Putting the ‘art’ in ‘artificial’
In another unprecedented first for AI, an AI-controlled robot arm created an artwork that sold for millions of dollars at an auction in New York this week. The painting, created by a robot arm trained using a deep learning algorithm, was titled “Rhapsody in Blue” and has raised a number of legal and ethical questions […]
Biobatteries get a hydrogen boost
It’s an old trick in science class to make an LED light glow using just a potato as the battery, but bacterial fuel cells and biological batteries have come a long way in recent years. We’ve known for ages that some bacteria and plant enzymes can liberate electrons from bio feedstocks, but it’s been almost […]
The curse of transparency
We all wanted more disclosure and transparency. We rejoiced in 2023, when pay transparency laws in California and New York spawned a trend to publicly post salary levels in recruitment ads. And open data was the cool thing. What’s the point of having all that information on city and government databases – like the value […]
Forget about your diet
A revolutionary solution to the global obesity problem has been approved for human trials. Gene therapy company Verve Therapeutics has developed a vaccine for well, fat. Based on CRISPR DNA-editing technology, the new vaccine targets a gene expressed in the brain, which encodes a protein that regulates appetite. A simple jab switches the order of […]
The intelligence of negotiation
A new era of negotiation has arrived thanks to the ground-breaking work of Silicon Valley start-up, ContractBot. The bot, based on OpenAI’s ChatGPT functionality, uses advanced natural language processing, machine learning, and computer vision which enables it to process vast amounts of information quickly and accurately. Today, ContractBot announced that NEGbot has successfully negotiated with […]
Power to the people
In a revolutionary shift, for the first time since the move towards distributed power began in the early twenties, energy generated by minigrids has officially outstripped large power stations in the United States. Following the global energy crisis sparked by the Russia-Ukraine conflict, and the growing urgency to move away from fossil fuels, the world […]
Nightmare in space
Rockets are grounded and space explorers stranded as space debris floods the skies
Carbon crushes metals magnates
A revolution is taking place in the manufacturing industry, and it’s all thanks to carbon. Scientists and engineers have discovered that carbon and its nanoforms, such as graphene, nanotubes, and graphene oxides, can replace many metals used in industry, including copper, zinc, platinum, indium, silver, and chromium. This breakthrough has far-reaching implications for high-tech manufacturing. […]
Seeing the 3D Future
Prescription lens manufacturers have been hard-hit by the latest trend in 3D printing – stick-on prescription lenses. Since 2015, when 3D printed lenses first entered the market, the landscape has been dominated by a few large players. Recent advancements in substrate technology saw them hit the consumer market in a big way. The 3D printed […]
The Line: The future of work and play
The first tenants have officially moved into The Line, the futuristic development at the heart of the Neom smart city project. Composed of two parallel skyscrapers running 120km through the desert, The Line is a revolutionary new city design, powered entirely by renewable energy and advanced AI systems. In this car-free zone, residents and visitors […]
