Disney’s cuddly toys of the future could be smart enough to pick out the perfect bedtime story, thanks to a clever new artificial intelligence engine that’s been trained to judge short works of fiction. Using neural networks designed to mimic the learning processes of human brains, the AI was trained using sample stories to recognise
Month: August 2017
Elon Musk and more than 100 leaders and experts in artificial intelligence (AI) have come together urging the UN to commit to an outright ban on killer robot technology. An open letter signed by Musk, Google Deepmind’s Mustafa Suleyman, and 114 other AI and robotics specialists urges the UN to prevent “the third revolution in
Darkness is coming. At least, partial darkness, depending on where you live. On Monday, August 21, people across the US will have the chance to see a total or partial eclipse. Only those in a 70 mile band will see the Sun fully blackened out by the Moon, but most of us will at least see some of
An Australian robot named Cartman has just picked up first prize in the Amazon Robotics Challenge in Japan. The challenge was created to try and help make Amazon.com’s automated warehouse processes more efficient. “Not bad for a robot that was only unpacked and reassembled out of suitcases a few days before the event, with
Some iPhone users are getting unpleasant surprises from a sharing feature they may not realise allows anyone to send pictures to their phones. According to the New York Post, female subway riders in New York received messages alerting them that someone wanted to share a picture with them over AirDrop. The feature is designed
DeLorean cars have become a staple of ’80s pop culture thanks to their starring role in Robert Zemeckis’ iconic Back to the Future trilogy. Now, a new generation of the DeLorean family is looking to put the brand back into the spotlight by giving new meaning to a line kooky inventor Doc Brown delivers at
The price of bitcoin broke through US$4,000 per coin on Sunday and is still above the symbolic level in early trade on Monday. Bitcoin crossed the US$4,000 mark at close to 1:00 am on Sunday and stands at US$4,056.80 at the time of writing (2.10 am EDT). Iqbal V. Gandham, UK MD of trading platform eToro,
The man in the seat-cushion costume got all the attention. What appeared to be a driverless vehicle actually had a researcher sitting in the front seat, disguised to make it look like he wasn’t behind the wheel. But the strip of white lights on the top of the windshield offered a clue to the sort-of-clandestine study
Scientists have developed a brand-new type of electronic window that can switch from transparent to opaque, and back again, in under one minute. Even though similar ‘dimmable glass’ already exists, this invention relies on completely new technology, and if it’s successfully scaled up, we could soon kiss goodbye to ugly window shades. “We did
We’re probably all familiar with the advice about what makes a strong password, but the man who first suggested combining numbers and letters and adding special characters to our passwords now thinks a lot of his original advice was misguided. Bill Burr was working for the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), part of
Scientists have developed a thin flexible battery suited to implantable devices that does away with dangerous chemicals and replaces them with biologically compatible liquids. The bendy batteries use sodium-based liquids – one a saline solution and another using cell cultures – and this innovation could change how we power wearable devices and even medical implants.
North Korea on July 4 reportedly launched its first intercontinental ballistic missile – a rocket capable of travelling over 5,000 km (3,100 miles) with a weapon on top. The feat suggests that the isolated country, which is one of nine nations that together wield more than 14,900 nukes, can strike Alaska. However, the US
You’ve probably heard that diabetes can lead to blindness. This complication is called diabetic retinopathy (DR), when blood vessels are progressively damaged in the retina. It’s the leading cause of preventable blindness in the world. Screening and early diagnosis are crucial for treating this problem, but more than 50 percent of all cases go unnoticed.
A Google engineer has been fired after writing a memo asserting that biological differences between men and women are responsible for the tech industry’s gender gap. “We need to stop assuming that gender gaps imply sexism,” James Damore wrote in the manifesto, which was first reported by Vice’s Motherboard and later released in full by
Passwords suck. They’re hard to remember, we all have about a million of them, and they’re not supposed to be anything easy or memorable like your cat’s name (sorry Furball1). Worst of all, when massive data breaches happen to the companies we actually trust with our online credentials, our usernames and passwords can become totally
Humans prefer interacting with robots that are flawed and make mistakes, according to new research, which could be crucial in helping experts work out how to build the robot interfaces of the future. If we’re perhaps one day going to be getting our cars fixed and our lawns mown by robots then we need to
If you have seen or read The Martian, you may recall the stranded astronaut converting a hydrogen-based fuel into water. Well, we may have just discovered material that easily reverses this process. Researchers at the US Army Aberdeen Proving Ground Research Laboratory were developing a high-strength aluminium alloy when they made a startling discovery. During routine testing of
Almost half of the participants in a study who were asked to switch off their phone notifications for a day said it was still influencing their habits two years later – so maybe dealing with your phone addiction isn’t as difficult as you think. Just a day away from the pings and buzzes can make