Lifeboat Foundation

An AI-driven chatbot technology has allowed one woman to answer questions from beyond the grave at her own funeral, with mourners able to dive into her fascinating life in a morbid but futuristic tribute. The technology was provided by her son, who runs a company that creates “holographic conversational video experiences”, and allowed Holocaust campaigner Marina Smith MBE to be “present, in a sense”, according to son Stephen Smith, reports the Telegraph.

Mrs Smith passed away in June of this year and her funeral was held shortly after in Nottinghamshire, UK. Having led a meaningful life educating people about the Holocaust, her family wished for her message to continue after her death, and the holographic experience during her funeral allowed just that.

The experience used StoryFile, an AI conversational bot that uses 20 different cameras and recordings of the subject to create a digital, holographic clone that can be interacted with. While the experience was powered by AI, the answers given to questions were entirely Mrs Smith’s own words.

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I have been thinking about death lately. Not a lot — a little. Possibly because I recently had a month-long bout of Covid-19. And, I read a recent story about the passing of the actor Ed Asner, famous for his role as Lou Grant in “The Mary Tyler Moore Show.” More specifically, the story of his memorial service where mourners were invited to “talk” with Asner through an interactive display that featured video and audio that he recorded before he died. The experience was created by StoryFile, a company with the mission to make AI more human. According to the company, their proprietary technology and AI can match pre-recorded answers with future questions, allowing for a real-time yet asynchronous conversation.

Continue reading “Death, resurrection and digital immortality in an AI world” »

NASA will take Amazon’s Alexa to the moon, along with a video-conferencing tablet, on its first Artemis mission. If the experiment is successful, astronauts could one day be talking to a spaceship computer, just like on Star Trek.

Fun visual essays explain key concepts of machine learning.

Google AI announced the launch of the Google Research YouTube channel today. The channel is set to focus on a wide range of subjects like AI/ML, robotics, theory and algorithms, quantum computing, health and bioscience.

DARPA has launched a competition to find AI solutions that can help with sourcing critical minerals.

Critical minerals are raw, non-fuel materials that are vital for manufacturing products that are essential to national security.

DARPA is teaming up with the US Geological Survey (USGS) to explore how machine learning and AI can accelerate critical mineral assessments.

By scientists from Inserm, CNRS, and Université de Montpellier at the Structural Biology Center in Montpellier. The nano-robot could lead to a closer study of the mechanical forces applied at microscopic levels, which are important for various biological and pathological processes.

The study was published in Nature Communications.

Cellular Mechanosensitivity

AI language skills let you command robots in plain English and help them navigate the chaos of the real world.

A new generation of AI image tools can reproduce an artist’s signature style. Some creatives fear for their livelihoods.