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The U.S. tried permanent daylight saving time--and hated it

Popular Science

The U.S. tried permanent daylight saving time--and hated it In 1974, America set its clocks forward for good in the name of energy savings. Between January and September in 1974, President Richard Nixon made daylight saving time permanent for a brief period. Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. As fall approaches, so too does the end of daylight savings time (DST). On November 2nd, the hour between 1 a.m. and 2 a.m. will happen twice.


Needles in the Landscape: Semi-Supervised Pseudolabeling for Archaeological Site Discovery under Label Scarcity

Jaxy, Simon, Theys, Anton, Willett, Patrick, Carleton, W. Chris, Vandam, Ralf, Libin, Pieter

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

Archaeological predictive modelling estimates where undiscovered sites are likely to occur by combining known locations with environmental, cultural, and geospatial variables. We address this challenge using a deep learning approach but must contend with structural label scarcity inherent to archaeology: positives are rare, and most locations are unlabeled. To address this, we adopt a semi-supervised, positive-unlabeled (PU) learning strategy, implemented as a semantic segmentation model and evaluated on two datasets covering a representative range of archaeological periods. Our approach employs dynamic pseudolabeling, refined with a Conditional Random Field (CRF) implemented via an RNN, increasing label confidence under severe class imbalance. On a geospatial dataset derived from a digital elevation model (DEM), our model performs on par with the state-of-the-art, LAMAP, while achieving higher Dice scores. On raw satellite imagery, assessed end-to-end with stratified k-fold cross-validation, it maintains performance and yields predictive surfaces with improved interpretability. Overall, our results indicate that semi-supervised learning offers a promising approach to identifying undiscovered sites across large, sparsely annotated landscapes.


Drones could deliver NHS supplies under UK regulation changes

The Guardian

Drones could be used for NHS-related missions in remote areas, inspecting offshore wind turbines and supplying oil rigs by 2026 as part of a new regulatory regime in the UK. David Willetts, the head of a new government unit helping to deploy new technologies in Britain, said there were obvious situations where drones could be used if the changes go ahead next year. Ministers announced plans this month to allow drones to fly long distances without their operators seeing them. Drones cannot be flown "beyond visual line of sight" under current regulations, making their use for lengthy journeys impossible. In an interview with the Guardian, Lord Willetts, chair of the Regulatory Innovation Office (RIO), said the changes could come as soon as 2026, but that they would apply in "atypical" aviation environments at first, which would mean remote areas and over open water. Referring to the NHS, Willetts said there was potentially a huge market for drone operators.


Brain Implants That Help Paralyzed People Speak Just Broke New Records

WIRED

Paralysis had robbed the two women of their ability to speak. For one, the cause was amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, or ALS, a disease that affects the motor neurons. The other had suffered a stroke in her brain stem. Though they can't enunciate clearly, they remember how to formulate words. Now, after volunteering to receive brain implants, both are able to communicate through a computer at a speed approaching the tempo of normal conversation.


Large Deviations for Classification Performance Analysis of Machine Learning Systems

Braca, Paolo, Millefiori, Leonardo M., Aubry, Augusto, De Maio, Antonio, Willett, Peter

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

We study the performance of machine learning binary classification techniques in terms of error probabilities. The statistical test is based on the Data-Driven Decision Function (D3F), learned in the training phase, i.e., what is thresholded before the final binary decision is made. Based on large deviations theory, we show that under appropriate conditions the classification error probabilities vanish exponentially, as $\sim \exp\left(-n\,I + o(n) \right)$, where $I$ is the error rate and $n$ is the number of observations available for testing. We also propose two different approximations for the error probability curves, one based on a refined asymptotic formula (often referred to as exact asymptotics), and another one based on the central limit theorem. The theoretical findings are finally tested using the popular MNIST dataset.


AI Turns Brain Powered Handwriting Into On-Screen Words

#artificialintelligence

Artificial intelligence makes it possible for people who have hindered limb movement or are paralyzed to communicate by text using data interpretation from devices placed at the brain's surface. The fusion of human brainpower and ultra-modern AI technology has allowed a man with paralyzed limbs to communicate using text on a smartphone at nearing speed achieved by his healthy body parts. Researchers from Stanford University have integrated artificial intelligence software with an electronic device, called a brain-computer interface (BCI), rooted in the brain of a man with full-body paralysis. The robust AI software has decoded the BCI information and instantly transforms the man's feelings about handwriting into text on a computer screen. After this integration, the man wrote using this technology more than twice as fast as he could using a former system developed by Stanford researchers, which reported the findings in a 2017 journal.


Mind over matter: brain chip allows paralysed man to write

#artificialintelligence

As he imagines handwriting letters, they appear before him as typed text thanks to a new brain implant. The 65-year-old is "typing" at a speed similar to his peers tapping on a smartphone, using a device that could one day help paralysed people communicate quickly and easily. The research could benefit people suffering spinal cord injuries, strokes or motor neurone disease, said Frank Willett, a research scientist at Stanford University and lead author of the study published Wednesday in the journal Nature. "Imagine if you could only move your eyes up and down but couldn't move anything else -- a device like this could enable you to type your thoughts at speeds that are comparable to that of normal handwriting or typing on a smartphone," he told AFP. Existing devices for those with paralysis rely on eye movement or imagining moving a cursor to point and click on letters. But Willett and his team wondered whether thinking about handwriting letters might be another way for people to express themselves.


Computer deciphers brain signals of imagined writing

#artificialintelligence

This is an Inside Science story. A man paralyzed below the neck can imagine writing by hand and, with the help of artificial intelligence software, use electronics hooked up to his brain to translate his mental handwriting into words at speeds comparable to typing on a smartphone, a new study finds. By helping convert thoughts into actions, brain-computer interfaces can help people move or speak. Recently, scientists have sought to help people with disabilities communicate by using these mind-machine interfaces to move a cursor on a screen to point and click on letters on a keyboard. The previous speed record for typing with such devices was about 40 characters per minute.


Agenda - Artificial Intelligence XLab Summit

#artificialintelligence

Introduced by Conner Prochaska, Chief Commercialization Officer, U.S. Department of Energy This panel highlights the breadth of research in AI across the national laboratory complex and discusses how this research fits into the recently announced National AI Initiative; several notable collaborations in AI between companies and national labs are discussed. Applications of AI to solving core problems in energy grid optimization are discussed. In particular, AI approaches to energy grid security, flexibility, and reliability in light of future energy demands are highlighted. Panel participants include representatives from major utilities. State of applications of AI to transformative problems in drug discovery are discussed; ATOM Partnership is highlighted; future opportunities across disease areas are discussed with participants from life sciences companies.


New tool streamlines the creation of moving pictures

#artificialintelligence

The tool is designed to animate similar elements within an image, such as balloons or raindrops, said Nora Willett, a graduate student in Princeton's Department of Computer Science and the lead author of a paper presenting the research. To do so, the user manually selects a subset of the repeating objects, then draws motion lines and specifies the frequency and velocity at which the objects should move. "The main challenge in this system was to design an interface that allows the person and the computer to work together to create a plausible animation," said co-author Adam Finkelstein, a Princeton professor of computer science. "The person provides clues about what aspects of the scene they would like to animate, and the computer removes much of the difficulty and tedium that would be required to create the animation completely by hand." The new tool builds on the existing capabilities of the Autodesk SketchBook Motion animation app.