Artificial Intelligence
A Startup Claims It Broke Through a Bottleneck That’s Holding Back LLMsWill Douglas Heaven | MIT Technology Review ($)
“According to Subquadratic, it has developed a new kind of LLM, called SubQ, that is faster and cheaper and uses a lot less energy than any other model on the market. The company also claims that SubQ is able to process up to 12 times as much text at once than most other models, allowing it to carry out a range of data-heavy tasks, such as analyzing hundreds of documents or entire code bases.”
Robotics
The Next Humanoid Robot Might Not Look Human at AllRobert Hart | The Verge
“The next humanoid robot might not have a head. It might not have legs. It might even sit on a wheeled base and fold down like a deck chair. But, as Genesis AI puts it, ‘humanoid robots don’t need to look human.’ …Genesis says Eno is designed ‘around human capability’ rather than human appearance and is intended as a fully ‘general-purpose’ robot rather than a machine built around a single task, like folding laundry.”
Biotechnology
Chilling the Body With Drugs Could Limit Brain Damage From StrokeAlice Klein | New Scientist ($)
“A combination of two drugs used to treat hay fever and psychosis cooled down the core body temperature of mice and monkeys, reducing brain damage after a stroke. These medications have also undergone preliminary testing in people, and will now be evaluated in a follow-up clinical trial.”
Future
A Court Has Ruled That Google Is Liable for False Statements Generated by AI OverviewsFernanda González | Wired ($)
“The authorities found that, unlike traditional search engines, which merely display lists of links with statements made by third parties, Google’s tool produced ‘independent, new, and substantial statements’ based on a misinterpretation of information available on the internet. …Google is the only entity with the ability to modify the technology underpinning its AI-generated summaries and, therefore, ‘must be held accountable.'”
Artificial Intelligence
Estonia Is Giving AI Agents ‘Personal Identification Codes’Webb Wright | Gizmodo
“Estonia is trying to bring some law and order to the Wild West that is the world of AI agents. The small Baltic nation plans to assign each AI agent a ‘personal identification code,’ hoping to track what agents do across the internet and identify the people or companies behind them.”
Biotechnology
Why the Human Genome’s Tangled Physicality May Confound AIPhilip Ball | Quanta Magazine
“[The AI] approach is likely to be useful, but for those who crave real understanding of how the genome, and ultimately life itself, works, a computational black box will never suffice. And perhaps more to the point, the genome might not submit to the kind of straightforward input-output approach that such AI models ultimately assume. That’s because the genome is no blueprint or algorithm. It is something else.”
Future
The Inevitable Weakness of MetricsBryan Gardiner | MIT Technology Review ($)
“What I think many of us miss—what I know I certainly missed—is that there are always trade-offs when you try to distill something important down to a data point. When we turn to metrics to understand ourselves, our social world, and culture as a whole, they will never come close to capturing what matters. Even worse, they’ll often actively obscure it.”
Future
Just 16% of Americans Believe AI Will Positively Impact Society, Pew Poll FindsMatt Novak | Gizmodo
“Half of adult Americans use AI chatbots, with a quarter using them daily, according to new polling from Pew Research released Wednesday. That’s up from 33% of Americans who used AI chatbots in the summer of 2024. But a small minority, 16%, believe AI will have a positive impact on society.”
Computing
Sooner Than Expected? Useful Quantum Error Correction Promised for 2028.John Timmer | Ars Technica
“‘By 2028, we will bring Libra, a Megaquop-scale device, capable of executing one million quantum operations over hundreds of logical qubits, to our customers, enabling first scientific applications in quantum chemistry, high-energy physics, and materials simulation that are beyond the reach of classical and Noisy Intermediate-Scale Quantum (NISQ) computers today,’ Amazon’s statement said.”
Computing
Brain-Computer Interface Trials Are Taking OffJessica Hamzelou | MIT Technology Review ($)
“Over the past couple of years, the number of BCI trial volunteers has soared. This year, China became the first country to approve a BCI for medical use. Advances in technology are allowing engineers to provide more features than ever. BCI research is properly taking off.”
Robotics
Why Waymo’s Driverless Taxis Won’t Be on Your Streets Anytime SoonDavid McCabe | The New York Times ($)
“Waymo is increasingly facing political roadblocks as it tries to roll out its self-driving taxis powered by artificial intelligence nationwide. After early successes winning over politicians in California—its home state—and elsewhere, Waymo has stumbled in unlocking some of the biggest markets in the country.”
