German scientists just created the world’s first self-replicating synthetic cells
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As our ability to make fully synthetic DNA and genomes accelerates inevitably scientists will want to cross the next step – making living, alien organisms that replicate. Interested in the Exponential Future? Connect, download a free E-Book, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. The creation of life is...
A revolutionary AI built by MIT just discovered a new powerful antibiotic drug
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The anti-biotic crisis means that we need new approaches to finding and developing new anti-biotics, and AI has just proven itself to be a powerful new weapon in that fight. Interested in the Exponential Future? Connect, download a free E-Book, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. So called...
World’s first fully pilotless commercial aircraft takes off from France
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Everyone tells us aircraft can fly by themselves, now they really can, and this is just the first step of that transition. Interested in the Exponential Future? Connect, download a free E-Book, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. We’ve all heard and read about the arrival of autonomous...
Uber’s breakthrough problem solving AI learns by creating then solving its own problems
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Solving problems is hard and requires a different set of skills – human skills. Now Uber’s AI is getting those same skills, but in an exponential way. Interested in the Exponential Future? Connect, download a free E-Book, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. Imagine an Artificial Intelligence (AI)...
MojoVision unveil the world’s first augmented reality contact lens
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Smartphones won’t be around forever, hopefully, and one company is trying to position augmented reality contact lenses and the next great leap. Interested in the Exponential Future? Connect, download a free E-Book, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. Spies want smart contact lenses, like this one that was...
Russia becomes the first country in the world to deploy hypersonic weapons
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Most countries are now on a tear to develop the first generation of hypersonic weapons, and Russia just became the first to deploy them in active service. Interested in the Exponential Future? Connect, download a free E-Book, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. Hypersonic weapons that travel anywhere...
The world’s first living robots were created by an AI and a supercomputer
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As scientists continue to unravel the mysteries of life they’re increasingly finding new ways to edit, control, and manipulate it. Interested in the Exponential Future? Connect, download a free E-Book, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. Let’s face it, when I talk about robots the first thing that...
First of a kind attack as criminals clone a CEO’s voice and con UK energy firm out of $243,000
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As AI’s get better at creating fake content, or synthetic content, this type of attack will be the start of a new worrying trend. Interested in the Exponential Future? Connect, download a free E-Book, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. After Google’s Duplex demonstration last year it’s clear...
BigRep unveil the world’s first fully 3D printed electric car
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF It’s only a matter of time before we can 3D print an entire car, no matter how complex it is, in one run complete with embedded electronics, power, and sensors. Interested in the Exponential Future? Connect, download a free E-Book, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. One day...
HyperStealth demonstrate the world’s first viable invisibility cloak
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Invisibility is an illusion, a magic trick – literally. As metamaterials improve you can expect this once science fiction-like technology to be perfected. Interested in the Exponential Future? Connect, download a free E-Book, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. Happy New Year! Today science fiction is becoming science...
A hydrogen powered drone just made an epic ocean crossing
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Despite advances drones today are still limited by their range, but new technologies like hydrogen fuel cells are helping overcome those limitations. Interested in the Exponential Future? Connect, download a free E-Book, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. Although multi-copter drones are now being used to transport everything...
Indian surgeon completes world’s first remote robotic human heart surgery
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF There are many areas in the world that have a shortage of skilled surgeons, but tele-robotic operations like this one could solve that. Interested in the Exponential Future? Connect, download a free E-Book, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. A little while ago I reported several developments in...
4D Bio-Printing emerges to help scientists print better human organs
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF 3D Printing human organs has its problems so scientists created a 4D Bio-Printing technology to solve them and pave the way for better printed, on demand, human organs that grow with their hosts. Interested in the Exponential Future? Connect, download a free E-Book, watch a keynote, or browse my...
World first as astronauts 3D print beef in space
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Getting food into orbit is expensive, and most of the food is dubious anyway, but 3D printing and new technologies are giving us entirely new ways to produce food anywhere and anytime. Interested in the Exponential Future? Connect, download a free E-Book, watch a keynote, or browse my blog....
Scientists develop the world’s first infinitely recyclable plastic
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Today’s plastics can’t be recycled forever because of the way they’re made and the way recycling systems today work, but a new breakthrough solves both these issues. Interested in the Exponential Future? Connect, download a free E-Book, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. Recycling sounds great in principle,...
World first as Google achieves Quantum Supremacy, but IBM tries to spoil the party
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Until today the world’s most powerful computer was Summit, a US supercomputer, now all that’s changed and a new era of computing has begun. Interested in the Exponential Future? Connect, download a free E-Book, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. Almost exactly two years after Google said it...
An AI learned to surf and use tools after playing 500 million games of hide and seek
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF AI researchers applied human evolutionary philosophies to train their AI, and witnessed a breakthrough that saw the AI’s create and use their own tools. Interested in the Exponential Future? Connect, download a free E-Book, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. In the early days of life on Earth,...
World’s first vaccine entirely designed by an AI heads to human trials
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF There is a lot of hype about using AI to help design and discover new drugs, but we are starting to see results. Interested in the Exponential Future? Connect, download a free E-Book, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. Researchers often spend billions of dollars and countless hours developing new...
Vodafone combines 5G and haptics to let rugby players 100 miles apart tackle each other
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF This is just one example of how 5G will let us work and play in new ways, and it’s just the beginning. Interested in the Exponential Future? Connect, download a free E-Book, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. Vodafone showed off several demos of its new 5G network...
World first after researchers create an AI made of glass
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As our knowledge of neural networks improves it turns out we can give almost everything “intelligence.” Interested in the Exponential Future? Connect, download a free E-Book, watch a keynote, or browse my blog. Recently, I talked about a team of researchers in the US that had managed to 3D...
