Lifeboat Foundation

As demand for green energy increases, Spot can help nuclear operators improve uptime and reduce employees dosage by automating hazardous inspections. Learn more… See More.

Spot, an agile mobile robot, helps the nuclear power industry perform inspection tasks to improve operational data and reduce dosage for employees.

Continue reading “How to Gather Better Data and Reduce Dosage in Nuclear Facilities” »

It goes without saying that the neutralizing of underwater mines is a dangerous task – definitely one that you’d avoid sending a scuba diver to do, if at all possible. That’s why Pittsburgh-based RE2 Robotics is designing a robotic system to do the job.

Drawing on a US$9.5-million contract recently awarded by the US Office of Naval Research (ONR), RE2 will act as the systems integrator for the autonomous robotic Maritime Mine Neutralization System (M2NS).

In a nutshell, that system will consist of a set of RE2’s Sapien Sea Class robotic arms, mounted on a Defender ROV (remotely operated vehicle) manufactured by Pennsylvania-based VideoRay. M2NS will also incorporate RE2’s Detect computer vision software for locating mines, and its Intellect autonomy software for placing “neutralizing devices” on them.

“Scientists are meant to know what’s going on, but in this particular case, we are deeply confused.”

The crystals neatly sidestep some of physics’ most iron-clad laws.

I predicted that by 2030 you would be able to tell an AI assistant to build brand new books, movies, TV, video games, etc… on demand. That has now arrived, although in its Very Early stages. Look forward to building whatever media you want, or changing existing media into whatever you want.

“OpenAI Codex: Just Say What You Want!”

Continue reading “OpenAI Codex: Just Say What You Want! 🤖” »

Artificial intelligence (AI) could be the most transformative technology in the history of mankind—and we may not even see much of this sweeping change coming. That’s because we often overestimate what technologies can do in five years, and underestimate what they will be able to do in 20.

As I’ve traveled the world talking about this subject, I’m constantly asked, “what will the future hold for humans and AI?” This is an essential question for this moment in history. Some believe that we’re in the midst of an “AI bubble” that will eventually pop, or at least cool off. Those with more drastic and dystopian views believe everything from the notion that AI giants will “hijack our minds” and form a utopian new race of “human cyborgs”, to the arrival of an AI-driven apocalypse. Each of these projections may be born out of genuine curiosity or understandable fear, but they are usually speculative or exaggerated. They miss the complete picture.

Speculation varies wildly because AI appears complex and opaque and it is no wonder that the general view about AI has turned cautious—and even negative. To be sure, aspects of AI development deserve our scrutiny and caution, but it is important to balance these concerns with exposure to the full picture of this crucially important technology’s potential. AI, like most technologies, is inherently neither good nor evil. And I believe that, like most technologies, AI will eventually produce more positive than negative impacts in our society.

Cognitive biases have been studied for decades by academics in the fields of cognitive science, social psychology, and behavioural economics.

View the high resolution version of today’s graphic by clicking here.

The human brain is capable of incredible things, but it’s also extremely flawed at times.

Continue reading “Visualising every single cognitive bias” »

A company formed by Harvard genetics professor George Church, known for his pioneering work in genome sequencing and gene splicing, hopes to genetically resurrect woolly mammoths.

The story illuminates the way that many scientific discoveries become life-changing innovations: with decades of dead ends, rejections and battles over potential profits, but also generosity, curiosity and dogged persistence against scepticism and doubt. “It’s a long series of steps,” says Paul Krieg, a developmental biologist at the University of Arizona in Tucson, who made his own contribution in the mid-1980s, “and you never know what’s going to be useful”.

Hundreds of scientists had worked on mRNA vaccines for decades before the coronavirus pandemic brought a breakthrough.