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Technology

TECH: Humans One, Robots Zero

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Tech - Robot

Yes, Robots may have come for your job, and if no, they may be coming for it soon. But here’s a bit of bright news. They may not be very good at it. A security robot keeping a watchful eye on an office in Washington DC fell into a fountain and ended it all. Maybe it was a faulty design. Or maybe the poor thing was just bored to death with its job. Either way, it’s a small slice of hope for humanity. The company that made the robot took it all with grace, tweeting: “Security robot, yes. Submarine robot, … Read more

Elon Musk: Regulate AI Before it’s Too Late

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artificial intelligence - pixabay

Tesla and Space X chief executive Elon Musk has pushed again for the proactive regulation of artificial intelligence because “by the time we are reactive in AI regulation, it’s too late”. Speaking at the US National Governors Association summer meeting in Providence Rhode Island, Musk said: “Normally the way regulations are set up is when a bunch of bad things happen, there’s a public outcry, and after many years a regulatory agency is set up to regulate that industry.” “It takes forever. That, in the past, has been bad but not something which represented a fundamental risk to the existence … Read more

Today in Creepy Robots

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robots

It was a spooky sight: two lifelike disembodied robot torsos discussing the pros and cons of humans in front of a nervously tittering audience in Hong Kong Wednesday. Artificial intelligence is the dominant theme at this year’s sprawling RISE tech conference at the city’s harbourfront convention centre, but the live robot exchange took the AI debate to another level. While chief scientist Ben Goertzel of Hong Kong-based Hanson Robotics, which invented the machines, sang their praises, the robots seemed more sceptical of their human peers. When Goertzel asked the duo whether robots could really be moral and ethical, Han countered: … Read more

U=(N/T)M*G: Print

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In this day and age, a whole, huge deal is made about cloning. Dolly the Sheep, lab rats, stems cells. The list goes on. And humanity is eagerly waiting for custom, lab grown organs that are tailored with our own genes and available to the mainstream. The reality is, and what an awesome reality, we’re probably going to get better mechanical models way before we achieve cloned organic replacements. Enter, 3D printing. Stories abound of the astounding way 3D printing is starting to revolutionize prosthetics. Robert Downey Jr, himself, went and delivered a newly printed Iron Man gauntlet prosthetic to … Read more

TECH: Robot Journalism

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robot journalism

For some reason, the whole idea sends shivers down my spine: Robots will help a national news agency to create up to 30,000 local news stories a month, with the help of human journalists and funded by a Google grant. The Press Association has won a €706,000 (£621,000) grant to run a news service with computers writing localised news stories. The national news agency, which supplies copy to news outlets in the UK and Ireland, has teamed up with data-driven news start-up Urbs Media for the project, which aims to create “a stream of compelling local stories for hundreds of … Read more

Womb Transplants for Trans Women?

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womb transplants

An NHS doctor has suggested that transgender women in the UK may be a decade away from accessing womb transplants. As part of ongoing research into the procedure, at least three cis-women could be given wombs through a new charity-funded program launching this year. A similar womb transplant procedure could make it possible for transgender women to get pregnant and have babies. Uterine transplants have already been successful in Sweden. At least five children have been born to womb-less women using a procedure similar to the ones NHS doctors are working towards. By Ashley Vega – Full Story at Gay … Read more

TECH: Self-Driving Car Technology Foiled By Kangaroos

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Kangaroo and car - pixabay

Driverless car makers are discovering a unique problem as they begin to test the vehicles in Australia. It turns out the unusual way that kangaroos move completely throws off the car’s animal detection system. “We’ve noticed with the kangaroo being in mid-flight … when it’s in the air it actually looks like it’s further away, then it lands and it looks closer,” Volvo Australia’s technical manager David Pickett said. Because the cars use the ground as a reference point, they become confused by a hopping kangaroo, unable to determine how far away it is. But Mr Pickett said it was … Read more

Dubai Robot Cops

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Robot Cop - Dubai

Dubai police have enrolled a robotic officer, the first in a unit that aims to make up a quarter of the force by 2030. Just watched the video, and he’s no Robocop. Full Story at AFP

NASA Captures Views of Brightest Galaxies

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Hubble Galaxies

Boosted by natural magnifying lenses in space, NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope has captured unique close-up views of the universe’s brightest infrared galaxies, which are as much as 10,000 times more luminous than our Milky Way. The galaxy images, magnified through a phenomenon called gravitational lensing, reveal a tangled web of misshapen objects punctuated by exotic patterns such as rings and arcs. The odd shapes are due largely to the foreground lensing galaxies’ powerful gravity distorting the images of the background galaxies. The unusual forms also may have been produced by spectacular collisions between distant, massive galaxies in a sort of … Read more