Lifeboat Foundation

New NASA research is helping to refine our understanding of candidate planets beyond our solar system that might support life.

“Using a model that more realistically simulates atmospheric conditions, we discovered a new process that controls the habitability of exoplanets and will guide us in identifying candidates for further study,” said Yuka Fujii of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS), New York, New York and the Earth-Life Science Institute at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan, lead author of a paper on the research published in the Astrophysical Journal Oct. 17.

Continue reading “NASA Improves Search for Habitable Worlds” »

This has a look at where the intelligence of AI is at right now:

“the researchers came up with a means of testing intelligence that can be translated onto a 100-point scale. They purportedly administered their tests to actual human adults in 2014, and the average score for those 18 years or older was just around 97 points. A 6-year-old human averaged out to a score of 55.5.

In the 2016 A.I. testing rounds, no machine was able to crack the 50-point threshold, but Google Assistant got close. Based on testing in 2016, Google Assistant racked up a 47.28. The Chinese personal assistant Duer, created by Baidu, scored 37.20. Bing came out to 31.98. Apple’s Siri rounded out the top 10 with a score of 23.94.”

Continue reading “It Still Doesn’t Really Matter What A.I. Can Score on IQ Tests” »

Daimler is creating a driverless snowplow for use in places like airports and is already testing a design in Germany.

A new PBS film educates viewers about gene therapy at a time when the once controversial field of research is starting to bear fruit.

China is leading the world in solar power installations by a long run. ASECEA is predicting that 50GW of solar power is well within reach of being installed this year. In June and July of 2017, China installed 25GW of solar power – and they’ll push the globe past 100GW total for the year.

At China’s ‘State of the Union address’ equivalent, just yesterday, president Xi Jinping said, “Any harm we inflict on nature will eventually return to haunt us… this is a reality we have to face.”

“Taking a driving seat in international cooperation to respond to climate change, China has become an important participant, contributor, and torchbearer in the global endeavor for ecological civilization,” said President Xi Jinping, and that China must “develop a new model of modernization with humans developing in harmony with nature.”

Continue reading “China breaking all solar power records, aiming for 50GW in 2017” »

Recorded, October 11, 2017

Pieter Abbeel is a professor at UC Berkeley.

DeepMind’s new self-taught Go-playing program is making moves that other players describe as “alien” and “from an alternate dimension.”

It was a tense summer day in 1835 Japan. The country’s reigning Go player, Honinbo Jowa, took his seat across a board from a 25-year-old prodigy by the name of Akaboshi Intetsu. Both men had spent their lives mastering the two-player strategy game that’s long been popular in East Asia. Their face-off, that day, was high-stakes: Honinbo and Akaboshi represented two Go houses fighting for power, and the rivalry between the two camps had lately exploded into accusations of foul play.

Little did they know that the match—now remembered by Go historians as the “blood-vomiting game”—would last for several grueling days. Or that it would lead to a grisly end.

Continue reading “The AI That Has Nothing to Learn From Humans” »

A View from Rana el Kaliouby

We Need Computers with Empathy

An emerging trend in artificial intelligence is to get computers to detect how we’re feeling and respond accordingly. They might even help us develop more compassion for one another.

Continue reading “Your computer has no idea what you’re feeling—that needs to change” »

The benefits of rejuvenation biotechnology to end age-related diseases could go beyond just the individual.

As I wrote in a different article, rejuvenation biotechnology promises a range of benefits for individuals. Lest anyone thinks that’s all rejuvenation has to offer, I reckon it’s worth discussing other ways that this technology would benefit larger groups of people—namely, your friends and family. If you are rejuvenated, that’s all good for you, but is there anything good coming out of it for your dear ones? Oh, yes.

Two burdens relieved with a single shot

Continue reading “Why Eradicating Age-related Disease Could Benefit You and Your Family” »