【推荐1】You may think that creativity and artistic judgment are what sets humans apart from artificial intelligence (AI). Robots will be washing our windows long before they start creating masterpieces Right?

Not necessarily. At Amper Music (www.ampermusic.com), you can make the music you want based on mood, instrument, speed and length. You click “Render,” and boom! There’s your original piece, not only composed (作曲) but also “performed” and “mixed” by AI software.

But something has kept bothering me: What happens in a world where effort and scarcity (稀缺) are no longer part of the definition of art? A mass-produced print of the Mona Lisa is worth less than the actual Leonardo painting. Why? Scarcity—there’s only one of the original. But Amper turns. professional-quality original piece of music every time you click “Render.” It puts us in a strange world where works of art are unique but require almost zero human effort to produce. Should anyone pay for these things? And if an artist puts AI masterpieces up for sale, what should the price be?

That’s not just a thought experiment either. Soon the question “What’s the value of AI artwork and music?” will start impacting flesh—and—blood consumers. It has already, in fact.

Earlier, reporters discovered something suspicious (可疑的) about many playlists of Spotify—another online music service. According to the report, the composers and bands who wrote the songs appeared to be nonexistent. These playlists have names like Peaceful Piano and Ambient Chill—exactly the kind of music AI software is good at.

Is Spotify using software to compose music to avoid paying fees to human musicians? The New York Times reported that the tracks with false names have been played 500 million times, which would ordinarily have cost Spotify $3 million in payments.

But Spotify has firmly denied that the tracks in question were created by “fake” artists to avoid payments: while posted under pennames, they were written by actual people receiving actual money for work that they own. But the broader issue remains. Why couldn’t Spotify, or any music service, start using AI to produce free music to save itself money? Automation (自动化) is beginning to replace millions of human taxi drivers, truck drivers and fast-food workers. Why should artists and musicians be an exception to the same economics?

Should there be anything in place—a union, a law---to stop that from happening? Or will we always value human-produced art and music more than machine-made stuff? Once we’ve answered those questions, we can settle the really big one: When an AI—composed song wins the Grammy, who will be awarded?

【推荐3】Growing up,we are constantly reminded that young people are heavily affected by technology.We are the”antisocial club”，those who prefer to text our friends in the same room rather than make eye contact with them.And even though never-ending studies reveal to us the extent of our social media addiction,we should at least consider that it’s not only our young people’s problem any more.

There’s the rise of the Instagram mums,who like to post an abundance of cute baby pictures,share their mom feelings along the way and show their wonderful lifestyles.They are the so-called”Facebook mum generation”，a growing group of parents that like to overshare.

While all of this might be fine,and even a little humorous,new research suggests that parents’ technology addiction is negatively affecting their children’s behavior.According to the study,40%of mothers and 32%of fathers have admitted having some sort of phone addiction. This has led to a significant fall in verbal interactions within families and even a decline in mothers’ encouraging their children.

There is no denying that I get annoyed when receiving the words”I’ll be with you soon” from a parent,when all I want to do is ask one question.But,at the same time,every day leaving the room to wait until my father is finished with his”serious business”(Farmville),has now become the norm.Whether you want to escape your disturbing children for a bit,or want to stay up late flicking through Twitter,know that wanting to do all of these is normal.We-your children-know how addictive it can be and how difficult it is to switch off.But before telling us to put our phones away at the table or even worse,listing statistics of how damaging social media can be for us,maybe lead by example,considering how much time you spend on the phone and how this is impacting your children and your relationship with us.Maybe in this way we can work on our addiction together.

【推荐1】Using a headset at home to deliver a low electrical current to the brain can relieve symptoms of depression. The approach, called transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS), is effective when used several times a week for half an hour at a time.

Previous trials have shown that the treatment works under medical supervision in a clinic or lab. Now, a randomized trial has demonstrated that a tDCS headset can also reduce depression symptoms when worn at home. Depression is usually treated with talking therapies (治疗) or by taking antidepressant medicines, but these don’t help everyone.

Several forms of electrical brain stimulation may have the potential to treat depression. With tDCS, sponge electrodes (海绵电极) are placed on the left and right sides of the forehead, causing a mild current to flow from the left to the right. This makes brain cells on the left side more likely to fire, with some studies suggesting that activity in this region, known as the left is low in people with depression.

Repeated sessions of stimulation may lead to longer-term changes in the brain cells, increasing their activity levels, says team member Cynthia Fu at the University of East London. Affecting activity in this region probably changes activity in multiple areas, she says.

To see if people can benefit from using such a device at home, Fu and her colleagues tested a tDCS headset made by Swedish firm Flow Neuroscience. The team randomly assigned 174 people with moderate or severe depression to receive either a full session of stimulation from the Flow headset or stimulation from the same device that lasted just a few seconds, so people felt their skin tingling (刺痛), at the start and end of each session.

While the depression symptoms of both groups improved on a 52-point scale, those who got the real treatment showed the most benefit. Those who got the real stimulation were more likely to report skin redness and anger, however, and two people experienced burns from using sponges that had dried out.

The results may get such headsets taken more seriously by doctors, says Nick Davis at Manchester Metropolitan University, UK. “This feels really positive.” he says.