Lifeboat Foundation

A giant 18-wheel transport truck is barreling down a multi-lane Texas highway, and there is no one behind the wheel.

The futuristic idea may seem surreal, but it is being tested in this vast southern US state, which has become the epicenter of a rapidly developing self-driving vehicle industry.

Before driverless trucks are allowed onto roads and highways, however, multiple tests must still be conducted to ensure they are safe.

Samsung, the world’s biggest memory chip maker, has announced that it has become the first in the world to demonstrate the MRAM (Magnetoresistive Random Access Memory) technology for in-memory computing. The company’s paper on its innovation, titled ‘A crossbar array of magnetoresistive memory devices for in-memory computing,’ was published by Nature on its website, and its print edition is coming next.

The research was a collaboration between SAIT (Samsung Advanced Institute of Technology), Samsung Foundry, and Samsung Semiconductor R&D. Dr. Seungchul Jung (Staff Researcher at SAIT), Dr. Donhee Ham (Fellow of SAIT and Professor of Harvard University), and Dr. Sang Joon Kim (Vice President of Technology at SAIT) worked on the research.

Usually, data is stored in memory chips (DRAM) and processed by a CPU or an AP (Application Processor). However, data storage and computing happen on the same chip with in-memory computing. Since there is no need to transfer data from memory to the processor and vice versa, a lot of time is saved. Data processing inside the memory happens in a highly parallel manner, resulting in substantial power savings. Samsung claims that MRAM technology will be great for things like AI processing.

Artificial intelligence and machine learning are currently affecting our lives in many small but impactful ways. For example, AI and machine learning applications recommend entertainment we might enjoy through streaming services such as Netflix and Spotify.

In the near future, it’s predicted that these technologies will have an even larger impact on society through activities such as driving fully autonomous vehicles, enabling complex scientific research and facilitating medical discoveries.

But the computers used for AI and machine learning demand a lot of energy. Currently, the need for computing power related to these technologies is doubling roughly every three to four months. And cloud computing data centers used by AI and machine learning applications worldwide are already devouring more electrical power per year than some small countries. It’s easy to see that this level of energy consumption is unsustainable.

I propose an underlying process which constitutes our intelligence as human beings, and argue that our current AI systems fundamentally lack it.

Sources:
John Vervaeke, Timothy P. Lillicrap, Blake A. Richards — Relevance Realization and the Emerging Framework in Cognitive Science http://www.ipsi.utoronto.ca/sdis/Relevance-Published.pdf.
Daniel Dennnett — Cognitive Wheels: The Frame Problem of AI https://folk.idi.ntnu.no/gamback/teaching/TDT4138/dennett84.pdf.
Francisco J. Varela, Eleanor Rosch and Evan Thompson — The Embodied Mind: Cognitive Science and Human Experience.

Continue reading “What Artificial Intelligence is Missing” »

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They are.

The cyborgs are upon us. Turns out, they’re more ‘enhanced reality’ and less ‘science fiction.’

In 1998, Professor of Cybernetics Kevin Warwick had a chip implanted in his body that would open electronic doors and turn on lights as he passed. In 2002, he had a 100 electrode array wired into the nervous system of his arm to allow him to remotely control an artificial hand. Today, he’s working on using animal brain cells as a control system for robots.

Continue reading “The Cyborg Revolution: Are They Here Yet?” »

And it looks like a big yak.

China’s state media, the Global Times, claims the country has developed the world’s largest electric-powered quadruped bionic robot. And to be honest, that thing looks just like a yak.

Bizarre appearances aside, this comes as the latest in China’s push to become a global leader in robotics by 2025. And also, of course, in military tech.… See more.

Continue reading “China’s New Electric Quadruped Robot Could Be the Largest in the World” »

Made from the stem cells of a frog, are tiny living machines. And researchers have just debuted version 2.0.

Digital Twins are virtual models of the physical world. They use the Internet of Things, artificial intelligence and complex data in models that create insights and support (real-time) decision making. It is perhaps healthcare that holds the greatest potential for Digital Twins.