[Established in 2009 by GlaxoSmithKline and Pfizer, ViiV Healthcare is “a specialist pharmaceutical company 100% dedicated to HIV medicines and research and focused on people living with HIV and AIDS.” The company’s Head of Digital Innovation and Implementation Science is leading the development of a series of 360-degree videos for healthcare providers to view in virtual reality so that they’ll better understand what it’s like to be a patient dealing with the stigma of having HIV and learn how to avoid contributing to the stress and discomfort the stigma causes. A ViiV story about the project from August 29, 2024 is…

[In a startling but predictable development, the advancement of technologies that evoke a variety of forms of social presence are making it increasingly difficult or impossible to distinguish interactions with humans from interactions with technology. Though the prospects are daunting, several initiatives are underway to develop countermeasures, as described in this story from MIT Technology Review. –Matthew] [Image: Credit: Stephanie Arnett/MIT Technology Review | Adobe Stock] How “personhood credentials” could help prove you’re a human online A system proposed by researchers from MIT, OpenAI, Microsoft and others could curb the use of deceptive AI by exploiting the technology’s weaknesses By…

[The study described in this story from the U of T News describes work being done at the University of Toronto on how using current presence-evoking technologies alters our interactions in the non-mediated world, with important implications for training (e.g., of surgeons, pilots, drivers, etc.). See the original version of the story for a second image. –Matthew] [Image: Research associate Xiaoye Michael Wang fits a VR display onto study participant Colin Dolynski Credit: Molly Brillinger] Virtual and augmented reality can temporarily change the way people perceive distances: Study ‘We wanted to understand if the way our brains and bodies adapt…