It might sound like a far-fetched plot from dystopian science fiction, but novel research could soon allow parents to grow their baby in a bag. Just like the 2023 film The Pod Generation, artificial wombs could support an infant from conception to birth without any need for pregnancy. Although most of the population remains sceptical of this revolutionary change to motherhood, Gen Z seems ready to embrace the technology with open arms. In a survey conducted by religious issues think tank, Theos, 42 per cent of people aged 18-24 said they would support'growing a foetus entirely outside of a woman's body'. In the first large-scale survey of its kind, as part of its Motherhood vs The Machine podcast, Theos asked 2,292 people for their views on artificial wombs.

You are free to share this article under the Attribution 4.0 International license. Using machine learning to sift through the electronic health records of both mothers and newborns can predict how premature babies will fare in their first two months of life, researchers report. The new method, reported in the journal Science Translational Medicine, allows physicians to classify, at or before birth, which infants are likely to develop complications of prematurity. "Preterm birth is the single largest cause of death in children under age 5 worldwide." "This is a new way of thinking about preterm birth, placing the focus on individual health factors of the newborns rather than looking only at how early they are born," says senior author Nima Aghaeepour, an associate professor of anesthesiology, perioperative and pain medicine and of pediatrics Stanford University School of Medicine.

Researchers at the University of South Australia have designed a computer vision system that can automatically detect a tiny baby's face in a hospital bed and remotely monitor its vital signs from a digital camera with the same accuracy as an electrocardiogram machine. Using artificial intelligence-based software to detect human faces is now common with adults, but this is the first time that researchers have developed software to reliably detect a premature baby's face and skin when covered in tubes, clothing, and undergoing phototherapy. Engineering researchers and a neonatal critical care specialist from UniSA remotely monitored heart and respiratory rates of seven infants in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Flinders Medical Centre in Adelaide, using a digital camera. One of the lead researchers, UniSA Professor Javaan Chahl, stated that babies in neonatal intensive care can be extra difficult for computers to recognise because their faces and bodies are obscured by tubes and other medical equipment. Many premature babies are being treated with phototherapy for jaundice, so they are under bright blue lights, which also makes it challenging for computer vision systems.

Using artificial intelligence-based software to detect human faces is now common with adults, but this is the first time that researchers have developed software to reliably detect a premature baby's face and skin when covered in tubes, clothing, and undergoing phototherapy. Engineering researchers and a neonatal critical care specialist from UniSA remotely monitored heart and respiratory rates of seven infants in the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit (NICU) at Flinders Medical Centre in Adelaide, using a digital camera. "Babies in neonatal intensive care can be extra difficult for computers to recognise because their faces and bodies are obscured by tubes and other medical equipment," says UniSA Professor Javaan Chahl, one of the lead researchers. "Many premature babies are being treated with phototherapy for jaundice, so they are under bright blue lights, which also makes it challenging for computer vision systems." The'baby detector' was developed using a dataset of videos of babies in NICU to reliably detect their skin tone and faces. Vital sign readings matched those of an electrocardiogram (ECG) and in some cases appeared to outperform the conventional electrodes, endorsing the value of non-contact monitoring of pre-term babies in intensive care.

"Europe's neonatal units have to cope with around 300,000 premature babies that are born every year across the continent. The main immediate risk for these tiny and vulnerable human beings is infection. This can be fatal in their condition. So how can infections be detected more quickly so that we can take the right decisions? In Rennes, researchers are developing a support tool to aid those medical decisions, powered by an information-collecting artificial intelligence, entitled Digi-Newb. One of the babies in the unit in Rennes is Elea, who was born four months prematurely, weighing only half a kilogram. Her mother, Catheline Quenard, says it's been a difficult and anxious time: "In the first moments, we were living minute by minute, hour by hour.

Babies' brain scans might help researchers discover early markers for cognitive diseases, according to a new study. Researchers at Washington University in St. Louis (WU) have found that studying the ways premature babies' brains grow might give way to new diagnostic practices. Scientists looked at the differences in brain growth among 30 premature babies, examining the babies' brain folds, which are as unique as fingerprints. Researchers from Washington University in St. Louis (WU) have found that tracking premature babies' brain growth during weeks 28 to 30 might teach scientists about the roots of cognitive diseases A baby's brain develops rapidly during weeks 29 through 40 of their mother's pregnancy. During this time the organ's cerebral cortex expands and starts to fold, but this process looks different for each baby.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is no longer a futuristic concept found in science fiction films – it is today's technology. The power and capabilities it offers are growing, creating a future filled with possibility. The potential of AI was showcased at a Microsoft event in London recently. Journalists, scientists and researchers heard from Microsoft spokespeople such as Harry Shum, Executive Vice-President of Microsoft AI and Research Group, and Chris Bishop, Laboratory Director at Microsoft Research Cambridge. Among the announcements, including Microsoft's AI for Earth initiative, a number of companies spoke about how they are using the power of AI to drive innovation.

First things first: while this artificial womb is futuristic as hell, it's not meant to replace a good old-fashioned uterus. Such technology, he and many others argue, would allow for safer, more controlled pregnancies (for both fetuses and mothers) and would take the childbearing onus off of individuals biologically equipped to carry pregnancy. Potential controversies abound, of course. How do abortion laws that hinge on viability--the point at which a fetus could survive outside the womb--change when a fetus could technically survive outside the womb at any point? How do parental rights change?