Artificial Intelligence
Google DeepMind’s New AI Agent Uses Large Language Models to Crack Real-World ProblemsWill Douglas Heaven | MIT Expertise Overview
“Google DeepMind has as soon as once more used giant language fashions to find new options to long-standing issues in math and laptop science. This time the agency has proven that its method can’t solely sort out unsolved theoretical puzzles, however enhance a spread of vital real-world processes as effectively.”
Biotechnology
This Baby Boy Was Treated With the First Personalized Gene-Editing DrugAntonio Regalado | MIT Expertise Overview
“Docs 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 to rewrite the kid’s DNA marks the primary time gene modifying has been tailor-made to deal with a single particular person, in accordance with a report printed within the New England Journal of Medication.”
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 yr, however in all earlier instances the trigger was primarily financial—pushed by issues just like the COVID pandemic or the 2008 housing disaster. The most recent shift, nonetheless, was pushed largely by the nation’s power sector, which noticed a 2 p.c decline in emissions over the previous yr.”
COMPUTING
Apple to Support Brain-Implant Control of Its DevicesRolfe Winkler | The Wall Avenue Journal
“The corporate 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 palms due to extreme spinal wire accidents or ailments equivalent to amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS.”
Future
9 Federally Funded Scientific Breakthroughs That Changed EverythingAlan Burdick and Emily Anthes | The New York Instances
“‘Fundamental analysis is the pacemaker of technological progress,’ Vannevar Bush, who laid out the postwar schema for presidency analysis help, wrote in a 1945 report back to President Franklin D. Roosevelt. Look no additional than Google, which acquired 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 have the ability to eke huge efficiency positive factors out of reasoning AI fashions for for much longer. As quickly as inside a yr, progress from reasoning fashions may decelerate, in accordance with the report’s findings.”
Robotics
Forget Humanoids. At MIT, Worms and Turtles Are Inspiring a New Generation of RobotsIsabelle Bousquette | The Wall Avenue Journal
“Everyone seems to be obsessive about humanoid robots proper now, however the director of MIT’s Pc Science and Synthetic Intelligence Laboratory thinks tomorrow’s clever bodily machines might be one thing radically totally different. Assume gentle and squishy robots, says Daniela Rus. Image versatile robots, and even edible ones.”
For the First Time in 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 underneath 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 Instances
“People know take care of a chaotic and continually altering world. Machines battle to grasp the surprising—the challenges, each small and enormous, that don’t seem like what has occurred up to now. …For this reason Mr. Frosst and different skeptics say pushing machines to human-level intelligence would require a minimum of one massive 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 Expertise Overview
“Police and federal companies have discovered a controversial new strategy 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 shade 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 one of the vital pressing questions of our technology: How will we govern synthetic intelligence? With AI on monitor to rewire a terrific many different essential capabilities in society, that query is actually asking: How will we be certain that we’ll make our future higher, not worse?”
Future
Your AI Radiologist Will Not Be With You SoonSteve Lohr | The New York Instances
“‘Individuals 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 discipline. At the moment, 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 cellular spacecraft idea presents a serious shift away from the old-school manner of doing issues in area, wherein satellites preserve easy orbits and attempt to keep away from each other. Quickly, these easy satellites shall be taken care of—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 fabric that has 50% extra tensile energy 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.”
