Robotics
Invasion of the Home Humanoid RobotsCade Metz | The New York Instances
“Synthetic intelligence is already driving vehicles, writing essays and even writing laptop code. Now, humanoids, machines constructed to seem like people and powered by AI, are poised to maneuver into our properties to allow them to assist with the each day chores.”
Robotics
Roomba Creator Says Humanoid Robots Are OverhypedRocket Drew | The Info
“‘We’ve hardly began on humanoid hype,’ [Rodney] Brooks stated. ‘It’s going to go worse and worse and worse.’ Humanoid robots are enthralling as a result of individuals can think about them doing the whole lot a human can do, Brooks stated, however they nonetheless wrestle with primary expertise similar to strolling, falling, and coordinating a number of physique elements to govern an object.”
Computing
A 32-Bit Processor Made With an Atomically Thin SemiconductorJohn Timmer | Ars Technica
“The authors argue that it is most likely some of the subtle bits of ‘past silicon’ {hardware} but applied. That stated, they do not anticipate this know-how to exchange silicon; as a substitute, they view it as doubtlessly filling some area of interest wants, like ultra-low-power processing for easy sensors. But when the know-how continues to advance, the scope of its potential makes use of could broaden past that.”
Computing
World’s Smallest LED Pixels Squeeze Into Astounding 127,000-PPI DisplayMichael Irving | New Atlas
“Scientists in China have created a brand new sort of show with the smallest pixels and the very best pixel density ever. Particular person pixels had been shrunk to 90 nanometers—concerning the measurement of a virus—and a file 127,000 of them had been crammed into each inch of a show.”
Biotechnology
Alphabet-Backed Isomorphic Labs Raises $600 Million for AI Drug DevelopmentHelena Smolak | The Wall Avenue Journal
“‘This funding will additional turbocharge the event of our next-generation AI drug design engine, assist us advance our personal applications into medical growth, and is a big step ahead in direction of our mission of at some point fixing all illness with the assistance of AI,’ Chief Government Officer Demis Hassabis, who can also be the top of Google’s AI division DeepMind, stated.”
Robotics
The Hypershell Exoskeleton Is So Good at Climbing Cliffs, It Ruined My WorkoutKyle Barr | Gizmodo
“The Hypershell is a tool made for helping your walks, runs, bikes, or hikes. In a rarity for bizarre tech, the climbing exoskeleton accomplishes almost the whole lot it guarantees to. It does its job so nicely, and it left me devoid of the train and that sense of calm I usually get from my hikes.”
Why Everything in the Universe Turns More ComplexPhilip Ball | Quanta Journal
“[The researchers] have proposed nothing lower than a brand new legislation of nature, in line with which the complexity of entities within the universe will increase over time with an inexorability similar to the second legislation of thermodynamics—the legislation that dictates an inevitable rise in entropy, a measure of dysfunction. In the event that they’re proper, advanced and clever life needs to be widespread.”
Future
DeepMind Has Detailed All the Ways AGI Could Wreck the WorldRyan Whitwam | Ars Technica
“Whereas some within the AI area imagine AGI is a pipe dream, the authors of [a new] DeepMind paper undertaking that it might occur by 2030. With that in thoughts, they aimed to grasp the dangers of a human-like artificial intelligence, which they acknowledge might result in ‘extreme hurt.'”
Energy
The Hottest Thing in Clean EnergyAlexander C. Kaufman | The Atlantic
“For now, a lot of the efforts to debut next-generation geothermal know-how are nonetheless within the American West, the place drilling is comparatively low-cost and simple as a result of the rocks they’re concentrating on are nearer to the floor. But when the business can show to traders that its energy crops work as described—which consultants anticipate to occur by the top of the last decade—geothermal might broaden rapidly, similar to oil-and-gas fracking did.”
SpaceX Took a Big Step Toward Reusing Starship’s Super Heavy BoosterStephen Clark | Ars Technica
“This was the primary time SpaceX has test-fired a ‘flight-proven’ Tremendous Heavy booster, and it paves the best way for this specific rocket—designated Booster 14—to fly once more quickly. SpaceX confirmed a reflight of Booster 14, which beforehand launched and returned to Earth in January, will occur on subsequent Starship launch.”
Amazon Is Ready to Launch Its Starlink CompetitorThomas Ricker | The Verge
“The primary batch of 27 Challenge Kuiper area web satellites are scheduled to launch subsequent week. Amazon has secured 80 such launch missions that may every ship dozens of satellites into low earth orbit (LEO) to create a constellation able to competing with Elon Musk’s Starlink juggernaut. Amazon says it expects to start providing high-speed, low-latency web service ‘later this yr.'”
Bonobos’ Calls May Be the Closest Thing to Animal Language We’ve SeenJacek Krywko | Ars Technica
“A workforce of Swiss scientists led by Melissa Berthet, an evolutionary anthropologist on the College of Zurich, found bonobos can mix [vocal calls including peeps, hoots, yelps, grunts, and whistles] into bigger semantic buildings. In these communications, that means is one thing greater than only a sum of particular person calls—a trait often known as non-trivial compositionality, which we as soon as thought was uniquely human.”
Artificial Intelligence
DeepMind Is Holding Back Release of AI Research to Give Google an EdgeMelissa Heikkilä and Stephen Morris | Ars Technica
“Three former researchers stated the group was most reluctant to share papers that reveal improvements that might be exploited by opponents, or solid Google’s personal Gemini AI mannequin in a adverse mild in contrast with others. The adjustments symbolize a big shift for DeepMind, which has lengthy prided itself on its repute for releasing groundbreaking papers and as a house for the perfect scientists constructing AI.”