An MIT machine-learning system demonstrates greater than 100-fold improvement in energy efficiency and a 25-fold improvement in compute density compared with current systems.
Adeel Razi, a computational neuroscientist at Monash University and a fellow at the Canadian Institute for Advanced Research (CIFAR) who was not involved in the new paper, says that is a valuable step. “We’re all starting the discussion rather than coming up with answers.”
Until recently, machine consciousness was the stuff of science fiction movies such as Ex Machina. “When Blake Lemoine was fired from Google after being convinced by LaMDA, that marked a change,” Long says. “If AIs can give the impression of consciousness, that makes it an urgent priority for scientists and philosophers to weigh in.” Long and philosopher Patrick Butlin of the University of Oxford’s Future of Humanity Institute organized two workshops on how to test for sentience in AI.
For one collaborator, computational neuroscientist Megan Peters at the University of California, Irvine, the issue has a moral dimension. “How do we treat an AI based on its probability of consciousness? Personally this is part of what compels me.”
From target screening to image analysis, companies are using machine learning tools to explore the unknown.
Step forward platelet factor 4 (PF4): this substance in the blood has been linked to the mental boost we get from exercise, the benefits of blood transfusions, and a protein associated with longevity, in three separate studies.
All three processes promote cognitive enhancement, meaning PF4 is something of a superpowered blood factor. The research was carried out by two teams from the University of California San Francisco (UCSF) in the US and the University of Queensland in Australia.
Platelets are cell fragments that play a critical role in the clotting process. Aside from serving as physical plugs that staunch bleeding, these small, non-nucleated chunks of bone marrow cell contain granules that release chemicals to promote aggregation.
The popularity of remote food delivery skyrocketed during the COVID-19 pandemic, and the trend has continued to help businesses thrive years later. Unfortunately, some of the robotic delivery vehicles are taking a beating, with several viral videos showing people kicking the autonomous bots over and even stealing the products inside.
KTLA 5’s Rachel Menitoff reports. (Aug. 7, 2023)
KTLA 5 News — Keeping Southern Californians informed since 1947.
India’s Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft is swooping toward the moon’s surface ahead of its historic landing attempt, and it’s capturing some stunning visuals on the way.
The Indian Space Research Organization confirmed Tuesday that Chandrayaan-3 is on schedule and “smooth sailing is continuing.” The spacecraft is set to begin its final descent toward the moon’s surface on Wednesday at 5:45 p.m. IST (8:15 a.m. ET).
If successful, this mission will mark the very first soft landing on the lunar surface by an Indian spacecraft and make India the fourth country ever to accomplish such a feat. Currently, the United States, China and the former Soviet Union are the only nations that have conducted controlled landings of spacecraft on the moon.
What we perceive to be the edge of our universe is not the actual edge of the universe, with most scientists in agreement that more space lies hidden beyond what we’re able to see. Last time out, we travelled to the very edge of our observable universe. But today, we will be going even farther, as we wade out into the darkness of the unobservable universe.
Watch Part 1 (Journey to the Edge of the Universe): https://youtu.be/QhM5zAVvOI4
What happened before the Big Bang? In two of our previous films we examined cyclic cosmologies and time travel universe models. Specially, the Gott and Li Model https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=79LciHWV4Qs) and Penrose’s Conformal Cyclic Cosmology https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FVDJJVoTx7s). Recently Beth Gould and Niayesh Afshordi of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics have fused these two models together to create a startling new vision of the universe. In this film they explain their new proposal, known as Periodic Time Cosmology.
0:00 Introduction.
0:45 NIayesh’s story.
1:15 Beth’s story.
2:25 relativity.
3:26 Gott & Li model.
6:23 origins of the PTC model.
8:17 PTC periodic time cosmology.
10:55 Penrose cyclic model.
13:01 Sir Roger Penrose.
14:19 CCC and PTC
15:45 conformal rescaling and the CMB
17:28 assumptions.
18:41 why a time loop?
20:11 empirical test.
23:96 predcitions.
26:19 inflation vs PTC
30:22 gravitational waves.
31:40 cycles and the 2nd law.
32:54 paradoxes.
34:08 causality.
35:17 immortality in a cyclic universe.
38:02 eternal return.
39:21 quantum gravity.
39:57 conclusion.
Continue reading “Before the Big Bang 11: Did the Universe Create itself? The PTC model” »
Since the start of the quantum race, Microsoft has placed its bets on the elusive but potentially game-changing topological qubit. Now the company claims its Hail Mary has paid off, saying it could build a working processor in less than a decade.
Today’s leading quantum computing companies have predominantly focused on qubits—the quantum equivalent of bits—made out of superconducting electronics, trapped ions, or photons. These devices have achieved impressive milestones in recent years, but are hampered by errors that mean a quantum computer able to outperform classical ones still appears some way off.
Microsoft, on the other hand, has long championed topological quantum computing. Rather than encoding information in the states of individual particles, this approach encodes information in the overarching structure of the system. In theory, that should make the devices considerably more tolerant of background noise from the environment and therefore more or less error-proof.
The teams pitted IBM’s 127-qubit Eagle chip against supercomputers at Lawrence Berkeley National Lab and Purdue University for increasingly complex tasks. With easier calculations, Eagle matched the supercomputers’ results every time—suggesting that even with noise, the quantum computer could generate accurate responses. But where it shone was in its ability to tolerate scale, returning results that are—in theory—far more accurate than what’s possible today with state-of-the-art silicon computer chips.
At the heart is a post-processing technique that decreases noise. Similar to looking at a large painting, the method ignores each brush stroke. Rather, it focuses on small portions of the painting and captures the general “gist” of the artwork.
Continue reading “An IBM Quantum Computer Beat a Supercomputer in a Benchmark Test” »
