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This Small Quantum-Computing Firm Wants to Supercharge AI Startups

Berkeley-based quantum computing firm Rigetti will allow 40 machine learning startups from 11 countries to make use of its devices to help crunch their AI problems.

Rigetti is small compared to its main rivals—the likes of Google, IBM, and Intel. But as we’ve reported in the past, the firm is working on a complex chip architecture that promises to scale up well, and should be particularly suited to applications like machine learning and chemistry simulations. That’s why we made it one of our 50 Smartest Companies of 2017.

But, like IBM and Google, part of Rigetti’s business model has always been to develop a kind of quantum-powered cloud service that would allow people to make use of its technology remotely. The newly announced partnership—which will be with companies from Creative Destruction Lab, a Canadian incubator that focuses on science-based startups—is a chance to test that theory out using Rigetti’s Forest programming environment.

Can Science Reverse Aging?

Futurist José Cordeiro talks longevity, AI, and the humanitarian crisis in Venezuela.

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“In 30 years, I will be younger than today, not older,” says José Luis Cordeiro, who’s a founding faculty member at Singularity University, a Silicon Valley-based think tank devoted to futurism. “Why? Because we are going to have rejuvenation techniques, and these experiments are beginning right now.”

A mechanical engineer with a degree from MIT, Cordeiro has worked in fields ranging from monetary policy to petroleum engineering, and he created the first formal “future studies” course at the Austrian School of Economics in Venezuela, his birth country.

Continue reading “Can Science Reverse Aging?” | >

‘Self-driving’ lorries to be tested on UK roads

Small convoys of partially driverless lorries will be tried out on major British roads by the end of next year, the government has announced.

A contract has been awarded to the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) to carry out the tests of vehicle “platoons”.

Up to three lorries will travel in formation, with acceleration and braking controlled by the lead vehicle.

The Great US-China Biotechnology and Artificial Intelligence Race

The risk factor is that iCarbonX is handling more than personal data, but potentially vulnerable data as the company uses a smartphone application, Meum, for customers to consult for health advice. Remember that the Chinese nascent genomics and AI industry relies on cloud computing for genomics data-storage and exchange, creating, in its wake, new vulnerabilities associated with any internet-based technology. This phenomenon has severe implications. How much consideration has been given to privacy and the evolving notion of personal data in this AI-powered health economy? And is our cyberinfrastructure ready to protect such trove of personal health data from hackers and industrial espionage? In this new race, will China and the U.S. have to constantly accelerate their rate of cyber and bio-innovation to be more resilient? Refining our models of genomics data protection will become a critical biosecurity issue.

Why is Chinese access to U.S. genomic data a national security concern?

Genomics and computing research is inherently dual-use, therefore a strategic advantage in a nation’s security arsenal.

Hyperentanglement across roof tops paves the way toward a global quantum Internet

(Phys.org)—For the first time, physicists have demonstrated that hyperentangled photons can be transmitted in free space, which they showed by sending many thousands of these photons between the rooftops of two buildings in Vienna. Hyperentanglement means that the photons are simultaneously entangled in at least two different properties—in this experiment, the researchers combined two two-dimensionally entangled properties to achieve four-dimensional hyperentanglement.

By showing that hyperentanglement transmission is feasible in the real world and not only in the lab, the physicists expect that the demonstration could one day be scaled up to establish a highly secure quantum Internet that uses satellites to quickly and securely transmit across the globe.

The physicists, led by Rupert Ursin at the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information (IQOQI) at the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna, have published a paper on the distribution of hyperentanglement via atmospheric free-space links in a recent issue of Nature Communications.

Government Warns North Korean Cyber Attacks Continue

The Department of Homeland Security and FBI issued a new warning on Wednesday that North Korean government hackers are continuing to target critical U.S. infrastructure for cyber attacks.

A technical report by DHS’ National Cyber Awareness System reveals details of the tools and cyber methods being used by North Korean government hackers.

The alert said the North Korean government is using the cyber tools to “target the media, aerospace, financial, and critical infrastructure sectors in the United States and globally.”