Lifeboat Foundation

Superfast, subatomic-sized particles called muons have been used to wirelessly navigate underground for the first time. By using muon-detecting ground stations synchronized with an underground muon-detecting receiver, researchers at the University of Tokyo were able to calculate the receiver’s position in the basement of a six-story building.

As GPS cannot penetrate rock or water, this new technology could be used in future search and rescue efforts, to monitor undersea volcanoes, and guide autonomous vehicles underground and underwater. The findings are published in the journal iScience.

GPS, the global positioning system, is a well-established navigation tool and offers an extensive list of positive applications, from safer air travel to real-time location mapping. However, it has some limitations. GPS signals are weaker at higher latitudes and can be jammed or spoofed (where a counterfeit signal replaces an authentic one). Signals can also be reflected off surfaces like walls, interfered with by trees, and can’t pass through buildings, rock or water.

There is tremendous apprehension about the potential of generative AI—technologies that can create new content such as text, images, and video—to replace people in many jobs. But one of the biggest opportunities generative AI offers is to augment human creativity and overcome the challenges of democratizing innovation.

In the past two decades, companies have used crowdsourcing and idea competitions to involve outsiders in the innovation process. But many businesses have struggled to capitalize on these contributions. They’ve lacked an efficient way to evaluate the ideas, for instance, or to synthesize different ideas.

Generative AI can help over­come those challenges, the authors say. It can supplement the creativity of employees and customers and help them produce and identify novel ideas—and improve the quality of raw ideas. Specifically, companies can use generative AI to promote divergent thinking, challenge expertise bias, assist in idea evaluation, support idea refinement, and facilitate collaboration among users.

Mercedes owners in the U.S. will soon add a new luxury to their already luxurious vehicles: ChatGPT. The automaker is adding OpenAI’s conversational AI agent to its MBUX infotainment system, though what it could possibly be needed for is hard to say.

U.S. owners of models that use MBUX will be able to opt into a beta program starting tomorrow, June 16, activating ChatGPT functionality. This will enable the highly versatile large language model to augment the car’s conversation skills. You can join up simply by telling your car “Hey Mercedes, I want to join the beta program.”

It’s not really clear what for, though. After all, a car is a pretty well constrained environment. People need to drive, navigate, and control their media and the car’s basic functions, and certainly a voice interface is sometimes the safest or best option for doing so without taking their eyes off the road.

The AI Act could be set in motion as early as the end of the year.

On Wednesday, the European Parliament voted on its negotiating position on the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Act with 499 votes in favor, 28 against and 93 abstentions, according to a press release by the organization.

The statement said that “the rules would ensure that AI developed and used in Europe is fully in line with EU rights and values including human oversight, safety, privacy, transparency, non-discrimination and social and environmental wellbeing.”

An AI photo company promises to ‘cut out the need for expensive photographers’ by providing a cost-effective way to generate images.

Artificial intelligence (AI) and its latest contribution to the development of anti-aging drugs has paved the way for breakthrough discoveries in modern medicine.

Researchers, using AI technology, have successfully identified three chemicals that specifically target malfunctioning cells, believed to be associated with certain cancers and Alzheimer’s disease.

A group of scientists from the University of Edinburgh developed an AI algorithm to screen a collection of over 4,300 chemical compounds.

The team’s research demonstrates a working device that captures, processes and stores visual information. With precise engineering of the doped indium oxide, the device mimics a human eye’s ability to capture light, pre-packages and transmits information like an optical nerve, and stores and classifies it in a memory system like the way our brains can.

Summary: Researchers developed a single-chip device that mimics the human eye’s capacity to capture, process, and store visual data.

This groundbreaking innovation, fueled by a thin layer of doped indium oxide, could be a significant leap towards applications like self-driving cars that require quick, complex decision-making abilities. Unlike traditional systems that need external, energy-intensive computation, this device encapsulates sensing, information processing, and memory retention in one compact unit.

Continue reading “A Chip Off the Old Eye: Device Mimics Human Vision and Memory” »

Recent advancements in the field of electronics have enabled the creation of smaller and increasingly sophisticated devices, including wearable technologies, biosensors, medical implants, and soft robots. Most of these technologies are based on stretchy materials with electronic properties.

While material scientists have already introduced a wide range of flexible materials that could be used to create electronics, many of these materials are fragile and can be easily damaged. As damage to materials can result in their failure, while also compromising the overall functioning of the system they are integrated in, several existing soft and conductive materials can end up being unreliable and unsuitable for large-scale implementations.

Researchers at Harbin University of Science and Technology in China recently developed a new conductive and self-healing hydrogel that could be used to create flexible sensors for wearables, robots or other devices. This material and its composition was outlined in the Journal of Science: Advanced Materials and Devices.

Generative artificial intelligence (AI) has put AI in the hands of people, and those who don’t use it could struggle to keep their jobs in future, Jaspreet Bindra, Founder and MD, Tech Whisperer Lt. UK, surmised at the Mint Digital Innovation Summit on June 9.

“We never think about electricity until it’s not there. That’s how AI used to be. It was always in the background and we never thought about it. With generative AI it has come into our hands, and 200–300 million of us are like, wow!” said Bindra.

He noted that while AI won’t replace humans at their jobs, someone using AI very well could. He urged working professionals to “recalibrate” and embrace generative AI as a “powerful tool” created by humans, instead of looking at it as a threat.