Author: publisher

There are plenty of safety concerns to consider when deploying robots in workplaces like warehouses alongside human workers. They can lead to malfunctions, injuries, fires — and in extreme cases, even deaths.And now that we’re inching closer to a reality where two-legged humanoid robot coworkers are a common sight at the jobsite, some companies are taking the implications of having powerful machines work in close proximity to humans seriously.Case in point, robotics company Agility Robotics unveiled its latest “general purpose” humanoid robot, dubbed Digit 5, earlier this week. The bot leverages “proprietary AI algorithms” and sensors to “continuously monitor for…

A huge share of Kenya’s population lives in remote villages and townships, far away from the amenities offered by urban life. And though Kenya’s rural population may have shrunk in recent decades, it still encompasses the vast majority of its people, presenting a major challenge for the country’s struggling healthcare sector.One group of students from half a world away is hoping to help. As EuroNews reports, students at the Eindhoven University of Technology in the Netherlands have designed a solar-powered electric ambulance, meant to improve emergency healthcare access to remote communities.Called the Stella Juva, the vehicle reportedly came about following…

For years now, scientists have been puzzled by the existence of “little red dots” first showing up in observations by NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope. These objects appeared in a region they believe dates to just hundreds of millions of years after the Big Bang, one of the oldest known neighborhoods of the universe.Several possible explanations have since emerged, with some arguing they could be emerging galaxies. Others suggested that the red dots could be the earliest stages of supermassive black holes, which are enormous cosmic objects that have gravitationally collapsed and are often lurking at the center of galaxies.In…

Scientists have created mice with brains that have millions of functioning human neurons fused into them. This groundbreaking feat could provide a new avenue for understanding and treating neurocognitive disorders, though the Frankenstein-esque nature of the work will surely raise ethical questions.In a new study published in the journal Nature, the Stanford University scientists report how they used genetic engineering to deliberately create mice with parts of their brain missing — namely a key region called the cortex. By also stripping the mice of the ability to replenish these cortex neurons, this carved out a space that they could implant…

The allure of generative AI has turned public-facing billboards and restaurant menus into a Lovecraftian horror show.Bread that resembles “reptile skin” and “alien larva”-like croissants have been putting off potential customers for months now. While owners are trying to lower costs by turning to AI for their promotional material, the off-putting signage has had the opposite effect, with users on social media lambasting local businesses for doing so.As 404 Media first noticed last month, some restaurants are finally catching onto the backfired advertising — and are pulling a 180 to score some easy points with the public. Owners and chefs…

Smile, peruser of the internet! Your facial features are being codified by algorithms.Starting this week, Google has begun asking users to take a video selfie to sign into their accounts, Search Engine Watch found. The feature remains optional, but it represents an eerie step towards making facial recognition a standard way to navigate the web, which the search engine giant is now heavily promoting.Google first announced the feature in July, framing it as an optional way of getting into your account if you’re locked out or don’t have access to your usual devices. To set it up, you record a short…

Did hiring loads of gamers not work out? The Federal Aviation Administration is now spending north of $875 million to deploy an AI-powered air traffic control tool, the Wall Street Journal reports.The system, called SMART — short for Strategic Management of Airspace, Routes and Trajectories — automatically analyzes factors like airline schedules, weather patterns, and airport runway capacity to help streamline operations and point out any potential conflicts before they occur, according to an official release cited in the reporting.It’s set to have a huge role. As the WSJ puts it, “when fully rolled out across US airspace, the software…

In a new survey of over 2,000 US adults conducted days ago, Politico found that the vast majority of respondents would pull the plug on the whole AI buildout if they could.The magazine presented participants with an intriguing hypothetical: if you were working on developing AI and started seeing signs that the tech could destroy humanity, would you keep going?The answers were telling: only 38 percent said they would continue, while 62 percent said they would stop and would “hope that other labs see the same signs and also decide to stop.”Of those who self-identified as Republicans, 55 percent agreed…

It won’t bag “her” any awards, but the AI “actor” Till Norwood just put in the performance of a lifetime.In an interview — also deserving of scare quotes, but we’re trying to show some restraint here — with British political commentator Piers Morgan, the smiling AI persona, with her uncanny gaze permanently fixed at some indeterminate point that’s somewhere not quite the center of the camera, appeared to severely glitch out before suddenly ranting in Chinese.When Morgan’s human guest, the actor Tom Conti, asks if the other actors in Norwood’s films are real or AI, the AI didn’t seem to…

Are unchecked AI companies destroying the news and the broader media ecosystem? We could harp on about why this is the case, but why not let the AI executives do the talking?As revealed in recently unsealed court documents, top Microsoft figures, including CEO Satya Nadella, admitted that their AI models are basically stealing content from media companies while providing virtually nothing in return, creating a “doom loop” that will swallow the web.These startling admissions come from an ongoing copyright lawsuit against OpenAI by the New York Times, which Microsoft was dragged into as OpenAI’s largest shareholder. To make their case,…