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Conclusion

The race is on to develop the hardware that will power the upcoming era of AI. More innovation is happening in the semiconductor industry today than at any time since Silicon Valley’s earliest days. Untold billions of dollars are in play.

This next generation of chips will shape the contours and trajectory of the field of artificial intelligence in the years ahead. In the words of Yann LeCun: “Hardware capabilities…motivate and limit the types of ideas that AI researchers will imagine and will allow themselves to pursue. The tools at our disposal fashion our thoughts more than we care to admit.”

Motion picture animation and video games are impressively lifelike nowadays, capturing a wisp of hair falling across a heroine’s eyes or a canvas sail snapping crisply in the wind. Collaborators from the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) and Carnegie Mellon University have adapted this sophisticated computer graphics technology to simulate the movements of soft, limbed robots for the first time.

Next-generation VTOL concepts are rising to meet the future needs of a modern-day battlefield.

Vertical take-off and landing (VTOL) concepts for unmanned aerial systems (UAS) certainly aren’t new. Their reconnaissance and intelligence-gathering roles date back to the 1950s, and there’s been a gradual path toward technological advancements in the decades since.

Reason has done a great video and article on AI facial recognition, surveillance, etc, and combined it with fashion ideas. It’s created by Zach Weissmueller and Justin Monticello. My interview (as well as others) show up throughout the 11 min video. This is really important watching for the coming future:


Privacy activists say we should be alarmed by the rise of automated facial recognition surveillance. Transhumanist Zoltan Istvan says it’s time to embrace the end of privacy as we know it.

Researchers from the University of Utah are developing a system that allows amputees to control a bionic arm using just their thoughts. What’s more, the hand portion of the limb enables them to ‘feel’ objects that are being touched or grasped. Known as the Luke Arm (a tribute to Luke Skywalker’s prosthetic limb), the robotic arm mimics the way a human hand feels different objects by sending signals to the brain. An amputee wearing the arm can sense how hard or soft an object is, letting them understand how best to handle said objects.