Lifeboat News: The Blog – Safeguarding Humanity

AI system makes models like DALL-E 2 more creative

Posted by Gemechu Taye in internet, robotics/AI

Sep 10
2022

Researchers develop a new method that uses multiple models to create more complex images with better understanding.

The internet had a collective feel-good moment with the introduction of DALL-E, an artificial intelligence-based image generator inspired by artist Salvador Dali and the lovable robot WALL-E that uses natural language to produce whatever mysterious and beautiful image your heart desires. Seeing typed-out inputs like “smiling gopher holding an ice cream cone” instantly spring to life clearly resonated with the world.

Getting said smiling gopher and attributes to pop up on your screen is not a small task.

A new AI system from MIT makes models like DALL-E 2 more creative by using multiple models to create more complex images with better understanding.

Continue reading “AI system makes models like DALL-E 2 more creative” | >

Rheumatoid arthritis could be treated by eating probiotic bacteria

Posted by Genevieve Klien in biotech/medical, food

Sep 10
2022

Experiments in rats hint that an immune-suppressing drug that can be taken by eating a probiotic may relieve symptoms of rheumatoid arthritis more effectively than injections.

Read more | >

Watch SpaceX launch the huge BlueWalker 3 satellite, Starlink fleet on rocket’s record-setting 14th flight tonight

Posted by Genevieve Klien in mobile phones, satellites

Sep 10
2022

A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket will fly for a record-breaking 14th time on Saturday night (Sept. 10), launching 34 of the company’s Starlink internet satellites and a huge direct-to-smartphone connectivity test spacecraft to orbit, and you can watch it live.

The two-stage Falcon 9, topped with the Starlinks and AST SpaceMobile’s Blue Walker 3 test satellite, is scheduled to lift off from NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida Saturday at 9:10 p.m. EDT (0110 GMT on Sept. 11). Watch it live here at Space.com, courtesy of SpaceX, or directly via the company (opens in new tab).

Read more | >

A sneaky interloper behind our galaxy’s center complicates the search for dark matter

Posted by Atanas Atanasov in cosmology

Sep 10
2022

Well, not so fast.

Crocker’s paper, published Monday in the journal Nature Astronomy, argues that this “substructure” doesn’t belong to the Fermi bubble at all but instead a satellite galaxy behind the bubble (from our galactic perspective) called the Dwarf Sagittarius Spheroidal Galaxy, or Sagittarius dSph.

Read more | >

Five INL innovations that are changing the world

Posted by Wise Technology in energy, innovation

Sep 10
2022

One of the biggest contributions in the near future could come from smaller, more compact reactors. Several microreactor designs are currently under development in the United States that will be smaller in size, more flexible to operate and versatile enough to provide energy to end users for a variety of services ranging from electricity production to water purification.

Read more | >

New energy harvesters show potential that fits like a glove

Posted by Wise Technology in energy, nanotechnology

Sep 10
2022

A group of University of Texas at Dallas researchers and their colleagues have made significant improvements to energy-harvesting yarns they invented called twistrons, which are made from carbon nanotubes and produce electricity when repeatedly stretched.

The researchers describe the improved twistrons and some potential applications of the technology in an article published in the July 7 print issue of Advanced Materials.

In a proof-of-principle experiment, Zhong Wang, Ph.D., lead author of the article and a research associate in the Alan G. MacDiarmid NanoTech Institute at UT Dallas, sewed the new twistron yarns into a glove. As someone wearing the glove formed different letters and phrases in American Sign Language, the hand gestures generated electricity.

Read more | >

Is Intel Labs’ brain-inspired AI approach the future of robot learning?

Posted by Wise Technology in biotech/medical, chemistry, information science, robotics/AI

Sep 10
2022

“Neuromorphic computing could offer a compelling alternative to traditional AI accelerators by significantly improving power and data efficiency for more complex AI use cases, spanning data centers to extreme edge applications.”

Were you unable to attend Transform 2022? Check out all of the summit sessions in our on-demand library now! Watch here.

Can computer systems develop to the point where they can think creatively, identify people or items they have never seen before, and adjust accordingly — all while working more efficiently, with less power? Intel Labs is betting on it, with a new hardware and software approach using neuromorphic computing, which, according to a recent blog post, “uses new algorithmic approaches that emulate how the human brain interacts with the world to deliver capabilities closer to human cognition.”

While this may sound futuristic, Intel’s neuromorphic computing research is already fostering interesting use cases, including how to add new voice interaction commands to Mercedes-Benz vehicles; create a robotic hand that delivers medications to patients; or develop chips that recognize hazardous chemicals.

Continue reading “Is Intel Labs’ brain-inspired AI approach the future of robot learning?” | >

Scientists Have Made a Human Microbiome From Scratch

Posted by Dan Breeden in biotech/medical, food, health

Sep 10
2022

Our bodies are home to hundreds or thousands of species of microbes — nobody is sure quite how many. That’s just one of many mysteries about the so-called human microbiome.

Our inner ecosystem fends off pathogens, helps digest food and may even influence behavior. But scientists have yet to figure out exactly which microbes do what or how. Many studies suggest that many species have to work together to do each of the microbiome’s jobs.

To better understand how microbes affect our health, scientists have for the first time created a synthetic human microbiome, combining 119 species of bacteria naturally found in the human body. When the researchers gave the concoction to mice that did not have a microbiome of their own, the bacterial strains established themselves and remained stable — even when the scientists introduced other microbes.

Read more | >

Crypto’s Core Values Are Running Headfirst Into Reality

Posted by Dan Breeden in futurism

Sep 10
2022

The cat’s out of the bag on crypto regulations, forcing some companies to choose between their principles and their profits.

Read more | >

Frank Drake Has Passed Away, but His Equation for Alien Intelligence Is More Important Than Ever

Posted by Dan Breeden in alien life, information science

Sep 10
2022

Drake’s equation may look complicated, but its principles are really rather simple. It states that, in a galaxy as old as ours, the number of civilizations that are detectable by virtue of them broadcasting their presence must equate to the rate at which they arise, multiplied by their average lifetime.

Putting a value on the rate at which civilizations occur might seem to be guesswork, but Drake realized that it can be broken down into more tractable components.

He stated that the total rate is equal to the rate at which suitable stars are formed, multiplied by the fraction of those stars that have planets. This is then multiplied by the number of planets that are capable of bearing life per system, times the fraction of those planets where life gets started, multiplied by the fraction of those where life becomes intelligent, times the fraction of those that broadcast their presence.

Read more | >