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Category: futurism – Page 355

There was a heavy dose of the future at the 2023 Japan Mobility Show

The latest trend in auto shows around the world is to convince us that they aren’t auto shows. The car show is out and the mobility show is in, and that means different things for different markets. The Frankfurt International Auto Show, for example, is now IAA Mobility; it has moved to Munich and features loads of bicycles. The Japan Motor Show is now the Japan Mobility Show, but instead of bicycles, it’s packed with surreal and sci-fi-ready ways to get you around, some of which are available now.

Here’s a look at the most interesting products from this year’s show.

Candidates, take this AI election pledge. Or 2024 might break us

New York Mayor Eric Adams doesn’t speak Spanish. But it sure sounds like he does. He’s been using artificial intelligence software to send prerecorded calls about city events to residents in Spanish, Mandarin Chinese, Urdu and Yiddish. The voice in the messages mimics the mayor but was generated with AI software from a company called ElevenLabs.

“People stop me on the street all the time and say, ‘I didn’t know you speak Mandarin,’” Adams said at a news conference this month.

Experts have warned for years that AI will change our democracy by distorting reality. That future is already here. AI is being used to fabricate voices, fundraising emails and “deepfake” images of events that never… More.

The first AI election is here. Our tech columnist proposes some ground rules for candidates’ use of artificial intelligence.

Shape-shifting fiber can produce morphing fabrics

MIT researchers have created FibeRobo, a liquid crystal elastomer (LCE) fiber that responds to cold or hot thermal stimuli.

Imagine a fiber that changes its shape when it gets warm and being able to use this fiber to make clothes that can quickly and silently change its shape.

Researchers at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Northeastern University have created FibeRobo, a liquid crystal elastomer (LCE) fiber that responds to cold or hot thermal stimuli.

FibeRobo is a liquid crystal elastomer fiber that can change its shape in response to thermal stimuli. Compatible with existing textile manufacturing machinery, it could be used to make morphing textiles, like a jacket that changes its insulating properties.

Green IT: AI chip with potential

Modern chips: many steps, low energy consumption.

These key requirements for a chip are summed up mathematically by the parameter TOPS/W: “tera-operations per second per watt”. This can be seen as the currency for the chips of the future. The question is how many trillion operations (TOP) a processor can perform per second (S) when provided with one watt wordpress of power. The new AI chip, developed in a collaboration between Bosch and Fraunhofer IMPS and supported in the production process by the US company GlobalFoundries, can deliver 885 TOPS/W. This makes it twice as powerful as comparable AI chips, including a MRAM chip by Samsung. CMOS chips, which are now commonly used, operate in the range of 10–20 TOPS/W. This is demonstrated in results recently published in Nature.

In-memory computing works like the human brain.

Exploiting Differences in Heme Biosynthesis between Bacterial Species to Screen for Novel Antimicrobials

Read now ➡️ by Laurie K. Jackson, et al.

Featured on the cover of Volume 12, Issue 7 (July 2022).

The article 👉

The issue 👉 https://t.ly/ROd3e

The final three steps of heme biogenesis exhibit notable differences between di-and mono-derm bacteria. The former employs the protoporphyrin-dependent (PPD) pathway, while the latter utilizes the more recently uncovered coproporphyrin-dependent (CPD) pathway. In order to devise a rapid screen for potential inhibitors that differentiate the two pathways, the genes associated with the protoporphyrin pathway in an Escherichia coli YFP strain were replaced with those for the CPD pathway from Staphylococcus aureus (SA) through a sliding modular gene replacement recombineering strategy to generate the E. coli strain Sa-CPD-YFP. Potential inhibitors that differentially target the pathways were identified by screening compound libraries against the YFP-producing Sa-CPD-YFP strain in comparison to a CFP-producing E. coli strain.

Exclusive: Ilya Sutskever, OpenAI’s chief scientist, on his hopes and fears for the future of AI

OpenAI’s CEO, Sam Altman, spent a good part of the summer on a weeks-long outreach tour, glad-handing politicians and speaking to packed auditoriums around the world. But Sutskever is much less of a public figure, and he doesn’t give a lot of interviews.

He is deliberate and methodical when he talks. There are long pauses when he thinks about what he wants to say and how to say it, turning questions over like puzzles he needs to solve. He does not seem interested in talking about himself. “I lead a very simple life,” he says. “I go to work; then I go home. I don’t do much else. There are a lot of social activities one could engage in, lots of events one could go to. Which I don’t.”

But when we talk about AI, and the epochal risks and rewards he sees down the line, vistas open up: “It’s going to be monumental, earth-shattering. There will be a before and an after.”