Lifeboat Foundation

Artificial intelligence beats over 100 London lawyers in predicting case outcome:

In a contest that took place last month. It pitched over 100 lawyers from many of London’s ritziest firms against an artificial intelligence program called Case Cruncher Alpha.

Both the humans and the AI were given the basic facts of hundreds of PPI (payment protection insurance) mis-selling cases and asked to predict whether the Financial Ombudsman would allow a claim.

China’s massive new library has such a sleek and futuristic design that it looks like it came straight out of the works of science fiction.

The newly opened Tianjin Binhai Library situated at the Binhai Cultural Center covers an enormous 33,700 square meters (362,744 square feet) space.

Continue reading “China Just Unveiled The Most Futuristic Library Ever” »

In Finland, two thousand unemployed people are part of an experiment that could shape the future of the West. For the next two years, the government will give them the equivalent of 660 dollars a month — for free, no strings attached. It’s an idea called Universal Income and it’s got a lot of politicians and economists excited, and others worried about creating a society of freeloaders.

But what does it look like? VICE News travelled to deepest, darkest, coldest Finland to meet a father of six taking part in the experiment to see how its changed his life and speak to those who are critical of the trial.

Continue reading “Finland Is Giving Citizens $660 A Month For Free As An Experiment (HBO)” »

https://youtube.com/watch?v=0W3f2YRhgQ4

After more than a decade away, Sony’s Aibo pet robot is making a return. The original dog-like robot launched in 1999, while Sony says its followup is “capable of forming an emotional bond with members of the household while providing them with love, affection, and the joy of nurturing and raising a companion.” Its OLED eyes allow for “nuanced” expressions as fisheye cameras see and recognize individual faces while new actuators allow its body to move smoothly along 22 axes. Pre-orders for the new robot begin tonight via Sony’s online store in Japan for 179,000 yen (about $1,739 US), with shipments scheduled to begin on January 11th.

Of course, because this is 2017, not only is the new Aibo powered by AI (that learns and develops a unique personality over time) but it’s also connected to the cloud. An Aibo Basic Plan subscription not only backs up your robot’s unique identity but also turns on the connection for owners to access their remote via WiFi or a mobile connection.

Continue reading “Sony’s new Aibo pet robot goes on sale tonight in Japan” »

Emergency Physician Joshua Broder realized his son’s Wii controller could detect movement than a $50,000 ultrasound machine. So he combined them.

NYC attack kills 8, injures 9; suspect in custody.

“This was an act of terror, and a particularly cowardly act of terror,” he said.

[Previous story, posted at 5:19 p.m. ET]

Continue reading “Truck attack in Manhattan kills 8; mayor calls it act of terror” »

Alzheimer’s may be contagious.

A protein might be capable of spreading Alzheimer’s through blood transfusions and surgical equipment, but we don’t know yet how much of a risk this is.

Take that, real bees.

If the processes powering the fusion reactor at the Sun’s core could be recreated on Earth, it would be one of the most important events in the history of our species. Nuclear fusion power plants could end our dependency on fossil fuels and provide a virtually limitless, highly efficient source of clean energy.

We went to two of the world’s leading nuclear fusion research centers—Sandia National Labs in New Mexico and General Fusion outside Vancouver—to see how close we are to bringing the power of the stars down to Earth.

Continue reading “The Race to Create a Star on Earth” »