Artificial Intelligence
Google DeepMind’s New AI Agent Uses Large Language Models to Crack Real-World ProblemsWill Douglas Heaven | MIT Technology Review
“Google DeepMind has as soon as once more used giant language fashions to find new options to long-standing issues in math and pc science. This time the agency has proven that its method can’t solely sort out unsolved theoretical puzzles, however enhance a variety of vital real-world processes as nicely.”
Biotechnology
This Baby Boy Was Treated With the First Personalized Gene-Editing DrugAntonio Regalado | MIT Technology Review
“Doctors say they constructed a bespoke gene-editing therapy in lower than seven months and used it to deal with a child with a lethal metabolic situation. The rapid-fire try and rewrite the kid’s DNA marks the primary time gene enhancing has been tailor-made to deal with a single particular person, based on a report printed within the New England Journal of Medicine.”
Energy
Renewable Power Reversing China’s Emissions GrowthJohn Timmer | Ars Technica
“This is not the primary time that China’s emissions have gone down over the course of a 12 months, however in all earlier circumstances the trigger was primarily financial—pushed by issues just like the COVID pandemic or the 2008 housing disaster. The newest shift, nevertheless, was pushed largely by the nation’s power sector, which noticed a 2 p.c decline in emissions over the previous 12 months.”
COMPUTING
Apple to Support Brain-Implant Control of Its DevicesRolfe Winkler | The Wall Street Journal
“The firm is taking early steps to allow individuals to manage their iPhones with neural alerts captured by a brand new technology of mind implants. It may make Apple gadgets extra accessible to tens of 1000’s of people that can’t use their arms due to extreme spinal wire accidents or illnesses corresponding to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS.”
Future
9 Federally Funded Scientific Breakthroughs That Changed EverythingAlan Burdick and Emily Anthes | The New York Times
“‘Basic analysis is the pacemaker of technological progress,’ Vannevar Bush, who laid out the postwar schema for presidency analysis assist, wrote in a 1945 report back to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Look no additional than Google, which received its begin in 1994 with a $4 million federal grant to assist construct digital libraries; the corporate is now a $2 trillion verb.”
Artificial Intelligence
Improvements in ‘Reasoning’ AI Models May Slow Down Soon, Analysis FindsKyle Wiggers | TechCrunch
“An evaluation by Epoch AI, a nonprofit AI analysis institute, suggests the AI business could not be capable to eke huge efficiency positive factors out of reasoning AI fashions for for much longer. As quickly as inside a 12 months, progress from reasoning fashions may decelerate, based on the report’s findings.”
Robotics
Forget Humanoids. At MIT, Worms and Turtles Are Inspiring a New Generation of RobotsIsabelle Bousquette | The Wall Street Journal
“Everyone is obsessive about humanoid robots proper now, however the director of MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory thinks tomorrow’s clever bodily machines could possibly be one thing radically totally different. Think tender and squishy robots, says Daniela Rus. Picture versatile robots, and even edible ones.”
For the First Time within the US, a Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine Takes FlightEric Berger | Ars Technica
“The idea has beforehand been examined in a handful of different international locations, however by no means with a high-thrust engine. ‘By proving this engine works past the lab, Venus brings the world nearer to a future the place hypersonic journey—traversing the globe in below two hours—turns into doable,’ Duggleby instructed Ars.”
Artificial Intelligence
Why We’re Unlikely to Get Artificial General Intelligence Anytime SoonCade Metz | The New York Times
“Humans know the right way to take care of a chaotic and continuously altering world. Machines battle to grasp the surprising—the challenges, each small and enormous, that don’t appear to be what has occurred up to now. …This is why Mr. Frosst and different skeptics say pushing machines to human-level intelligence would require at the very least one large concept that the world’s technologists haven’t but dreamed up.”
Future
How a New Type of AI Is Helping Police Skirt Facial Recognition BansJames O’Donnell | MIT Technology Review
“Police and federal companies have discovered a controversial new solution to skirt the rising patchwork of legal guidelines that curb how they use facial recognition: an AI mannequin that may monitor individuals utilizing attributes like physique dimension, gender, hair coloration and magnificence, clothes, and equipment.”
Future
‘We’re Definitely Going to Build a Bunker Before We Release AGI’Karen Hao | The Atlantic
“The drama [at OpenAI] highlighted some of the pressing questions of our technology: How will we govern synthetic intelligence? With AI on monitor to rewire an incredible many different essential capabilities in society, that query is absolutely asking: How will we be sure that we’ll make our future higher, not worse?”
Future
Your AI Radiologist Will Not Be With You SoonSteve Lohr | The New York Times
“‘People ought to cease coaching radiologists now,’ Geoffrey Hinton mentioned [in 2016], including that it was ‘simply utterly apparent’ that inside 5 years AI would outperform people in that area. Today, radiologists—the doctor specialists in medical imaging who look contained in the physique to diagnose and deal with illness—are nonetheless in excessive demand.”
New Spacecraft Aims to Police Satellites in OrbitTereza Pultarova | IEEE Spectrum
“The cell spacecraft idea presents a significant shift away from the old-school manner of doing issues in house, during which satellites keep easy orbits and attempt to keep away from each other. Soon, these easy satellites will probably be sorted—and presumably hunted by—extra agile spacecraft.”
Biotechnology
InventWood Is About to Mass-Produce Wood That’s Stronger Than SteelTim De Chant | TechCrunch
“The result’s a cloth that has 50% extra tensile power than metal with a strength-to-weight ratio that’s 10 occasions higher, the corporate mentioned. It’s additionally Class A fireplace rated, or extremely proof against flame, and proof against rot and pests.”