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Knowledge vs. intelligence amid the hype and hysteria over AI

FOX News

Kara Frederick, tech director at the Heritage Foundation, discusses the need for regulations on artificial intelligence as lawmakers and tech titans discuss the potential risks. The current infatuation with artificial intelligence is indicative of the level of competence of those who are in the headlights of a fast-moving, still unidentified, flying object. The headlines range from "Mitigating the risk of extinction from AI" (through the European Commission) to promising a world free of disease (cancer, in particular), and unlimited prosperity. No more need for lawyers (thank God!), no more need for doctors, not to say truck drivers, and Hollywood screenwriters. AI is all over, most of the time in stealth mode – and pretty successful in every form of surveillance (there are so many).


How AI and brain science are helping perfumiers create fragrances

The Guardian

Making perfume is an art that can be traced back to ancient Greece but now modern-day perfumiers are beginning to look beyond their noses to develop the scents most likely to appeal to us. They are, instead, turning to AI. Perfumes can now be designed to trigger emotional responses using ingredients known as neuroscents – odours shown by biometric measures to arouse different positive feelings such as calm, euphoria or sleepiness. Hugo Ferreira, a researcher at the Institute of Biophysics and Biomedical Engineering in Lisbon, is mapping brain activity and response to perfumes to build a database of neuroscents. He says the sense of smell is fascinating. "With sight and hearing, you can imagine the face of a loved one or favourite tune. It's hard to imagine a smell even though [it] can provoke a torrent of emotions and memories."


We Found Something Strange Under Our Son's Bed. What He's Using It For Is Even Stranger.

Slate

How to Do It is Slate's sex advice column. Send it to Stoya and Rich here. My husband and I have an awesome, intelligent 14-year-old son who identifies as bisexual. We are totally accepting and supportive of him. He has had a few short-lived crushes on different genders, though he doesn't seem to be particularly interested in dating right now. His internet search histories are pretty benign--mostly video game stuff, and the occasional search for "hot girls" and "boobs."


Duchess Sarah Ferguson's former personal assistant murdered: 'I'm shocked and saddened'

FOX News

Fox News Flash top entertainment and celebrity headlines are here. Sarah Ferguson expressed her shock and grief as she mourned the death of her former personal assistant, Jenean Chapman, who was murdered in Texas this week. The 63-year-old Duchess of York paid tribute to Chapman in an Instagram post that she shared on Thursday. "I am shocked and saddened to learn that Jenean Chapman, who worked with me as my personal assistant many years ago, has been murdered in Dallas aged just 46. A suspect is in custody," Ferguson wrote.


A Scientific Feud Breaks Out Into the Open

The Atlantic - Technology

For years now, Hakwan Lau has suffered from an inner torment. Lau is a neuroscientist who studies the sense of awareness that all of us experience during our every waking moment. How this awareness arises from ordinary matter is an ancient mystery. Several scientific theories purport to explain it, and Lau feels that one of them, called integrated information theory (IIT), has received a disproportionate amount of media attention. He's annoyed that its proponents tout it as the dominant theory in the press.


Elon Musk wants more bandwidth between people and machines. Do we need it?

MIT Technology Review

The occasion of Musk's post was the announcement by Neuralink, his brain-computer interface (BCI) company, that it was officially seeking the first volunteer to receive the "N1," an implant comprising 1,024 electrodes able to listen in on brain neurons. This volunteer, the company said, will be someone who has ALS or has been paralyzed due to a spinal cord injury. The point of the experiment is to let them "control external devices with their thoughts"--specifically, move a computer cursor, or control a phone app. There's little doubt they can do it. Such experiments have been going on for decades.


This is what funerals and the afterlife will be like by 2050, according to futurists: From 'digital twins' that live on after death to downloading loved ones' onto computers

Daily Mail - Science & tech

From being buried above ground in a'mushroom suit' to downloading loves ones onto a computer, the funeral is about to change forever. Technologies such as artificial intelligence and even genetic engineering are going to change funerals and rituals around death forever, experts have told DailyMail.com. Even wakes are poised to change - with virtual reality versions around the corner, and memorials could take the form of glowing fungi spliced with the deceased's DNA. Other technologies hint that death might not be the end, with people hoping to'return' after their funeral. In future, at funerals relatives may be able to talk to their deceased relatives, thanks to AI technology, said Luke Budka, AI strategist at Definition.


Progress for paralyzed patients: First implanted device is placed to restore arm, hand and finger movement

FOX News

Gert-Jan Oskam, paralyzed for 12 years, is able to walk again thanks to the brain-spine "digital bridge" interface developed at France's Atomic Energy Commission (CEA). For the first time ever, a human has successfully received an implanted device to enable movement of the arms, hands and fingers after a paralyzing spinal cord injury. Onward Medical NV, a medical technology company based in the Netherlands, announced on Wednesday the surgical implant of its ARC-IM Stimulator, which is designed to restore function to the upper extremities of paralyzed patients. The patient, a 46-year-old man, suffered a spinal cord injury nearly two years ago, which left his left side almost fully paralyzed, doctors told Fox News Digital. The ARC-IM implantation took place on Aug. 14 at Centre Hospitalier Universitaire Vaudois (CHUV) in Lausanne, Switzerland.


Futuristic headset can 'bring the world' to homebound elderly thanks to AI tech

FOX News

MyndVR Chief Operating Officer Dave Rawlins discussed with Fox News Digital his company's goal of creating connectivity through a virtual space without trying to'outsource' care to'a machine.' A company focused on developing virtual reality (VR) therapy treatments will turn to artificial intelligence (AI) to create immersive environments that could revolutionize therapy treatment, especially for the elderly and those with mobility issues. "We want to bring the world to residents who otherwise can't experience the world," MyndVR's Chief Operating Officer Dave Rawlins told Fox News Digital. "A lot of what we do is 360 content, provide experiences and applications, modules that give a resident the opportunity to potentially get out of the four walls of the facility, whether that be in travel or Broadway shows or experiencing things that they may have experienced in their earlier life," Rawlins explained. Launched in 2016, MyndVR developed lightweight VR headsets that allow users to engage in gamified environments that help them relax and distract them from a therapy session or boost their moods by leaving their homes to do things they are unable to physically do anymore.


A short guide to Multidisciplinary Research

Robohub

This guide to'colliding opposite disciplines with your research' is intended to help students and researchers, or indeed anyone who might otherwise be looking for some ideas on how to approach research or methods for designing concepts and solutions, to broaden their thinking and approach to research. This guide is mainly focused on the disciplines of science and engineering with the idea of collaborating with other distinct disciplines. However, the overall principles remain for any multidisciplinary research. With the assistance of this guide, it will help to open new ways of thinking about research, highlight the'unseen' benefits of multidisciplinary approaches to research and how they can be extremely advantageous and can lend for an optimal delivery. It will help you to contemplate how, when, and why you should open up your research to other disciplines.