August 2018 – Page 5

Business, China, Economy, Science & Technology News, Shopping

Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent (BAT) are now valued at a combined $1 trillion USD.

August 14, 2018

Alibaba and Tencent alone now account for almost one-third of the MSCI China Index, fueling its 47 percent gain in 2017.

As of this past March, China had skyrocketed to 164 unicorns, worth a combined $628.4 billion USD. Roughly 50 percent are controlled or backed by BAT.

But BAT isn’t keeping ambitions local. Worldwide, BAT invests in over 150 companies, spanning the gamut from AI to biotech.

And with access to more internet users than the U.S. and all of Europe combined, BAT is fueled by the greatest treasure trove of data on the planet.

Continue reading… “Baidu, Alibaba and Tencent (BAT) are now valued at a combined $1 trillion USD.”

Engineering, Ford Motor Company, Robotics

The worker in the robot suit: New industrial orders reignite exoskeleton interest

August 14, 2018

It’s been a technology without a clear customer for about a decade, but wearable robotic suits are finally finding a market in legacy manufacturing and construction.

Robotic exoskeletons are back in the news after Ford ordered 75 robotic suits from Ekso Bionics, as reported by my colleague.

The relatively small number of orders belies the significance of this moment for a fantastically advanced set of technologies that have been searching for a viable market for over a decade now. Wearable robots that augment human strength have attracted big investment money, but the use case has been harder to pinpoint.

Continue reading… “The worker in the robot suit: New industrial orders reignite exoskeleton interest”

3D Printer, Healthcare, Medical Breakthrough

3D-printed nerve stem cells could help patch up spinal cord injuries

August 14, 2018

A 3D-printed device, loaded with neuronal stem cells, that can be implanted into an injured spinal cord to help “bridge” the damage,

Spinal injuries can be like downed power lines – even if everything on either side of the injury is perfectly functional, the break can effectively shut down the whole system. Now, researchers at the University of Minnesota have designed a device that could link everything back together again. A silicone guide, covered in 3D-printed neuronal stem cells, can be implanted into the injury site, where it grows new connections between remaining nerves to let patients regain some motor control.

Continue reading… “3D-printed nerve stem cells could help patch up spinal cord injuries”

Art, Money Talk, New Viewpoints

What would U.S money look like, given the proper attention of an industrial designer

August 13, 2018

Bills so pretty you’d never spend them.

Industrial designer Andrey Avgust hails from Belarus, a country whose currency I admit I’ve never seen. But he’s seen our yankee dollars and recognizes that their design kind of stinks.

For fun Avgust gave U.S. bills a redesign, starting with the material: Polymer.

Continue reading… “What would U.S money look like, given the proper attention of an industrial designer”

App, Human Behavior, Latest Trend

Snapchat photo filters linked to rise in cosmetic surgery requests

August 13, 2018

The trend, labelled ‘Snapchat dysmorphia’, suggests some people are experiencing a worrying blur between reality and social media.

Plastic surgeons are reporting a rise in requests to look ‘filtered.’

Plastic surgeons are reporting that patients are coming to them with selfies of themselves edited using the filters on Snapchat or Instagram and asking to look more like the retouched photo.

Continue reading… “Snapchat photo filters linked to rise in cosmetic surgery requests”

Analysis, Big Problems, Food, Human Behavior

It’s easy to become obese in America. These 7 charts explain why.

August 13, 2018

“In America, the unhealthiest foods are the tastiest foods, the cheapest foods, the largest-portion foods.”

It’s no secret that Americans have gotten much, much bigger over the past few decades. The signs are all around us, from XXXL clothing sizes to supersize movie seats and even larger coffins.

According to an analysis from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the average American man now stands at 5-feet-9 1/4 inches tall and weighs 196 pounds — up 15 pounds from 20 years ago. For women, the change has been even more striking: The average female today stands 5-feet-3 3/4 inches and weighs 169 pounds. In 1994, her scale read 152 pounds

Continue reading… “It’s easy to become obese in America. These 7 charts explain why.”

Animals, Biotech, DNA, Human Behavior, Science & Technology News

Inside the very big, very controversial business of dog cloning

August 12, 2018

Recently born clones share an incubator.

Barbra Streisand is not alone. At a South Korean laboratory, a once-disgraced doctor is replicating hundreds of deceased pets for the rich and famous. It’s made for more than a few questions of bioethics.

The surgeon is a showman. Scrubbed in and surrounded by his surgical team, a lavalier mike clipped to his mask, he gestures broadly as he describes the C-section he is about to perform to a handful of rapt students watching from behind a plexiglass wall. Still narrating, he steps over to a steel operating table where the expectant mother is stretched out, fully anesthetized. All but her lower stomach is discreetly covered by a crisp green cloth. The surgeon makes a quick incision in her belly. His assistants tug gingerly on clamps that pull back the flaps of tissue on either side of the cut. The surgeon slips two gloved fingers inside the widening hole, then his entire hand. An EKG monitor shows the mother’s heart beating in steady pulses.

Continue reading… “Inside the very big, very controversial business of dog cloning”

AI, Artificial Intelligence, Automation, Robots, Science & Technology News

Can emotional AI make Anki’s new robot into a lovable companion?

August 12, 2018

Known for its hyperactive toys, the company spent years developing technologies to tackle its greatest challenge yet–subtlety.

If there’s a robot uprising anytime soon, it seems unlikely to start in our living rooms. Robotic vacuums like Roomba sell well because they are so handy. But other types of home robots–pets and companions from Sony’s Aibo robo-pooch to the recently shuttered Kuri (backed by Bosch)–have flopped due to both prices and expectations that have been set unreasonably high.

If any company can eventually bring us a domestic robot like Rosie from The Jetsons, Anki is a good bet. Started by three Carnegie Mellon Robotics Institute graduates in 2010, the company has racked up over $200 million in venture funding. More important, it’s attracted customers. Anki has already sold 1.5 million robots by taking what it sees as the easiest route into the home: toys. The star is a manic little bulldozer-looking bot called Cozmo that drives around a tabletop and plays simple games with light-up cubes it carries about. Cozmo was the best-selling toy (by revenue) on Amazon in the U.S., U.K., and France in 2017, according to one analysis.

Continue reading… “Can emotional AI make Anki’s new robot into a lovable companion?”

AI, Future, Futurist, Hot Issues

Humanity confronts a defining question: How will AI change us?

August 11, 2018

What will happen when we’ve built machines as intelligent as us? According to the experts this incredible feat will be achieved in the year 2062 – a mere 44 years away – which certainly begs the question: what will the world, our jobs, the economy, politics, war, and everyday life and death, look like then?

Fortunately, Toby Walsh, Scientia Professor of Artificial Intelligence (AI) at UNSW has done the research for us.

Continue reading… “Humanity confronts a defining question: How will AI change us?”

Analysis, communication, Internet

Why we hate using email but love sending texts

August 11, 2018

They both allow us to stay in touch, but while email often attracts ire, text messaging is more popular than ever. Is the way we choose to communicate saying more than we might think?

Around 15 years ago, I was working at my part-time job at an electronics store at the mall. One of my colleagues asked me if I “use text messages.”

“I’m addicted,” she said wide-eyed. “They’re so much fun.”

At that time, most people were still using old feature phones with LED screens and plastic keypads. I don’t remember what the character limits were, but it was certainly fewer than a tweet, and it took about 12 years to finally type out what you wanted to say. They were slow, very expensive, and long enough to write about a quarter of a haiku. I genuinely thought it was a dumb, flash-in-the-pan gimmick that wouldn’t last long.

How wrong I was.

Continue reading… “Why we hate using email but love sending texts”

Artificial Intelligence, communication, Internet, women

Artificial intelligence can now help write Wikipedia pages for overlooked scientists

August 11, 2018

The tech could be used to increase the representation of women scientists on Wikipedia.

Quicksilver discovers scientists who should have Wikipedia articles about them and writes a first draft.

Plenty of prominent scientists have Wikipedia pages. But while checking to see if someone specific has a Wikipedia page is a quick Google search away, figuring out who should be on Wikipedia but isn’t—and then writing an entry for him or her—is much trickier.

Continue reading… “Artificial intelligence can now help write Wikipedia pages for overlooked scientists”

Blockchain, Crypto-Technology, Human Behavior, Science & Technology News

The rise of an “Assassination Marketplace” shows the dark side of decentralized networks

August 10, 2018

Right now, there’s an online bidding war over whether or not Donald Trump will die before the year is out. All a would-be assassin has to do is stake a whole bunch of money on “yes” and they’d make a fortune.

These not-quite death threats reportedly lodged against the president and other public figures, including Jeff Bezos, John McCain, and Betty White, can be found on Augur, a decentralized app recently launched by the nonprofit Forecast Foundation. Augur is a protocol through which people can create prediction markets, which are crowdsourced platforms where people stake cryptocurrency (in this case Ethereum and the Augur-specific token Reputation) on a prediction’s most likely outcome.

Continue reading… “The rise of an “Assassination Marketplace” shows the dark side of decentralized networks”