Lifeboat Foundation

Google built an AI that monitors the amount of idling at intersections to help city planners cut congestion and reduce air pollution. Now it’s working in 70 intersections.

Researchers have developed an easy-to-use optical chip that can configure itself to achieve various functions. The positive real-valued matrix computation they have achieved gives the chip the potential to be used in applications requiring optical neural networks. Optical neural networks can be used for a variety of data-heavy tasks such as image classification, gesture interpretation and speech recognition.

Photonic integrated circuits that can be reconfigured after manufacturing to perform different functions have been developed previously. However, they tend to be difficult to configure because the user needs to understand the internal structure and principles of the chip and individually adjust its basic units.

“Our new chip can be treated as a black box, meaning users don’t need to understand its internal structure to change its function,” said research team leader Jianji Dong from Huazhong University of Science and Technology in China. “They only need to set a training objective, and, with computer control, the chip will self-configure to achieve the desired functionality based on the input and output.”

Speech production is a complex neural phenomenon that has left researchers explaining it tongue-tied. Separating out the complex web of neural regions controlling precise muscle movement in the mouth, jaw and tongue with the regions processing the auditory feedback of hearing your own voice is a complex problem, and one that has to be overcome for the next generation of speech-producing protheses.

Now, a team of researchers from New York University have made key discoveries that help untangle that web, and are using it to build vocal reconstruction technology that recreates the voices of patients who have lost their ability to speak.

The team, co-led by Adeen Flinker, Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering at NYU Tandon and Neurology at NYU Grossman School of Medicine, and Yao Wang, Professor of Biomedical Engineering and Electrical and Computer Engineering at NYU Tandon, as well as a member of NYU WIRELESS, created and used complex neural networks to recreate speech from brain recordings, and then used that recreation to analyze the processes that drive human speech.

In a recent publication in EPJ Quantum Technology, Le Bin Ho from Tohoku University’s Frontier Institute for Interdisciplinary Sciences has developed a technique called time-dependent stochastic parameter shift in the realm of quantum computing and quantum machine learning. This breakthrough method revolutionizes the estimation of gradients or derivatives of functions, a crucial step in many computational tasks.

Typically, computing derivatives requires dissecting the function and calculating the rate of change over a small interval. But even classical computers cannot keep dividing indefinitely. In contrast, quantum computers can accomplish this task without having to discrete the function. This feature is achievable because quantum computers operate in a realm known as “quantum space,” characterized by periodicity, and no need for endless subdivisions.

One way to illustrate this concept is by comparing the sizes of two elementary schools on a map. To do this, one might print out maps of the schools and then cut them into smaller pieces. After cutting, these pieces can be arranged into a line, with their total length compared (see Figure 1a). However, the pieces may not form a perfect rectangle, leading to inaccuracies. An infinite subdivision would be required to minimize these errors, an impractical solution, even for classical computers.

From VR at the Las Vegas Sphere to AI trained on synthetic children’s stories, check out this week’s awesome tech stories from around the web.

On Monday, Waymo announced on X that it’s expanding its city-wide, fully autonomous robotaxi service to thousands more riders in San Francisco.

The company had been testing a service area of nearly the whole city (around 47 square miles) with employees and, later, a group of test riders. But most people using the service were precluded from riding in the city’s dense northeast corner, an area including Fisherman’s Wharf, the Embarcadero, and Chinatown.

Now, the full San Francisco service area will be available to all current Waymo One users—amounting to tens of thousands of people, according to TechCrunch. While it’s a significant increase, not just anyone can use Waymo in SF yet. The company has been growing the service by admitting new riders from a waitlist that numbered 100,000 in June.

From the vast expanse of galaxies that paint our night skies to the intricate neural networks within our brains, everything we know and see can trace its origins back to a singular moment: the Big Bang. It’s a concept that has not only reshaped our understanding of the universe but also offers profound insights into the interconnectedness of all existence.

Imagine, if you will, the entire universe compressed into an infinitesimally small point. This is not a realm of science fiction but the reality of our cosmic beginnings. Around 13.8 billion years ago, a singular explosion gave birth to time, space, matter, and energy. And in that magnificent burst of creation, the seeds for everything — galaxies, stars, planets, and even us — were sown.

But what if the Big Bang was not just a physical event? What if it also marked the birth of a universal consciousness? A consciousness that binds every particle, every star, and every living being in a cosmic tapestry of shared experience and memory.

AI pioneer Geoffrey Hinton quit his job at Google to warn about the risks of artificial intelligence. AI could outsmart humans in “five years’ time,” he says.

Given these perks, it’s no wonder scientists have tried recreating skin in the lab. Artificial skin could, for example, cover robots or prosthetics to give them the ability to “feel” temperature, touch, or even heal when damaged.

It could also be a lifesaver. The skin’s self-healing powers have limits. People who suffer from severe burns often need a skin transplant taken from another body part. While effective, the procedure is painful and increases the chances of infection. In some cases, there might not be enough undamaged skin left. A similar dilemma haunts soldiers wounded in battle or those with inherited skin disorders.

Recreating all the skin’s superpowers is tough, to say the least. But last week, a team from Wake Forest University took a large step towards artificial skin that heals large wounds when transplanted into mice and pigs.