Impact Lab – Page 542 – A Laboratory of the Future Human Experience

Artificial Intelligence, Business, Crime, Science & Technology News

Thieves are now using AI deepfakes to trick companies into sending them money

September 17, 2019

So AI crimes are a thing now

It seems like every few days there’s another example of a convincing deepfake going viral or another free, easy-to-use piece of software (some even made for mobile) that can generate convincing video or audio that’s designed to trick someone into believing a piece of virtual artifice is real. But according to The Wall Street Journal, there may soon be serious financial and legal ramifications to the proliferation of deepfake technology.

The publication reported last week that a UK energy company’s chief executive was tricked into wiring €200,000 (or about $220,000 USD) to a Hungarian supplier because he believed his boss was instructing him to do so. But the energy company’s insurance firm, Euler Hermes Group SA, told the WSJ that a clever AI-equipped fraudster was using deepfake software to mimic the voice of the executive and demand his underling pay him within the hour.

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AI, Artificial Intelligence, cutting edge, Science & Technology News

A breakthrough for A.I. technology: Passing an 8th-grade science test

September 16, 2019

SAN FRANCISCO — Four years ago, more than 700 computer scientists competed in a contest to build artificial intelligence that could pass an eighth-grade science test. There was $80,000 in prize money on the line.

They all flunked. Even the most sophisticated system couldn’t do better than 60 percent on the test. A.I. couldn’t match the language and logic skills that students are expected to have when they enter high school.

But on Wednesday, the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence, a prominent lab in Seattle, unveiled a new system that passed the test with room to spare. It correctly answered more than 90 percent of the questions on an eighth-grade science test and more than 80 percent on a 12th-grade exam.

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AI, Artificial Intelligence, Big Problems, Employment, IBM, Science & Technology News

120 million workers will need to be retrained due to AI, says IBM study

September 16, 2019

The skills gap is widening between people and AI.

But many CEOs tell IBM they don’t have the resources needed to close the skills gap brought on by emerging technologies.

Artificial Intelligence is apparently ready to get to work. Over the next three years, as many as 120 million workers from the world’s 12 largest economies may need to be retrained because of advances in artificial intelligence and intelligent automation, according to a study released Friday by IBM’s Institute for Business Value. However, less than half of CEOs surveyed by IBM said they had the resources needed to close the skills gap brought on by these new technologies.

“Organizations are facing mounting concerns over the widening skills gap and tightened labor markets with the potential to impact their futures as well as worldwide economies,” said Amy Wright, a managing partner for IBM Talent & Transformation, in a release. “Yet while executives recognize severity of the problem, half of those surveyed admit that they do not have any skills development strategies in place to address their largest gaps.”

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Aviation, drones, Science & Technology News, Shopping

Bell’s new, self-flying cargo drone hauls a heavy load

September 16, 2019

The all-electric APT 70 can tote up to 70 pounds, cruise at 75 mph, and cover 35 miles with a fully charged battery.

Bell aims to begin beyond-visual-line-of sight tests for the APT 70 next year, on the road to starting commercial service in the early 2020s.

They say things are bigger in Texas, and it seems that goes for drones as well as pickup trucks and cowboy hats. At least, if Fort Worth-based Bell’s new, autonomous cargo carrier is any indicator.

The four-motor, vertical-lift electric UAV is one of the largest commercial cargo drone projects to reach the skies. It stands nearly 6 feet tall and 9 feet wide on the ground (it rests on its tail before transitioning to horizontal flight after liftoff). It weighs 300 pounds and can carry an additional 70 pounds of cargo, slung in an aerodynamic pod between its two wings. That all-important stat gives it the name APT 70, the letters standing for “autonomous pod transport.” It first started flying in December via remote control, and in the past three weeks began fully autonomous flight, Bell announced this week.

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Analysis, Future, Science & Technology News

We still don’t understand why time only flows forward

September 15, 2019

The history of the Universe and the arrow of time, which always flows forward in the same direction and at the same rate for any observer.(NASA / GSFC)

The past is gone, the future not yet here, only the present is now. But why does it always flow the way it does for us?

Every moment that passes finds us traveling from the past to the present and into the future, with time always flowing in the same direction. At no point does it ever appear to either stand still or reverse; the “arrow of time” always points forwards for us. But if we look at the laws of physics — from Newton to Einstein, from Maxwell to Bohr, from Dirac to Feynman — they appear to be time-symmetric. In other words, the equations that govern reality don’t have a preference for which way time flows. The solutions that describe the behavior of any system obeying the laws of physics, as we understand them, are just as valid for time flowing into the past as they are for time flowing into the future. Yet we know from experience that time only flows one way: forwards. So where does the arrow of time come from?

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Human Behavior, Latest Trend, Money Talk, Science & Technology News

Fewer people are getting married. The reason why is stunning, according to science

September 15, 2019

It’s come to this. Perhaps it’s about time.

We live in singular times.

Technology encourages us to disappear into our own personal worlds.

Meanwhile, relationships seems to get harder and harder.

Why, in a sign of apocalyptic avenues approaching, even Facebook is launching a dating service.

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Batteries, Electric Automobile, Elon Musk, Science & Technology News, Tesla

Tesla battery researcher unveils new cell that could last 1 million miles in ‘robot taxis’

September 15, 2019

Tesla’s battery research partner has released a new paper on a battery cell that could last over 1 million miles, which they say is going to be particularly useful in ‘robot taxis’ — something that Tesla wants to bring to market.

When talking about the economics of Tesla’s future fleet of robotaxis at the Tesla Autonomy Event, Tesla CEO Elon Musk emphasized that the vehicles need to be durable in order for the economics to work:

The cars currently built are all designed for a million miles of operation. The drive unit is design, tested, and validated for 1 million miles of operation.

But the CEO admitted that the battery packs are not built to last 1 million miles.

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Healthcare, Medical Breakthrough, Medicine, Robotics, Science & Technology News

First long-distance heart surgery performed via robot

September 13, 2019

In a feat of networking, engineering, and medicine, a doctor performed a heart procedure while standing 20 miles from his patient.

A doctor in India has performed a series of five percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) procedures on patients who were 20 miles away from him. The feat was pulled off using a precision vascular robot developed by Corindus. The results of the surgeries, which were successful, have just been published in EClinicalMedicine, a spin-off of medical journal The Lancet.

The feat is an example of telemedicine, an emerging field that leverages advances in networking, robotics, mixed reality, and communications technologies to beam in medical experts to remote locations for everything from consultations to surgical procedures. Telemedicine, which could decentralize healthcare by distributing doctors into local communities virtually, could ease shortages of nurses and doctors and potentially cut healthcare costs. In France, people are already visiting Telehealth cabins for fast, convenient healthcare. During the recent Ebola crisis, the University of Virginia delivered care in parts of Africa via telemedicine.

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Latest Trend, Science & Technology News, Tourism, Travel

These are the top countries for travel and tourism in 2019

September 13, 2019

Global tourism is set to rise by 50% over the next decade. But who goes where on holiday?

This article is part of the World Economic Forum on Africa

Spain, France, Germany, Japan and the United States are the world’s most travel-ready nations, according to the latest travel and tourism ranking of the World Economic Forum.

There’s little change since the last edition was released two years ago, with only one country altering its position: the United Kingdom has slid to sixth place, behind the United States.

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Business, Latest Trend, New Viewpoints, Science & Technology News

Why becoming a ‘company of one’ is all the rage

September 14, 2019

I recently left the corporate world. After working roughly 20 years in mega-large companies with revenues in the billions I am now a company of one. It’s me and only me.

I do all my own stunts, too. Whether it’s booking travel or sending invoices or writing reports, there is no one to lean on, no one to manage. If I’m being truthful, I’m really enjoying life in my company of one.

Which brings me to Paul Jarvis, author of the fantastic book, Company of One.

The premise is simple. Keeping your business small—versus growing it at all costs—brings you a level of sanity and independence. Growth is not the objective; building something slowly and methodically that is “remarkable and resilient” over the long-term is the name of the game.

In summary, staying small is the next big thing for business.

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Animals, Environment, Human Behavior, Science & Technology News

Bug smuggling is big business

September 13, 2019

Demand for exotic pets and collectors’ items drives a flourishing illegal trade in beetles, spiders, and more.

SPECIAL AGENT RYAN Bessey was in his office at the New Jersey branch of the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, in Galloway, on September 23, 2015, when he took a call from a colleague in the intelligence unit. The analyst told him that French customs officers had seized 115 emperor scorpions in two shipments from Cameroon. They were addressed to a man in Metuchen, New Jersey, named Wlodzimie Lapkiewicz.

If French authorities considered the bust important enough to tell the U.S. about it, Lapkiewicz was worth looking into, Bessey thought. He began to do some digging.

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Automobiles, Big Problems, government, Science & Technology News

Major cities are introducing noise radars that automatically issue fines to loud vehicles to combat noise pollution

September 13, 2019

The measuring devices will be able to precisely measure and locate sounds from moving vehicles, as well as register their licence plates.

Noise pollution is one of the leading health problems in cities after environmental pollution.

In France, a noise radar has been installed to fine the noisiest vehicles, according to Reuters.

The radar isn’t actually the first of its kind in Europe; earlier this year, Switzerland also began installing the first of its own noise radars.

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