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This Artificially Intelligent Robot Composes and Performs Its Own Music

Shimon—a four-armed marimba playing robot—has been around for years, but its developers at Georgia Tech have recently taken this futuristic musical machine to the next level. Using deep learning, the robot can now study large datasets from well-known musicians, and then produce and perform its own original compositions.

Shimon was originally developed by Gil Weinberg, director of Georgia Tech’s Center for Music Technology. Under its original programming, the robot was capable of improvising music as it played alongside human performers, using an “interestingness” algorithm to make sure it wasn’t just copying its bandmates. But now, thanks to the efforts of Ph.D. student Mason Bretan, Shimon has become an accomplished composer, capable of autonomously generating the melodic and harmonic structure of a song. And you know what? Shimon’s songs are actually quite good!

Building the Public Goods of the Twenty-First Century

Meanwhile there was a Big New Development. The Internet and digital technology came of age. And here’s the thing. Digital artefacts – whether they’re an algorithm, a website, an app or a coding language – are always and everywhere potential public goods. Once produced digital artefacts are essentially costless to replicate which raises the question of whether they can or should be made freely available to all.

Digital public goods in the age of the data revolution.

This Tattoo Changes Colors As Your Blood Sugar Levels Change

Whether or not you like tattoos (or have one yourself), you’ll have to admit—these are pretty cool. Scientists have developed something called a “biosensing” tattoo that could help change the lives of people living with types 1 or 2 diabetes. How could a tattoo do this, you ask? Well, by changing color along with the person’s blood sugar levels.

This new tattoo is the hard work of a team of researchers from Harvard and MIT who call the project Dermal Abyss. The researchers replaced traditional tattoo ink with color-changing “biosensors” that react to variations in the interstitial fluid, which surrounds tissue cells in the human body.

“It blends advances in biotechnology with traditional methods in tattoo artistry,” the team writes on their website. “Currently… diabetics need to monitor their glucose levels by piercing the skin, 3 to 10 times per day. With Dermal Abyss, we imagine the future where the painful procedure is replaced with a tattoo. Thus, the user could monitor the color changes and the need of insulin.”