Tech behemoths Google, Facebook, Microsoft, IBM and Amazon announced this week that they are teaming up to develop new standards for Artificial Intelligence (AI). It’s a much-needed move. Soon AI will change everything from warfare to our bodies. But we don’t want to become slaves to the robots, so how do we stop the Terminators?
Continue reading… “AI: A five-point plan to stop the Terminators taking over”
Drones are used for a variety of tasks including the delivery of goods, the monitoring of areas, and now with thanks to DARPA they can even search houses. These miniature drones are so small they can be used almost anywhere and are fairly undetectable to an unsuspecting person.
Continue reading… “Autonomous Are Microdrones Designed To Spy on Us”
Even as self-driving cars become more and more ubiquitous, there’s one problem that Silicon Valley hasn’t solved: the traffic jam. But Airbus Group, a U.S. aeronautics and space company, thinks that it has a solution. The company’s Silicon Valley branch recently announced it’s been working on a secret project titled “Vahana,” an autonomous flying vehicle that can be used for both passenger and cargo transport.
Continue reading… “Airbus: flying taxis a reality by 2020”
The artificial intelligence that beat human players in Go can now learn from its own memory. Google’s DeepMind AI, according to its programmers, is now capable of intelligently building on what’s already inside its memory.
Continue reading… “The Dawn of Synthetic Reason: DeepMind Can Learn From Its Own Memory”
Robots are now just as good at transcribing speech as humans.
According to a paper published yesterday, a team of Microsoft engineers in the Artificial Intelligence and Research division reported their system reached a word error rate (WER) of 5.9 percent, a figure that is roughly equal to that of human abilities.
Continue reading… “Microsoft’s speech recognition is now as accurate as a human’s”
In the early morning hours of October 20th, an 18-wheeler tractor trailer pulled into Colorado Springs, Colorado, bearing 50,000 frosty cans of Budweiser beer. Normally, this would not be a noteworthy occurrence, but this truck was driving itself, marking the first time that commercial cargo was shipped by a self-driving vehicle.
Continue reading… “Uber’s self-driving truck company just shipped 50,000 cans of Budweiser”
Leanna Garfield/Business Insider
If you’re an amateur cook, roasting a rack of lamb or baking fresh bread in an oven can feel daunting.
New parents rejoice. An innovative baby sleeper aims to teach parents more about their infants and become a “member of the family.”
Continue reading… “$1,150 crib automatically calms crying babies back to sleep in minutes”
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Plowing snow, mowing the lawn, raking leaves. It’s backbreaking work.
This season, a robot may have you covered. It’s called Kobi, and for $3,999 it can take over people’s yard work.
Continue reading… “This winter you can buy a robot to plow your driveway”
Stretched, trijet 50-seat configuration to be tested by subscale supersonic demonstrator
Guy Norris Los Angeles
Boom Time
More than half a century after development of the Concorde was launched, progress toward economically viable supersonic airliners has proved elusive. But now a Silicon Valley-backed startup says the ingredients for a successful, small, faster-than-sound airliner are in place, thanks to a new wave of enabling technology and a market primed with the need for speed.
Since first unveiling plans earlier this year for a 40-seat, twin-engine, supersonic transport, Denver-based Boom Technology has revised and fine-tuned the design that will cruise at Mach 2.2 for the same ticket price as subsonic business class. The aircraft has since been stretched to seat up to 50 and is now reconfigured as a trijet to permit immediate use on long overwater routes.
Continue reading… “Potential Mach 2.2 Airliner Market Pegged At $260 Billion”
A team of researchers from Belgium think that they are close to extending the anticipated end of Moore’s Law, and they didn’t do it with a supercomputer. Using an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm called reservoir computing, combined with another algorithm called backpropagation, the team developed a neuro-inspired analog computer that can train itself and improve at whatever task it’s performing.
Continue reading… “Self-Learning AI: New Neuro-Inspired Computer Trains Itself”
NO, REALLY. AMPUTEES HAVE BEEN TESTING THEM FOR OVER A YEAR
For a full decade, Gudmundur Olafsson was unable to move his right ankle. That’s because it wasn’t there. Olafsson’s amputated lower leg was the delayed casualty of an accident from his childhood in Iceland, when he was hit by an oil truck. “I lived in pain for 28 years,” says Olafsson. “After 50-plus operations, I had it off.” For years after the operation he wore a Proprio Foot, a prosthetic with a motorized, battery-powered ankle, sold by the Reykjavik-based company Ossur.
Continue reading… “Brain-Controlled Bionic Legs Are Here At Last”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.