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...
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...
US proposes to regulate AI the same way it regulates weapons exports
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF AI can be both very beneficial, but also in the wrong hand very dangerous, and the US is thinking about regulating it in the same way they regulate military hardware. Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology has the capability to be one of, if not the,...
Israel’s autonomous crane takes aim at the fully automated construction sites of the future
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF New technologies like AI, machine vision and autonomous robots and machines mean one day we’ll see fully autonomous construction sites – and they’ll need cranes. A little while ago I discussed how tomorrow’s construction sites will become increasingly autonomous thanks to the arrival of...
Windows are the perfect lens-less cameras for AI and VR headsets
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Researchers have re-thought cameras from the point of view of today’s AI’s, and what they’ve created is as innovative as it is revolutionary. Cameras used to be their own devices with lenses and film and trips to the drug store to get the pictures...
A robot taught itself how to identify and manipulate objects autonomously
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Robots that can autonomously identify and skill-fully manipulate objects without needing to be previously trained could revolutionise the robotics industry. Human dexterity is an impressive skill that requires both our body’s fine motor skills and highly efficient visual acuity, and despite recent advances from...
Collapsing bee colonies prompt researchers to build robo bees
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF We rely on bees to pollinate nearly 75 percent of our crops, but as colonies continue to collapse researchers are looking for new alternatives to pollinate crops. Food security continues to come under the spotlight which is why we’ve recently seen research that uses...
A controversial AI can allegedly reveal your personality from just a photo
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF A system that can tell a persons personality from a photo can be used to help approve loans, provide better healthcare, and create smarter surveillance solutions. In the past I’ve heard of Artificial Intelligent (AI) platforms that can, controversially, judge a persons character from...
Researchers use AI to turn smartphones into lab grade microscopes
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Not everyone has access to a lab grade microscope, and if you’re a doctor in the middle of nowhere that’s an issue that will delay disease diagnosis and potentially put lives at risk, this breakthrough will revolutionise front line medicine. Today we are on...
Vertical farms edge closer to disrupting traditional agriculture
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Today’s modern agricultural practises favour countries with fertile land and the food they produce has a dramatic impact on the environment, but tomorrows farms could be stationed in deserts, or at sea, right next to their consumers, producing high quality, organic food at knock down...
AI can now restore your corrupted photos to their original condition
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Lots of us have old or crappy photos that are in bad condition and in the past the only place you could put them was in the bin, but now new AI image restoration technology could restore them to better than the originals. There’s...
MIT and DeepMind’s new AI can’t be tricked with weird lighting
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As we produce more systems that rely on machine vision to do their jobs or keep people safe, systems that can’t see the world accurately pose both a danger and a risk. Machine Vision has come a long way since Imagenet, a large repository of labelled...
AI can now beat polygraph tests to tell when you’re lying
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Being able to tell when someone is lying is important, but as with any technology authorities will have to know where to draw the line between just cause and violating a person’s rights to privacy. Scientists have long known this, our pupils widen ever...
AI can identify dangerous lung diseases as well as trained doctors
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Chest diseases claim millions of lives a year and being able to diagnose them faster will potentially help doctors save hundreds of thousands of lives. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is starting to make a dent in the multi-trillion dollar healthcare industry, from being able to...
China’s surveillance network found a BBC reporter in under 7 minutes
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As nation states roll out increasingly advanced and sophisticated surveillance networks, how we use them and the agenda of those who control them become increasingly important to understand. It took Chinese authorities just seven minutes to locate and apprehend BBC reporter John Sudworth using its...
AI can now identify your health problems but just looking at you
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Millions of people around the world go untreated because doctors can’t diagnose, or sometimes even see, their symptoms, but now AI can use photos to identify health conditions in seconds not days, weeks or years. Patient number two was born to first-time parents, late...
AI is helping create realistic “Fake news!” videos and it’s going to be a problem
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The ability of “unethical actors” to create realistic looking video and audio of famous people to generate “Fake news!” is accelerating exponentially and politicians are already way behind the curve. Over the past couple of years, even before “Fake news!” became the monster topic...
Brace yourselves AI is about to make the “Fake News!” problem a whole lot worse
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF We are approaching a dangerous threshold where one day, in the next few years, you won’t be able to trust what you see, or easily distinguish fake news from real news, and it could have big consequences on democracy and society. Over the past...
Elbit’s persistent surveillance drone can watch entire cities in real time
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF In an age where threats can lurk anywhere authorities are calling out for new surveillance systems that can watch entire areas, or cities, in real time, and industry is answering them. Yesterday at the Paris Airshow Elbit Systems, an Israeli defence company, demonstrated their new,...
Companies want to use AI to judge your ‘Character’ from just a photo
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF We are well on the path to creating a society shaped and guided by digital, and genetic, profiling and that can be a good, and a bad, thing. Dangerous dystopian tech, or a must have pre-crime tech in an increasingly dangerous world? I’ll let...
