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In many ways, the future is unpredictable. A report by the World Economic Forum reveals that almost 65 percent of the jobs elementary school students will be doing in the future do not even exist yet. Combined with technological automation and the disappearance of traditional jobs, this leaves us with a critical question: how can we survive such a world?

The answer may be imagination.

Initially coined by Rita J. King, the imagination age is a theoretical period beyond the information age where creativity and imagination will become the primary creators of economic value. This is driven by technological trends like virtual reality and the rise of digital platforms like YouTube, all of which increase demand for user-generated content and creativity. It is also driven by automation, which will take away a lot of monotonous and routine jobs, leaving more higher-ordered and creative jobs.

Continue reading “How Technology Is Leading Us Into the Imagination Age” »

Embark’s self-driving semi-truck completed a test drive from California to Florida.

If you’ve ever tried to kill an interloping cockroach, you’ve probably noticed two things: they’re fast and nearly invincible. While those features make roaches terrifying to most people, it’s a source of bioinspiration for roboticists at the Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences (SEAS).

Continue reading “A cockroach-inspired robot” »

As a group, simple creatures following simple rules can display a surprising amount of complexity, efficiency, and even creativity. Known as swarm intelligence, this trait is found throughout nature, but researchers have recently begun using it to transform various fields such as robotics, data mining, medicine, and blockchains.

Ants, for example, can only perform a limited range of functions, but an ant colony can build bridges, create superhighways of food and information, wage war, and enslave other ant species—all of which are beyond the comprehension of any single ant. Likewise, schools of fish, flocks of birds, beehives, and other species exhibit behavior indicative of planning by a higher intelligence that doesn’t actually exist.

Continue reading “How Swarm Intelligence Is Making Simple Tech Much Smarter” »

The AI boom offers Chinese chipmakers a chance to catch up after years of lagging behind.

Desktop Metal’s new software lets regular people design objects optimized for 3D printing, no experience required.

The news: Desktop Metal’s new LiveParts is a piece of software that automatically generates designs of objects ready for 3D printing. Users just tell it the structural constraints of the object they’re building, and it uses biology-inspired AI models to quickly generate a design suited to additive manufacturing.

Better components: The software ensures that parts take advantage of 3D printing’s capabilities. “This would enable weight reductions between 25 and 60 percent of many kinds of general-purpose parts,” says Desktop Metal CEO Ric Fulop, “while spreading loads more evenly and improving fatigue resistance.”

Continue reading “This AI software dreams up new designs for 3D-printed parts before your eyes” »

February 21st Dr. Oliver Medvedik is hosting a special AI vs Aging Livestream here on our Facebook page. Anastasia Georgievskaya, Alex Zhavoronkov, and guests will be taking part in this special panel focusing on AI in aging research.

Ask your questions about AI in research on the thread here and we will try to include them in the show.

Lightweight muscle-bot has the strength-to-weight ratio of a newborn lifting an SUV.