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A Human-Centric World of Work: Why It Matters, and How to Build It
Long before coronavirus appeared and shattered our pre-existing “normal,” the future of work was a widely discussed and debated topic. We’ve watched automation slowly...
Buildings Consume Lots of Energy—Here’s How to Design Whole Communities That Give Back as...
Although the coronavirus pandemic has dominated recent headlines, climate change hasn’t gone away. Many experts are calling for a “green” economic recovery that directs...
How Scientists Influenced Monkeys’ Decisions Using Ultrasound in Their Brains
A few years ago, in a pitch black room at Stanford University, a monkey sat silently in his custom-made chair, utterly bewildered.
It wasn’t because...
AI Is Getting More Creative. But Who Should Own the Art It Produces?
Creativity is a trait that makes humans unique from other species. We alone have the ability to make music and art that speak to...
4 Non-Obvious Trends That Matter During This Pandemic
Last year at South By Southwest, author and entrepreneur Rohit Bhargava spoke to a packed auditorium about trends that, though they may not be...
Epic Games’ Insane Video Game Graphics Demo Explained in Simple Terms
Most of the words that follow aren’t necessary to see why the reveal of Unreal Engine 5, an Epic Games video game graphics engine...
This Week’s Awesome Tech Stories From Around the Web (Through May 23)
COMPUTING
OpenAI's Supercomputer Collaboration With Microsoft Marks Its Biggest Bet Yet on AGI
Kyle Wiggers | VentureBeat
"Today, during Microsoft’s Build 2020 developer conference, the first fruit...
A New Bionic Eye Could Give Robots and the Blind 20/20 Vision
A bionic eye could restore sight to the blind and greatly improve robotic vision, but current visual sensors are a long way from the...
3 Major Materials Science Breakthroughs—and Why They Matter for the Future
Few recognize the vast implications of materials science.
To build today’s smartphone in the 1980s, it would cost about $110 million, require nearly 200 kilowatts...
The US Government Just Invested Big in Small-Scale Nuclear Power
Amid the coronavirus lockdowns around the world, one of few positive pieces of news we’ve heard is that carbon emissions have dropped dramatically. The...
Scientists Are Cloning the Coronavirus Like Crazy. Here’s Why—and the Risks
Most biomedical researchers are busy finding ways to squash the new coronavirus. Meanwhile, synthetic biologists are busy cloning it in droves.
In late February a...
Here Are the Results of the Biggest Universal Basic Income Trial Yet
Widespread job losses due to the coronavirus pandemic are leading to renewed interest in the idea of a universal basic income (UBI). That coincided...
OpenAI Finds Machine Learning Efficiency Is Outpacing Moore’s Law
Eight years ago a machine learning algorithm learned to identify a cat—and it stunned the world. A few years later AI could accurately translate...
This Week’s Awesome Tech Stories From Around the Web (Through May 16)
AUTOMATION
The Pandemic Is Emptying Call Centers. AI Chatbots Are Swooping In
Karen Hao | MIT Technology Review
"Over the last few years, advances in natural-language processing...
Forget Exercise—These Mice Got Ripped With Gene Therapy
Trying to hack fitness is a multi-million-dollar industry; we’ve all seen at least one ad featuring a purported miracle product that claims it can...
The World Food Program’s Coronavirus Fight—and How You Can Help
The coronavirus outbreak has thrown the world into turmoil. On top of the infections and deaths it’s caused, there have been significant knock-on effects...
Will 3 Billion People Really Live in Temperatures as Hot as the Sahara by...
Humans are amazing creatures, in that they have shown they can live in almost any climate. Think of the Inuit who live in the...
To Find a Coronavirus Vaccine Faster—Should We Deliberately Infect Thousands of People?
“First, do no harm” is a core principle for all physicians. Yet with the new coronavirus wreaking havoc across the globe, the medical community...
Hacking Plant Life: Artificial Photosynthesis Takes a Leap Forward
All life on earth ultimately gets its energy from the sun through the amazing ability of plants to sustain themselves on nothing more than...
Volvo Will Add Lidar for ‘Eyes-Off-the-Road’ Self-Driving Cars on Highways
It’s 2020. Why can’t we binge Netflix as our cars drive us down the highway? Well, we've made progress, but not at the pace...
This Week’s Awesome Tech Stories From Around the Web (Through May 9)
BIOTECH
With CRISPR, a Possible Quick Test for the Coronavirus
Carl Zimmer | The New York Times
"A team of scientists has developed an experimental prototype for...
Will Humans Go Extinct? For All the Existential Threats, We’ll Likely Be Here for...
Will our species go extinct? The short answer is yes. The fossil record shows everything goes extinct, eventually. Almost all species that ever lived,...
The New Indiana Jones? AI. Here’s How It’s Overhauling Archaeology
Archaeologists have uncovered scores of long-abandoned settlements along coastal Madagascar that reveal environmental connections to modern-day communities. They have detected the nearly indiscernible bumps...
Hydrogen-Breathing Aliens? Study Suggests New Approach to Finding Extraterrestrial Life
The first time we find evidence of life on a planet orbiting another star (an exoplanet), it is probably going to be by analyzing...
Biological to Artificial and Back: How a Core AI Algorithm May Work in the...
Blame is the main game when it comes to learning.
I know that sounds bizarre, but hear me out. Neural circuits of thousands, if not...
