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Blog – Page 10972

Andrew Ng (left), Chief Scientist at Baidu and Eric Horvitz (right), Managing Director at Microsoft Research.

If the internet was the birth of the digital revolution, then today’s artificial intelligence is its first baby steps toward maturity.

Today, A.I. researchers feed an algorithm data and painstakingly help it learn.

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In Brief

  • Watson was originally seen as mostly a breakthrough medical tool but has since been used in a much wider range of applications, including retail
  • Even Geico currently uses IBM Watson, they use the AI program in 46 states to deliver a better digital experience to their customers

IBM understands the unique nature of its artificial intelligence (AI) software assistant Watson, and so they are not taking the direct consumer approach of Siri, Cortana, Alexa, or Google’s Assistant.

In partnership with H&R Block, Watson is being trained “on the language of taxes,” according to IBM’s press release announcing Watson’s new role as the world’s first AI tax preparation assistant.

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In Brief Research by Russian scientists has revealed the efficacy of cold plasma as a treatment for non-healing wounds. Their study conclusions could lead to much-needed relief for the millions of people suffering from chronic open wounds.

Non-healing wounds are troublesome to treat, with current methods teetering between extremely difficult and impossible, but cold plasma might be able to change all that.

Researchers have attempted to use cold atmospheric-pressure plasma — a partially ionized gas with a proportion of charged particles close to 1 percent and a temperature of 99,726°C (179,540ºF) — for medical treatment before, but never specifically for non-healing wounds. Apart from confirming the bactericidal properties of cold plasma and showing that cells and tissues have a high resistance to it, those earlier studies yielded non-conclusive results.

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Zaptec has a new plasma drilling technology which could achieve practical, affordable, and reliable deep drilling on the Moon, asteroids, Mars, and its moons. The drilling system comprises a freely advancing drill head tethered by a power cable to a power source topside and high voltage generator downhole. The drill advances by generating a high-energy density plasma at the drill head which breaks down and pulverizes the target rock. A key enabling technology is the system’s ability to deliver high energy plasma discharges via low mass, small volume power transformers located in the drill head section. Powder cuttings may be removed by circulating compressed CO2.

Zaptec on the Moon

On the Moon, the subsurface in the polar regions may be a repository of volatiles of value to science and as a potential resource for future human exploration. A Zaptec drill could be deployed on a future robotic lunar lander mission, such as Moon Express, or in the context of human missions. The fine dust from drilling goes through the unit, is analysed, and then sprayed into a dust exhaust in contact with the surface vacuum. An alternative scenario is to expand the module with a processing unit which sorts out minerals from H2O/CO2 ice. The mineral dust can then be used as raw materials for local manufacturing.

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