High-Speed AI Drone Beats World-Champion Racers for the First Time
Benj Edwards | Ars Technica
“On Wednesday, a workforce of researchers from the College of Zürich and Intel introduced that they’ve developed an autonomous drone system named Swift that may beat human champions in first-person view (FPV) drone racing. Whereas AI has beforehand bested people in video games like chess, Go, and even StarCraft, this can be the primary time an AI system has outperformed human pilots in a bodily sport.”
‘Go Catch That Squirrel:’ Google AI Teaches a Robo-Dog Conversational Commands
Mack DeGeurin | Gizmodo
“What’s extra fascinating, [the researchers] famous, is SayTap’s capacity to ‘course of unstructured and imprecise directions.’ By simply offering the mannequin with a quick trace, the researchers had been capable of efficiently command the robotic canines to leap up and down when it was advised ‘we’re occurring a picnic.’ …In possibly the funniest instance, the canine even slowly backpedaled after being advised to get away from a squirrel. Many actual canine house owners would beg for that degree of obedience.”
A Biotech Company Says It Put Dopamine-Making Cells Into People’s Brains
Antonio Regalado | MIT Expertise Evaluate
“In an essential check for stem-cell drugs, a biotech firm says implants of lab-made neurons launched into the brains of 12 individuals with Parkinson’s illness look like protected and should have diminished signs for a few of them. …The examine is among the largest and costliest exams but of embryonic-stem-cell know-how, the controversial and much-hyped strategy of utilizing stem cells taken from IVF embryos to provide substitute tissue and physique elements.”
Are Self-Driving Cars Already Safer Than Human Drivers?
Timothy B. Lee | Ars Technica
“For this story, I learn by way of each crash report Waymo and Cruise filed in California this yr, in addition to experiences every firm filed concerning the efficiency of their driverless autos (with no security drivers) previous to 2023. …Human beings drive near 100 million miles between deadly crashes, so it is going to take tons of of thousands and thousands of driverless miles for one hundred pc certainty on this query. However the proof for better-than-human efficiency is beginning to pile up, particularly for Waymo.”
We Used AI to Write Essays for Harvard, Yale and Princeton. Here’s How It Went.
Natasha Singer | The New York Instances
“Whereas the chatbots will not be but nice at simulating long-form private essays with genuine scholar voices, I puzzled how the AI instruments would do on a number of the shorter essay questions that elite faculties like Harvard, Yale, Princeton, and Dartmouth are requiring highschool candidates to reply this yr. So I used a number of free instruments to generate quick essays for some Ivy League functions.”
INNOVATION
AI Startup Buzz Is Facing a Reality Check
Berber Jin | The Wall Avenue Journal
“Founders and enterprise capitalists who flocked to artificial-intelligence startups are studying that turning the chatbot buzz into profitable companies is more durable than it appears. Nearly a yr into the growth ignited by the November launch of ChatGPT, some startups that epitomized the zeal for so-called generative AI are actually navigating layoffs and diminished consumer curiosity. Buyers are uncertain whether or not the brand new crop of AI startups will be capable to survive, particularly as tech giants akin to Microsoft and Alphabet’s Google solidify their dominance over the know-how.”
Quantum Computer Reveals Chemical Reaction in 100-Billionth-Speed Slow-Mo
Michael Irving | New Atlas
“Utilizing a trapped-ion quantum laptop, the workforce mapped the issue onto a reasonably small quantum system, which allowed them to decelerate the method by an astonishing 100 billion instances. …’In nature, the entire course of is over inside femtoseconds,’ mentioned Vanessa Olaya Agudelo, co-lead creator of the examine. ‘Utilizing our quantum laptop, we constructed a system that allowed us to decelerate the chemical dynamics from femtoseconds to milliseconds. This allowed us to make significant observations and measurements. This has by no means been carried out earlier than.’i”
OpenAI’s Moonshot: Solving the AI Alignment Problem
Eliza Strickland | IEEE Spectrum
“In July, OpenAI introduced a brand new analysis program on ‘superalignment.’ This system has the bold purpose of fixing the toughest downside within the subject, generally known as AI alignment, by 2027, an effort to which OpenAI is dedicating 20 p.c of its whole computing energy. …One of many challenge’s leaders Jan] Leike spoke to IEEE Spectrum concerning the effort, which has the subgoal of constructing an aligned AI analysis instrument—to assist resolve the alignment downside.”
Solar-Panel-Covered Hybrid Truck Offers 3,000 to 6,000 Free Miles a Year
Mike Hanlon | New Atlas
“The preliminary 560-horsepower plug-in hybrid experimental truck has an 18-meter (59-foot) trailer that’s coated by 100 sq. meters (1,076 sq. toes) of photo voltaic panels, giving it the equal solar-surface space of a mean home geared up with equally highly effective 13.2-kilowatt-peak panels. The truck makes use of new, light-weight tandem photo voltaic cells, which are primarily based on a mixture of Midsummer’s photo voltaic cells and new perovskite photo voltaic cells, and generates an estimated 8,000 kWh yearly when operated in Sweden.”
The End of the Googleverse
Ryan Broderick | The Verge
“Google formally went on-line…in 1998. It shortly turned so inseparable from each the best way we use the web and, finally, tradition itself, that we nearly lack the language to explain what Google’s impression over the past 25 years has really been. It’s like asking a fish to clarify what the ocean is. And but, throughout us are indicators that the period of ‘peak Google’ is ending or, presumably, already over.”
Only 1,280 Reproductive Human Ancestors Once Roamed Earth, Gene Study Suggests
Isaac Schultz | Gizmodo
“An ancestral human species confronted a startling inhabitants bottleneck and teetered getting ready to extinction round 800,000 years in the past, in response to new analysis. [In an article commenting on the research, Nick Ashton, an archaeologist at the British Museum, and Chris Stringer, a paleoanthropologist at London’s Natural History Museum] wrote…’the provocative examine of Hu et al. brings the vulnerability of early human populations into focus, with the implication that our evolutionary lineage was practically eradicated.’”
Picture Credit score: Casey Horner / Unsplash
