Researchers can now send secret audio instructions undetectable to the human ear to Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa and Google’s Assistant.
Credit Lynn Scurfield
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A computer programme modelled on the human brain learnt to navigate a virtual maze and take shortcuts, outperforming a flesh-and-blood expert, its developers said Wednesday.
While artificial intelligence (AI) programmes have recently made great strides in imitating human brain processing—everything from recognising objects to playing complicated board games—spatial navigation has remained a challenge.
It requires the recalculation of one’s position, after each step taken, in relation to the starting point and destination—even when travelling a never-before-taken route.
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Upcoming anti-viral medication for smallpox…
As bioterrorism fears grow, the first treatment for smallpox is nearing approval.
Called tecovirimat, the drug stops the variola virus, which causes smallpox, from sending out copies of itself and infecting other cells. “If the virus gets ahead of your immune system, you get sick,” says Dennis Hruby, the chief scientific officer of pharmaceutical company SIGA Technologies, which took part in developing the drug. “If you can slow the virus down, your immune system will get ahead.”
An advisory committee to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration unanimously recommended approval of tecovirimat, or TPOXX, on May 1. The FDA is expected to make its decision this summer.
Many people in tech point out that artificial narrow intelligence, or A.N.I., has grown ever safer and more reliable—certainly safer and more reliable than we are. (Self-driving cars and trucks might save hundreds of thousands of lives every year.) For them, the question is whether the risks of creating an omnicompetent Jeeves would exceed the combined risks of the myriad nightmares—pandemics, asteroid strikes, global nuclear war, etc.—that an A.G.I. could sweep aside for us.
Thinking about artificial intelligence can help clarify what makes us human—for better and for worse.
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To sustain the growth of the power of microchips and keep Moore’s Law going, semiconductor engineers are exploring the path of “valleytronics”.
Moore’s Law may be coming to an end due to the physical limitations of silicone and other elements, but a research team may have found a solution: valleytronics.
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Researchers from the Georgia Institute of Technology have built a flexible, wearable oral sodium sensor that could help monitor a person’s sodium intake.
A leading cause of hypertension is a person’s uncontrolled salt intake. This often results in high blood pressure and heart complications.
As a solution, the Georgia Institute of Technology researchers built the oral sodium sensor that could be easily worn in the mouth to monitor salt intake.
The sensor reportedly incorporates a small, adaptable electronic framework that uses Bluetooth technology to transfer the data about a person’s sodium intake into a mobile device or tablet. On the other hand, the structure of the device is said to be based on an ultrathin, breathable elastomeric membrane.