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 newbie human degree. The system combines an industrial robotic arm known 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 Remedy
Carl Zimmer | The New York Occasions
“Scientists have developed a brand new weapon in opposition to HIV: a molecular mimic that invades a cell and steals important proteins from the virus. A research revealed in Science on Thursday reported that this viral thief prevented HIV from multiplying inside monkeys. The brand new therapeutic method will quickly be examined in folks, the scientists mentioned.”
OpenAI Warns Customers May Change into Emotionally Hooked on Its Voice Mode
Will Knight and Reece Rogers | Wired
“Throughout the purple 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 reminiscent of ‘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 data, OpenAI says. Over time, it would even have an effect on customers’ relationships with different folks.”
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 possibly just a little too far on the sinister facet 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 inside the robotic’s skins and versatile supplies overlaying joints which might be sometimes left naked.”
Extra Than Half of All New Vehicles Offered in China Final Month Have been Electrical Autos
William Gavin | Quartz
“Gross sales of what China calls new power autos (NEVs)—any autos that principally use or are completely depending on electrical energy for his or her operation—elevated by 37% year-over-year in July, in line with knowledge from the China Passenger Automotive Affiliation (CPCA). Because of that progress, and an general lower in gross sales on the earth’s largest auto market, NEVs accounted for 50.7% of recent automobile gross sales final month. That’s a serious bounce in comparison with gross sales simply three years in the past, when NEVs made up simply 7% of general automobile gross sales in China.”
Breaking Down the Tech Giants’ AI Spending Surge
Nate Rattner | The Wall Avenue Journal
“Massive know-how firms deepened their commitments to artificial-intelligence efforts within the newest quarter, pouring billions of {dollars} into capital-spending tasks and telling buyers extra is on the best way. In earnings statements over the previous two weeks, Amazon, Microsoft, Fb guardian Meta Platforms, and Google guardian 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 best in years.”
Watch a Video Exhibiting What Occurs in Our Brains When We Assume
Jessica Hamzelou | MIT Expertise Overview
“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 quicker 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 more than likely hosts for life-sustaining planets, include a major downside: They often emit lethal ultraviolet radiation flares, that are rather 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 might be grounded in quantum know-how—what are known as quantum-key distribution or QKD techniques. Consequently, India, China, and a spread 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 Pockets Drivers Licenses This Yr
Florence Ion | Gizmodo
“My family has a saying that anytime we go away for the surface world, we should always have ‘keys, pockets, cellphone.’ It helps remind us of the fundamentals that needs to be in hand earlier than the door will get locked from the surface. If you happen to’re in California, you possibly can stay up for reducing down the listing to 2 easy gadgets: 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