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Category: robotics/AI – Page 6

A Framework for Frontier AI and the Dawning of a New Age

Assorted web links to important articles.

This is a pivotal moment in human history. Artificial General Intelligence (AGI), a system that exhibits all the cognitive capabilities the brain has, is probably only a few short years away. When we look back on this time in the decades to come, I think we will realise we were standing in the foothills of the singularity — nothing less than the dawning of a new age for humanity.

I’ve spent my whole life working on AGI because I’ve always had a deep conviction that, if built and deployed responsibly, it would prove to be one of the most beneficial and transformative technologies ever invented. AGI cannot be compared to standard technological breakthroughs, not even ones as consequential as the internet or mobile — it is much more akin to the discovery of electricity or fire. If you stop to think about it, we’ve essentially found a way to make sand think. It’s miraculous.

The magnitude of this technology’s impact will be unprecedented, perhaps 10x of the Industrial Revolution at 10x the speed. It will help us solve some of the biggest problems society faces from accelerating drug discovery to developing new clean energy sources to creating novel advanced materials. We could even reach a point where resources are no longer the limiting factor for human progress, leading to an amazing new era of abundance.

Moisture-driven tech can power green batteries—and destroy spy gear

Researchers from North Carolina State University and Rice University have created a nontoxic, stretchable battery that operates by extracting moisture from the ambient environment—even in climates as dry as the desert. The batteries could be useful in Internet of Things (IoT) applications ranging from wearables to advanced surveillance monitors with built-in kill switches. The study is published in the journal Science Advances.

Emerging technologies like wearable monitors, miniature robotics and other IoT devices require lightweight, flexible power sources. Conventional batteries, which represent the best power source options, are often too rigid and heavy to be useful, and they contain toxic materials that can leak. Energy harvesters, so called because they capture energy from the surrounding environment and convert it into electrical power, are lighter, but their performance is limited.

Running on moisture and salt The new moisture-activated battery (MAB) includes a magnesium anode and a silver/silver chloride cathode, with a cellulose membrane loaded with lithium chloride salts that serves as a separator. The separator harvests moisture from ambient air, which dissolves the salts and creates the electrolyte, allowing charge to flow through the battery.

Identity, Privacy, and Cybersecurity Are Pillars of the Agentic Future (Part 2)

It is evident everywhere that artificial intelligence is certainly evolving. We are rapidly moving from chatbots and copilots to AI agents that can make decisions, execute transactions, generate software, analyze intelligence, negotiate with other systems, and perform tasks that previously required human discernment.

This development is one of the biggest computing advances since the Internet. It’s also one of the biggest cybersecurity challenges for businesses. As I have stressed in my writings and speeches for years that each technology advance expands opportunity and attacks the surface. AI agents demonstrate this.

Unlike traditional software, AI agents are autonomous. They remember, reason, use apps, access secret data, perform APIs, and adapt to changing conditions. They are now active enterprise participants. That changes all cybersecurity. AI Agents Are New Digital Identities. The cybersecurity industry has protected people, devices, apps, and networks for decades. Now we must protect digital workers.

Scientists discovered the brain doesn’t make decisions the way we thought

A new study suggests the brain begins making decisions much earlier than scientists previously thought. Researchers found that even primary sensory regions are influenced by higher brain areas through rapid feedback loops, rather than simply passing information forward. This more dynamic view of brain function could help engineers design future AI systems that think more like biological brains while using far less power.

Karl Schroeder: The Singularity is an Old Idea. Keep Moving Forward!

Fourteen years ago, a science fiction author looked me in the eye and told me the singularity was already old news.

This was 2012. Almost nobody outside a small circle was talking about it. And Karl Schroeder, one of Canada’s sharpest minds in #ScienceFiction and foresight, was telling me to stop staring at it.

His words stuck with me: take the singularity, use it, it’s a lens. Then develop other lenses. Keep hunting for blind spots.

At the time, I thought he was just being contrarian. Today, with #AI swallowing every headline and every boardroom, I think he saw something most of us are still missing.

Schroeder doesn’t hand you easy answers. We got into the technological maximum, the Rewilding, why he believes “technology is legislation,” and why he rates the singularity as possible but not probable. He picked apart almost every assumption I walked in with.

Here is what keeps nagging me. The blind spot he warned me about in 2012 might be the exact thing everyone is fixated on in 2026.

Continue reading “Karl Schroeder: The Singularity is an Old Idea. Keep Moving Forward!” | >

Physicists confirm 20-year-old theory that could boost quantum technology

Future quantum computing will require correlations between distant modules—a feature known as distributed entanglement. Traditionally, such entanglement has relied on active control and repeated measurements. Now, physicists at the Institute of Science and Technology Austria (ISTA) have realized a fully autonomous method for distributed entanglement using a “quantum bath” of correlated light particles. Published in Physical Review X, their work experimentally confirms a 20-year-old prediction and could provide a new platform for applied quantum technologies.

Entanglement is a central feature of quantum physics in which shared correlations exceed what classical theories can explain. Achieving distributed entanglement between physically separated qubits (quantum bits) could enable future advances, such as scalable quantum computers and quantum networks.

To entangle distant qubits, earlier attempts have relied on two protocols. In one approach, a single, actively controlled photon is sent from one qubit to the other. In the second approach, each qubit emits a photon that must be matched to produce entanglement. While the second method earned the 2022 Nobel Prize in Physics, it requires many repeated measurements and post-selection and still does not always yield entanglement.

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