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Category: robotics/AI

Pesticides and other common chemical pollutants are toxic to ‘good’ gut bacteria, lab-based screening indicates

A large-scale laboratory screening of human-made chemicals has identified 168 chemicals that are toxic to bacteria found in the healthy human gut. These chemicals stifle the growth of gut bacteria thought to be vital for health. The research, including the new machine learning model, is published in the journal Nature Microbiology.

Most of these chemicals, likely to enter our bodies through food, water, and environmental exposure, were not previously thought to have any effect on bacteria.

As the bacteria alter their function to try and resist the chemical pollutants, some also become resistant to antibiotics such as ciprofloxacin. If this happens in the human gut, it could make infections harder to treat.

Innovative materials boost stretchable digital displays’ performance

Organic light-emitting diodes (OLEDs) power the high-end screens of our digital world, from TVs and phones to laptops and game consoles.

If those displays could stretch to cover any 3D or irregular surfaces, the doors would be open for technologies like wearable electronics, medical implants and humanoid robots that integrate better with or mimic the soft human body.

“Displays are the intuitive application, but a stretchable OLED can also be used as the light source for monitoring, detection and diagnosis devices for diabetes, cancers, heart conditions and other major health problems,” said Wei Liu, a former postdoctoral researcher in the lab of University of Chicago Pritzker School of Molecular Engineering (UChicago PME) Assoc. Prof. Sihong Wang.

Interlaced origami structure enables compact storage and high-strength robotic deployment

Researchers at the Department of Mechanical Engineering, Seoul National University, have applied the principle of interlacing to an origami-inspired structure and developed a “Foldable-and-Rollable corruGated Structure (FoRoGated-Structure)” that can be smoothly folded and rolled up for compact storage while maintaining very high strength when deployed. The study was published in the journal Science Robotics on November 26.

The team was led by Professor Kyu-Jin Cho—Director of the Human-Centered Soft Robotics Research Center and a founding member of the SNU Robotics Institute (SNU RI).

Podcast with Chuck Brooks, Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University and President of Brooks Consulting International — Quantum Computing Report

In this episode of The Quantum Spin by HKA, host Veronica Combs discusses the intersections of quantum technology and cybersecurity with Chuck Brooks, an adjunct professor at Georgetown University and the president of Brooks Consulting International. Chuck discusses how the evolution of technology, particularly AI and quantum computing, has dramatically transformed cybersecurity. The conversation also touches on the role of CISOs, the integration of new technologies, and the importance of ongoing education and adaptation in the face of rapidly changing technologies.

00:00 Introduction to Quantum Spin Podcast 00:34 Guest Introduction: Chuck Brooks 00:46 Chuck Brooks’ Career Journey 02:09 Evolution of Cybersecurity 02:47 Challenges for CISOs 04:27 Quantum Computing and Cybersecurity 07:43 Future of Quantum and AI 10:51 Disruptive Technologies in Organizations 15:15 AI in Academia and Professional Use 17:06 Effective Communication on LinkedIn 18:23 Conclusion and Podcast Information.

Chuck Brooks serves as President of Brooks Consulting International with over 25 years of experience in cybersecurity, emerging technologies, marketing, business development, and government relations. He also is an Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University in the Cyber Risk Management Program, where he teaches graduate courses on risk management, homeland security, and cybersecurity.

Godfather of AI Predicts Total Breakdown of Society

Geoffrey Hinton, one of the three so-called “godfathers” of AI, never misses an opportunity to issue foreboding proclamations about the tech he helped create.

During an hour-long public conversation with Senator Bernie Sanders at Georgetown University last week, the British computer science laid out all the alarming ways that he forecasts AI will completely upend society for the worst, seemingly leaving little room for human contrivances like optimism. One of the reasons why is that AI’s rapid deployment will be completely unlike technological revolutions in the past, which created new classes of jobs, he said.

“The people who lose their jobs won’t have other jobs to go to,” Hinton said, as quoted by Business Insider. “If AI gets as smart as people — or smarter — any job they might do can be done by AI.”

Diamond quantum sensors improve spatial resolution of MRI

This accomplishment breaks the previous record of 48 qubits set by Jülich scientists in 2019 on Japan’s K computer. The new result highlights the extraordinary capabilities of JUPITER and provides a powerful testbed for exploring and validating quantum algorithms.

Simulating quantum computers is essential for advancing future quantum technologies. These simulations let researchers check experimental findings and experiment with new algorithmic approaches long before quantum hardware becomes advanced enough to run them directly. Key examples include the Variational Quantum Eigensolver (VQE), which can analyze molecules and materials, and the Quantum Approximate Optimization Algorithm (QAOA), used to improve decision-making in fields such as logistics, finance, and artificial intelligence.

Recreating a quantum computer on conventional systems is extremely demanding. As the number of qubits grows, the number of possible quantum states rises at an exponential rate. Each added qubit doubles the amount of computing power and memory required.

Although a typical laptop can still simulate around 30 qubits, reaching 50 qubits requires about 2 petabytes of memory, which is roughly two million gigabytes. ‘Only the world’s largest supercomputers currently offer that much,’ says Prof. Kristel Michielsen, Director at the Jülich Supercomputing Centre. ‘This use case illustrates how closely progress in high-performance computing and quantum research are intertwined today.’

The simulation replicates the intricate quantum physics of a real processor in full detail. Every operation – such as applying a quantum gate – affects more than 2 quadrillion complex numerical values, a ‘2’ with 15 zeros. These values must be synchronized across thousands of computing nodes in order to precisely replicate the functioning of a real quantum processor.

The JUPITER supercomputer set a new milestone by simulating 50 qubits. New memory and compression innovations made this breakthrough possible. A team from the Jülich Supercomputing Centre, working with NVIDIA specialists, has achieved a major milestone in quantum research. For the first time, they successfully simulated a universal quantum computer with 50 qubits, using JUPITER, Europe’s first exascale supercomputer, which began operation at Forschungszentrum Jülich in September.

Continue reading “Diamond quantum sensors improve spatial resolution of MRI” | >

Ilya Sutskever — We’re moving from the age of scaling to the age of research

00:00:00 – Explaining model jaggedness

00:09:39 — Emotions and value functions

00:18:49 – What are we scaling?

00:25:13 – Why humans generalize better than models

00:35:45 – Straight-shotting superintelligence

00:46:47 – SSI’s model will learn from deployment

Continue reading “Ilya Sutskever — We’re moving from the age of scaling to the age of research” | >

New deep-learning tool can tell if salmon is wild or farmed

A paper published in Biology Methods and Protocols, finds that it is now possible to distinguish wild from farmed salmon using deep learning, potentially greatly improving strategies for environmental protection. The paper is titled “Identifying escaped farmed salmon from fish scales using deep learning.”

Norway is home to the largest remaining wild populations of wild salmon and is also one of the largest producers of farmed salmon. Atlantic salmon abundance in Norway has declined by over 50% since the 1980s and is now at historically low levels. Escaped farmed salmon are an important reason for this decline.

Norway produces over 1.5 million metric tons of farmed Atlantic salmon annually. Each year, however, approximately 300,000 farmed salmon escape into the wild.

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