New Scientist - Technology
China's Tencent seems to have AI chips banned by US export controls
A US ban on exporting high-end chips used for AI development to China doesn't seem to have affected Tencent, as researchers have found signs of the tech giant using the chips well after the ban was put in place
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Robotic rat uses AI to befriend real rodents
A robotic wheeled rat that was trained with AI learned how to play and fight with real rodents – and could one day offer companionship to lab rats
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Implant made with living neurons connects to mouse brains
In a unique demonstration of brain implants that incorporate living cells, the devices were able to connect with the brains of live mice
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DeepMind AI predicts weather more accurately than existing forecasts
The latest weather forecasting AI model from Google DeepMind can beat the leading providers more than 97 per cent of the time, and it is quicker and cheaper to run
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Flying robot leaps upwards and then takes to the air like a bird
A bird-inspired robot called RAVEN can walk, hop and jump into flight, an ability that could help people develop fixed-wing drones that can take off and land anywhere
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Chatbot gives medical advice to hundreds of users in largest trial yet
Users of the healthcare app Alan whose queries were answered by a medical AI reported high satisfaction levels, but one exchange included "potentially dangerous inaccuracies"
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Temporary scalp tattoo can be used to record brain activity
EEG recordings used in neurology could be made simpler by replacing the usual electrodes, wires and gels with a tattoo printed onto the scalp
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Swarms of cyborg cockroaches could be manufactured by robots
Robotic equipment can implant electrodes into cockroaches and connect them to an electronic backpack, making it feasible to mass-produce biorobots for search missions
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The way Cheerios stick together has inspired a new kind of robot
Tiny robots designed to carry out environmental or industrial tasks could be powered by tricks involving surface tension
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Electric Dreams is past echo of today’s debates on AI-generated art
Tate Modern exhibition explores past echoes of today’s debates about virtual reality and AI-generated art
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Social media algorithms can change your views in just a single day
The content you see on social media is often determined by an algorithm - and it turns out that these algorithms can rapidly change your views
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AI can analyse a decomposing body to help pinpoint the time of death
Determining when someone died based on their decomposing body is a subjective task, but artificial intelligence could bring some objectivity to the process
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Robot balloons are snapping centimetre-resolution photos of the US
Near Space Labs’s autonomous balloon fleet is already taking high-resolution images of the ground, and its range will expand to the entire continental US early next year
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The forgotten civil engineer with a vision we could all learn from
John "Bud" Benson Wilbur isn't often remembered today, but his ideas about what the distant-future world of 1977 would look like are inspirational, says Annalee Newitz
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Don’t be fooled by Elon Musk’s chatty Optimus robots
The long history of robotics should teach us to be more sceptical when it comes to autonomous humanoid robots, says Nicole Kobie
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Banning scary-sounding ideas can comfort but does more harm than good
Recent developments in AI and neurological research may prompt concern. However, placing outright bans on such research is unlikely to be the best solution - and may hold us back
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How could Ukraine stop Russia’s new Oreshnik missile?
Russia’s new ballistic missile flies on a high arc out of Earth’s atmosphere and releases multiple high-speed projectiles, making it challenging but not impossible to intercept
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Record-breaking diamond storage can save data for millions of years
Researchers have used lasers to encode information in diamonds, demonstrating record-breaking data density in an ultra-stable and long-lasting system
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Changing a single number among billions can destroy an AI model
Today's huge AI models are composed of several billion numbers known as weights and changing just one of them can destroy their ability to function, leading to “gibberish” output
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Risk algorithm used widely in US courts is harsher than human judges
When deciding whether to let people await trial at home or in jail, US judges can use a risk score algorithm. But it often makes harsher recommendations than humans do
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