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Jun 9, 2023

China eavesdropping facility in Cuba, says report

Posted by in category: futurism

China has reached reportedly a secret deal with Cuba, under the deal China would be allowed to install an electronic eavesdropping facility on the island nation. This has surely become a matter for Washington.

Jun 9, 2023

Harvard lecturer: ‘No specific skill will get you ahead in the future’—but this ‘way of thinking’ will

Posted by in category: futurism

But as the typical mutual fund disclaimer so famously states, past performance is no guarantee of future results. It’s time to rethink our love affair with depth. The pendulum between depth and breadth has swung too far in favor of depth.

There’s an oft-quoted saying that “to a man with a hammer, everything looks like nails.” But what if that man had a hammer, a screwdriver, and a wrench? Might he or she look to see if the flat top had a narrow slit, suggesting the use of a screwdriver? Or perhaps consider the shape of the flat top. Circle? Hexagon? Could a wrench be a more effective tool? And finally, the mere addition of these tools can encourage a better understanding of a problem.

This is not to suggest that deep expertise is useless. Au contraire. Carrying a hammer is not a problem. It’s just that our world is changing so rapidly that those with more tools in their possession will better navigate the uncertainty. To make it in today’s world, it’s important to be agile and flexible.

Jun 9, 2023

Microsoft, Google strategy to test AI search ads irks some brands

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

June 8 (Reuters) — Alphabet’s (GOOGL.O) Google and Microsoft (MSFT.O) are inserting ads into AI experiments without providing an option to opt out of participation, an approach that has already rankled some brands and risks further pushback from the industry, ad buyers told Reuters.

The two tech giants are racing to revamp their search engines with artificial intelligence that can produce written responses to open-ended queries. That process will upend how advertisers reach consumers through ads on search results, a market that is estimated to grow 10% to $286 billion this year, according to research firm MAGNA.

Microsoft is testing ads in the Bing AI chatbot, which began rolling out to users in February, by relocating some traditional search ads and inserting them into the AI responses, the company said.

Jun 9, 2023

Norway BEV Sales: Over 80% Of New Cars Were All-Electric In May 2023

Posted by in category: transportation

In May, 11,865 new passenger plug-in cars were registered in Norway (up 21% year-over-year), which is about 88.9% of the total volume.

Jun 9, 2023

Using a pore structure inspired by biological fractals to collect uranium from seawater

Posted by in categories: biological, military

Inspired by biological fractals, a team of researchers affiliated with multiple institutions in China has developed a new pore structure for a membrane used to separate uranium from seawater. In their paper published in the journal Nature Sustainability, the group describes their pore structure and how well it worked when tested. Alexander Wiechert and Sotira Yiacoumi with the Georgia Institute of Technology and Costas Tsouris with Oak Ridge National Laboratory, have published a News & Views piece on the work done by the team in China and the work that is left to do before the membrane can be commercialized.

In the 1950s, scientists realized that the world’s oceans held the potential for supplying the needed to produce atomic weapons and electrical power. But it took another 30 years before a viable means of extracting uranium was developed. A team of researchers in Japan developed an amidoxime-grafted adsorbent that appeared able to do the job, but only in a limited way. In this new effort, the researchers have expanded on the work by the Japanese team to create a membrane for use in filtering uranium from .

The membrane created by the team in China is based on a hierarchical pore structure that was modeled on fractals found in nature. Seawater containing uranium enters the outer portion of the membrane through macropores. The molecules in the water then migrate into a branching matrix of smaller channels. From there, they are carried to a microporous inner portion of the membrane where the uranium is absorbed by an amidoxime-grafted adsorbent. Testing showed it capable of extracting 9 mg g−1 from a sample of seawater over four weeks.

Jun 9, 2023

This is what Instagram’s upcoming Twitter competitor looks like

Posted by in category: futurism

One of Meta’s top executives showed employees a preview of the company’s upcoming Twitter competitor during a companywide meeting today that was watched by The Verge. You can see some of the screenshots above.


Meta says people want a communications platform that’s “sanely run.”

Jun 8, 2023

Ex-Techie Preserves Bengaluru’s Millennia-Old History with Ancient Inscription Stones

Posted by in category: futurism

A mention of his village in a 13th-century inscription stone made P L Udaya Kumar quit his job and start preserving the history of Bengaluru localities.

Jun 8, 2023

A Developer Made Software to Turn Anyone Into an ‘AI Girlfriend’—Starting With His Own Partner

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, robotics/AI

Developer Enias Cailliau talks to his girlfriend Sacha on Telegram. She sends him voice memos, texts, and even the occasional selfie. But Sacha isn’t actually real, she’s an AI clone of Cailliau’s real-life girlfriend. Cailliau calls the bot GirlfriendGPT and has now shared his code online for anyone to create their own AI girlfriends too.


“I’d recommend couples to explore the tech as well,” said Sascha Ludwig, whose programmer partner is cloning them with AI.

Jun 8, 2023

The Birthplace of AI

Posted by in categories: futurism, robotics/AI

Everyone is talking AI will do this AI will do that. Was that what people intended AI to do?

1) How will AI help meet demands.

2) How will AI help solve problems.

Continue reading “The Birthplace of AI” »

Jun 8, 2023

How Einstein made the biggest blunder of his life

Posted by in category: quantum physics

When Einstein gave General Relativity to the world, he included an extraneous cosmological constant. How did his ‘biggest blunder’ occur?