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Jul 17, 2020

Japanese robot to clock in at a convenience store in test of retail automation

Posted by in category: robotics/AI

TOKYO (Reuters) — In August, a robot vaguely resembling a kangaroo will begin stacking sandwiches, drinks and ready meals on shelves at a Japanese convenience store in a test its maker, Telexistence, hopes will help trigger a wave of retail automation.

Following that trial, store operator FamilyMart says it plans to use robot workers at 20 stores around Tokyo by 2022. At first, people will operate them remotely — until the machines’ artificial intelligence (AI) can learn to mimic human movements. Rival convenience store chain Lawson is deploying its first robot in September, according to Telexistence.

“It advances the scope and scale of human existence,” the robot maker’s chief executive, Jin Tomioka, said as he explained how its technology lets people sense and experience places other than where they are.

Jul 17, 2020

Gene Therapy Today with Dr. Jason Williams and Liz Parrish

Posted by in category: biotech/medical

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bXhCysAEa4k

This discussion includes Dr. Williams’ work with gene therapy, cancer research, and follistatin — a myostatin inhibitor. he administered to himself years ago.

Dr. Williams, CMO of BioViva Science, is a radiologist with a passion for gene and cellular therapies that can be administered under image guidance. He also has an interest in image guided cancer therapies. He did research for several years with adenoviral vector technology for the treatment of cancer. He has spent the last five years involved in research using AAV technology. Dr. Williams obtained his medical degree from Louisiana State University and completed an internship in Internal Medicine followed by a residency in Radiology at The University Of South Alabama. In residency, he was selected for the RSNA Research Fellow award.

Continue reading “Gene Therapy Today with Dr. Jason Williams and Liz Parrish” »

Jul 17, 2020

White Castle is testing a burger-grilling robot named Flippy

Posted by in categories: food, robotics/AI

White Castle is introducing a burger-grilling robot — and it might flip the entire restaurant industry.

Jul 17, 2020

Linux founder tells Intel to stop inventing ‘magic instructions’ and ’start fixing real problems‘

Posted by in categories: biotech/medical, computing

Linus Torvalds, the creator of Linux, offered up some interesting thoughts on Intel’s Advanced Vector Extensions 512 (AVX-512) instruction set, calling it a “power virus” that was only created to make the company’s CPU hardware perform well in benchmarks. He also admitted to being “biased” and “grumpy” in his assessment.

His comments came in a mailing list (via Phoronix) discussing an article suggesting AVX-512 might not be part of Intel’s upcoming Alder Lake architecture. If that comes to pass, it will be just fine by Torvalds.

Jul 16, 2020

Is Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) On The Horizon? Interview With Dr. Ben Goertzel, CEO & Founder, SingularityNET Foundation

Posted by in categories: robotics/AI, security, singularity

Dr. Ben Goertzel CEO & Founder of the SingularityNET Foundation is particularly visible and vocal on his thoughts on Artificial Intelligence, AGI, and where research and industry are in regards to AGI. Speaking at the (Virtual) OpenCogCon event this week, Dr. Goertzel is one of the world’s foremost experts in Artificial General Intelligence. He has decades of expertise applying AI to practical problems in areas ranging from natural language processing and data mining to robotics, video gaming, national security, and bioinformatics.

Are we at a turning point in AGI?

Dr. Goertzel believes that we are now at a turning point in the history of AI. Over the next few years he believes the balance of activity in the AI research area is about to shift from highly specialized narrow AIs toward AGIs. Deep neural nets have achieved amazing things but that paradigm is going to run out of steam fairly soon, and rather than this causing another “AI winter” or a shift in focus to some other kind of narrow AI, he thinks it’s going to trigger the AGI revolution.

Jul 16, 2020

Cells die in 2 ways — scientists may have found a life-extending workaround

Posted by in category: life extension

Interesting.


Cells naturally follow two highways to the grave, but scientists may have found a scenic route that extends the cell cycle. This may help extend human longevity.

Jul 16, 2020

Important cultural burn program starts ahead of upcoming bushfire season

Posted by in category: futurism

A traditional burning program has started on the Far South Coast following weeks of preparation, and a wait for ideal weather conditions.

Jul 16, 2020

Bacteria that eats metal accidentally discovered by scientists

Posted by in categories: chemistry, food

(CNN) — Scientists have discovered a type of bacteria that eats and gets its calories from metal, after suspecting they exist for more than a hundred years but never proving it.

Now microbiologists from the California Institute of Technology (or Caltech) accidentally discovered the bacteria after performing unrelated experiments using a chalk-like type of manganese, a commonly found chemical element.


(CNN)Scientists have discovered a type of bacteria that eats and gets its calories from metal, after suspecting they exist for more than a hundred years but never proving it.

Jul 16, 2020

DARPA Pays $1 Million For An AI App That Can Predict An Enemy’s Emotions

Posted by in categories: military, robotics/AI

The science of using AI to detect and predict emotions is shaky but the U.S. military and a handful of well-funded startups are hoping to prove the doubters wrong, whatever the risks.

Jul 16, 2020

Hybrid solar converter harvests both sunlight and heat at 85% efficiency

Posted by in categories: solar power, sustainability

Engineers have developed a new type of hybrid solar energy converter, which uses energy from the Sun to create both electricity and steam. The device reportedly has high efficiency and runs at low cost, allowing industry to make use of a wider spectrum of solar energy.

The most common way of collecting energy from the Sun is through photovoltaics. These solar cells produce electricity from sunlight, and they’re so simple that they’re built into everything from garden lights to the grid itself.

But it’s not the only way. Solar concentrators collect heat instead of light, focusing the Sun’s rays to heat up a contained fluid. This can then be used to generate electricity – say as steam turning a turbine – or more directly, to heat homes or for other industrial processes.