical system defines the scope of EA. The term architecture refers to fundamental concepts or properties of a system in its environment; and embodied in its elements, relationships, and in the principles of its design and evolution. A methodology for developing and using architecture to guide the transformation of a business from a baseline state to a target state, sometimes through several transition states, is usually known as an enterprise architecture framework. A framework provides a structured collection of processes, techniques, artifact descriptions, reference models, and guidance for the production and use of an enterprise-specific architecture description. Open-source tools supporting EA practice, such as the Essential Project, have also been evaluated for suitability in academic and commercial training contexts. Paramount to changing the EA is the identification of a sponsor. Their mission, vision, strategy, and the governance framework define all roles, responsibilities, and relationships involved in the anticipated transformation. Changes considered by enterprise architects typically include innovations in the structure or processes of an organization; innovations in the use of information systems or technologies; the integration and/or standardization of business processes; and improvement of the quality and timeliness of business information. According to the standard ISO/IEC/IEEE 42010, the product used to describe the architecture of a system is called an architectural description. In practice, an architectural description contains a variety of lists, tables, and diagrams. These are models known as views. In the case of EA, these models describe the logical business functions or capabilities, business processes, human roles and actors, the physical organization structure, data flows and data stores, business applications and platform applications, hardware, and communications infrastructure. The first use of the term "enterprise architecture" is often incorrectly attributed to John Zachman's 1987 A framework for information systems architecture. The first publication to use it was instead a National Institute of Standards (NIST) Special Publication on the challenges of information system integration. The NIST article describes EA as consisting of several levels. Business unit architecture is the top level and might be a total corporate entity or a sub-unit. It establishes for the whole organization necessary frameworks for "satisfying both internal information needs" as well as the needs of external entities, which include cooperating organizations, customers, and federal agencies. The lower levels of the EA that provide information to higher levels are more attentive to detail on behalf of their superiors. In addition to this structure, business unit architecture establishes standards, policies, and procedures that either enhance or stymie the organization's mission. The main difference between these two definitions is that Zachman's concept was the creation of individual information systems optimized for business, while NIST's described the management of all information systems within a business unit. The definitions in both publications, however, agreed that due to the "increasing size and complexity of the [i]mplementations of [i]nformation systems... logical construct[s] (or architecture) for defining and controlling the interfaces and... [i]ntegration of all the components of a system" is necessary. Zachman in particular urged for a "strategic planning methodology." == Overview == === Schools of thought === Within the field of enterprise architecture, there are three overarching schools: Enterprise IT Design, Enterprise Integrating, and Enterprise Ecosystem Adaption. Which school one subscribes to will impact how they see the EA's purpose and scope, as well as the means of achieving it, the skills needed to conduct it, and the locus of responsibility for conducting it. Under Enterprise IT Design, the main purpose of EA is to guide the process of planning and designing an enterprise's IT/IS capabilities to meet the desired organizational objectives, often by greater alignment between IT/IS and business concerns. Architecture proposals and decisions are limited to the IT/IS aspects of the enterprise and other aspects service only as inputs. The Enterprise Integrating school believes that the purpose of EA is to create a greater coherency between the various concerns of an enterprise (HR, IT, Operations, etc.), including the link between strategy formulation and execution. Architecture proposals and decisions here encompass all aspects of the enterprise. The Enterprise Ecosystem Adaption school states that the purpose of EA is to foster and maintain the learning capabilities of enterprises so they may be sustainable. Consequently, a great deal of emphasis is put on improving the capabilities of the enterprise to improve itself, to innovate, and to coevolve with its environment. Typically, proposals and decisions encompass both the enterprise and its environment. === Benefits, challenges, and criticisms === The benefits of EA are achieved through its direct and indirect contributions to organizational goals. Notable benefits include support in the areas related to design and re-design of the organizational structures during mergers, acquisitions, or

    Read more →
  • Least-squares spectral analysis

    Least-squares spectral analysis

    Least-squares spectral analysis (LSSA) is a class of methods for estimating a frequency spectrum by fitting sinusoids to data using a least-squares fit. Unlike Fourier analysis, the most widely used spectral method in science, data need not be equally spaced to use LSSA. Furthermore, while Fourier analysis generally amplifies long-period noise in long or gapped records, LSSA mitigates such problems. The first strictly least-squares LSSA method was developed in 1969 and 1971, and is known as the Vaníček method or the Gauss–Vaniček method, after its inventor Petr Vaníček and Carl Friedrich Gauss, the inventor of the least-squares method for error minimization. A widely known LSSA variant is the Lomb method or the Lomb–Scargle periodogram, based on dated computational simplifications of the Vaníček method introduced in the 1970s and 1980s, first by Nicholas R. Lomb and later by Jeffrey D. Scargle. Other LSSA variants have been subsequently developed. == Historical background == The close connections between Fourier analysis, the periodogram, and the least-squares fitting of sinusoids have been known for a long time. However, most developments are restricted to complete data sets of equally spaced samples. In 1963, Freek J. M. Barning of Mathematisch Centrum, Amsterdam, handled unequally spaced data by similar techniques, including both a periodogram analysis equivalent to what nowadays is called the Lomb method and least-squares fitting of selected frequencies of sinusoids determined from such periodograms — and connected by a procedure known today as the matching pursuit with post-back fitting or the orthogonal matching pursuit. Petr Vaníček, a Canadian geophysicist and geodesist of the University of New Brunswick, proposed in 1969 also the matching-pursuit approach for equally and unequally spaced data, which he called "successive spectral analysis" and the result a "least-squares periodogram". He generalized this method to account for any systematic components beyond a simple mean, such as a "predicted linear (quadratic, exponential, ...) secular trend of unknown magnitude", and applied it to a variety of samples, in 1971. Vaníček's strictly least-squares method was then simplified in 1976 by Nicholas R. Lomb of the University of Sydney, who pointed out its close connection to periodogram analysis. Subsequently, the definition of a periodogram of unequally spaced data was modified and analyzed by Jeffrey D. Scargle of NASA Ames Research Center, who showed that, with minor changes, it becomes identical to Lomb's least-squares formula for fitting individual sinusoid frequencies. Scargle states that his paper "does not introduce a new detection technique, but instead studies the reliability and efficiency of detection with the most commonly used technique, the periodogram, in the case where the observation times are unevenly spaced," and further points out regarding least-squares fitting of sinusoids compared to periodogram analysis, that his paper "establishes, apparently for the first time, that (with the proposed modifications) these two methods are exactly equivalent." Press summarizes the development this way: A completely different method of spectral analysis for unevenly sampled data, one that mitigates these difficulties and has some other very desirable properties, was developed by Lomb, based in part on earlier work by Barning and Vanicek, and additionally elaborated by Scargle. In 1989, Michael J. Korenberg of Queen's University in Kingston, Ontario, developed the "fast orthogonal search" method of more quickly finding a near-optimal decomposition of spectra or other problems, similar to the technique that later became known as the orthogonal matching pursuit. == Development of LSSA and variants == === The Vaníček method === In the Vaníček method, a discrete data set is approximated by a weighted sum of sinusoids of progressively determined frequencies using a standard linear regression or least-squares fit. The frequencies are chosen using a method similar to Barning's, but going further in optimizing the choice of each successive new frequency by picking the frequency that minimizes the residual after least-squares fitting (equivalent to the fitting technique now known as matching pursuit with pre-backfitting). The number of sinusoids must be less than or equal to the number of data samples (counting sines and cosines of the same frequency as separate sinusoids). The relationship between the DFT and the approximation of trigonometric functions using the least-squares method is well explained in (Strutz, 2017). A data vector Φ is represented as a weighted sum of sinusoidal basis functions, tabulated in a matrix A by evaluating each function at the sample times, with weight vector x: ϕ ≈ A x , {\displaystyle \phi \approx {\textbf {A}}x,} where the weights vector x is chosen to minimize the sum of squared errors in approximating Φ. The solution for x is closed-form, using standard linear regression: x = ( A T A ) − 1 A T ϕ . {\displaystyle x=({\textbf {A}}^{\mathrm {T} }{\textbf {A}})^{-1}{\textbf {A}}^{\mathrm {T} }\phi .} Here the matrix A can be based on any set of functions mutually independent (not necessarily orthogonal) when evaluated at the sample times; functions used for spectral analysis are typically sines and cosines evenly distributed over the frequency range of interest. If we choose too many frequencies in a too-narrow frequency range, the functions will be insufficiently independent, the matrix ill-conditioned, and the resulting spectrum meaningless. When the basis functions in A are orthogonal (that is, not correlated, meaning the columns have zero pair-wise dot products), the matrix ATA is diagonal; when the columns all have the same power (sum of squares of elements), then that matrix is an identity matrix times a constant, so the inversion is trivial. The latter is the case when the sample times are equally spaced and sinusoids chosen as sines and cosines equally spaced in pairs on the frequency interval 0 to a half cycle per sample (spaced by 1/N cycles per sample, omitting the sine phases at 0 and maximum frequency where they are identically zero). This case is known as the discrete Fourier transform, slightly rewritten in terms of measurements and coefficients. x = A T ϕ {\displaystyle x={\textbf {A}}^{\mathrm {T} }\phi } — DFT case for N equally spaced samples and frequencies, within a scalar factor. === The Lomb method === Trying to lower the computational burden of the Vaníček method in 1976 (no longer an issue), Lomb proposed using the above simplification in general, except for pair-wise correlations between sine and cosine bases of the same frequency, since the correlations between pairs of sinusoids are often small, at least when they are not tightly spaced. This formulation is essentially that of the traditional periodogram but adapted for use with unevenly spaced samples. The vector x is a reasonably good estimate of an underlying spectrum, but since we ignore any correlations, Ax is no longer a good approximation to the signal, and the method is no longer a least-squares method — yet in the literature continues to be referred to as such. Rather than just taking dot products of the data with sine and cosine waveforms directly, Scargle modified the standard periodogram formula so to find a time delay τ {\displaystyle \tau } first, such that this pair of sinusoids would be mutually orthogonal at sample times t j {\displaystyle t_{j}} and also adjusted for the potentially unequal powers of these two basis functions, to obtain a better estimate of the power at a frequency. This procedure made his modified periodogram method exactly equivalent to Lomb's method. Time delay τ {\displaystyle \tau } by definition equals to tan ⁡ 2 ω τ = ∑ j sin ⁡ 2 ω t j ∑ j cos ⁡ 2 ω t j . {\displaystyle \tan {2\omega \tau }={\frac {\sum _{j}\sin 2\omega t_{j}}{\sum _{j}\cos 2\omega t_{j}}}.} Then the periodogram at frequency ω {\displaystyle \omega } is estimated as: P x ( ω ) = 1 2 [ [ ∑ j X j cos ⁡ ω ( t j − τ ) ] 2 ∑ j cos 2 ⁡ ω ( t j − τ ) + [ ∑ j X j sin ⁡ ω ( t j − τ ) ] 2 ∑ j sin 2 ⁡ ω ( t j − τ ) ] , {\displaystyle P_{x}(\omega )={\frac {1}{2}}\left[{\frac {\left[\sum _{j}X_{j}\cos \omega (t_{j}-\tau )\right]^{2}}{\sum _{j}\cos ^{2}\omega (t_{j}-\tau )}}+{\frac {\left[\sum _{j}X_{j}\sin \omega (t_{j}-\tau )\right]^{2}}{\sum _{j}\sin ^{2}\omega (t_{j}-\tau )}}\right],} which, as Scargle reports, has the same statistical distribution as the periodogram in the evenly sampled case. At any individual frequency ω {\displaystyle \omega } , this method gives the same power as does a least-squares fit to sinusoids of that frequency and of the form: ϕ ( t ) = A sin ⁡ ω t + B cos ⁡ ω t . {\displaystyle \phi (t)=A\sin \omega t+B\cos \omega t.} In practice, it is always difficult to judge if a given Lomb peak is significant or not, especially when the nature of the noise is unknown, so for example a false-alarm spectr

    Read more →
  • Information architecture

    Information architecture

    Information architecture is the structural design of shared information environments, in particular the organisation of websites and software to support usability and findability. The term information architecture was coined by Richard Saul Wurman. Since its inception, information architecture has become an emerging community of practice focused on applying principles of design, architecture and information science in digital spaces. Typically, a model or concept of information is used and applied to activities which require explicit details of complex information systems. These activities include library systems and database development. == Definition == The term information architecture has different meanings in different branches of information systems or information technology. === User experience === In user experience design, information architecture has been described as the structural design of shared information environments, comprising the study and practice of organising and labelling web sites, intranets, online communities, and software to support user experience, in particular, the findability and usability of information. It has also been described as an emerging community of practice focused on bringing principles of design and architecture to the digital landscape. === Information systems === Technically speaking, information architecture comprises the combination of organization, labeling, search and navigation systems within websites and intranets, serving as a navigational aid to the content of information-rich systems. === Data architecture === Information architecture can be described as a subset of data architecture where usable data is constructed, designed, and arranged in a fashion most useful to the users of data. === Systems design === In the field of systems design, for example, information architecture is a component of enterprise architecture that deals with the information component when describing the structure of an enterprise. Some system design practitioners regard information architecture as strictly the application of information science to web design, which considers such issues as classification and information retrieval, and not factors like user experience and information design. == Principles == Principles of information architecture include the following: The principle of objects The principle of choices The principle of disclosure The principle of exemplars The principle of front doors The principle of multiple classification The principle of focused navigation The principle of growth == History == Richard Saul Wurman is credited with coining the term information architecture in relation to the design of information. From 1998 to 2015, Peter Morville and Louis Rosenfeld were co-authors of Information Architecture for the World Wide Web. Other authors include Jesse James Garrett and Christina Wodtke.

    Read more →
  • Rejoyn

    Rejoyn

    Rejoyn is a prescription-only digital therapeutic smartphone app approved by the US FDA for the treatment of major depressive disorder (MDD) in adults ages 22 and up. It is prescribed in conjunction with standard antidepressant medication and professional guidance and support. Rejoyn was developed by Click Therapeutics and Otsuka America Pharmaceutical Inc., and gained FDA clearance as a "medical device" on March 30th, 2024. The smartphone app helps patients with depression using exercises based on cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) along with timed notifications to keep the patient engaged and in treatment. Randomized controlled trials showed that the Rejoyn app was more effective at relieving depression symptoms compared to a "sham app", a placebo app that required similar effort but was not intended to be helpful. Dr. John Torous, MD, MBI,[a] a psychiatrist at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston, said that the app seems to pose minimal risks, and is an important step forward in unlocking the power of smartphones in treating psychiatric disorders. Some experts have signaled that the claims should be taken with caution, since the app was "tested only in a narrow subset of patients." and its benefits are "not statistically significant," according to the study’s primary outcome."

    Read more →
  • Exploratory search

    Exploratory search

    Exploratory search is a specialization of information exploration which represents the activities carried out by searchers who are: unfamiliar with the domain of their goal (i.e. need to learn about the topic in order to understand how to achieve their goal) or unsure about the ways to achieve their goals (either the technology or the process) or unsure about their goals in the first place. Exploratory search is distinguished from known-item search, for which the searcher has a particular target in mind. Consequently, exploratory search covers a broader class of activities than typical information retrieval, such as investigating, evaluating, comparing, and synthesizing, where new information is sought in a defined conceptual area; exploratory data analysis is another example of an information exploration activity. Typically, therefore, such users generally combine querying and browsing strategies to foster learning and investigation. == History == Exploratory search is a topic that has grown from the fields of information retrieval and information seeking but has become more concerned with alternatives to the kind of search that has received the majority of focus (returning the most relevant documents to a Google-like keyword search). The research is motivated by questions like "What if the user doesn't know which keywords to use?" or "What if the user isn't looking for a single answer?" Consequently, research has begun to focus on defining the broader set of information behaviors in order to learn about the situations when a user is, or feels, limited by only having the ability to perform a keyword search. In the last few years, a series of workshops has been held at various related and key events. In 2005, the Exploratory Search Interfaces workshop focused on beginning to define some of the key challenges in the field. Since then a series of other workshops has been held at related conferences: Evaluating Exploratory Search at SIGIR06 and Exploratory Search and HCI at CHI07 (in order to meet with the experts in human–computer interaction). In March 2008, an Information Processing and Management special issue focused particularly on the challenges of evaluating exploratory search, given the reduced assumptions that can be made about scenarios of use. In June 2008, the National Science Foundation sponsored an invitational workshop to identify a research agenda for exploratory search and similar fields for the coming years. == Research challenges == === Important scenarios === With the majority of research in the information retrieval community focusing on typical keyword search scenarios, one challenge for exploratory search is to further understand the scenarios of use for when keyword search is not sufficient. An example scenario, often used to motivate the research by mSpace, states: if a user does not know much about classical music, how should they even begin to find a piece that they might like. Similarly, for patients or their carers, if they don't know the right keywords for their health problems, how can they effectively find useful health information for themselves? === Designing new interfaces === With one of the motivations being to support users when keyword search is not enough, some research has focused on identifying alternative user interfaces and interaction models that support the user in different ways. An example is faceted search which presents diverse category-style options to the users, so that they can choose from a list instead of guess a possible keyword query. Many of the interactive forms of search, including faceted browsers, are being considered for their support of exploratory search conditions. Computational cognitive models of exploratory search have been developed to capture the cognitive complexities involved in exploratory search. Model-based dynamic presentation of information cues are proposed to facilitate exploratory search performance. === Evaluating interfaces === As the tasks and goals involved with exploratory search are largely undefined or unpredictable, it is very hard to evaluate systems with the measures often used in information retrieval. Accuracy was typically used to show that a user had found a correct answer, but when the user is trying to summarize a domain of information, the correct answer is near impossible to identify, if not entirely subjective (for example: possible hotels to stay in Paris). In exploration, it is also arguable that spending more time (where time efficiency is typically desirable) researching a topic shows that a system provides increased support for investigation. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, giving study participants a well specified task could immediately prevent them from exhibiting exploratory behavior. === Models of exploratory search behavior === There have been recent attempts to develop a process model of exploratory search behavior, especially in social information system (e.g., see models of collaborative tagging. The process model assumes that user-generated information cues, such as social tags, can act as navigational cues that facilitate exploration of information that others have found and shared with other users on a social information system (such as social bookmarking system). These models provided extension to existing process model of information search that characterizes information-seeking behavior in traditional fact-retrievals using search engines. Recent development in exploratory search is often concentrated in predicting users' search intents in interaction with the user. Such predictive user modeling, also referred as intent modeling, can help users to get accustomed to a body of domain knowledge and help users to make sense of the potential directions to be explored around their initial, often vague, expression of information needs. == Major figures == Key figures, including experts from both information seeking and human–computer interaction, are: Marcia Bates Nicholas Belkin Gary Marchionini m.c. schraefel Ryen W. White

    Read more →
  • TurboQuant

    TurboQuant

    TurboQuant is an online vector quantization algorithm for compressing high-dimensional Euclidean vectors while preserving their geometric structure. It was proposed in 2025 by Amir Zandieh, Majid Daliri, Majid Hadian, and Vahab Mirrokni in the paper TurboQuant: Online Vector Quantization with Near-optimal Distortion Rate. The paper lists Zandieh and Mirrokni as affiliated with Google Research, Daliri with New York University, and Hadian with Google DeepMind. The method was developed for applications including large language model (LLM) inference, key–value (KV) cache compression, vector databases, and nearest neighbor search. TurboQuant consists of two related algorithms: TurboQuantmse, which is optimized for mean squared error (MSE), and TurboQuantprod, which is optimized for unbiased inner product estimation. The algorithm uses a random rotation of input vectors, applies scalar quantizers to the rotated coordinates, and, for inner-product estimation, applies a one-bit Quantized Johnson–Lindenstrauss (QJL) transform to the residual error. == Background == Vector quantization is a compression method that maps high-dimensional vectors to a finite set of codewords. The problem has roots in Shannon's source coding theory and rate–distortion theory. In machine learning and information retrieval, vector quantization is used to reduce the memory required to store embeddings, activation vectors, and other numerical representations. In Transformer-based large language models, the KV cache stores key and value vectors from previous tokens during autoregressive decoding. The size of this cache grows with context length, the number of attention heads, and the number of concurrent requests, making it a major memory bottleneck in LLM serving. Similar compression problems appear in vector search, where large collections of embedding vectors must be stored and searched efficiently. Earlier approaches to vector quantization include product quantization, scalar quantization, and data-dependent k-means codebook construction. The TurboQuant paper argues that many existing methods either require offline preprocessing and calibration or suffer from suboptimal distortion guarantees in online settings. == Algorithm == === TurboQuantmse === TurboQuantmse is the version of the algorithm optimized for mean-squared error. For a unit vector x ∈ S d − 1 {\displaystyle x\in S^{d-1}} , the algorithm first applies a random rotation matrix Π ∈ R d × d {\displaystyle \Pi \in \mathbb {R} ^{d\times d}} and sets z = Π x {\displaystyle z=\Pi x} . Each coordinate of the rotated vector follows a shifted and scaled beta distribution, which converges to a normal distribution in high dimensions. In high dimensions, distinct coordinates also become nearly independent, allowing the algorithm to apply scalar quantizers independently to each coordinate. The scalar quantizer is constructed by solving a one-dimensional continuous k-means or Lloyd–Max quantization problem. If the centroids are c 1 , c 2 , … , c 2 b {\displaystyle c_{1},c_{2},\ldots ,c_{2^{b}}} , the quantization step stores, for each coordinate, i d x j = ⁡ a r g m i n k ∈ [ 2 b ] | z j − c k | . {\displaystyle \mathrm {idx} _{j}=\operatorname {} {arg\,min}_{k\in [2^{b}]}|z_{j}-c_{k}|.} During dequantization, the stored index for each coordinate is replaced by the corresponding centroid, giving a reconstructed rotated vector z ~ {\displaystyle {\tilde {z}}} . The algorithm then rotates back: x ~ = Π ⊤ z ~ . {\displaystyle {\tilde {x}}=\Pi ^{\top }{\tilde {z}}.} The paper gives the following bound for TurboQuantmse: D m s e ≤ 3 π 2 ⋅ 1 4 b . {\displaystyle D_{\mathrm {mse} }\leq {\frac {\sqrt {3\pi }}{2}}\cdot {\frac {1}{4^{b}}}.} It also reports finer-grained MSE values of approximately 0.36, 0.117, 0.03, and 0.009 for bit-widths b = 1 , 2 , 3 , 4 {\displaystyle b=1,2,3,4} , respectively. === TurboQuantprod === TurboQuantprod is optimized for unbiased inner-product estimation. The authors note that an MSE-optimized quantizer may introduce bias when used to estimate inner products. To address this, TurboQuantprod first applies TurboQuantmse with bit-width b − 1 {\displaystyle b-1} , then applies a one-bit Quantized Johnson–Lindenstrauss transform to the remaining residual vector. Let r = x − Q m s e − 1 ( Q m s e ( x ) ) {\displaystyle r=x-Q_{\mathrm {mse} }^{-1}(Q_{\mathrm {mse} }(x))} be the residual after MSE quantization, and let γ = ‖ r ‖ 2 {\displaystyle \gamma =\|r\|_{2}} . The QJL step stores a sign vector for the residual. For γ ≠ 0 {\displaystyle \gamma \neq 0} , this can be written using the normalized residual u = r / γ {\displaystyle u=r/\gamma } : q j l = sign ⁡ ( S u ) , {\displaystyle qjl=\operatorname {sign} (Su),} where S ∈ R d × d {\displaystyle S\in \mathbb {R} ^{d\times d}} is a random projection matrix. Since the sign function is invariant under positive rescaling, this is equivalent to sign ⁡ ( S r ) {\displaystyle \operatorname {sign} (Sr)} when r ≠ 0 {\displaystyle r\neq 0} . If γ = 0 {\displaystyle \gamma =0} , the residual correction is zero. TurboQuantprod stores the MSE quantization, the QJL sign vector, and the residual norm: Q p r o d ( x ) = [ Q m s e ( x ) , q j l , γ ] . {\displaystyle Q_{\mathrm {prod} }(x)=\left[Q_{\mathrm {mse} }(x),qjl,\gamma \right].} The dequantized vector is reconstructed as x ~ = x ~ m s e + π / 2 d γ S ⊤ q j l . {\displaystyle {\tilde {x}}={\tilde {x}}_{\mathrm {mse} }+{\frac {\sqrt {\pi /2}}{d}}\,\gamma S^{\top }qjl.} The paper proves that TurboQuantprod is unbiased for inner-product estimation: E x ~ [ ⟨ y , x ~ ⟩ ] = ⟨ y , x ⟩ . {\displaystyle \mathbb {E} _{\tilde {x}}\left[\langle y,{\tilde {x}}\rangle \right]=\langle y,x\rangle .} It also gives the distortion bound D p r o d ≤ 3 π 2 ⋅ ‖ y ‖ 2 2 d ⋅ 1 4 b . {\displaystyle D_{\mathrm {prod} }\leq {\frac {\sqrt {3\pi }}{2}}\cdot {\frac {\|y\|_{2}^{2}}{d}}\cdot {\frac {1}{4^{b}}}.} == Performance and applications == The TurboQuant paper reports that the algorithm achieves near-optimal distortion rates within a small constant factor of information-theoretic lower bounds. The authors report that, for KV cache quantization, TurboQuant achieved quality neutrality at 3.5 bits per channel and marginal degradation at 2.5 bits per channel. In long-context LLM experiments using Llama 3.1 8B Instruct, the paper evaluated the method on a "needle-in-a-haystack" retrieval task with document lengths from 4,000 to 104,000 tokens. It reported that TurboQuant matched the uncompressed full-precision baseline while using more than 4× compression, and compared the method against PolarQuant, SnapKV, PyramidKV, and KIVI. Google Research stated that TurboQuant was evaluated on long-context benchmarks including LongBench, Needle in a Haystack, ZeroSCROLLS, RULER, and L-Eval using open-source models including Gemma and Mistral. According to a report in Tom's Hardware, Google described the method as reducing KV-cache memory by at least six times and achieving up to an eightfold improvement in attention-logit computation on Nvidia H100 GPUs compared with unquantized 32-bit keys. TurboQuant has also been applied to nearest-neighbor vector search. The original paper reports experiments on DBpedia entity embeddings and GloVe embeddings, comparing TurboQuant with product quantization and other vector-search quantization baselines. == Relationship to other methods == TurboQuant is related to several methods for efficient large language model inference and high-dimensional search: Product quantization – a vector quantization technique widely used for approximate nearest-neighbor search Quantization (machine learning) – reducing the numerical precision of weights, activations, or cached tensors in machine learning models PagedAttention – a memory-management algorithm for LLM serving that reduces fragmentation in the KV cache Johnson–Lindenstrauss lemma – a result in high-dimensional geometry used in random projection methods Lloyd's algorithm – an algorithm for scalar and vector quantization, including k-means-style codebook construction Unlike PagedAttention, which focuses on memory allocation and cache layout, TurboQuant reduces the numerical storage cost of the vectors themselves. Unlike many product-quantization methods, TurboQuant is designed to be data-oblivious and online, avoiding dataset-specific codebook training. == Limitations == The strongest performance claims for TurboQuant come from the original paper and Google Research's own publication. Coverage in technology media has noted that the broader impact of the method will depend on real-world implementation details, workloads, and hardware architectures.

    Read more →