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Peter McCormack is a journalist, educator, and bitcoin evangelist who hosts one of the most popular cryptocurrency podcasts in the world, ‘What Bitcoin Did’.
Futurati Podcast Ep.60 with Corey Hoffstein
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Corey Hoffstein is the co-founder and Chief Investment Officer of Newfound Research as well as an enthusiast of cryptocurrencies and various crypto projects. Newfound is a quantitative asset management firm seeking to help investors proactively navigate the risks of investing through better diversification.
Futurati Podcast Episode 59: Market design, entrepreneurship, and innovation with Irene Ng.
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Irene Ng is a Professor of Marketing and Service Systems and the Director of the International Institute for Product and Service Innovation at WMG, University of Warwick. An industrial economist through her doctoral training, Irene’s research lies in the trans-disciplinary understanding of value and the design of markets and economic/business models.
Continue reading… “Futurati Podcast Episode 59: Market design, entrepreneurship, and innovation with Irene Ng.”Waterloo startup performs first ever robotic intramuscular injection
A company founded at the University of Waterloo’s flagship incubator has performed the first autonomous robotic intramuscular injection, paving the way to improved patient care in an industry faced with labour shortages.
Cobionix, an autonomous robotics company located in Kitchener-Waterloo, performed the injection-without needles-using their Cobi platform.
“Cobi is a versatile robotics platform that can be rapidly deployed to complete tasks with 100 per cent autonomy,” said Tim Lasswell, co-founder and CEO of Cobionix. “We outfitted Cobi to use a needle-free injection technology and to demonstrate that patients could receive intramuscular injections, such as vaccines, without needles and no involvement from a healthcare professional.”
Nima Zamani, co-founder and CTO of Cobionix, said there are many benefits to the new technology.
“Autonomous solutions such as Cobi could protect healthcare workers, reduce healthcare costs, and improve patient outcomes,” Zamani said. “The autonomous nature of Cobi also dramatically reduces the infrastructure requirements of vaccine clinics which could help reach populations in remote areas with limited access to medical care.”
Continue reading… “Waterloo startup performs first ever robotic intramuscular injection”THE FUTURE OF AI IS A CONVERSATION WITH A COMPUTER
AI writing tools can tell us a lot about artificial intelligence
How would an AI writing program start an article on the future of AI writing? Well, there’s one easy way to find out: I used the best known of these tools, OpenAI’s GPT-3, to do the job for me.
Using GPT-3 is disarmingly simple. You have a text box to type into and a menu on the side to adjust parameters, like the “temperature” of the response (which essentially equates to randomness). You type, hit enter, and GPT-3 completes what you’ve written, be it poetry, fiction, or code. I tried inputting a simple headline and a few sentences about the topic, and GPT-3 began to fill in the details.
It told me that AI uses “a series of autocomplete-like programs to learn language” and that these programs analyze “the statistical properties of the language” to “make educated guesses based on the words you’ve typed previously.”
So far, so good, I thought. I hit enter again, and the program added a quote from Google’s head of AI, Jeff Dean, then referenced an experimental piece of software from the 1960s before promising that an “AI Revolution” was coming that would reap immense rewards across the fields of science, technology, and medicine.
THE MEDIUM INCLUDED PLAUSIBLE FABRICATIONS; ENDLESS OUTPUT; AND, CRUCIALLY, AN OPPORTUNITY TO RESPOND TO THE ROBOT WRITER
Skyscraper Window Washing Robots Are Here to Take Over One of Our Most Terrifying Jobs
Window washers are the next in line to see their jobs replaced by robots.
Even if they’re not afraid of heights, it still takes someone with nerves of steel to work as a window washer, dangling a hundred floors above the ground with a squeegee in hand. A company called Skyline Robotics wants to make window washing much safer because instead of humans, the lift that’s lowered down the side of a building is staffed with robots instead.
According to Skyline Robotics, the window cleaning industry, including those towering structures dotting the skylines of major metropolises, is a lucrative business with over $40 billion in revenue every year. The problem is that 74% of trained window washers are over 40 years old, and there’s not enough young blood to replace them. It’s easy to see why that’s the case. As anyone who’s ever seen the local news reporting on a daring window washer rescue already knows. It’s a risky gig, even if it comes with amazing views. One possible solution? Enter the robots.
Continue reading… “Skyscraper Window Washing Robots Are Here to Take Over One of Our Most Terrifying Jobs”THIS AUTONOMOUS, ROBOTIC BOAT COULD TRANSFORM A CITY’S WATERWAYS
The Roboat is sailing now in the canals of Amsterdam, with visions for picking up waste and serving as temporary bridges or floating performance spaces.
In Amsterdam, autonomous, electric boats are navigating the city’s vast network of canals, ready to ferry passengers as a water taxi, collect trash as part of a waste management system, deliver packages, or even turn into a temporary bridge or floating stage. It’s a kind of dynamic infrastructure that can adapt to the needs of a city as they change, and help Amsterdam decongest its streets and better use its waterways.
The robotic boat, called Roboat, is a project from MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL) and Senseable City Laboratory, with the Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions. A research project about six years in the making, two Roboats are now entering the water, ready for people to use them.
Continue reading… “THIS AUTONOMOUS, ROBOTIC BOAT COULD TRANSFORM A CITY’S WATERWAYS”College enrollment is lower now than it’s been at any time in the last half-century
Jesse James Oct 26th, 2021 3:31 pm
You know college—the hugely expensive four-to-six year investment of time and resources that many students spend their entire lifetimes paying off? Yeah for some reason more people are opting out of it.
College enrollment was supposed to bounce back this fall. Instead, more students opted out.
Nationwide, fewer students went back to school again this year, dragging undergraduate enrollment down another 3.2% from last year, according to a new report from the National Student Clearinghouse Research Center that’s based on early data from colleges. There were roughly 17.5 million students enrolled as of the last tally.
Continue reading… “College enrollment is lower now than it’s been at any time in the last half-century”Tesla’s prototype battery with 5 times more energy storage comes to life at Panasonic
The Japanese company revealed the prototype in an effort to fulfill Tesla’s future battery dreams.
Tesla long promised big changes for its future batteries, and Panasonic hopes its latest prototype battery will deliver for the electric carmaker. On Monday, Automotive News reported on the Japanese company’s new prototype battery created specifically for Tesla. It promises fives times more energy storage, which may increase ranges significantly.
In addition to more energy, the battery will cost 50% less to produce and help boost battery production at Panasonic “100-fold,” by 2030, according to the report. These three elements could produce a game-changing battery pack for Tesla with a lower cost and more range at the core of EV adoption hurdles. Panasonic did not immediately return a request for comment and more information on the prototype battery. Tesla does not operate a public relations department to field requests for comment.
Continue reading… “Tesla’s prototype battery with 5 times more energy storage comes to life at Panasonic”Rocket Lab Plans to Use a Helicopter to Catch a Rocket Mid-Air as It Returns from Space
Rocket Lab announced plans to make its Electron rocket the first reusable orbital launch vehicle dedicated to small satellites. Towards that goal, a helicopter will monitor the rocket’s descent during the company’s next launch in preparation for future missions that seek to catch returning rocket boosters mid-air as they return to Earth. 7 photos
Rocket Lab’s next mission, dubbed ‘Love At First Insight,’ is set to take off from the company’s Launch Complex 1 in New Zealand during a 14-day launch window that will open on November 11th. This will be Rocket Lab’s fifth mission of this year and the third ocean recovery of an Electron stage.
But, this time, things will go down differently. The ‘Love At First Insight’mission will carry two Earth-observation satellites for global monitoring company BlackSky to Earth’s low orbit and will serve as a testbed for future aerial capture efforts.
Continue reading… “Rocket Lab Plans to Use a Helicopter to Catch a Rocket Mid-Air as It Returns from Space”‘Tesla In Tunnels’ Project Of Elon Musk’s Boring Company Gets Green Light To Expand In Las Vegas
What Happened: The Boring Company took to Twitter to announce that the transportation system, dubbed the “Vegas Loop,” is expanding and thanked the regulators for their approval.
The regulatory approval would enable the company to expand the Vegas Loop system to a 29-mile route with 51 stations.
Clark County said that the system would have the capacity to transport 57,000 passengers per hour and that no taxpayer money would be spent to build the project.
Continue reading… “‘Tesla In Tunnels’ Project Of Elon Musk’s Boring Company Gets Green Light To Expand In Las Vegas”Sentons launches smaller sensors that can turn any surface into virtual controls
Sentons has launched a new low-power and small sensor with an accompanying gesture engine to be used in wearables (including glasses, earbuds, watches, and fitness trackers) to create virtual controls to navigate apps and features on the devices themselves.
The SDSwave processor (model SNT8255) and gesture engine unlock a customizable, ergonomic user experience, while eliminating UX design restrictions that come from the limited real estate and tiny surfaces found on the displays of wearables. As an example, it can embed a force sensor in wireless earbuds.
“Wearable makers haven’t been able to deliver streamlined, sleek wearable devices with natural user interfaces because of the constraints that come with limited space,” Sentons CEO Jess Lee. “Moreover, traditional touch technologies not only respond to touch but also to water, making them impractical for use on wearables that are often outdoors and exposed to the elements. We’re excited to finally bring a solution to market that allows device designers to make use of even the tiniest surface to make it touch and force interactive. This outdoor and water-immune interactivity unlocks new user experiences and capabilities for wearables, something the industry has never seen before.”
Continue reading… “Sentons launches smaller sensors that can turn any surface into virtual controls”