Lifeboat Foundation

The test-run is 15 years away.

With bodies that move and hands that wave, deepfakes just got a whole lot more realistic.

But the technology could break down trust and social bonds.

DARPA’s quantum innovations might bring unprecedented precision and reliability.

Robotic Autonomy in Complex Environments with Resiliency (RACER) program successfully tested autonomous movement on a new, much larger fleet vehicle – a significant step in scaling up the adaptability and capability of the underlying RACER algorithms.

The RACER Heavy Platform (RHP) vehicles are 12-ton, 20-foot-long, skid-steer tracked vehicles – similar in size to forthcoming robotic and optionally manned combat/fighting vehicles. The RHPs complement the 2-ton, 11-foot-long, Ackermann-steered, wheeled RACER Fleet Vehicles (RFVs) already in use.

Continue reading “RACER Speeds Into a Second Phase With Robotic Fleet Expansion and Another Experiment Success” »

Dr Carol Bernstein examines the role of increased bile acids in gastrointestinal cancers, including colon cancer.

Teaching robots to ask for help is key to making them safer and more efficient.

Engineers at Princeton University and Google have come up with a new way to teach robots to know when they don’t know. The technique involves quantifying the fuzziness of human language and using that measurement to tell robots when to ask for further directions. Telling a robot to pick up a bowl from a table with only one bowl is fairly clear. But telling a robot to pick up a bowl when there are five bowls on the table generates a much higher degree of uncertainty — and triggers the robot to ask for clarification.

Because tasks are typically more complex than a simple “pick up a bowl” command, the engineers use large language models (LLMs) — the technology behind tools such as ChatGPT — to gauge uncertainty in complex environments. LLMs are bringing robots powerful capabilities to follow human language, but LLM outputs are still frequently unreliable, said Anirudha Majumdar, an assistant professor of mechanical and aerospace engineering at Princeton and the senior author of a study outlining the new method.

Why is Facebook (Meta) harassing my account?

Decision on case of ex-Facebook moderator, who claims the work left him with PTSD, hailed as win for accountability of big tech in Africa.

Erwan Plantec, Joachin W.Pedersen, Milton L.Montero, Eleni Nisioti, Sebastian Risi ITU Copenhagen 2024 https://arxiv.org/abs/2406.

OpenRead & Notes Taking.