Lifeboat Foundation

In an effort to make robots more effective and versatile teammates for Soldiers in combat, Army researchers are on a mission to understand the value of the molecular living functionality of muscle, and the fundamental mechanics that would need to be replicated in order to artificially achieve the capabilities arising from the proteins responsible for muscle contraction.

Bionanomotors, like myosins that move along actin networks, are responsible for most methods of motion in all life forms. Thus, the development of artificial nanomotors could be game-changing in the field of robotics research.

Researchers from the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command’s Army Research Laboratory have been looking to identify a design that would allow the artificial nanomotor to take advantage of Brownian motion, the property of particles to agitatedly move simply because they are warm.

Maybe interesting.

Few subjects in business and technology are causing as much interest and excitement – or fear and distrust – right now as artificial intelligence. Aalto Leaders’ Insight talked with Teemu Roos, Associate Professor at the Department of Computer Science, University of Helsinki, about a few common myths about AI.

Continue reading “5 + 1 Myths about Artificial Intelligence” »

An AI was trained on thousands of ancient Greek engravings to fill the gaps where there are missing or damaged words.

Learn about the breakthroughs in AI that are helping drones “think” for themselves.

Shortly after publishing a paper demonstrating how its artificial intelligence programs could generate viable lead compounds in just a few weeks, Insilico Medicine has signed a dual-program discovery collaboration with Jiangsu Chia Tai Fenghai Pharmaceutical worth up to $200 million.

Focused on previously undruggable targets in triple-negative breast cancer, the deal includes an upfront payment along with potential milestones and sales-based royalties pegged to any eventual products.

“We are very pleased to establish the partnership with Insilico Medicine, entering the new era of AI-enabled drug development,” Wenyu Xia, general manager of the China-based pharma company, said in a statement. “We look forward to a long-term partnership with Insilico Medicine.”

The research scientists’ warnings come amid rising concern about the power of the big tech companies. Most of the focus has been on the current generation of technology — search, online advertising, social media and e-commerce. But the scientists are worried about a barrier to exploring the technological future, when that requires staggering amounts of computing.

Each big step of progress in computing — from mainframe to personal computer to internet to smartphone — has opened opportunities for more people to invent on the digital frontier.

But there is growing concern that trend is being reversed at tech’s new leading edge, artificial intelligence.

Continue reading “At Tech’s Leading Edge, Worry About a Concentration of Power” »

Ishikawa Komuro Lab’s high-speed robot hand performing impressive acts of dexterity and skillful manipulation. For more information, see Hizook.com — https://youtu.be/redirect?q=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.hizook.com%2Fbl…cxMjg2MTI5

With the Skydio 2 Dock, a drone-in-a-box solution, the California startup wants to let companies rely on its obstacle-dodging, self-flying drone for automated mapping and surveillance — no humans needed.

Dr. Qingsong Zhu, the COO of Insilico Medicine, discussed the use of deep learning in creating biomarkers for aging. Initially discussing existing clocks and the problems with animal translation, he went on to discuss what sorts of markers are ideal for age-related research and the details of training and testing a model that works with these markers, showing that a deep model compares favorably to other models.

He also used his model to show that smoking does, in fact, cause accelerated aging.