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Category: robotics/AI – Page 287

An Entire Book Was Written in DNA—and You Can Buy It for $60

As the rate of humanity’s data creation increases exponentially with the rise of AI, scientists have been interested in DNA as a way to store digital information. After all, DNA is nature’s way of storing data. It encodes genetic information and determines the blueprint of every living thing on earth.

And DNA is at least 1,000 times more compact than solid-state hard drives. To demonstrate just how compact, researchers have previously encoded all of Shakespeare’s 154 sonnets, 52 pages of Mozart’s music, and an episode of the Netflix show “Biohackers” into tiny amounts of DNA.

But these were research projects or media stunts. DNA data storage isn’t exactly mainstream yet, but it might be getting closer. Now you can buy what may be the first commercially available book written in DNA. Today, Asimov Press debuted an anthology of biotechnology essays and science fiction stories encoded in strands of DNA. For $60, you can get a physical copy of the book plus the nucleic acid version—a metal capsule filled with dried DNA.

Large language models outperform experts in predicting neuroscience discoveries

Large language models surpass human experts in predicting neuroscience results, according to a study published in Nature Human Behaviour.

Scientific research is increasingly challenging due to the immense growth in published literature. Integrating noisy and voluminous findings to predict outcomes often exceeds human capacity. This investigation was motivated by the growing role of artificial intelligence in tasks such as protein folding and drug discovery, raising the question of whether LLMs could similarly enhance fields like neuroscience.

Xiaoliang Luo and colleagues developed BrainBench, a benchmark designed to test whether LLMs could predict the results of neuroscience studies more accurately than human experts. BrainBench included 200 test cases based on neuroscience research abstracts. Each test case consisted of two versions of the same abstract: one was the original, and the other had a modified result that changed the study’s conclusion but kept the rest of the abstract coherent. Participants—both LLMs and human experts—were tasked with identifying which version was correct.

Artificial imagination with the ‘exocortex:’ Researcher proposes software to aid scientific inspiration and imagination

Artificial intelligence (AI) once seemed like a fantastical construct of science fiction, enabling characters to deploy spacecraft to neighboring galaxies with a casual command. Humanoid AIs even served as companions to otherwise lonely characters. Now, in the very real 21st century, AI is becoming part of everyday life, with tools like chatbots available and useful for everyday tasks like answering questions, improving writing, and solving mathematical equations.

AI does, however, have the potential to revolutionize —in ways that can feel like but are within reach.

At the U.S. Department of Energy’s (DOE) Brookhaven National Laboratory, scientists are already using AI to automate experiments and discover new materials. They’re even designing an AI scientific companion that communicates in ordinary language and helps conduct experiments. Kevin Yager, the Electronic Nanomaterials Group leader at the Center for Functional Nanomaterials (CFN), has articulated an overarching vision for the role of AI in scientific research.

New AI-based antitoxins achieve 100% survival against cobra venom

Snakebites affect 1.8 to 2.7 million people annually, causing around 100,000 deaths and three times as many permanent disabilities, according to the World Health Organization. Victims are predominantly in regions with fragile healthcare systems, such as Africa, Asia, and Latin America. Traditional antivenoms derived from animal plasma come with significant drawbacks: high costs, limited efficacy, and serious side effects.

The diversity of snake venoms further complicates treatment, as current antivenoms often target specific species. However, advances in toxin research and computational tools are now driving a new era in snakebite therapy.

Baker’s team, in collaboration with Timothy Patrick Jenkins from Denmark’s Technical University (DTU), harnessed AI to design proteins that bind to and neutralize three-finger toxins—among the deadliest components of cobra venom. These toxins are notorious for evading the immune system, rendering conventional treatments ineffective.

Replit CEO on AI breakthroughs: ‘We don’t care about professional coders anymore’

“We don’t care about professional coders anymore,” Masad said.

“Yet it has grown its revenue five-fold over the past six months, Masad said, thanks to a breakthrough in artificial-intelligence capabilities that enabled a new product called ” Agent,” a tool that can write a working software application with nothing but a natural language prompt.

Amjad Masad talks about their new AI developments that will allow anyone to code naturally.

2025: Agentic And Physical AI — A Multitrillion Dollar Economy Emerges

The age of agentic AI has arrived. Spanning the virtual and physical realms, we stand at a pivotal moment where human ingenuity will be amplified by intelligent machines. This convergence of agentic AI, intelligent software agents capable of independent learning. actions and tasks, with physical AI, encompassing robots and machines interacting with the physical world, is poised to fundamentally reshape the global economic landscape.

We are entering a new era where individuals and businesses will interact with and manage a network of AI agents.

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