H+ Weekly - Issue #294
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This week - a brain implant to fight depression; robots of the CES; a neural network that learns when it should not be trusted; and more!
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MORE THAN A HUMAN
Brain Implant Successfully Fights Off Depression, Scientists Say
For years, doctors have been probing the use of targeted electrical shocks to treat clinical depression, and while many experts agree that it’s a promising avenue for treatment, the research has yielded mixed and limited results. Now, a University of California San Francisco case study published in the journal Nature Medicine shows that electrical stimulation can have a profound antidepressant effect — just so long as the shocks are carefully tailored to an individual patient’s specific moods and symptoms.
Blind man regains sight thanks to Israeli startup's synthetic cornea
A 78-year-old man who has been blind in both eyes for 10 years has regained his sight after receiving the first implant of an artificial cornea developed by Israeli startup CorNeat. The CorNeat KPro implant is designed to replace deformed, scarred or opacified corneas, and it integrates with the eye wall with no reliance on donor tissue.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
► OpenAI DALL·E: Fighter Jet For The Mind! ✈️ (8:09)
Károly Zsolnai-Fehé from Two Minute Papers explains OpenAI's newest project - DALL·E - an AI that can generate images from a text description. I like what he said at the end of the video - that GPT-3 is a new way of programming that can augment human creativity in a way we don't even know yet.
Asimov’s Three Laws Helped Shape A.I. and Robotics. We Need Four More.
For decades, Isaac Asimov's famous Three Laws of Robotics influenced the regulations around robotics. Frank Pasqual argues we need to add four more laws of robotics "to ensure lasting and democratized human control of the development of technology", as he said in this interview with OneZero.
A neural network learns when it should not be trusted
AI researchers developed a quick way for a neural network to crunch data, and output not just a prediction but also the model’s confidence level based on the quality of the available data. “Any field that is going to have deployable machine learning ultimately needs to have reliable uncertainty awareness,” says the author of the research.
ROBOTICS
Bio-inspired robotics: Learning from dragonflies
Nature is a great source of inspiration for robotics. This study shows how figuring out how dragonfly's mouth works can lead to more efficient and agile robots.
CES 2021 Is All About the Robots
Here is a quick round-up of some of the interesting robots presented at this years CES - from robotic pets to robotic arms for the kitchen.
EVENTS
The future of the science of aging
London Futurists will be hosting this Saturday Dr Andrew Steele to discuss the future of science of ageing and the ways we can extend our lives. The event will be livestream on Zoom on Saturday 23rd January, starting at 4PM UK time. You can reserve your spot over here.
This issue was brought to you by our awesome patrons Andrew, Frank, Sean and Tom! You too can support the newsletter on Patreon.
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Conrad Gray (@conradthegray)
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