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AI startups can rake in investment by hiding how their systems are powered by humans. But such secrecy can be exploitative.

The nifty app CamFind has come a long way with its artificial intelligence. It uses image recognition to identify an object when you point your smartphone camera at it. But back in 2015 its algorithms were less advanced: The app mostly used contract workers in the Philippines to quickly type what they saw through a user’s phone camera, CamFind’s co-founder confirmed to me recently. You wouldn’t have guessed that from a press release it put out that year which touted industry-leading “deep learning technology,” but didn’t mention any human labelers.

The practice of hiding human input in AI systems still remains an open secret among those who work in machine learning and AI. A 2019 analysis of tech startups in Europe by London-based MMC Ventures even found that 40% of purported AI startups showed no evidence of actually using artificial intelligence in their products.

Implantable heart technology is being used in Manchester to assess when a patient is at high risk of dying, thanks to an NIHR ARC-GM and University of Manchester led research published today.

The pacemakers and defibrillators contain multiple sensors that allow continuous monitoring of a patient’s heart health, 24 hours a day. The study published in Europace and funded by the Medical Research Council is a collaboration between The University of Manchester, Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust (MFT), Health Innovation Manchester, the National Institute for Health Applied Research Collaboration Greater Manchester (ARC-GM) and Medtronic – who manufacture implantable devices.

The research team examined remotely monitored health related data from 439 patients at Manchester Royal Infirmary over two years. The study reported a three-fold increase in odds of mortality for patients who spent at least one day in high-risk status. There was also a 26% increase in the odds of mortality for patients who had 14 consecutive days or more in a high-risk status compared with those whose high-risk episodes were shorter. Higher percentages of time spent in a high-risk status, and less time in a low-risk status, were also associated with increased risk of death.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a force for good that could play a huge part in solving problems such as climate change. Left unchecked, however, it could undermine democracy, lead to massive social problems and be harnessed for chilling military or terrorist attacks.

That’s the view of Martin Ford, futurist and author of Rule of the Robots, his follow-up to Rise of the Robots, the 2015 New York Times bestseller and winner of the Financial Times/McKinsey Business Book of the Year, which focused on how AI would destroy jobs.

In the new book, Ford, a sci-fi fan, presents two broad movie-based scenarios.

In 2,019 a survey from the Center for Digital Government (CDG), the National Association of Chief Information Officers and IBM found that just 13 percent of state governments reported using artificial intelligence in some non-core part of their operations. Three years later, the same survey yielded very different results.

At the NASCIO annual confference in Seattle this week, Joe Morris with CDG presented some of the study’s 2021 findings, and it was clear that the COVID-19 pandemic changed how state and local government are thinking about AI. This year, 60 percent of respondents reported AI is currently in use in their enterprise; 6.7 percent said the tech is widely used across the state, up from just 1 percent in 2019.

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The is the world’s first biotech fine dust filter for urban spaces. Integrated moss modules bring the forest into the city and ensure that the air is verifiably and noticeably clean. We combine the natural filtering power of mosses with smart IoT technology. With an automated irrigation and ventilation system, the can clean and cool the surrounding air. Independent studies show that up to 82% of the fine dust in the air is filtered directly through the moss and the air is also cooled by up to 2.5 ° C.

Have you ever wondered how much water is needed to charge an iPhone? Probably not, because it takes electricity to charge a phone, not water. But, say if you had a hydraulic generator, you could be able to generate some electricity using only your garden hose. That is precisely what is being done in a video by the YouTube channel The Action Lab

The owner of the channel, James Orgill, demonstrates the power output of his setup, and how the voltage output goes up as he increases the water flow. The power that comes straight out of the generator is AC power, so he connects a full bridge rectifier to the output to convert it to DC. He makes sure the generated voltage is 12V at maximum by adjusting the flow, to prevent the iPhone from frying.

But, if you ever decide to do this at home, you should probably buy a voltage regulator, just to be safe. He then proceeds to charge his phone to figure out how much water would it take to fully charge his phone, and calculates that he would need 528 gallons (2,400 liters) of it! If you want to watch the demonstration, make sure you watch the video above.

ORF Genetics in Iceland is growing 100,000 genetically engineered barley plants in a greenhouse measuring over 22 square feet (2 sq m) to create lab-grown meat.

This cutting-edge approach has the potential to lower prices, eliminate reliance on live animals in the lab-grown meat sector, and speed up the scaling-up process, according to BBC. And, with the fact that meat accounts for nearly 60 percent of all greenhouse gases from food production in mind, such a development could have far-reaching implications in the fight against climate change.

Blue Origin launched Star Trek actor William Shatner and three others into space on a brief suborbital flight on Oct. 13 the second crewed flight of the company’s New Shepard vehicle.

New Shepard lifted off from the company’s Launch Site One in West Texas at 10:49 a.m. Eastern. The vehicle reached an estimated peak altitude of 107 kilometers before the crew capsule, RSS First Step, landed 10 minutes and 15 seconds after liftoff. The booster landed under rocket power about three minutes earlier.

The vehicle carried four people, headlined by Shatner, best known for his role as James T. Kirk on the original Star Trek television series and later movies. At 90 Shatner is now the oldest person to fly to space, breaking the record set by 82-year-old Wally Funk on the first crewed New Shepard flight on July 20.

Mitochondrial disorders, nano-medicine drug delivery, and innovative therapeutic interventions — dr. volkmar weissig scd, phd — president, world mitochondria society — professor, midwestern university.


Dr. Volkmar Weissig, Sc. D., Ph.D. is a Tenured Full Professor of Pharmacology, Chair of the Department of Pharmaceutical Sciences, and Co-Director of the Nanomedicine Center of Excellence in Translational Cancer Research, at Midwestern University, Glendale, AZ, USA.

Dr. Weissig received his B.S., M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in Chemistry, and his postdoctoral Sc. D. degree in Biochemistry and Pharmaceutical Biotechnology from the Martin-Luther University in Halle (Germany).