Lifeboat Foundation

A new study from the University of Georgia aims to improve how we evaluate children’s creativity through human ratings and through artificial intelligence.

A team from the Mary Frances Early College of Education is developing an AI system that can more accurately rate open-ended responses on creativity assessments for elementary-aged students.

“In the same way that hospital systems need good data on their patients, educational systems need really good data on their students in order to make effective choices,” said study author and associate professor of educational psychology Denis Dumas. “Creativity assessments have policy and curricular relevance, and without assessment data, we can’t fully support creativity in schools.”

All of us are at the beginning of a journey to understand generative AI’s power, reach, and capabilities. This research is the latest in our efforts to assess the impact of this new era of AI. It suggests that generative AI is poised to transform roles and boost performance across functions such as sales and marketing, customer operations, and software development. In the process, it could unlock trillions of dollars in value across sectors from banking to life sciences. The following sections share our initial findings.

For the full version of this report, download the PDF.

Generative AI’s impact on productivity could add trillions of dollars in value to the global economy. Our latest research estimates that generative AI could add the equivalent of $2.6 trillion to $4.4 trillion annually across the 63 use cases we analyzed—by comparison, the United Kingdom’s entire GDP in 2021 was $3.1 trillion. This would increase the impact of all artificial intelligence by 15 to 40 percent. This estimate would roughly double if we include the impact of embedding generative AI into software that is currently used for other tasks beyond those use cases.

Astrophysicist Geraint Lewis of the University of Sydney in Australia recently authored a study about time dilation and said that Doctor Who’s description of time travel is accurate, as we truly don’t yet understand the limitations of time (via Reuters).

Sci-fi shows like Doctor Who can usually rely on the audience’s suspension of disbelief when diving into heady concepts, and the science doesn’t always have to be accurate — though it is much cooler when a show gets the science right. Apparently, the long-running BBC series can take pride in the fact that the Doctor’s description of time as ‘wibbly-wobbly, timey-wimey stuff, is co-opted by real-life astrophysicists.

In other words, theoretical concepts like time travel and warp drives could be possible, or they may not be. Maybe a Time Lord out there uses a British police box to travel through time. Okay, so Doctor Who probably isn’t right about that part, but there technically is still a chance that it is!

EPFL researchers have developed a 100% effective, ultra-thin active noise cancelling system that uses an ionized air plasma propulsion system instead of speakers. A 17-mm-thick (0.6-in) layer can block 20 Hz noise as well as a 4-m-thick (13-ft) wall.

If you know how active noise cancellation works, then skip ahead. Essentially, the sound waves we hear are pressure waves in the air around us. Speaker cones are big, lightweight membranes designed to push air around in precise patterns to create those pressure waves, either in the form of pleasant music, or whatever it is the kids are listening to these days.

Continue reading “Plasma-based noise cancellation could silence rooms, cars and planes” »

First primate studies to show cognitive benefits of the protein klotho could be a step towards clinical applications.

We live in an era of renewed space exploration, where multiple agencies are planning to send astronauts to the Moon in the coming years. This will be followed in the next decade with crewed missions to Mars by NASA and China, who may be joined by other nations before long.

These and other missions that will take astronauts beyond Low Earth Orbit (LEO) and the Earth-Moon system require new technologies, ranging from life support and radiation shielding to power and propulsion.

Continue reading “New NASA Nuclear Rocket Plan Aims to Get to Mars in Just 45 Days” »

Year 2020 face_with_colon_three

Behold, the delicious power of pressurized CO₂.

Explosive pneumatic power could push legged robots to high speeds.

A bee’s brain may only be the size of a sesame seed, but scientists in the U.K. believe its decision-making processes could help AI engineers in their work.