Man vs. Machine: DeepMind’s New Robotic Serves up a Desk 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 known as the ABB IRB 1100 and customized AI software program from DeepMind. Whereas an professional 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 Remedy
Carl Zimmer | The New York Instances
“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 printed in Science on Thursday reported that this viral thief prevented HIV from multiplying within monkeys. The brand new therapeutic method will quickly be examined in individuals, the scientists mentioned.”
OpenAI Warns Customers May Change into Emotionally Hooked on Its Voice Mode
Will Knight and Reece Rogers | Wired
“Throughout the crimson teaming, or stress testing, of GPT-4o, as an example, OpenAI researchers seen situations of speech from customers that conveyed a way of emotional reference to the mannequin. For instance, individuals used language corresponding to ‘That is our final day collectively.’ Anthropomorphism would possibly 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 individuals.”
Determine 02 Robotic Is a Sleeker, Smarter Humanoid
Evan Ackerman | IEEE Spectrum
“This factor appears to be like slick. I’d say that it’s perhaps somewhat too far on the sinister aspect for a robotic supposed to work round people, however the industrial design is badass and the packaging is superb, with the overwhelming majority of the wiring now built-in throughout the robotic’s skins and versatile supplies masking joints which can be usually left naked.”
Extra Than Half of All New Automobiles Bought in China Final Month Have been Electrical Automobiles
William Gavin | Quartz
“Gross sales of what China calls new power 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, based on information from the China Passenger Automotive Affiliation (CPCA). Because of that progress, and an total lower in gross sales on the earth’s largest auto market, NEVs accounted for 50.7% of recent automotive gross sales final month. That’s a significant soar in comparison with gross sales simply three years in the past, when NEVs made up simply 7% of total automobile gross sales in China.”
Breaking Down the Tech Giants’ AI Spending Surge
Nate Rattner | The Wall Avenue Journal
“Massive know-how corporations 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 way in which. In earnings statements over the previous two weeks, Amazon, Microsoft, Fb mother or father Meta Platforms, and Google mother or father Alphabet every reported jumps in purchases of property and tools, a measure of capital spending. For all however Meta, the newest quarterly determine was the very best in years.”
Watch a Video Exhibiting What Occurs in Our Brains When We Suppose
Jessica Hamzelou | MIT Know-how Evaluate
“On this video, which I’ve transformed to a GIF, you possibly can 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 sooner than the attention can see,’ says Rapoport.”
The Seek for Alien Life Simply Hit a Miserable Setback
Adam Kovac | Gizmodo
“The seek for alien life simply acquired a bit extra sophisticated. Crimson dwarfs, younger and dim stars thought by many astronomers to be the most definitely hosts for life-sustaining planets, include a big downside: They continuously emit lethal ultraviolet radiation flares, that are far more highly effective than astronomers beforehand thought.”
Quantum Cryptography Has Everybody Scrambling
Margo Anderson | IEEE Spectrum
“Whereas the know-how world awaits NIST’s newest ‘post-quantum’ cryptography requirements this summer season, a parallel effort is underway to additionally develop cryptosystems which can be grounded in quantum know-how—what are known as quantum-key distribution or QKD techniques. 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 different.”
Californians Are Getting Apple Pockets Drivers Licenses This Yr
Florence Ion | Gizmodo
“My family has a saying that anytime we go away for the skin world, we must always have ‘keys, pockets, cellphone.’ It helps remind us of the fundamentals that ought to be in hand earlier than the door will get locked from the skin. Should you’re in California, you possibly can stay up for reducing down the checklist to 2 easy objects: keys and a cellphone. A leak reveals that official digital California drivers licenses and identification playing cards are coming to Apple Pockets.”
Picture Credit score: Norbert Kowalczyk / Unsplash
