The words "hack" and "hacker" started in the same place in English language history, split in meaning to mean horse and a brutal action verb. Curiously, these two words were reunited 2000 years later in the world of silicon chips, code, and programming. According to one of the best English etymological dictionaries available anywhere, the word "hacker", with the sense of evil/good and brilliant computer programmer was born in the halls of the MIT. This fact alone reminds us that culture and words begin in actual places. At that time, to hack code, or hack out code, had a definitely negative connotation.

Recent leaks of Waymo rider satisfaction scores reported by "The Information" (paywall) suggest that in the Phoenix area, Waymo has gotten 70% 5-star and 30% lesser feedback from riders over about 6,100 trips. Another 4,000 trips in the San Francisco Bay Area, taken by employees, have a lower score, with 47% having some problem. Problems included bad routes, occasional driving issues, being dropped off at less convenient spots and even a few worries about safety but no actual incidents. The analysis in the original piece is somewhat negative, feeling this feedback rate is problematic. I think in many ways it's a triumph. This is, after all, one of the most complex and difficult consumer product challenges ever attempted.

In May of last year, after a 13-month slumber, the ground beneath Washington's Puget Sound rumbled to life. The quake began more than 20 miles below the Olympic mountains and, over the course of a few weeks, drifted northwest, reaching Canada's Vancouver Island. It then briefly reversed course, migrating back across the US border before going silent again. All told, the monthlong earthquake likely released enough energy to register as a magnitude 6. By the time it was done, the southern tip of Vancouver Island had been thrust a centimeter or so closer to the Pacific Ocean.

The phrase "artificial intelligence" in pop culture often conjures up dystopian images such as the sentient computer Hal 9000 from the 1968 film "2001: A Space Odyssey" that killed people for its self preservation; or the cyborg assassin with a metal endoskeleton in director James Cameron's "The Terminator." In recent years, our fascination with the potential of AI has taken a more starry-eyed turn, as shown in the 2013 sci-fi drama "Her," where the main character falls in love with a virtual assistant. In reality, artificial intelligence (AI) technology is quickly permeating every aspect of our lives. From Amazon's voice-activated Alexa to writing technology that helps managers craft job postings, AI is in our hearts, homes and workplaces. And it's only going to become a bigger part of our lives: Experts call the rise of AI the driving force behind the fourth industrial revolution. On a recent afternoon at the NVIDIA robotics research lab in Seattle's University District, researchers use a simulated kitchen to test robots' ability to perform simple tasks such as grabbing objects.

The Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 promise to exhibit not only the highest standards in human endurance and physical ability, but also some wild, cutting-edge technology never visible (or invisible) before at a public event of this size. Here are some of the most interesting technologies on display featuring AI and VR to artificial shooting stars, among others. In October 2017, the NTT Group established a consortium comprising six companies with SoftBank, Facebook, Amazon, PLDT, and PCCW Global to begin constructing "JUPITER", a large-capacity optical submarine cable system linking the United States, Japan, and the Philippines. Construction is currently scheduled for completion in March 2020. "JUPITER" has the speed to transmit approximately six hours of high vision images (about three full movies) in one second.

In May of last year, after a 13-month slumber, the ground beneath Washington's Puget Sound rumbled to life. The quake began more than 20 miles below the Olympic mountains and, over the course of a few weeks, drifted northwest, reaching Canada's Vancouver Island. It then briefly reversed course, migrating back across the U.S. border before going silent again. All told, the monthlong earthquake likely released enough energy to register as a magnitude 6. By the time it was done, the southern tip of Vancouver Island had been thrust a centimeter or so closer to the Pacific Ocean.

The dreaded El Niño strikes the globe every 2 to 7 years. As warm waters in the tropical Pacific Ocean shift eastward and trade winds weaken, the weather pattern ripples through the atmosphere, causing drought in southern Africa, wildfires in South America, and flooding on North America's Pacific coast. Climate scientists have struggled to predict El Niño events more than 1 year in advance, but artificial intelligence (AI) can now extend forecasts to 18 months, according to a new study. The work could help people in threatened regions better prepare for droughts and floods, for example by choosing which crops to plant, says William Hsieh, a retired climate scientist in Victoria, Canada, who worked on early El Niño forecasts but who was not involved in the current study. Longer forecasts could have "large economic benefits," he says.

The dreaded El Niño strikes the globe every 2 to 7 years.

Artificial intelligence is learning how to predict El Niño climate cycles. The hope is that the technology could be used to improve climate predictions and give policy-makers more time to prepare. El Niño can cause severe weather and devastating damage. A phase of the El Niño-Southern Oscillation, it occurs when water warms over the tropical Pacific Ocean, shifting east and increasing rainfall and cyclones over the Americas while pulling rain away from Indonesia and Australia. Strong El Niño events are associated with intense storms and flooding in some areas, and drought and fires in others.

On August 29, 2019 I put on a workshop on Emerging Memories and Artificial Intelligence at Stanford University put on by the Stanford Center for Magnetic Nanotechnology and Coughlin Associates. We had several interesting speakers talking about various types of artificial intelligence and the role that new non-volatile memories will play in both training AI models and implementing them in the field using inference engines. This piece will talk about some of the material presented at this workshop. Dr. Shan Wang, co-organizer of the event gave a introduction, talking about emerging non-volatile memories and in particular on Magnetic Random Access Memory (MRAM). He spoke about how various new memories work--in particular Resistive RAM (RRAM), Phase Change Memory (PCM), MRAM and Ferrroelectic RAM (FRAM).