H+ Weekly - Issue #339
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This week - how AI can help tackle climate change; DeepMind takes on pure mathematics; xenobots can reproduce now; children in South Korea are preparing for a future full of robots; and more!
Before we dive into this week's developments, I'd like to say thank you to dux, who is now supporting the newsletter on Transhuman level on Patreon. Thank you dux!
MORE THAN A HUMAN
► It's happening! New Brain Computer Interface improves mental functioning (11:29)
In this video, Han from WrySci HX presents five recent developments in brain-computer interfaces that did not get the attention like Neuralink did but still are exciting and promise to help people deal with their disabilities and improve their mental functioning.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
climatechange.ai
This page provides an interactive summary of how AI can help with climate change, as described in Tackling Climate Change with Machine Learning paper. It contains ideas for possible applications of machine learning in various areas, from electricity grids to societal changes to solar geoengineering.
Exploring the beauty of pure mathematics in novel ways
After applying AI in biology and helping solve the protein folding problem, DeepMind presented how AI can help move forward mathematics. In this post, researchers from DeepMind describe in detail their collaboration with top mathematicians to apply AI toward discovering new insights in two areas of pure mathematics: topology and representation theory.
ROBOTICS
► Slaughterbots - if human: kill() (5:27)
Future of Life Institute issues another warning against autonomous lethal weapons and urges to ban them before it is too late.
Years Later, Alphabet’s Everyday Robots Have Made Some Progress
X, Alphabet's R&D division, announced that its Everyday Robots team has grown enough and made enough progress that it's time for it to become its own thing, called "Everyday Robots". IEEE Spectrum takes this announcement and analyses the new company's vision of creating "a general-purpose learning robot".
South Korea trials robots in preschools to prepare children for high-tech future
In 300 Seoul nurseries and childcare centres, kids aged three to five are preparing for a future full of robots and intelligent machines by playing with 30-centimeters tall robots. “In the future, knowing how to manage AI and related tools will be very important,” said Han Dong-seog, from the Seoul government’s childcare division.
Robot artist to perform AI generated poetry in response to Dante
Ai-Da, a humanoid robot-artists, will make history by becoming the first robot to publicly perform poetry written by its AI algorithms. Ai-Da was given the whole of Dante’s epic three-part narrative poem, the Divine Comedy, to read, in JG Nichols’ English translation. She then used her algorithms, drawing on her data bank of words and speech pattern analysis, to produce her own reactive work to Dante’s.
BIOTECHNOLOGY
Team Builds First Living Robots That Can Reproduce
Do you remember xenobots? Those first living robots designed by a computer? The same team which made them in early 2020 now reports they've made xenobots go out and self-replicate.
Computer-designed organisms
In case you need to refresh your knowledge about xenobots, check this website. It even has a step-by-step tutorial on how to set up the environment to make your own xenobots.
This issue was brought to you by our awesome patrons Eric, Steve, Andrew, Sean, dux and Tom! You too can support the newsletter on Patreon.
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Conrad Gray (@conradthegray)
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