THE “DIGITAL COURT” WOULD USE SMART CONTRACTS TO RESOLVE DISPUTES
Researchers from the University of Tokyo have developed a blockchain-powered mechanism for settling legal disputes.
Researchers have developed a “digital court” mechanism using blockchain-powered smart contracts.
Continue reading… “Tokyo researchers create a digital court for the digital age”
The Work Hub can be used to find gigs with Uber Eats, Uber Freight, or over a dozen other companies
Demand for ride-hailing in cities is down severely due to the coronavirus pandemic, and as such, drivers are struggling to find work. Uber is rolling out a new feature for drivers that is designed to help them find work during this crisis — even if that work is for a different company.
Uber drivers received an email on Monday announcing a new feature in the driver app called the Work Hub designed to help drivers earn money with the company’s other ventures. Drivers can use the Hub to receive orders through Uber Eats; haul freight with the company’s trucking business, Uber Freight; pick up a shift with Uber’s temporary worker program, Uber Works; or respond to an opening from over a dozen other companies that are looking to hire.
Like most shared transportation services, Uber has seen a precipitous drop in ridership as a result of the pandemic. The company’s gross bookings in Seattle, a city hit hard by COVID-19, is down by 60 to 70 percent, and Uber is assuming similar declines in other big cities like San Francisco, Los Angeles, and New York City. The virus has cut Uber’s overall business by as much as 50 percent, according to The Information.
Continue reading… “Uber launches effort to help drivers find other work during coronavirus crisis”
Despite the huge contributions of deep learning to the field of artificial intelligence, there’s something very wrong with it: It requires huge amounts of data. This is one thing that both the pioneers and critics of deep learning agree on. In fact, deep learning didn’t emerge as the leading AI technique until a few years ago because of the limited availability of useful data and the shortage of computing power to process that data.
Reducing the data-dependency of deep learning is currently among the top priorities of AI researchers.
Continue reading… “Self-supervised learning is the future of AI”
Get ready to blast off.
The aerospace experts at NASA are helping everyone socially distancing at home to pass the time.
NASA is ready to entertain and educate you all weekend long.
The aerospace experts are pulling out all the stops to help everyone pass the time home socially distancing. That includes releasing some seriously cool virtual tours and highlighting a few of its coolest places. Check out a selection of seven tours available from NASA below.
The Model 3 infotainment system provides the basis for Tesla’s ventilator, hastily designed to combat device shortages around the world.
Ventilators are one of the most important medical devices in the battle against the coronavirus, helping keep patients with critical COVID-19 infections alive. But as the coronavirus pandemic has spread, hospitals in the worst-hit nations have found the devices in short supply. Fortunately, a handful of manufacturers have been trying to plug the shortfall including Tesla, the electric vehicle giant led by Elon Musk, which is using its New York gigafactory to help produce ventilators.
On April 5, Tesla engineering provided an update on the company’s own ventilator, which is “heavily based on Tesla car parts,” according to engineering director Joseph Mardall. A four-minute-long video was posted to YouTube revealing a prototype ventilator powered by many of the same components used in the Tesla Model 3.
Continue reading… “Tesla unveils coronavirus ventilator prototype that uses Model 3 parts”
Google is to publicly track people’s movements over the course of the coronavirus pandemic.
The tech firm will publish details of the different types of places people are going to on a county-by-county basis in the UK, as well as similar data for 130 other countries.
The plan is to issue a regular updates with the figures referring back to activity from two or three days prior.
The company has promised that individuals’ privacy will be preserved.
Continue reading… “Coronavirus: Google reveals travel habits during the pandemic”
The headquarter of the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) is pictured in Geneva, Switzerland
GENEVA (Reuters) – China was the biggest source of applications for international patents in the world last year, pushing the United States out of the top spot it has held since the global system was set up more than 40 years ago, the U.N. patent agency said on Tuesday.
The World Intellectual Property Organization, which oversees a system for countries to share recognition of patents, said 58,990 applications were filed from China last year, beating out the United States which filed 57,840.
China’s figure was a 200-fold increase in just 20 years, it said. The United States had filed the most applications in the world every year since the Patent Cooperation Treaty system was set up in 1978.
More than half of patent applications – 52.4 % – now come from Asia, with Japan ranking third, followed by Germany and South Korea.
Ownership of patents is widely seen as an important sign of a country’s economic strength and industrial know-how.
Continue reading… “In a first, China knocks U.S. from top spot in global patent race”
“Immunotherapy is the biggest breakthrough in medicine in our generation”: Associate Professor Alex Menzies from Melanoma Institute Australia.
If there is reason to have faith in the scientists, immunologists, virologists and oncologists racing to develop a vaccine for coronavirus, it is the stunning progress they are having in reducing deaths from what is called “Australia’s cancer”.
A decade ago, a diagnosis of advanced or stage four melanoma was effectively a death sentence within six to nine months.
But a leading medical oncologist, Associate Professor Alex Menzies from Melanoma Institute Australia, believes immunotherapy treatments – using the body’s immune system to attack the cancer cells – mean 50 per cent of these patients are surviving long enough to be considered cured.
Continue reading… “Potentially the biggest medical breakthrough since penicillin”
Sitting in a petri dish in the laboratories of Tufts University and the University of Vermont are a new kind of life form — half living cells and half machine. Xenobots are a scientific and technological breakthrough — a living organism that is fully programmable, capable of changing form and function essentially on command. The new type of bot was first introduced earlier this year, and thanks to a report from the New York Times, we now have a look behind the process of creating the novel creatures that have the potential to bridge the divide between the mechanical and biological.
Xenobots are not like any creature you’ve seen before. In fact, you can’t really see them at all. These so-called living machines look like little more than a speck to the naked eye, measuring up at about one millimeter wide. The idea for the new organisms was first dreamed up on a supercomputer at the University of Vermont. Researchers ran hundreds of simulations using what they called an “evolutionary algorithm” that would simulate different types of cells. It finally landed on the design for what would become the Xenobot. To bring that design to life, scientists scraped thousands of living skin cells from frog embryos — specifically the African clawed frog Xenopus laevis, hence the name Xenobot. After separating the cells and allowing them to incubate, the researchers used a tiny forceps and electrode to cut and assemble the cells under a microscope until they were assembled in a way that matched the supercomputer’s blueprint.
Continue reading… “Scientists have created a new type of robot that is literally alive”
As the ripple of COVID-19 careens around the globe, it’s forcing humankind to innovate and change the way we work and live. The upside of where we find ourselves right now is that individuals and corporations will be more resilient in a post-COVID-19 world. Here are nine predictions of what our world may look like once we have left the pandemic behind.
Continue reading… “9 future predictions for a post-corona world”
Google’s top-rated futurist, founder and executive director of the DaVinci Institute – Thomas Frey © RT
Google’s top-rated futurist Thomas Frey on SophieCo. Visionaries,
During times when it’s hard to say what next week will bring, one thing is certain – the world has changed. What will it be like after the Covid-19 pandemic? We talked about this with Google’s top-rated futurist, founder and executive director of the DaVinci Institute – Thomas Frey.
Job seekers wait in line at the JobLink Career [+]
The U.S. Department of Labor reported unemployment insurance claims for the week ending Saturday, April 11, came in at 5.245 million, a decline of over 1.4 million from the prior week, but still the third highest weekly total ever recorded. The coronavirus has driven the four-week total over 22 million, and the past seven weeks of claims have been:
Unfortunately the job losses and unemployment claims probably won’t fall to zero or even close to it next week and above average claims will probably persist for the next few weeks and maybe even a month or two.
Continue reading… “One Chart Shows Coronavirus’ Stunning Job Losses”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.