The past month has seen a frenzy of articles, interviews, and other types of media coverage about Blake Lemoine, a Google engineer who told The Washington Post that LaMDA, a large language model created for conversations with users, is “sentient.” After reading a dozen different takes on the topic, I have to say that the media has become (a bit) disillusioned with the hype surrounding current AI technology. A lot of the articles discussed why deep neural networks are not “sentient” or “conscious.” This is an improvement in comparison to a few years ago, when news outlets were creating sensational stories…This story continues at The Next Web
NASA is scheduled to release the first images taken by the James Webb Space Telescope on July 12, 2022. They’ll mark the beginning of the next era in astronomy as Webb – the largest space telescope ever built – begins collecting scientific data that will help answer questions about the earliest moments of the universe and allow astronomers to study exoplanets in greater detail than ever before. But it has taken nearly eight months of travel, setup, testing, and calibration to make sure this most valuable of telescopes is ready for prime time. Marcia Rieke, an astronomer at the University…This story continues at The Next Web
Reinforcement learning is one of the exciting branches of artificial intelligence. It plays an important role in game-playing AI systems, modern robots, chip-design systems, and other applications. There are many different types of reinforcement learning algorithms, but two main categories are “model-based” and “model-free” RL. They are both inspired by our understanding of learning in humans and animals. Nearly every book on reinforcement learning contains a chapter that explains the differences between model-free and model-based reinforcement learning. But seldom are the biological and evolutionary precedents discussed in books about reinforcement learning algorithms for computers. I found a very interesting explanation of model-free…This story continues at The Next Web
A future of cars powered by electric batteries is inevitable. But what about trucks, ships, and planes? Hydrogen? Possibly. But there’s another chemical that could be used — and it’s abundant in your pee. What is ammonia, and why use it to power vehicles? Ammonia is a combination of Hydrogen and Nitrogen (NH3), and is one of the few liquid chemical compounds. It rapidly releases energy in combustion and has a high energy density by volume. It also comes with substantial environmental advantages. No carbon (C) in NH3 means that when burnt, ammonia cannot release carbon dioxide, carbon monoxide, or…This story continues at The Next Web
The streaming wars are heating up. In March, Disney delayed the release date of Obi-Wan Kenobi to May 27 to coincide with the launch of Netflix’s top show, Stranger Things. This on the back of Google’s announcement YouTube Shorts had matched TikTok’s 1.5 billion subscribers in the short-form video market. Facing increased competition, falling subscriber numbers, and loss of content, Netflix and TikTok are having to diversify. And for this, they’re turning to games. With more than three billion players worldwide and an estimated market share of US$200 billion, the gaming industry is both popular and lucrative. Netflix introduced mobile…This story continues at The Next WebOr just read more coverage about: Netflix
It goes without saying that railway maintenance is crucial, but most workers have to walk long distances to inspect and fix faulty lines — which reduces both efficiency and safety. Artist Heqi Wang has come up with a unique solution to this problem. He has designed a dual-utility electric motorbike that can easily hop on railway tracks and function as a stylish ride on regular roads as well. Meet the Railway Motorcycle: Credit: London International Creative Competition The bike’s design is fantastically futuristic. It comes with hubless wheels and, unlike regular motorcycles, its long wheel-base is shifted towards the front,…This story continues at The Next Web
Less than two months since its launch, the bZ4X — Toyota’s first mass-produced EV — is being recalled due to an increased risk that the tires could loosen and eventually come off the vehicle. According to the automaker, the problem is caused by a malfunction in the wheels’ hub bolts: The hub bolt that’s attached to the tire may loosen due to repeated sharp turns and sudden braking. Therefore, if you continue to drive in that state, abnormal noise will be generated, and in the worst case, the tires may fall off. Naturally, Toyota’s urging the affected owners not to…This story continues at The Next Web
A team of scientists at the Max Planck Society recently published astounding new research indicating they’ve pushed the field of “organoids,” to a bold new frontier. Up front: Organoids are synthetic biological constructs that mimic human organs to various degrees. Scientists grow organoids by programming stem cell clusters. Essentially, they feed the clusters the necessary components to spark their growth, and then they employ a series of limiters to guide them into becoming the kind of organoid we want. The ultimate hope is that we’ll be able to grow organ analogs — synthetic liver or brain organoids, for example —…This story continues at The Next Web
The year is 2030 and we are at the world’s largest tech conference, CES in Las Vegas. A crowd is gathered to watch a big tech company unveil its new smartphone. The CEO comes to the stage and announces the Nyooro, containing the most powerful processor ever seen in a phone. The Nyooro can perform an astonishing quintillion operations per second, which is a thousand times faster than smartphone models in 2020. It is also ten times more energy-efficient with a battery that lasts for ten days. A journalist asks: “What technological advance allowed such huge performance gains?” The chief…This story continues at The Next Web
This week, Italian micromobility vendor Helbiz announced it signed a letter of intent to acquire US escooter company Wheels. Doing so will create a powerful fleet that encompasses ebikes, escooters, mopeds, adaptive vehicles, and Wheels’ two-wheeled, sit-down device. There are a lot of reasons why I think this is an excellent partnership: Targeting an underserved portion of riders I’ve been a big fan of Wheels for a while. Founded in 2018 in California, the company creates a type of scooter that expands the market accessibility. Wheels 2.0 seated escooter The escooters feature seats with a low center of gravity and…This story continues at The Next Web