✈️ Fairer airfare

If the ticket price drops after booking, Google might refund you

April 4, 2023

IN THIS ISSUE 🎓 New tool spots AI-generated text with 98% accuracy ✈️ Google's new flight booking tool refunds you if prices drop 🤖 Check out MIT's new four-legged soccer-playing robot 🚀 SpaceX could launch its huge new rocket next week

UP FIRST New anti-plagiarism tool can spot AI-generated text with 98% accuracy Some educators are excited about it. Others are concerned Plagiarism-detection service Turnitin is today launching a new feature that its maker claims can predict with 98% confidence if an essay was written by an AI-powered chatbot.   Turnitin has long been helping educators to check student work for plagiarism. But the new wave of advanced chatbots such as OpenAI's ChatGPT and Google's Bard are so good at writing complex passages of text that it presents the company – and teachers – with a brand new challenge.   "Turnitin's AI detector provides an evaluative measure of how many sentences in a written submission may have been generated by AI, which educators can use to determine if further review, inquiry, or discussion with the student is needed," the California-based company said.   But according to a Financial Times report, some educators are concerned that the tool may wrongly accuse students of using AI to write essays, potentially souring carefully nurtured student-teacher relationships and creating awkward situations.   And with AI-powered chatbots improving all the time, it will only become harder for products like Turnitin to accurately assess if an essay was created using the technology. Read more

AIR TRAVEL Google's new flight booking tool will refund you if the ticket price drops It's just a pilot program for now, but could roll out widely soon Airlines and travel firms are constantly adjusting the price of flight tickets, making it a big challenge when it comes to getting a good deal.   In a bid to make things a little easier, Google is testing a new online tool that promises a refund if the ticket price drops after you book it.   While Google Flights already shows if current prices are low, typical, or high compared to historical averages, it's now offering price guarantees for some flights departing the U.S.   It means that if you book a flight that carries Google's price guarantee badge and the ticket you book drops in price anytime after, it will refund you the difference via Google Pay.   Notably, Google will only attach the badge to flights for which it is "confident that the price you see today won't get any lower before takeoff," suggesting payouts may be few and far between, though, for the customer, this should mean they're getting the best deal available. Read more

IN CASE YOU MISSED IT Forget dancing or doing flips. MIT's 'DribbleBot' can play soccer Its creators say it might eventually aid search-and-rescue missions Researchers at MIT's Improbable Artificial Intelligence Lab, have created a dog-like robot capable of dribbling a soccer ball under the same conditions as humans.   DribbleBot's impressive ability may not be up to Lionel Messi standards, but a video showing off its skills is sure to impress.   To develop DribbleBot's skills, the team put a computer-generated robot, ball, and terrain inside a simulator to create a digital twin of the natural world, with subsequent tests giving the team masses of useful data in a short period.   The real-world DribbleBot uses the data, along with sensors and cameras, to help it keep a ball in play.   Reminiscent of Boston Dynamics' Spot robot, DribbleBot can also handle stairs and get back up after a fall.   And it's not just for fun, with the team hoping that as the robot becomes even more agile, it can be used for things like search-and-rescue missions, using its legs to cover challenging terrain with relative ease. Read more

ON THE HORIZON SpaceX could launch the world's most powerful rocket next week The rocket is almost twice as powerful as the current record holder We could be just days away from witnessing the maiden launch of the world's most powerful rocket, SpaceX's Super Heavy.   A new report has cited sources who said the long-awaited launch could take place as early as Monday, April 10.   Excitement about the event is building after SpaceX a few days ago moved the Super Heavy booster onto a launch mount at the pad in Boca Chica, Texas, paving the way for the arrival of the second stage Starship spacecraft, which will be placed on top.   The two vehicles have been stacked on the pad before, but it's thought that this time it's in preparation for launch.   It should be noted that SpaceX requires a launch permit from the Federal Aviation Administration, and "good progress" is reportedly being made toward this.   The upcoming uncrewed launch will see the Super Heavy produce about 17,000 pounds of thrust, almost double that of NASA's Space Launch System rocket, which four months ago became the most powerful rocket ever to fly.   NASA plans to use the Super Heavy and Starship for crewed missions to the moon and Mars. Read more

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