Associate Professor Qing Zhong shared insights on AI breakthroughs in proteomics and multiomics, challenges in data sharing and his vision for a high-resolution lens on biology that could redefine science and healthcare.
Category: robotics/AI – Page 208
MIT engineers help multirobot systems stay in the safety zone
Drone show accidents highlight the challenges of maintaining safety in what engineers call “multiagent systems” — systems of multiple coordinated, collaborative, and computer-programmed agents, such as robots, drones, and self-driving cars.
Now, a team of MIT engineers has developed a training method for multiagent systems that can guarantee their safe operation in crowded environments. The researchers found that once the method is used to train a small number of agents, the safety margins and controls learned by those agents can automatically scale to any larger number of agents, in a way that ensures the safety of the system as a whole.
Watch China’s 4-legged ‘Black Panther 2.0’ robot run as fast as Usain Bolt
Researchers in China have developed a unique running stance for their four-legged robot, which allows it to move at far greater speeds than similar machines.
Sam Altman Says OpenAI Will Adopt AI Approaches From DeepSeek And Meta
In today’s AI news, When rivals take a different approach and succeed, it sometimes pays to change course. This is what Sam Altman said OpenAI will do, according to a Reddit AMA session on Friday. Altman was asked about DeepSeek, which has taken the tech world by storm after rolling out top-performing AI models that are relatively cheap to use.
Then, Andreessen Horowitz general partner and Mistral board member Anjney “Anj” Midha first spied DeepSeek’s jaw-dropping performance six months ago. That’s when DeepSeek introduced Coder V2, which rivaled OpenAI’s GPT4-Turbo for coding-specific tasks, according to a paper it released last year.
S V3 and R1 models. These efforts “achieved significant bypass rates, with little to no specialized knowledge or expertise being necessary.” ‘ + And, MLCommons, a nonprofit AI safety working group, has teamed up with AI dev platform Hugging Face to release one of the world’s largest collections of public domain voice recordings for AI research. The dataset, called Unsupervised People’s Speech, contains more than a million hours of audio spanning at least 89 languages.
In videos, in this episode of “How To Build The Future,” YC President and CEO Garry Tan sits down with Bob to discuss the lessons learned from his time at OpenAI, scaling laws, his advice for startups, and what all of this means for the jobs of the future.
Then, “Maybe I Got Carried Away” is an experimental short film that fuses playful visuals with a surreal narrative. It was created by [@panaviscope](https://www.youtube.com/@panaviscope) using Sora generated shots. The story follows a protagonist who begins releasing vibrant balloons into the sky as a personal act of rebellion against her city’s monotony.
Meanwhile, Shashank Dogra breaks down AI Agents in the simplest way possible. AI Agents: The Future of Business & Technology Agents are the new apps. In the near future, we expect to see thousands of AI agents transforming the way businesses operate.
We close out with NVIDIA Developer showing how DeepSeek-R1 model is packaged as NVIDIA NIM microservice delivers superior throughput performance and can be easily deployed on any GPU-accelerated system with standard API. Get started now at build.nvidia.com.
Wandering Salamanders Stick to Tree Canopies Thanks to Their Blood-Powered Toes
Wandering salamanders are known for gliding high through the canopies of coastal redwood forests, but how the small amphibians stick their landing and take-off with ease remains something of a mystery.
A new study in the Journal of Morphology reveals the answer may have a lot to do with a surprising mechanism: blood-powered toes. The Washington State University-led research team discovered that wandering salamanders (Aneides vagrans) can rapidly fill, trap and drain the blood in their toe tips to optimize attachment, detachment and general locomotion through their arboreal environment.
The research not only uncovers a previously unknown physiological mechanism in salamanders but also has implications for bioinspired designed. Insights into salamander toe mechanics could ultimately inform the development of adhesives, prosthetics, and even robotic appendages.
Atlas, the Iconic Boston Dynamics Robot, Now Functions Entirely on Its Own
Boston Dynamics’ Atlas robot has long been admired for its impressive agility, often performing feats that seem to defy the limits of humanoid robotics. But now, Atlas has reached a new milestone in its evolution—autonomy. Thanks to advancements in both hardware and software, Atlas is no longer just a display of physical prowess. It can now complete tasks independently, operating without the need for pre-programmed movements or human control.
Since its unveiling in 2013, Atlas has undergone continuous improvements, transforming from a partially hydraulic machine to a fully electrified robot. This change alone marked a significant shift in its capabilities, providing better efficiency and flexibility. However, it’s not just about the hardware—Atlas now boasts the ability to think on its feet. A recent demonstration showcased the robot’s impressive ability to move objects autonomously. In the video, Atlas was given a list of locations where it needed to place engine parts. With this simple instruction, the robot set to work, moving the pieces with remarkable fluidity and precision.
This isn’t just about lifting heavy objects. Atlas has been designed to navigate and adapt to changing environments. The use of machine learning has strengthened its ability to perceive and interact with the world around it. Through enhanced vision systems, Atlas can analyze its surroundings and adjust its actions accordingly. For example, when it encountered difficulty in placing one of the parts, Atlas immediately recalibrated its movements, showing an impressive level of adaptability.
AI combined with holograms creates an uncrackable optical encryption system
As the demand for digital security grows, researchers have developed a new optical system that uses holograms to encode information, creating a level of encryption that traditional methods cannot penetrate. This advance could pave the way for more secure communication channels, helping to protect sensitive data.
“From rapidly evolving digital currencies to governance, health care, communications and social networks, the demand for robust protection systems to combat digital fraud continues to grow,” said research team leader Stelios Tzortzakis from the Institute of Electronic Structure and Laser, Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas and the University of Crete, both in Greece.
“Our new system achieves an exceptional level of encryption by utilizing a neural network to generate the decryption key, which can only be created by the owner of the encryption system.”