WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF It’s nearly impossible to predict the impact that competing, or even collaborating, algorithms will have on business, and as our society depends on them more, that’s a problem.   Last year Facebook’s Artificial Intelligence (AI) agents made up their own language to talk to one...

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The HIV and AIDS epidemics have claimed the lives of millions of people, and now there may be a cure, but there’s a big catch.   News has emerged from the UK that a man has been in remission from HIV for a year and...

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF New powerful technologies are letting us revolutionise how we generate and deliver electricity, and autonomous, self-balancing energy grids are now a thing.   A little while ago I wrote about the US Department of Energy’s plans to create the world’s first autonomous energy grid, but...

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The physics behind Quantum Mechanics mean scientists have discovered a way to read information directly from within blackholes, which is just awesome.   Black holes are gravitational monsters, squeezing gas and dust down to a microscopic point like great cosmic trash compactors, and they’re getting...

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF There are many ways to detect disease, and one of the most effective ways is using smell, so scientists have developed a digital nose.   An electronic nose typically identifies odours by detecting the “fingerprint” of a chemical compound across an array of sensors that are...

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Bitcoin may have its critics, but noone can argue the impact that cryptocurrencies have had on the world, and now one of the US’ biggest banks is jumping on the bandwagon.   With talks of China creating the first blockchain based national cryptocurrency and Ohio...

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Autonomous cars and vehicles present a clear opportunity for cyber criminals to wreak chaos on our roads, but first they’d have to break the vehicles’ unbreakable quantum encryption.   If you, like many people, have ever wondered how we’ll be able to stop cyber criminals...

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As we develop more nanoscale things we need to be able to keep track of them and monitor them and now we have an inexpensive way to achieve that.   Researchers from ITMO University in Russia have created a new type of optical Nano-Sensor that...

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF After the US Pentagon announced it can no longer keep up with the variety or voracity of cyber attacks the US DOD wants to develop autonomous AI’s that can.   After a damning admission from the Pentagon that warned that the US military can no...

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF One of Elon Musk’s ambitions is to allow people to live off world, but first you have to get them there and this is the first step in a long journey.   SpaceX’s Dragon spacecraft, which Elon Musk first showed off a few months ago,...

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Starcraft is a game of strategy, and as a result DeepMind’s AI had to learn an entirely new type of game play in order to thrash its opponents.   AI agents developed by Google’s DeepMind subsidiary have finally beaten human pros at Starcraft II — a first...

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The way we manufacture products today is wasteful and unsustainable, so we’re developing new ways to make the things we love.   Recently I wrote an article about a new form of 3D Printing, called 3D Holographic Printing, printing with light not conventional materials, that...

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The cameras in our gadgets can do alot more than take photos, and with just a minor tweak we can use them to create living 3D photos.   Leveraging the extra “depth” data found in some iPhone photographs, Facebook today announced the rollout of 3D Photos – images...

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Thorium reactors produce thousands times less radioactive waste than their nuclear counterparts, and are much safer, but the technology is taking a long time to take off.   The tropical beaches of India probably bring to mind sun-dappled palms, fiery fish curries and dreadlocked backpackers,...

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As global population grows we need new ways to produce affordable quality food, and vertical farms are increasingly the answer.   Vertical farms that can grow eight times the crops using no chemicals, herbicides or pesticides, and with 99 percent less water than traditional farms...

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Laying down hundreds of thousands of miles of fibre optic cable has had its day as space based internet platforms compete with established telcos.   Private spaceflight firm SpaceX has been publicly planning to deploy a network of “Starlink” satellites to offer broadband internet for several years...

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Being able to collect solar energy in space and beam it back down to base stations on Earth is a very efficient way to harvest it, and we have the technology.   Let’s face it humanity uses a lot of energy, and while solar power here on...

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Being able to use sound to charge our gadgets is a revolutionary idea, and it’s made possible thanks to advances in Nanomanufacturing.   This could be the greatest power discovery for mobiles, ever. Apparently. So say researchers at Queen Mary University London (QMUL) in the...

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As humans and machines start working closely together researchers think we need to create machines that we can trust, but simulating trust might not be the right answer.   As robots and other machines become more entwined with our daily lives, the field of improving...

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF AI is getting increasingly capable at creating quality synthetic content, and that includes books, scripts, and worlds.   Today we have AI’s building other AI’s and fake news stories, and AI’s that write their own code, and doing a better job of it than the...

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF There are multiple uses for incredibly strong cables and materials, from defence to space elevators, and even helping electric cars travel 16,000km on one charge.   Recently I’ve discussed advances across a wide variety of materials, including the development of a wonder material that lasts...

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF DNA is the universes’ most advanced programming language, and we might have just given it  a boost of infinite proportions.   DNA is wonderful. And powerful. After all, it gave us everything from the dinosaurs and dolphins, to us, and, of course, the world’s first...

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Genetic enhancement has a variety of unknown impacts on human biology and cognition, and we are no where near to understanding them.   When now infamous Chinese scientists He Jiankui edited the genes of human twin babies last year, he was reportedly trying to make them immune...

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF About 1 in 100 people have Celiac disease, and this could be the cure they’re all waiting for.   Recently there have been several interesting vaccine breakthroughs, including the development of Contagious Vaccines, that mean vaccinate one person and suddenly everyone has the immunity, and...

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Artificial Intelligence has great promise in the civilian and military realms, and as countries weaponise it the US doesn’t want to be left behind.   The Pentagon, which last year embedded the world’s best robo-hacker into its critical systems to protect them from cyber attacks,...

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF It will not be long before we cannot differentiate the difference between real content and fake content, and that has a myriad of very serious implications, none of which we are prepared for.   There are several very scary AI’s in existence today, take for...

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Nanobots are one of the ultimate medical frontiers and science fiction classics, and they’re slowing beginning to show their promise.   Recently I discussed how we’re building the first generation of enzyme powered nanobots capable of hunting and tracking down disease within the human body...

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Gene drives over rule the laws of genetic inheritance, which means you can cure inherited genetic diseases forever, wipe out the entire human population, and everything in between.   The phrase Gene Drive often sends a shudder down a scientist’s spine, one of awe and...

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As more companies field drones one of their biggest hurdles is keeping them airborne for long periods of time, DARPA’s latest program hopes to solve that.   DARPA, the bleeding edge research arm of the US Military that’s bought and bringing you everything from conscious robots and autonomous...

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As we continue to see breakthroughs in materials electronics are starting to move to the next stage of their evolution.   As smartphone fans await a trio of new phones from Samsung next week, eyes will soon be turning to what could be the Korean company’s...

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Transparent electronics will help revolutionise a variety of industries and products, and make computing even more ubiquitous than it is today.   If you search the internet for images of the future of smartphones, as well as other gadgets, then it’s highly likely that included...

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Arguably the most complex part of creating VR content is coding and building the environments, Nvidia just bought those barriers crashing down.   Nvidia have announced that they’ve introduced a new Artificial Intelligence (AI) Deep Learning model that “aims to catapult the graphics industry into the AI...

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Being able to produce drugs and medicines cheaply is important, and this breakthrough breaks grounds on all kinds of fronts.   Ordinarily, when scientists want to produce proteins to use in medicine they have to use techniques that are costly and complex. Recently, however, in...

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The ability to 3D print explosives is a turning point for the military and other industries that rely on explosives, but it also opens up a debate on the potential dangers of the uses of the technology.   According to new research out of the...

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As the volume and variety of global cyber attacks increase exponentially this is a wake up call that we need a new way to defend ourselves.   The US military’s cybersecurity capabilities aren’t advancing fast enough to stay ahead of the “onslaught of multipronged” attacks...

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As our understanding of computing improves, it is clear that the post-silicon computing era will be anything but dull.   Over the past few years there have been a growing number of experts voicing concerns that Moore’s Law, and the age of silicon computing, is...

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Avatars that resemble real people, in their behaviours and speech, are on the rise, and some people are using them to create immortal versions of themselves.   Soul Machines, the company behind some of the world’s most human-like digital avatars that are already in service...

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As AI gets more deeply embedded into the world’s digital fabric, in everything from self-driving cars to high frequency stock trading, it’s crucial we know how it makes its decisions.   A child is presented with a picture of various shapes and is asked to...

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF There are certain situations, such as calibrating satellite systems, or in cinemas where nearly dark doesn’t cut it, Vantablack is the darkest material ever produced.   Have you ever gotten up to use the restroom during a movie screening, then struggled to find your seat...

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Today if you break your spine, you’re paralysed, but paralysis is increasingly no longer for life.   3D Bio-Printing, an offshoot of its better known cousin 3D Printing, lets scientists manufacture everything from real bones, cartilage, corneas and kidneys, to hearts, ovaries, skin, and teeth, by laying...

WHY THIS MATTERS Teaching robots to dance helps researchers fine tune robots motor skills so they can be more agile and dextrous.   At IROS in Madrid, Marc Raibert from Boston Dynamics, one of the world’s most advanced robotics companies, showed a few videos during his keynote presentation. One was...

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Mental health issues seem to plague modern society, but the number of people who seek out professional help is minimal, so companies are developing AI counsellors that are free and accessible anywhere 24/7   Mental health has been increasingly on people’s minds, if you’ll excuse...

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As many people worry about the rise of AI and automation, and the effect they will have on jobs, new faster and smarter ways to educate and train our children and our workforces are emerging.   Before the Rio 2016 Olympic Games members of the...

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Incredibly powerful, and increasingly democratised, emerging technologies are transforming every sector faster than ever, and this can have dire consequences for investors if the mechanisms behind the change are not understood.   Firstly, thank you to Amelie for inviting me to be the keynote for...

WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Poker is a game of bluff, and acting without perfect information, and so too is war.   Over the past year the US Pentagon has installed an autonomous Artificial Intelligence (AI) Robo-hacker called Mayhem to monitor and protect its most critical systems from cyber attacks,...