ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
ChatGPT Is Already Obsolete
Matteo Wong | The Atlantic
“Language-only models such as the original ChatGPT are now giving way to machines that can also process images, audio, and even sensory data from robots. The new approach might reflect a more human understanding of intelligence, an early attempt to approximate how a child learns by existing in and observing the world. It might also help companies build AI that can do more stuff and therefore be packaged into more products.”
COMPUTING
Watch 44 Million Atoms Simulated Using AI and a Supercomputer
Alex Wilkins | New Scientist
“Boris Kozinsky at Harvard University and his colleagues have developed a tool, called Allegro, that can accurately simulate systems with tens of millions of atoms using artificial intelligence. Kozinsky and his team used the world’s 8th most powerful supercomputer, Perlmutter, to simulate the 44 million atoms involved in the protein shell of HIV.”
AUGMENTED REALITY
Take Your Ultrawide Monitors Everywhere With an AR Laptop
Brenda Stolyar | Wired
“Now you can harness the power of a multi-monitor setup with a pair of augmented reality (AR) glasses and a keyboard. Created by a new company called Sightful, founded by former executives of Magic Leap, Spacetop does exactly that. As the world’s first AR laptop, it delivers the convenience of a virtual 100-inch screen with the ability to display as many windows and apps as you need to get work done from wherever you are.”
BIOTECH
Allergic to Eggs? Not These Eggs
Lauren Leffer | Gizmodo
“Using a targeted gene-editing enzyme to knock out specific protein-coding DNA sequences, scientists can produce a safer chicken egg far less likely to trigger an allergic reaction, according to a recent study published in the journal Food and Chemical Toxicology. Not only do the edited eggs lack an important allergen, they also seem to be without any unintended, potentially harmful related byproducts.”
HEALTH
Long-Sought Universal Flu Vaccine: mRNA-Based Candidate Enters Clinical Trial
Beth Mole | Ars Technica
“i‘A universal influenza vaccine would be a major public health achievement and could eliminate the need for both annual development of seasonal influenza vaccines, as well as the need for patients to get a flu shot each year,’ Hugh Auchincloss, acting director of the NIH’s National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in a news release. ‘Moreover, some strains of influenza virus have significant pandemic potential. A universal flu vaccine could serve as an important line of defense against the spread of a future flu pandemic.’i“
AUTOMATION
Wendy’s Wants to Use Underground Robots to Fetch Your Order
Kevin Hurler | Gizmodo
“Fresh off the heels of Wendy’s announcing it would be using AI in its drive-thrus, the fast food franchise is hoping to add another piece of technology to its dining experience. Specifically, it wants to add a subterranean system of autonomous robots to bring customers their food beneath its parking lot.”
BIOTECH
Why a Genome Can’t Bring Back an Extinct Animal
Isaac Schultz | Gizmodo
“Makeshift mammoths and body-double dodos are on the way—but they won’t be the genuine article. …Scientists may finally be on the verge of breakthroughs that can simulate some animals’ resurrection. But, despite what Jurassic Park led us to believe, simply having a creature’s DNA isn’t enough to bring it back from the dead.“
TECH
Just Calm Down About GPT-4 Already
Glenn Zorpette | IEEE Spectrum
“Rapid and pivotal advances in technology have a way of unsettling people, because they can reverberate mercilessly, sometimes, through business, employment, and cultural spheres. And so it is with the current shock and awe over large language models, such as GPT-4 from OpenAI. It’s a textbook example of the mixture of amazement and, especially, anxiety that often accompanies a tech triumph. And we’ve been here many times, says Rodney Brooks.”
SPACE
We’re Effectively Alone in the Universe, and That’s OK
Paul Sutter | Ars Technica
“Our cosmic insignificance is the only barrier we need to explain Fermi’s great puzzle. We’re not equipped to deal with the astronomically large numbers that our galaxy casually throws around, so what appears at first glance to be a paradox is really our inability to handle truly cosmic scales. Our galaxy could be teeming with life. There could be dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of intelligent species in our galaxy right now, but the vast gulfs of nothingness that surround them make us interstellar islands.”
Image Credit: Mitchell Luo / Unsplash
