Lifeboat Foundation

Astronauts have one of the most competitive jobs in the world — 18,300 people applied to be part of NASA’s 2017 class of astronauts, and only 12 made the final cut. But the process of finding astronauts with “the right stuff” has changed over time, and a lot of us Earthlings have the wrong idea about what NASA is looking for.

“I think a lot of the public conception is that we choose super-geniuses or super-jocks or super-pilots,” says Mike Barratt, a NASA astronaut and physician. “I would say that the astronaut office right now is full of people who are comfortable to be with. I mean, don’t get me wrong — we’ve got a couple of super-geniuses, but the main [goal] is that we’ve chosen well-rounded, well-behaved, professional people who are adaptable and resilient, and just someone you could see exploring a brand new world or locking yourself in a garage with for six months.”

A documentary exploring how artificial intelligence is changing life as we know it — from jobs to privacy to a growing rivalry between the U.S. and China.

FRONTLINE investigates the promise and perils of AI and automation, tracing a new industrial revolution that will reshape and disrupt our world, and allow the emergence of a surveillance society.

Continue reading “In the Age of AI (full film) | FRONTLINE” »

And it would create 4.7 million long-term jobs.

The United States’ energy system that’s running completely on wind, water, and solar, combined with storage, would not only avoid blackouts but also lower energy requirements and consumer costs, a Stanford University study has shown. In addition, this would create millions of jobs, improve health, and free up land for various other purposes.

This is incredibly important because, for some people, a future powered by renewable energy isn’t feasible due to concerns about blackouts driven by inconsistent electricity sources. Take, for example, the grid blackouts caused by extreme weather events in California in August 2020 and Texas in February 2021.

Continue reading “Researchers Show a 100% Renewable US Grid with No Blackouts Is Possible” »

Skills shortages are easily brushed off as Covid collateral, but in fact, they are much more troubling signs of an education system that is not preparing people for the future of work. These issues stem from a union of education and employment that has been designed to fill specific criteria for the workforce, but the job market that young people are training for today will require a much greater emphasis on human skills to complement the repetitive tasks handled by AI and automation.

But bringing up young people with the human skills they need for a changing world of work is a mammoth task that must combine the powers of government, businesses, and dedicated organizations to reshape our education systems and integrate them with the communities they serve. I spoke with Justin van Fleet, Executive Director of the Global Business Coalition for Education (GBC-Education), about the need for a holistic and skills-centered approach to education, and how change needs to start as early as possible.

Full Story:

Robots are already in space. From landers on the moon to rovers on Mars and more, robots are the perfect candidates for space exploration: they can bear extreme environments while consistently repeating the same tasks in exactly the same way without tiring. Like robots on Earth, they can accomplish both dangerous and mundane jobs, from space walks to polishing a spacecraft’s surface. With space missions increasing in number and expanding in scientific scope, requiring more equipment, there’s a need for a lightweight robotic arm that can manipulate in environments difficult for humans.

Robots are already in space. From landers on the moon to rovers on Mars and more, robots are the perfect candidates for space exploration: they can bear extreme environments while consistently repeating the same tasks in exactly the same way without tiring. Like robots on Earth, they can accomplish both dangerous and mundane jobs, from space walks to polishing a spacecraft’s surface. With space missions increasing in number and expanding in scientific scope, requiring more equipment, there’s a need for a lightweight robotic arm that can manipulate in environments difficult for humans.

However, the control schemes that can move such arms on Earth, where the planes of operation are flat, do not translate to space, where the environment is unpredictable and changeable. To address this issue, researchers in Harbin Institute of Technology’s School of Mechanical Engineering and Automation have developed a robotic arm weighing 9.23 kilograms—about the size of a one-year-old baby—capable of carrying almost a quarter of its own weight, with the ability to adjust its position and speed in real time based on its environment.

They published their results on Sept. 28 in Space: Science & Technology.

2021 has been an incredible year in terms of advancements in the field of Artificial Intelligence Technologies. AI has managed to gain new abilities and managed to achieve the futuristic feat of taking over several jobs which previously only humans could perform. Whether it’s self-supervised learning, custom AI accelerators or neuromorphic chips, the future of AI is looking really bright and in this video, I’ll show you the biggest technological advancements of 2021 and what future technologies may come about very soon.
–
TIMESTAMPS:
00:00 The beginning of AI Supremacy?
01:34 Custom AI Hardware.
04:01 Media generated completely by AI’s.
05:49 Self-Supervised Learning.
07:20 Self-driving cars.
08:49 Actually intelligent AI Assistants.
10:42 Last Words.
–
#ai #technology #2021

Tesla has posted new jobs for its Tesla Bot team on its Careers page. Most of the Tesla Bot jobs are located in California except one located in Austin, Texas.

A few of the openings have been posted for quite some time. Tesla has been steadily posting jobs for the Tesla Bot team since the project was announced during Artificial Intelligence or AI Day back in August. Most of the new jobs seem to be related to software development for the Tesla Bot, hinting at the company’s progress with the humanoid robot.

The new Tesla Bot jobs are listed below with their responsibilities.

They’re a long way from taking human jobs.

Alphabet says its Everyday Robot team at X is now testing its prototype machines in Google’s offices. The bots are performing light custodial work as Alphabet slowly pursues its goal of building a “general-purpose learning robot.”