AI can now tell your boss what skills you lack and how to get them
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Every job is a combination of different competencies but most training courses only focus on a few, now AI can tell you all the competencies you lack and how to get them. Here’s the conundrum with corporate online learning, there are so many classes available from...
Uber has killed off its self-driving truck division
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As Uber faces challenges on multiple fronts the company has had to take the hard decision to double down on strategic bets. Two years after Uber bought self-driving truck developer Otto for $680 million, the ride hailing company has announced that the Uber Advanced...
IBM finds a way to watermark AI’s to protect them from theft and sabotage
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Creating complex neural networks and AI’s takes a lot of expertise, money and resources so being able to watermark them will help protect them from theft. What if machine learning models, much like photographs, movies, music, and manuscripts, could be watermarked nearly imperceptibly to denote...
Blackhat hackers discover a way to turn satellites into “microwave weapons”
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Satellites are ubiquitous and a newly discovered exploit could let hackers turn them into high frequency weapons that fry electronics on the ground. As I discussed in a recent keynote on the future of cybersecurity, even air gaps, thought to be the ultimate in...
Scientists have 3D printed the world’s first physical neural network
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Being able to print advanced and complex AI’s mean we can produce them cheaply and position them at the edge of networks where computer power might be limited. Recently a team of researchers in the US revolutionised artificial intelligence when they made the world’s first...
Scientists achieve world first by following a thought through the human brain
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF If we are ever going to unravel the mysteries of the mind, and help find new treatments for cognitive diseases, we first have to understand how the brain works. A study using epilepsy patients undergoing surgery has given neuroscientists an opportunity to track in...
Scientists created huge atom clouds to test quantum entanglement at scale
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The ability to harness quantum entanglement at scale will help revolutionise communications systems, computing, healthcare, and warfare, to name but a few. From tunnelling through impenetrable barriers to being in two places at the same time, the quantum world of atoms and particles is famously...
Scientists created a DNA Neural Network and the world’s first “test tube AI”
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF AI neural networks made out of DNA will let us create “AI’s in a test tube” that will usher in the next AI revolution and exponentially increase the number of AI use cases. Recently we’ve seen significant advances in the development of living biological...
The world’s smallest computer makes a grain of rice look massive
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As computing and AI processing gets moved to the edge of the network and into billions of IOT devices computers will have to get ever smaller. Researchers at the University of Michigan have created the world’s smallest computer, again, after their previous micro-computers, called...
This new metamaterial could turn your car into its own airbag
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Being able to create materials that can transition between hard and soft states could open the door to a whole host of new applications. I think you’ll agree with me that rubber and steel are at different ends of the spectrum when it comes...
AI has learnt how to predict how smart you are from brain scans
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Being able to gauge a smart a person is just from a brain scan could provide scientists with new insights into the brain. Scientists in the US have announced they’ve developed an Artificial Intelligence (AI) system that can tell how smart a person is...
Book tickets into space for $200,000, Blue Origin preps for take off
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The cost of space travel is collapsing thanks to new technology and new blood in the industry, and soon you too could explore the vastness of our universe. If Jeff Bezos has his way, and he probably will, then soon it’s likely you’ll be...
Jeff bezos announces target to build the world’s first Moon base in 2023
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF At some point in the future humanity will become an interplanetary species, and several billionaires want it to be sooner rather than later. Blue Origin, the space company run by Jeff Bezos, who wants to one day use the service to deliver goods to...
MIT researchers have taught their AI to see through solid walls
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF There are times when seeing through walls is useful, for example in hostage negotiations, search and rescue, and to see when mum and dad are about to bust in on your gameplay. Recently we’ve seen camera developments from both China and MIT that help...
Jeff Bezos wants to colonise the Moon and move heavy industry off Earth
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF There are an increasing number of billionaires who believe heavy industry should be moved off of Earth and onto the Moon, and Bezos might be one to help make it a reality. Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is convinced that one day “we are going...
Uber reveals six of its favourite flying taxi Skyport concepts
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As more companies become interested, and invest, in flying taxi’s, companies like Airbus and Uber are keen to be at the forefront of the revolution. Stout cylindrical towers that cars can fly inside and stacked landing pods are among the proposals that architects and...
Scientists put a worms mind into a Lego robot to control it, and it worked
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The convergence of biological intelligence with robotics will be an area of increasing interest in the future. It’s not something you do every day, put a worms brain into a Lego robot… but then again you’re probably not a scientist. This is the promise...
US military starts trialling robotic surgeons in the battlefield
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Being able to monitor the health of soliders in battle will help keep them at peak efficiency, and military robot surgeons will help save lives on the battlefield. Keeping soldiers healthy has always been a struggle but there may soon be a high tech solution after US...
Microsoft created elusive particles to build the world’s most accurate quantum computer
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The most powerful quantum computers in the future will be the ones not necessarily with the most Qubits, but be the ones that are the most accurate, and that’s what Microsoft is focusing on. At Microsoft’s Dutch research facility at the Delft University of Technology,...
Plexus VR gloves give users fine grained control of their VR environments
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The best technology is invisible and frictionless to use, and virtual reality still has a way to go before the experience is simple and seamless, but these gloves could help bring more users into the sector. Bringing a user’s hands into a Virtual Reality...
