ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Google DeepMind’s Game-Playing AI Just Found Another Way to Make Code Faster
Will Douglas Heaven | MIT Technology Review
“Last year the company used a version of its game-playing AI AlphaZero to find new ways to speed up the calculation of a crucial piece of math at the heart of many different kinds of code, beating a 50-year-old record. Now it has pulled the same trick again—twice. …DeepMind published its results in Nature Wednesday. But the techniques that AlphaDev discovered are already being used by millions of software developers.”
COMPUTING
Apple’s VisionOS Makes a Bold Leap in Computer Interface
Steven Levy | Wired
“Inside that facemask, Apple has crammed one of its most powerful microprocessors; another piece of custom silicon specifically designed for the device; a 4K-plus display for each eye; 12 cameras, including a lidar scanner; an array of sensors for head- and eye-tracking, 3D mapping, and previewing hand gestures; dual-driver audio pods; exotic textiles for the headband… Armed with all that hardware, software, and the bounty from over 5,000 patents, the Vision Pro—and, implicitly, its successors—presumes to guide us on an ascent to the summit of natural computing.”
CRYPTOCURRENCY
Crypto Crackdown: Coinbase and Binance Lawsuits Shake Markets
Ephrat Livni | The New York Times
“In more blows to the cryptocurrency sector, two of its biggest players were sued this week by the Securities and Exchange Commission: On Monday, the agency filed charges against Binance, the world’s biggest exchange, and the next day it accused Coinbase, the only publicly listed exchange in the United States, of violating securities laws.”
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Massive Turing Test Shows We Can Only Just Tell AIs Apart From Humans
Alex Wilkens | NewScientist
“People can only tell apart artificial intelligences from humans around 60 per cent of the time, according to a test taken by more than 1.5 million people. The results raise questions about whether the new generation of AIs should have to identify themselves in conversation, say researchers.”
HEALTH
Superbugs Will Struggle to Evolve Resistance to Unusual New Antibiotic
Michael Le Page | New Scientist
“A potential new antibiotic is highly effective against ‘superbugs’ such as MRSA that are resistant to many existing antibiotics, and kills bacteria in an unusual way that means it will be extremely difficult for resistance to evolve. The antibiotic, clovibactin, was discovered in a rare bacterium isolated from sandy soil collected in North Carolina.”
AUTOMATION
Mercedes Becomes the First Automaker to Sell Level 3 Self-Driving Vehicles in California
Steve Dent | Engadget
“Drive Pilot will allow Mercedes-Benz drivers to takes their eyes off the road and hands off the wheel, then do other non-driving activities like watching videos and texting. If the rules for use are followed, Mercedes (and not the driver) will be legally responsible for any accident that happens.”
NEUROSCIENCE
People Let a Startup Put a Brain Implant in Their Skull—for 15 Minutes
Emily Mullin | Wired
“Precision is trying to solve both issues [invasive surgery and the risk of infection and bleeding] with a device that has 1,024 electrodes but is ultrathin—about one-fifth the thickness of a human hair—and doesn’t pierce the brain tissue. Instead of a craniotomy, it would be placed using a minimally invasive procedure that involves making a small slit in the skin and skull, then sliding the implant onto the brain’s outermost layer, called the cortex.”
FUTURE
I Just Bought the Only Physical Encyclopedia Still in Print, and I Regret Nothing
Benj Edwards | Ars Technica
“Every morning as I wait for the kids to get ready for school, I pull out a random volume and browse. I’ve refreshed my knowledge on many subjects and enjoy the deliberate stability of the information experience. I feel confident using it as an occasional personal reference as the online world slides further into AI-augmented noise. And it’s definitely more accurate than an AI large language model at the moment.”
Image Credit: Oliver Hae / Unsplash
