Man vs. Machine: DeepMind’s New Robot Serves up a Table Tennis Triumph
Benj Edwards | Ars Technica
“On Wednesday, researchers at Google DeepMind revealed the primary AI-powered robotic desk tennis participant able to competing at an beginner human degree. The system combines an industrial robotic arm referred to as the ABB IRB 1100 and customized AI software program from DeepMind. Whereas an skilled human participant can nonetheless defeat the bot, the system demonstrates the potential for machines to grasp complicated bodily duties that require split-second decision-making and flexibility.”
Engineered Virus Steals Proteins From HIV, Pointing to New Therapy
Carl Zimmer | The New York Occasions
“Scientists have developed a brand new weapon towards HIV: a molecular mimic that invades a cell and steals important proteins from the virus. A examine revealed in Science on Thursday reported that this viral thief prevented HIV from multiplying inside monkeys. The brand new therapeutic strategy will quickly be examined in folks, the scientists mentioned.”
OpenAI Warns Users Could Become Emotionally Hooked on Its Voice Mode
Will Knight and Reece Rogers | Wired
“In the course of the pink teaming, or stress testing, of GPT-4o, for example, OpenAI researchers seen cases of speech from customers that conveyed a way of emotional reference to the mannequin. For instance, folks used language comparable to ‘That is our final day collectively.’ Anthropomorphism may trigger customers to put extra belief within the output of a mannequin when it ‘hallucinates’ incorrect info, OpenAI says. Over time, it’d even have an effect on customers’ relationships with different folks.”
Figure 02 Robot Is a Sleeker, Smarter Humanoid
Evan Ackerman | IEEE Spectrum
“This factor seems slick. I’d say that it’s possibly a bit of too far on the sinister facet for a robotic meant to work round people, however the industrial design is badass and the packaging is great, with the overwhelming majority of the wiring now built-in inside the robotic’s skins and versatile supplies masking joints which are usually left naked.”
More Than Half of All New Cars Sold in China Last Month Were Electric Vehicles
William Gavin | Quartz
“Gross sales of what China calls new vitality autos (NEVs)—any autos that largely use or are completely depending on electrical energy for his or her operation—elevated by 37% year-over-year in July, in response to information from the China Passenger Automobile Affiliation (CPCA). Because of that progress, and an total lower in gross sales on the planet’s largest auto market, NEVs accounted for 50.7% of recent automotive gross sales final month. That’s a serious soar in comparison with gross sales simply three years in the past, when NEVs made up simply 7% of total car gross sales in China.”
Breaking Down the Tech Giants’ AI Spending Surge
Nate Rattner | The Wall Road Journal
“Massive know-how firms deepened their commitments to artificial-intelligence efforts within the newest quarter, pouring billions of {dollars} into capital-spending initiatives and telling traders extra is on the best way. In earnings statements over the previous two weeks, Amazon, Microsoft, Fb dad or mum Meta Platforms, and Google dad or mum Alphabet every reported jumps in purchases of property and gear, a measure of capital spending. For all however Meta, the most recent quarterly determine was the very best in years.”
Watch a Video Showing What Happens in Our Brains When We Think
Jessica Hamzelou | MIT Expertise Overview
“On this video, which I’ve transformed to a GIF, you may see the sample {of electrical} exercise within the man’s mind as he recites numbers. Every dot represents the voltage sensed by an electrode on the array on the person’s mind, over a area concerned in speech. …The video has been slowed down 20-fold, as a result of ‘ideas occur quicker than the attention can see,’ says Rapoport.”
The Search for Alien Life Just Hit a Depressing Setback
Adam Kovac | Gizmodo
“The seek for alien life simply obtained a bit extra sophisticated. Crimson dwarfs, younger and dim stars thought by many astronomers to be the almost definitely hosts for life-sustaining planets, include a big disadvantage: They continuously emit lethal ultraviolet radiation flares, that are way more highly effective than astronomers beforehand thought.”
Quantum Cryptography Has Everyone Scrambling
Margo Anderson | IEEE Spectrum
“Whereas the know-how world awaits NIST’s newest ‘post-quantum’ cryptography requirements this summer time, a parallel effort is underway to additionally develop cryptosystems which are grounded in quantum know-how—what are referred to as quantum-key distribution or QKD programs. Because of this, India, China, and a variety of know-how organizations within the European Union and United States are researching and creating QKD and weighing requirements for the nascent cryptography various.”
Californians Are Getting Apple Wallet Drivers Licenses This Year
Florence Ion | Gizmodo
“My family has a saying that anytime we go away for the skin world, we must always have ‘keys, pockets, telephone.’ It helps remind us of the fundamentals that must be in hand earlier than the door will get locked from the skin. Should you’re in California, you may sit up for reducing down the checklist to 2 easy gadgets: keys and a telephone. A leak reveals that official digital California drivers licenses and identification playing cards are coming to Apple Pockets.”
Picture Credit score: Norbert Kowalczyk / Unsplash
