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Category: robotics/AI – Page 320

Inside dark world of AI abuse where men ‘hit’ replica ‘girlfriends’

As tech billionaires around the world continue to experiment with artificial intelligence, a bizarre trend of AI ‘partners’ has emerged whereby people engage in relationships with chatbots — but, far from solving an epidemic of loneliness among singletons, a dark new trend has emerged in which men can indulge in emotionally abusive behaviour.

Threads on Reddit are exposing this disturbing desire which sees people use smartphone apps like Replika to create virtual partners they can verbally berate, abuse, and ‘experiment’ with.

Replika allows people to send and receive messages from a virtual companion or avatar which can be ‘set’ or trained to become a friend or mentor — though more commonly a romantic partner.

Changhong, Other Chinese TV Makers Link TV Sets to DeepSeek Chatbot

Devices that leverage quantum mechanics effects, broadly referred to as quantum technologies, could help to tackle some real-world problems faster and more efficiently. In recent years, physicists and engineers have introduced various promising quantum technologies, including so-called quantum sensors.

Networks of quantum sensors could theoretically be used to measure specific parameters with remarkable precision. These networks leverage a quantum phenomenon known as entanglement, which entails a sustained connection between particles, which allows them to instantly share information with each other, even at a distance.

While quantum sensor networks (QSNs) could have various advantageous real-world applications, their effective deployment also relies on the ability to ensure that the information shared between sensors remains private and is not accessible to malicious third parties.

Perils in Protein Production

Despite today’s AI-driven tools for modeling a bioprocess and a host of sensors to track the progress of a bioprocess in action, an expert’s hand still plays a key role in making protein-based drugs. As Hiller put it: “The science (or art!) of preparing very concentrated feed mixtures often relies on the careful order of addition of chemicals, manipulation of pH (up and down) and temperature, and separate preparation of certain concentrated solutions before addition to the bulk feed mixture.”

Culturing cells always included some art, with a bit of superstition thrown in the mix. When I worked in a cell-culture lab in the early 1980s, there were rumors of cells dying when an incubator was moved from one side of a room to another. So people rarely moved anything. Plus, if the media included horse serum, scientists shuddered if a batch came from a different herd. Maybe some of the superstition disappeared over the decades, but some of the art remains, as Hiller confirmed.

Still, science underlies the ongoing attempt to replicate a cell’s natural environment during a bioprocess. Instead of just putting the cells in a vat filled with medium, which is the essence of batch processing, perfusion can add nutrients and remove waste. As Hiller noted, perfusion culture “is somewhat analogous to the processes that occur for cells within an organ in the body.”

Silicon Valley Software Engineers Horrified as They Can’t Easily Find Jobs Anymore

Possible beginnings of the Economic Singularity 🤖

“A seemingly endless wave of mass layoffs is ravaging the tech industry as startup fails skyrocket and tech giants shovel their operating budgets into the AI furnace.”

Silicon Valleys software engineers are finding their previously ironclad careers crumbling under the growing cost of AI development.

Which AI Agent Is The Best? This New Leaderboard Can Tell You

In today’s AI news, Galileo launched an Agent Leaderboard on Hugging Face, an open-source AI platform where users can build, train, access, and deploy AI models. The leaderboard is meant to help people learn how AI agents perform in real-world business applications and help teams determine which agent best fits their needs.

In other advancements, Bloomberg reported Friday that xAI is canvassing existing investors, including Sequoia Capital, Andreessen Horowitz, and Valor Equity Partners for the round, which would bring xAI’s total raised to $22.4 billion, according to Crunchbase. Bloomberg also noted that discussions are ongoing and that the terms of the fundraising round may change.

Ve done mobile app development will know how challenging it can be to deliver the right kind of experience on a smartphone. + And, while speaking with former U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair at the World Governments Summit in Dubai on Wednesday, Oracle cofounder and executive chairman, Larry Ellison said that while government organizations collect massive amounts of data, it is highly fragmented, making it hard to feed it into an AI model.

In videos, the Imagination in Action video series from Davos 2025 is being uploaded and we’re featuring the sessions in today’s newsletter. First we dive into an in-depth panel discussion featuring AI visionaries Max Tegmark, Demis Hassabis, Yoshua Bengio, Dawn Song, and Ya-Qin Zhang. In this engaging conversation, the experts unpack the distinctions between narrow AI, AGI, and super intelligence …

And, an expert panel explores how regulation can drive innovation in AI, featuring perspectives from panelists: Robert Mahari, JD-PhD at Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard Law School, Pablo Arredondo, Vice President of CoCounsel at Thomson Reuters and Founder of Casetext, Part of Thomson Reuters, Julia Apostle, Partner at Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP, Gabriele Mazzini, Fellow at MIT Connection Science and Architect of EU AI Act.

Then, join AI pioneer Andrew Ng as he breaks down how artificial intelligence is moving beyond the hype to deliver tangible business results.

In this exclusive conversation with Link Ventures’ John Werner at Davos 2025, Andrew explains how AI innovations are saving costs—from making ships 10% more fuel efficient to boosting profitability in pricing analytics and legal compliance.

Continue reading “Which AI Agent Is The Best? This New Leaderboard Can Tell You” | >

Developing wearable, automated tech to prevent and treat wound infection

🛟🧬🧫🩹⚙️

Wound infections are common combat injuries and can take otherwise able-bodied personnel out of operations and/or result in severe medical complications. Current standard of care relies on complicated and often time-consuming tests to identify the specific infection-inducing pathogens that caused the wound infection. Therapeutic treatments rely on broad-spectrum and high-dose antibiotics alongside surgical excision – which are not pathogen specific, drive antibiotic resistance, can have toxic side effects, require advanced medical training, and can result in high treatment costs and burden on patients. A game-changing approach to managing infection of combat wounds, particularly one that can be applied autonomously, would benefit warfighter readiness and resilience.

The BioElectronics to Sense and Treat (BEST) program seeks to meet this need by developing wearable, automated technologies that can predict and prevent a wound infection before it can occur, and to eliminate an infection if it has already taken hold. To achieve this, DARPA is seeking researchers to develop novel bioelectronic smart bandages comprised of wound infection sensor and treatment modules. The sensors should be high-resolution and provide real-time, continual monitoring of wounds based on, for example, the person’s immune state and the collection of bacteria that live in and around a wound. Data from these sensors will be used to predict if a wound will fail to heal due to infection, diagnose the infection, and regulate administration of targeted treatments – using closed-loop control to prevent or resolve infection for improved wound healing.

“Given that infection initiates at the time of injury and can take hold before aid arrives, particularly in austere environments, the earlier we can deploy these technologies, the bigger impact they will have,” noted Dr. Leonard Tender, BEST program manager. “Even if medivac occurs immediately, without the ability to prevent infection, the downstream care required to treat the surge of wound infections resulting from a large-scale combat operation could easily overwhelm care capacity.”

AI vs. Human Therapists: Study Finds ChatGPT Responses Rated Higher

Summary: A new study suggests that ChatGPT’s responses in psychotherapy scenarios are often rated higher than those written by human therapists. Researchers found that participants struggled to distinguish between AI-generated and therapist-written responses in couple’s therapy vignettes. ChatGPT’s responses were generally longer and contained more nouns and adjectives, providing greater contextualization.

This additional detail may have contributed to higher ratings on core psychotherapy principles. The findings highlight AI’s potential role in therapeutic interventions while raising ethical and practical concerns about its integration into mental health care. Researchers emphasize the need for professionals to engage with AI developments to ensure responsible oversight.

Robots In Space: Mars update

Time to see what the weather on Mars is, next to the Curiosity Rover, and also find out what the Perseverance Rover has discovered in Jezero Crater.

Join aerospace engineer Mike DiVerde for the latest updates from NASA’s Mars rovers! Get an insider’s look at Perseverance’s exciting expedition toward Witch Hazel Hill in Jezero Crater. This episode features exclusive Mars photos, current Martian weather readings, and fascinating details about Mars surface conditions that space enthusiasts won’t want to miss. Learn about the latest Mars discoveries as we explore real-time rover updates and the cutting-edge space technology that makes robotic exploration possible. Whether you’re interested in planetary science or simply curious about what’s happening on the Red Planet, this comprehensive Mars exploration update delivers the most recent findings from our mechanical explorers on Mars.

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