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Category: robotics/AI – Page 1,264

Scientists unveil plan to create biocomputers powered by human brain cells + interview with Prof Thomas Hartung (senior author of the paper)

Despite AI’s impressive track record, its computational power pales in comparison with that of the human brain. Scientists unveil a revolutionary path to drive computing forward: organoid intelligence (OI), where lab-grown brain organoids serve as biological hardware. “This new field of biocomputing promises unprecedented advances in computing speed, processing power, data efficiency, and storage capabilities – all with lower energy needs,” say the authors in an article published in Frontiers in Science.

Artificial intelligence (AI) has long been inspired by the human brain. This approach proved highly successful: AI boasts impressive achievements – from diagnosing medical conditions to composing poetry. Still, the original model continues to outperform machines in many ways. This is why, for example, we can ‘prove our humanity’ with trivial image tests online. What if instead of trying to make AI more brain-like, we went straight to the source?

Threat level AI: NSA encourages use of AI to keep up with foreign adversaries

The intelligence community is mulling over how AI can pose a threat to national security.

The world is captivated by the rise of artificial intelligence (AI) tools like ChatGPT. And they have proved their worth in providing human-like answers to complex questions or even writing a research paper. While there are issues like ‘hallucination’ or grabbing and spouting out incorrect information from the internet, nations are concerned with a more significant issue when it comes to AI.

The intelligence agencies are now mulling over how AI can pose a threat to national security.

MysteryShot/iStock.

The intelligence agencies are now mulling over how AI can pose a threat to national security. In a recent interview with Bloomberg, a top U.S. spy official said intelligence agencies should use commercially available AI to keep up with foreign adversaries because their opponents will be doing the same.

BacterAI: New AI system enables robots to conduct 10,000 scientific experiments a day

Artificial intelligence-powered BacterAI accurately predicts the necessary amino acid combinations for growth 90% of the time.

A group of scientists has created a system powered by artificial intelligence (AI) that enables robots to conduct as many as 10,000 scientific experiments independently in a single day.

The AI system, named BacterAI, could significantly accelerate the pace of discovery in a range of fields such as medicine, agriculture, and environmental science. In a recent research study released in Nature Microbiology, the team successfully utilized BacterAI to map the metabolic processes of two microbes linked with oral health.

This startup uses AI to design EV batteries that are 300% better

A startup called Chemix is using AI to move faster. Inside a San Francisco Bay Area lab, glowing machines—which look a little like servers in a data center—physically test different battery chemistries. Then the company’s software platform, called Mix, uses the data to help design new versions for testing, speeding up the cycle of iteration.

“It’s suggesting new molecules for us to test on a daily basis,” says cofounder and CEO Kaixiang Lin, who previously worked on battery design as a doctoral student at Harvard, a postdoc at Stanford, and at another battery startup. “We call it battery R&D on autopilot, because there’s very little human intervention in this process.”

It takes the system about six months, he says, to design new batteries that can beat the performance of existing batteries on the market by an average of 300%.

Qualcomm to acquire Israeli auto-chip maker Autotalks

May 8 (Reuters) — Chip designer Qualcomm Inc (QCOM.O) said on Monday it would buy Israel’s Autotalks Ltd that makes chips used in technology aimed at preventing vehicle crashes, as the U.S. firm looks to deepen its automotive business.

With increasing electric vehicles and automatic features in cars, the number of chips used by automakers is surging, making the automotive market a key growth area for chipmakers.

Autotalks makes dedicated chips used in the vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications technology for manned and driverless vehicles to improve road safety.

Generative AI Helps Design New Proteins

Proteins are made from chains of amino acids that fold into three-dimensional shapes, which in turn dictate protein function. Those shapes evolved over billions of years and are varied and complex, but also limited in number. With a better understanding of how existing proteins fold, researchers have begun to design folding patterns not produced in nature.

But a major challenge, says Kim, has been to imagine folds that are both possible and functional. “It’s been very hard to predict which folds will be real and work in a protein structure,” says Kim, who is also a professor in the departments of molecular genetics and computer science at U of T. “By combining biophysics-based representations of protein structure with diffusion methods from the image generation space, we can begin to address this problem.”

The new system, which the researchers call ProteinSGM, draws from a large set of image-like representations of existing proteins that encode their structure accurately. The researchers feed these images into a generative diffusion model, which gradually adds noise until each image becomes all noise. The model tracks how the images become noisier and then runs the process in reverse, learning how to transform random pixels into clear images that correspond to fully novel proteins.

From science fiction to reality: Xenobots are redefining biotechnology

The xenobot had been predicted to be a valuable tool in medicine and other fields. It is expected not only to help treat cancer but keep the aquatic bodies clean.

Ever imagined a world where we could utilize the power of a living cell to carry out certain functions? Just like we have robots that help in several aspects of our lives, some scientists in US universities have come up with a living robot known as the xenobot.

The xenobot had been predicted to be a valuable tool in medicine and other fields. In years to come, it wouldn’t only help treat cancer, but it would help keep the aquatic bodies clean.

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