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Sep 19, 2022

There’s no Tiananmen Square in the new Chinese image-making AI

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

ERNIE-ViLG, the new text-to-image AI developed by Baidu can generate images that show Chinese objects and celebrities more accurately than existing AIs. But a built-in censorship mechanism will filter out politically sensitive words.

Sep 19, 2022

At least 1 dead after 7.6-magnitude earthquake strikes Mexico’s Pacific coast, officials say

Posted by in category: futurism

A 7.6-magnitude earthquake shook the Pacific coast of central Mexico Monday, killing at least one person, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.

Sep 19, 2022

AWS AI call for proposals — Fall 2022

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

Advancing the frontiers of machine learning.

Sep 19, 2022

AI software helps bust image fraud in academic papers

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

Scientific publishers such as the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) and Taylor & Francis have begun attempting to detect fraud in academic paper submissions with an AI image-checking program called Proofig, reports The Register. Proofig, a product of an Israeli firm of the same name, aims to help use “artificial intelligence, computer vision and image processing to review image integrity in scientific publications,” according to the company’s website.

During a trial that ran from January 2021 to May 2022, AACR used Proofig to screen 1,367 papers accepted for publication, according to The Register. Of those, 208 papers required author contact to clear up issues such as mistaken duplications, and four papers were withdrawn.

In particular, many journals need help detecting image duplication fraud in Western blots, which are a specific style of protein-detection imagery consisting of line segments of various widths. Subtle differences in a blot’s appearance can translate to dramatically different conclusions about test results, and many cases of academic fraud have seen unscrupulous researchers duplicate, crop, stretch, and rotate Western blots to make it appear like they have more (or different) data than they really do. Detecting duplicate images can be tedious work for human eyes, which is why some firms like Proofig and ImageTwin, a German firm, are attempting to automate the process.

Sep 19, 2022

How Many Miles Before An Electric Car Is Greener Than A Gas Car

Posted by in categories: Elon Musk, sustainability, transportation

Electric vehicles have often been hailed as the future. Major motoring companies are aiming to produce nothing but electric vehicles in the future, and some aspire to hit that target by the end of the decade. Cars that are traditionally seen as so-called gas guzzlers — like pickup trucks, muscle cars, and hummers — all have electric equivalents. Governments, including the one running the United States, are improving infrastructure, offering tax incentives, and enacting policies aimed at getting more electric vehicles on the road. And modern-day industrial icons like Elon Musk, who obviously has a vested interest in the electric car’s success, constantly promote the concept. Musk recently published a tweet that likened internal combustion engines to the steam engine — an archaic method of producing mechanical power.

Sep 19, 2022

Superposition in Quantum Computers — Computerphile

Posted by in categories: computing, quantum physics

Parting the veil of mystery on quantum superposition using waves. Professor Phil Moriarty takes us through it.

Phil’s blogpost on the subject: https://muircheartblog.wpcomstaging.com/2021/10/26/superposi…erstition/

Continue reading “Superposition in Quantum Computers — Computerphile” »

Sep 19, 2022

45 years ago this week, Voyager 1 began its journey into history

Posted by in category: space

The probe launched weeks after its sibling craft, Voyager 2. Since its launch, it got a close encounter with an intriguing moon and entered interstellar space.

Sep 19, 2022

Humanoid robot combined with GPT-3

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

Ameca, a highly realistic android, has now been upgraded to include GPT-3, one of the largest neural networks and language prediction models.

Back in December 2021, UK-based Engineered Arts revealed what it described as “the most advanced android ever built” – a machine with strikingly lifelike motions and facial expressions. Since then, the company has been working to upgrade Ameca (as she is called) with speech and other capabilities.

In the video demonstration below, automated voice recognition has been combined with GPT-3, a large neural network and language prediction model that makes use of 175 billion parameters. This allows Ameca to recognise what people are saying and respond to questions. Before speaking, her output is fed to an online text-to-speech service, which generates the voice and visemes for lip sync timing.

Sep 19, 2022

Arctic Greening is Happening Faster Than We Thought

Posted by in category: climatology

White Spruce trees are on the march northward in the Arctic increasing the rate of warming.


Trees are growing in the Arctic tundra where none have survived before. The Arctic is warming four times faster than the rest of the planet which means the barriers that made Arctic terrain hostile to trees are diminishing. Forests are marching towards the North Pole.

Last August a paper appeared in the Journal Nature entitled, “Sufficient conditions for rapid range expansion of a boreal conifer.” It is one of a number of papers describing a changing pattern of tree growth and range across the Arctic landscape in Alaska, Siberia, Canada, and Scandinavia. The more trees establish themselves in high latitude environments, the faster warming is coming as a low albedo effect takes hold.

Continue reading “Arctic Greening is Happening Faster Than We Thought” »

Sep 19, 2022

Goodyear to produce airless tires for Moon rovers of Artemis program

Posted by in category: space

Just like more than a half-century ago, the same company will work with NASA again.

Goodyear rolled up its sleeves to produce lunar vehicle tires in collaboration with Lockheed Martin and General Motors. The project is expected to be ready in 2025.

The companies hope to be the first to establish long-term commercial vehicle operations on the Moon. Goodyear offers its vast expertise in tires, a mission-critical component for traversing the lunar surface.

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