H+ Weekly - Issue #385
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This week - bionic noses; a political party led by an AI; robotic turtle; and more!
SPONSORED
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MORE THAN A HUMAN
With This Bionic Nose, COVID Survivors May Smell the Roses Again
Bionic limbs get the spotlight but have you ever thought about a bionic nose? There are projects across the world which benefit from the development and breakthroughs in odour sensors and brain stimulation to bring back the sense of smell to people who lost it.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
This Danish Political Party Is Led by an AI
Synthetic Party is a new political party in Denmark led by an AI. The public face of the party is a chatbot named Leader Lars whose views are based on the policies of Danish fringe parties since 1970 and are meant to represent the values of the 20% of Danes who do not vote in the election. The Synthetic Party’s mission is to raise more awareness about the role of AI in our lives and how governments can hold AI accountable to biases and other societal influences.
Claims AI can boost workplace diversity are ‘spurious and dangerous’, researchers argue
AI is finding its way everywhere, including recruitment where AI companies promise to remove human bias and discrimination. However, a recent study has shown that these claims make some uses of AI in hiring little better than an "automated pseudoscience" reminiscent of physiognomy or phrenology. To prove their claims, researchers built an AI that shows how little changes in facial expression, clothing, lighting and background can change the outcome of AI-powered hiring tool.
ROBOTICS
The Netherlands Has Deployed NATO’s First Killer Robot Ground Vehicles
The Dutch army is the first NATO army to begin operational trials with armed ground robots. The machines have been deployed to Netherlands' 13th Light Brigade (currently stationed in Lithuania) to see how they can be used at a platoon level.
IKEA Is Using Driverless Trucks to Move Its Furniture in Texas
Kodiak Robotics has partnered with IKEA to transport IKEA products using a heavy-duty self-driving truck. The trucks are currently running between IKEA distribution centre in Houston to a store in Dallas. The route is mostly on a highway and there is a human safety driver in the cab.
With morphing limbs, a robot that travels by land and water
We have seen robotic dogs, ostriches and even robotic goats. Now, thanks to researchers from Yale, we can add a turtle to the list. Their research team has built a robot that looks like a turtle with long legs that can walk on land and swim in the water.
BIOTECHNOLOGY
The Human Immunome Project is the Next Big Leap
After decoding the human genome, creating AIs that can predict the structures of 200 million proteins and starting to map the entire mammalian brain, one may ask, what's next? One option is The Human Immunome Project - a project to decode and create a model of the human immune system. In this article, Jane Metcalfe shares why this is an important project and how it can deepen our understanding of biology, speed the development of new drugs, and allow us to get new treatments to people faster.
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