Selected automatically each day from over forty sources, iCog Labs brings you news and stories on the latest discoveries and developments related to Artificial Intelligence and other hi-tech projects. Our coverage includes major newspapers and magazines of science.
AI in the court: When algorithms rule on jail time
In a growing number of local and state courts, including Cleveland, judges are now guided by computer algorithms before ruling whether criminal defendants can return to everyday life, or remain locked up awaiting trial. read more
Algorithms are making American inequality worse
In a new book, political scientist Virginia Eubanks says using computers to decide who gets social services hurts the poor. The rich have more access to technology, but what happens when the poor are disproportionately subject to it? read more
The Princess Leia project: ‘volumetric’ 3D images that float in ‘thin air’
Inspired by the iconic Stars Wars scene with Princess Leia in distress, Brigham Young University engineers and physicists have created the “Princess Leia project” — a new technology for creating 3D “volumetric images” that float in the air and that you can walk all around and see from almost any angle. read more
Nuro Raises $92 Million for Adorable Autonomous Delivery Vehicles
Somewhere between a delivery truck and a sidewalk robot, Nuro’s robotic vehicles want to deliver your groceries. It seems like we’ve gotten to the point with self-driving vehicles where it’s no longer enough. read more
Airbus Tests Self-flying Taxi
Airbus said Friday that it had successfully held the first test flights of the Vahana, an electric, pilotless flying vehicle that it hopes will be able to ferry people around cities. Propelled by eight rotors that allow it to take off and land vertically, Vahana completed a second test flight on Thursday. read more
New Study Reveals how Brain Waves Control Working Memory
MIT neuroscientists have found evidence that the brain’s ability to control what it’s thinking about relies on low-frequency brain waves known as beta rhythms. In a memory task requiring information to be held in working memory for short periods of time, the MIT team found that the brain uses beta waves to consciously switch between different pieces of information. read more
Robots Learning to Cook by Watching YouTube Videos
In the hierarchy of things that I want robots to do for me, cooking dinner is right up there with doing the laundry and driving my car. And writing all my articles. Seems that we can all just sit back and let them learn things by watching videos on YouTube. read more
IBM Says Watson Can Help Declutter Your In-Box
IBM’s new messaging software uses algorithms to learn how to organize your e-mail better. After Verse is launched as a product sometime this spring, IBM plans to add a personal assistant powered by the Watson software that beat two human Jeopardy! champions in 2011. The finished version of the service will be free for personal or small-business use. read more
Our Fear of Artificial Intelligence
A true AI might ruin the world—but that assumes it’s possible at all. The question “Can a machine think?” has shadowed computer science from its beginnings. Because people would be unable to compete with an advanced AI, it “could spell the end of the human race.” read more
Voxel8: The World’s First 3D Electronics Printer
Voxel8 has created the world’s first 3D electronics printer from the ground-up. Novel conductive materials and 3D printing technology from the Lewis Research Group at Harvard University. read more
Groundbreaking Artificial Intelligence Can Predict Ebola Drugs’ Effectiveness 150 Times Faster
Google Achieves AI ‘breakthrough’ by Beating Go Champion
A Google artificial intelligence program has beaten the European champion of the board game Go. There are more possible positions in Go than atoms in the universe and it can be very difficult to determine who is winning, and many of the top human players rely on instinct… read more
Scientists Get ‘gene editing’ Go-ahead
UK scientists have been given the go-ahead by the fertility regulator to genetically modify human embryos. It is the first time a country has considered the DNA-altering technique in embryos and approved it. read more
They’re Racking up the Miles, but Are Self-Driving Cars Getting Safer?
Google now has a fleet of 53 cars operating day and night, and they have logged 1.3 million miles of autonomous driving. Google is required by California state law to report “disengagements”—that is, times when either the computer has handed control of the car back to the driver, or the driver has taken over on his own. read more
This $40,000 Robotic Exoskeleton Lets the Paralyzed Walk
The suit returns movement to wearers’ hips and knees with small motors attached to standard orthotics. Wearers can control the movement of each leg and walk at up to 1.1 miles per hour by pushing buttons integrated into a pair of crutches. The Exoskeletons are coming… read more
Will Machines Eliminate Us?
People who worry that we’re on the course to invent dangerously intelligent machines are misunderstanding the state of computer science. The startling capabilities that deep learning has given computers in recent years, from human-level voice recognition and image classification to basic conversational skills, have prompted warnings about the progress AI is making toward matching, or perhaps surpassing, human intelligence. read more
World’s First ‘Robot Run’ Farm to Open in Japan
A Japanese firm said on Monday it will open the world’s first fully automated farm with robots handling almost every step of the process, from watering seedlings to harvesting crops. Kyoto-based Spread said the indoor grow house will start operating by the middle of 2017 and produce 30,000 heads of lettuce a day. read more
Robots Learning to Cook by Watching YouTube Videos
In the hierarchy of things that I want robots to do for me, cooking dinner is right up there with doing the laundry and driving my car. And writing all my articles. Seems that we can all just sit back and let them learn things by watching videos on YouTube. read more
IBM Says Watson Can Help Declutter Your In-Box
IBM’s new messaging software uses algorithms to learn how to organize your e-mail better. After Verse is launched as a product sometime this spring, IBM plans to add a personal assistant powered by the Watson software that beat two human Jeopardy! champions in 2011. The finished version of the service will be free for personal or small-business use. read more
Our Fear of Artificial Intelligence
A true AI might ruin the world—but that assumes it’s possible at all. The question “Can a machine think?” has shadowed computer science from its beginnings. Because people would be unable to compete with an advanced AI, it “could spell the end of the human race.” read more
Voxel8: The World’s First 3D Electronics Printer
Voxel8 has created the world’s first 3D electronics printer from the ground-up. Novel conductive materials and 3D printing technology from the Lewis Research Group at Harvard University. read more
Groundbreaking Artificial Intelligence Can Predict Ebola Drugs’ Effectiveness 150 Times Faster
A Canadian research team, hunting for new Ebola treatments has developed a cutting edge artificial intelligence, capable of predicting the effect of new drugs 150 times faster than current methods. read more
A Brain-Inspired Chip Takes to the Sky
An experiment involving a chip on a small drone shows how hardware modeled on the brain could provide useful intelligence. read more
Google Glass May Have a Blind Spot, Study Says
A recent publication of JAMA states, “The device created a clinically meaningful visual field obstruction in the upper right quadrant,”. read more
Step Toward Quantum Computers: Two Photons Strongly Coupled by Glass Fiber
Scientists have now created the strongest possible coupling of only two photons — an important achievement for quantum optics. read more
Our Machine Masters
The age of artificial intelligence is finally at hand. Will we master it, or will it master us? read more
Google’s Secretive DeepMind Startup Unveils a “Neural Turing Machine”
Deepmind has built a neural network that can access an external memory like a conventional Turing machine. The result is a computer that mimics the short-term memory of the human brain. read more
We Are Playing God with a Declassified Future [Excerpt]
The convergence of nanotechnology, biology, information technology, additive manufacturing, AI, new materials and robotics means we no longer have to wait for natural selection to change our lives. read more
Google Glass Can Now Display Captions For Hard-of-Hearing Users
Georgia Institute of Technology researchers have created a speech-to-text Android app for Google Glass that displays captions for hard-of-hearing persons when someone is talking to them in person. read more
“Glass Brain” Offers Tours of the Space Between Your Ears
These “Glass Brain” visualizations use imaging and advanced computing systems to depict in colorful detail the fiber pathways that make Hart’s brain tick. The researchers behind the project hope it will also form the basis of a new type of tool for the diagnosis and treatment of neurological disorders. read more
Robot Researcher Combines Nature to Nurture ‘Superhuman’ Navigation
Researchers are investigating realistic navigation for robots using computer modeling of the human eye and the brain of a rat. “This is a very Frankenstein type of project,” Dr Milford said. read more
EmTech: Qualcomm Working to Build Artificial Intelligence Into Smartphones
Future smartphones will be able to understand what you’re taking photos of and recognize faces, says mobile chip maker Qualcomm. Researchers working to make a powerful new approach to artificial intelligence known as deep learning a standard feature of mobile devices. read more
Kiss or kill: What Robots Can Do for Humanity
A human kiss can be delivered long-distance by a humanoid go-between… if it doesn’t decide to blow you to pieces first. Those are just some of the innovations in robotics showcased at a festival in Sheffield this week. read more
Mimicking Brain Cells to Boost Computer Memory Power
Researchers have brought ultra-fast, nano-scale data storage within striking reach, using technology that mimics the human brain. The researchers have built a novel nano-structure that offers a new platform for the development of highly stable and reliable nanoscale memory devices. read more
New Frontier in Error-Correcting Codes
To keep the complexity down, Ghaffari and Haeupler adopted a technique called list decoding. Rather than iterating back and forth between message bits and extra bits until the single most probable interpretation emerges, their algorithm iterates just long enough to create a list of likely candidates. read more
Technology Takes The Road
Google’s driverless car may still be a work in progress, but the potential for semi autonomous vehicles on American roads is no longer the stuff of science fiction. read more
Will Superintelligent AIs Be Our Doom?
Over the coming years and decades, AI systems become gradually more capable and as a consequence find increasing real-world applications: They might be used to operate trains, cars, industrial and household robots, and autonomous military vehicles. read more
RoboThespian: the First Commercial Robot that Behaves Like a Person
British company Engineered Arts’ creation can hold eye contact with you, perform Singin’ in the Rain – and even guess your age. read more
Smarter Software Speeds Up Smartphone Charging
One of the most frustrating things about smartphones—how long they take to recharge—could soon be one-third as frustrating. A start-up called Qnovo, based in Newark, California, uses a technology that constantly checks and adjusts the flow of power during recharging to charge batteries faster and increase their lifespans. read more
Zoom in and Out as the Brain Processes Sound
More recently, a technique called two-photon microscopy has allowed researchers to focus in on minute slices of the live mouse brain, observing activity in unprecedented detail. This newer approach has suggested that the precise arrangement of bands might be an illusion. read more
Scientists Bypass Spinal Column Non-invasively to Trigger Walking
Japanese researchers have created an “artificial neural connection” (ANC) from the brain directly to the spinal locomotion center in the lower thoracic and lumbar regions of the spine, potentially one day allowing patients with spinal-cord damage, such as paraplegics, to walk. read more
Siri’s Inventors Are Building a Radical New AI That Does Anything You Ask
When Apple announced the iPhone 4S on October 4, 2011, the headlines were not about its speedy A5 chip or improved camera. Instead they focused on an unusual new feature: an intelligent assistant, dubbed Siri. read more
Computational Linguistics of Twitter Reveals the Existence of Global Superdialects
The first study of dialects on Twitter reveals global patterns that have never been observed before. The work reveals the existence of superdialects on a global scale for the first time. It also demonstrates the power of computational linguistics and how it can be applied to modern forms of communication. read more
New Gadget Helps the Vision-impaired to Read Graphs
Designing Nanoparticles that Can Deliver Drugs More Easily
A new study led by MIT materials scientists reveals the reason why gold nanoparticles can easily slip through cell membranes to deliver drugs directly to target cells. The nanoparticles enter cells by taking advantage of a route normally used in vesicle-vesicle fusion. read more
Open Cog Signed an Agreement with Addis Ababa University (AAU)
Open Cog signed an agreement with Addis Ababa University (AAU). The Major goal of the agreement is to build and maintain a relationship in exposing and cultivating the hidden talent within the Ethiopian developers’ community in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI). read more
Muscle-Powered Bio-bots Walk on Command
Engineers have demonstrated a class of walking ‘bio-bots’ powered by muscle cells and controlled with electrical pulses, giving researchers unprecedented command over their function. read more
Robotic Surgery Opens Up
If the open-source approach to building robot surgeons can cut costs and improve performance, patients will increasingly find them at the other end of the scalpel. A team of researchers is looking to address these issues by developing a robotic surgery system based on hardware designs and software that are freely available. read more
Never Forget a Face: New Algorithm Uses Subtle Change to Make a Face More Memorable
Now your face could be instantly transformed into a more memorable one without the need for an expensive makeover, thanks to an algorithm developed by researchers in MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL). read more
Computers Can be Hacked Using a High-Frequency Sound
Using the microphones and speakers that come standard in many of today’s laptop computers and mobile devices, hackers can secretly transmit and receive data using high-frequency audio signals that are mostly inaudible to human ears, a new study shows. read more
Fully Functional Loudspeaker is 3D Printed
Cornell researchers have 3D-printed a working loudspeaker, seamlessly integrating the plastic, conductive and magnetic parts, and ready for use almost as soon as it came out of the printer. read more
Artificial Intelligence In Addis
“An AI what”? I mumbled when I first heard of a company working on the development of Artificial Intelligence (AI). Indeed, it is something unexpected in the horn of Africa. read more
You Can See Who’s Opening Your Emails And Who’s Ignoring Them
Tout is a new email application that can actually tell you if every email you send has been opened by the recipient. read more
Love Connection
Researchers develop algorithm for recommending online dating prospects. University of Iowa researchers may have read more
How to Use Mind-controlled Robots in Manufacturing, Medicine
Researchers are developing brain-computer interface (BCI) devices to mentally control robots. read more
Computer Learns Common Sense From The Internet
Some of the first pieces of common sense a computer ever learned, like the fact that helicopters are found on airfields and babies have eyes, are now available for the public to see online. read more
How to Unlock Life-Changing Technologies
Miniature robots, personalized drugs and other potentially life-changing technologies lie waiting in the laboratory, lacking support. Here’s how to fix the problem. read more
Encryption Prevents Digital Eavesdropping
There are effective ways to encrypt data, whether it is in transit or in storage, but if that data is left in the clear at any point along its path, it is vulnerable to theft or tampering. read more
IBM to Announce More Powerful Watson via the Internet
Companies, academics and individual software developers will be able to use Watson at a small fraction of the previous cost. read more
Making Robots More Like Us
In a shift away from robots made to perform in factories, designers are putting the “human” into humanoids so that they can safely interact in public. read more
Artificial-intelligence Research Revives its Old Ambitions
A new interdisciplinary research center at MIT, funded by the National Science Foundation, aims at nothing less than unraveling the mystery of intelligence. read more
Carbon nanostructures Grow Under Extreme Particle Bombardment
Nano structures, such as graphene and carbon nanotubes, can develop under far extremer plasma conditions than was previously thought. read more
Germ-killing Nanosurface Opens Up New Front in Hygiene
Imagine a hospital room, door handle or kitchen counter top that is free from bacteria—and not one drop of disinfectant or boiling water or dose of microwaves has been needed to zap the germs. read more
Artificial Heart to Pump Human Waste Into Future Robots
A new device capable of pumping human waste into the “engine room” of a self-sustaining robot has been created by a group of Researchers from Bristol. read more
How to Build a Robot Octopus
Smart, strong and flexible, the octopus is an enticing model for an entirely new kind of many-armed, multitalented robot. read more
The Friendly Drone
Policy-makers should talk to experts about how to harness this new technology of ‘autonomous aerial vehicles,’ instead of clipping its wings. read more
