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Elastomer-powered bug-bots could pave way for futuristic applications

CAMBRIDGE, Mass.—Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers have reported a potentially significant advance with the development of microdrones, equipped with wings powered by artificial muscles in the form of elastomer-based actuators.

The development, claims MIT, could pave the way for futuristic applications, for example, swarms of the insect-sized robots that pollinate fields of crops or search for survivors buried in collapsed buildings.

Key to the innovation is a novel fabrication technique that builds actuators with a hugely extended component lifespan and increases the robot’s performance and payload compared to existing models.

Report: 69% of enterprises embrace quantum computing

Sixty-nine percent of global enterprises have already adopted or plan to adopt quantum computing in the near term, according to a new survey of enterprise leaders commissioned by Zapata Computing. The findings suggest that quantum computing is quickly moving from the fringes and becoming a priority for enterprise digital transformation, as 74% of enterprise leaders surveyed agreed that those who fail to adopt quantum computing will fall behind.

Broken down further, 29% of enterprises worldwide are now early adopters of quantum technology, while another 40% plan to follow in their footsteps in the near future. Adoption thus far is highest in the transportation sector, where 63% of respondents reported being in the early stages of quantum adoption. This may be a reaction to the ongoing supply chain crisis, which quantum could help relieve through its potential to solve complex optimization problems common in shipping and logistics.

Among early adopters, 12% expect to achieve a competitive advantage with the technology within one year, while another 41% expect an advantage within two years. The findings suggest confidence among enterprise leaders that quantum computing is no longer a distant reality, but a near-term opportunity. Machine learning in particular was cited as the top near-term use case for quantum computing.

Rise of the machines: China’s struggling industries embrace automation

The pace of replacing humans with robots in industries across China has been accelerating rapidly in the past couple of years, with observations on the ground suggesting that most industrial robotics and intelligent-manufacturing integrated service companies had at least doubled their annual sales in 2021.


Pandemic-led manufacturing export boom, concerns over China’s rapidly ageing society and a desire to save money have all contributed to the trend of replacing workers with machines.

Age Expert Answers Aging Questions From Twitter | Tech Support

I’ve posted some vids of her before. But here she says at 3:52 that she thinks stopping the aging process is farfetched.


Dr. Morgan Levine, a professor who specializes in the biology of aging, answers the internet’s burning questions about aging. Is there anyway to stop aging? Is aging a disease? Do you age slower in space? Dr. Levine answers all these questions and much more!

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Meet BAGO: A Seatbelt for Bags Can Help You Concentrate on the Road

It also shows you care for content in the bag.

In this age of technology, where everything connects to the cloud or needs an app, it takes a simple bit of engineering to stand out. A seatbelt for bags while you drive around like there’s no tomorrow, as reported by Gizmodo, clearly fits into this category.

The best place to put a bag of groceries or even take-out food when you are driving alone is the passenger seat, right next to you. Not only can you keep an eye on it while you drive, but it is also unlikely that you will forget it in the car and have to make a trip back to retrieve it later.

However, bags that tend to get greasy or leak out some liquid do not deserve a seat of honor and are put where they belong, on the floor. If you are with me so far, then you surely wouldn’t mind shelling out 22 dollars to get your hands on BAGO, a harness that secures the bag there.

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Can Humans Teach Robots To Think Like Us?

Although robots are more than capable today of carrying out all kinds of business tasks efficiently and accurately, the concept of building machines that can think like humans has always been a dream for tech companies and smart city developers. However, the actual way in which the human mind works and processes information is up for debate, with several parties having conflicting opinions regarding the same. Once enough data is generated, simulation models can be created to build software that can think along the same rational or emotional lines as humans. Human thinking is generally influenced by a variety of factors—cognitive, behavioral, geometric, kinematic and physical. Using cognitive modeling, such factors can be considered while attempting to create robots that think and behave like humans.

The concept of human thinking is still too vague to be accurately replicated in robots. Even then, multiple types of approaches could be taken to reach the ideal end result—enabling AI and robotic tools to think like humans.

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Teaching robots to think like humans may be the next frontier for tech developers and researchers involved in the ongoing development of technologies such as AI and robotics.

Why Do Machine Learning Models Die In Silence?

What is concept drift?

Concept drift occurs when there are changes in the distribution of the training set examples.

At the most basic level, concept drift causes data points that were once considered an example of one concept to be seen as another concept entirely over time.

For instance, fraud detection models are at risk for concept drift when the concept of fraud is constantly changing.

This can cause model performance to degrade, especially over extended periods where concept drift continues to occur without being detected by your monitoring systems.


A critical problem for companies when integrating machine learning in their business processes is not knowing why they don’t perform well after a while. The reason is called concept drift. Here’s an informational guide to understanding the concept well.

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