Colour night vision breakthrough turns the darkest midnight into day
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Being able to see in colour, even during the darkest nights, is a game changer that will have ramifications for multiple industries. When we think of night vision our minds automatically turn to grainy black and green images. But today things have begun to...
Scientists have created a decoder to turn brain activity into speech
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF For a wide range of reasons many people have speaking disabilities, but now a Brain to Speech breakthrough gives them their voices back. Scientists have announced a breakthrough in Brain Machine Interface (BMI) technology that has, for the first time, let them translate electrical...
Amazon’s AI reportedly tracks, monitors and automatically fires hundreds of employees
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As we entrust machines with more decision making powers it brings both pros and cons, and being fired by an AI is definitely a con. There’s been a lot of news coverage about how Artificial Intelligence (AI), robots and Robotic Process Automation (RPA), will,...
AI and automation: The benefits for business and industry
On 4 August 1997, Skynet, a US military developed program, became self-aware and began to think for itself. Operators tried to deactivate the computer system but the now ‘intelligent’ system perceived this as a threat and in order to protect its mandate of ‘safeguarding the world’ Skynet launched a nuclear...
China’s AI anti-corruption program is getting shut down for being too good
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Corruption is endemic, and now China’s AI powered anti-corruption program is getting shut down in a record number of provinces because it’s allegedly too efficient. What would you do if you had a machine that could catch a thief, or a corrupt politician? Well,...
Google’s AI enlisted to help crack the secret of nuclear fusion
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Trying to create an artificial Sun on Earth is no mean feat, and scientists have turned to Artificial Intelligence to help them. With the click of a mouse and a loud bang researchers blast jets of super hot, ionized gas called plasma into one...
Doctor Dolittle researchers use AI to decode mice chatter
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Using AI to translate human languages is nothing new, but now we’re using the technology to help us decipher animal languages. Dolphins are getting in on the act, and now so are mice – having their language translated into something humans can understand using...
New pre-crime tech detects shoplifters before they commit the crime
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF AI’s that can predict outcomes from users behaviours are becoming increasingly common, and one of the biggest beneficiaries of that is the area of pre-crime detection. It’s watching, and knows a crime is about to take place before it happens – this is the...
China shows off its first official neurosurgery robot
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As the technologies needed to construct sophisticated robot surgeons advances, so too are the type and complexity of surgeries they can take on. Using robots in surgery isn’t new, and I’ve written about a bunch of them recently as the technology starts leaving the...
Two algorithms left to their own devices ended up colluding with one another
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...
US Military puts the call out for autonomous AI’s that can defend its networks
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...
Facebook 3D photos sources depth information straight from your camera
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...
A US start up has created the world’s first fully autonomous vertical farm
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...
The US Pentagon releases it’s plan to become a world leader in AI
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,...
US Pentagon surrenders and admits it can no longer keep pace with cyber attacks
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...
DARPA propose creating an AI that can monitor the whole world for threats
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF An AI capable of monitoring the whole world for threats, of any kind, is a huge undertaking and could become the world’s first “global” intelligence platform. DARPA already has a reputation as the mad scientist lab of the US military, thanks to a range of...
OpenAI develops curious AI’s that learn for themselves
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Today’s AI’s are force fed training information but companies around the world are trying to create AI’s that learn for themselves which will revolutionise the field. When playing a video game, what motivates you to carry on? This question is perhaps too broad to...
Hypersurfaces uses AI to turn everything into a computer interface
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Today’s computer interfaces are still limiting, even with the advent of voice and touch, so Hypersurfaces is setting them free. In the future one thing is certain, as technology proliferates around us the keyboard and mouse will slowly die out and we will all...
New “revolutionary” Google AI training method trains AI’s at the edge and protects user privacy
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF One of the biggest problems with training AI’s is the shortage of data, and the issue of privacy, Federated AI Learning overcomes this problem by training AI’s on the devices and smartphones at the network’s edge. When big tech firms use Artificial Intelligence (AI)...
Confidence that American’s can spot fake bots plummets to all time low
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF If people can longer tell fake content or “people” from what’s real then there’s the threat that trust in each other, and in society and government, could break down. How times have changed. Just a few years ago, before the arrival of fake Chinese...
