Science, Space, & Robotics - Page 219

Elon Musk has warned about the threats of artificial intelligence before, but now the Space X and Tesla founder has come out swinging at AI on Twitter again, prompted by recent remarks from Russian president Vladimir Putin.

Putin recently said: "Artificial intelligence is the future, not only for Russia, but for all humankind. It comes with colossal opportunities, but also threats that are difficult to predict. Whoever becomes the leader in this sphere will become the ruler of the world". Some stern words from Putin, that's for sure - and I kind of agree with him.

Musk then took to Twitter, where he said: "China, Russia, soon all countries w strong computer science. Competition for AI superiority at national level most likely cause of WW3 imo". @JakeBlueatSM tweeted Musk saying "an automated WWIII at that. That's a worry..." to which Musk replied: "May be initiated not by the country leaders, but one of the AI's, if it decides that a prepemptive strike is most probable path to victory".

Elon Musk has posted the first official photo of the SpaceX spacesuit on Instagram. Musk noted that the photo shows an actual working suit and not just a mockup.

According to Musk, the space suit was already tested to double vacuum pressure. The suit looks elegant, and Musk admitted that it was incredibly hard to balance aesthetics and function. However, you can see that the result is good.

SpaceX suits are meant to be worn by astronauts inside the company's Dragon capsule. The suits aren't meant for spacewalks but during the ride inside the capsule.

Microsoft has teased that it's working on AI technology, with the heart and soul of Redmond's artificial intelligence powered by Intel's new Stratix 10 field programmable gate array (FPGA) chip.

Microsoft calls its AI hardware platform "Project Brainwave", which is capable of a huge 39.5 teraflops of machine learning performance, with less than 1ms of latency. What makes Microsoft's ventures into AI better than their competitors? Well, the new chip handles complex AI tasks as they're received instead of batching the operations together and working on them after.

Thanks to Project Brainwave relying on a "soft" dynamic neural network processing engine using off-the-shelf FPGA-based processors, Microsoft's own AI framework (Cognitive Toolkit) also works with Google's own TensorFlor, and other systems. This means you can build a machine learning system, and run everything in real-time instead of being bottlenecked by hardware.

Elon Musk is known for his views on artificial intelligence. In January 2015, Stephen Hawking, Elon Musk, and dozens of artificial intelligence experts signed an open letter on artificial intelligence calling for research on the societal impacts of AI. The letter affirmed the potentials of AI but called for a detailed research on how to prevent potential dangers.

Now, Musk decided to raise awareness again by tweeting that AI is a bigger risk than North Korea. If you were following the news lately, you are aware that the tensions with North Korea are rising again.

Read also: Musk says Zuckerberg has limited understanding of AI

SIGGRAPH 2017 - NVIDIA had a lot to show at SIGGRAPH 2017 this year, with Quadro P6000 systems that were editing 8K video in real-time, to multiple different demonstrations of artificial intelligence and deep learning systems.

One of the AI demonstrations was an AI system called Isaac, who was a Pixar-style robot that you played dominoes against. NVIDIA had a sealed off room that you stepped into, with 3 x systems all powered with high-end Quadro P6000 graphics cards. One of the systems was powering a HTC Vive headset, while the other two were GPU grunt for the AI system, Isaac.

In the VR world, you stand in a class room, across the table from Isaac. Isaac is there to play dominoes against, with NVIDIA building their AI system to detect your moves in the game, and then countering them. If you placed a domino down and it had a single dot, Isaac would respond by working out what he's seeing (a domino with a single dot) and then reaching for one of his dominoes, and placing it next to yours - prompting you for your next move.

SpaceX is currently using the Falcon 9 rocket for the company's launches, but the bigger Falcon Heavy should take those launches over soon. Elon Musk first mentioned the Falcon Heavy rocket in a September 2005 news update. The rocket was scheduled to fly in 2014, then 2015, but there have been delays, and now, the company is aiming for the second half of this year.

SpaceX's CEO Elon Musk explained last year that developing the Falcon Heavy proved to be much more difficult than they previously thought, but it seems that the company is on track. Back in May SpaceX conducted the first Falcon Heavy static fire test which was a success.

Elon Musk has now announced that the company plans the first Falcon Heavy launch for November.

During a Facebook Live open interview with users, Mark Zuckerberg commented on artificial intelligence, saying people who warn of "doomsday scenarios" regarding AI are "pretty irresponsible."

Elon Musk doesn't feel the same since in the past, he warned about the potential dangers of artificial intelligence and now, he said that he talked to Zuckerberg about AI and that his "understanding of the subject is limited."

Musk also added that AI is improving at a "double exponential rate," by which he meant that "AI hardware & software are both exponential."

Google is pushing more and more into the world of artificial intelligence, announcing a new venture capital firm, Gradient Ventures, that will provide funds and "technical mentorship" to AI startups.

AI startups will be able to talk directly with technical experts at Google, something that includes the minds of Ray Kurzweil, Matias Duarte, and X lab boss Astro Teller. Gradient Ventures is already home to four teams, with Algorithmia a community creating a marketplace for AI-based algorithms and models.

Aurima is making an alternative sensing approach and AI modeling, while Cape is virtualizing drone hardware that lets people fly drones remotely. Lastly, there's Cogniac that is writing software that helps people build convolutional neural networks.

Toyota has just announced its new Toyota AI Ventures initiative, which is a new venture capital subsidiary that will eye down tech companies that are working on AI. The new fund has already received a $100 million injection of funds from the Toyota Research Institute (TRI), which is an AI/robotics/autonomous car-focused initiative the Japanese carmaker started in 2015.

Toyota AI Ventures will focus its investments directly into AI, robotics, autonomous vehicles, as well as data and cloud technology. It w ill also offer companies that it invests in both mentorship, and support at its HQ in Silicon Valley. TRI VP Jim Adler said in a statement: "One of the biggest challenges entrepreneurs face is knowing if they're building the right product for the right market. We can help them navigate that uncertainty, and we're committed to doing so in a founder-friendly way because their success is our success".

This new venture will be a little different, with TRI not just waiting for pitches from investors, but it will look for, and support companies that are on the path towards solving something Toyota is interested in. TRI has already funded 3 startups, with Silicon Valley-based Nauto, a company that designs systems for companies that monitors their driver and road environments to stop accidents or bad driving.

One day we could all be The One, if the US military has its way with us, that is. The US military has revealed its $65 million funding for a Matrix-like project that sees them working on a 'brain chip' that would let you plug yourself into a computer.

The new system would give soldiers supersenses, and could double as treatment for the blind, those with paralysis, and speech disorders. DARPA officials said that their goal was "developing an implantable system able to provide precision communication between the brain and the digital world". DARPA has selected five recipients for its funding for the Neural Engineering System Design (NESD) program, which started earlier this year.

DARPA's multi-million grants will be going to Brown University, Columbia University, The Seeing and Hearing Foundation, the John B. Pierce Laboratory, Paradromics Inc and the University of California, Berkeley, with a DARPA official adding: "These organizations have formed teams to develop the fundamental research and component technologies required to pursue the NESD vision of a high-resolution neural interface and integrate them to create and demonstrate working systems able to support potential future therapies for sensory restoration".

In its race towards competing with the US and Russia in becoming a space superpower, China has started its new 200-day simulation of living on another planet.

Four students from Beijing University have started a new 200-day isolation experiment called Lunar Palace 365, where they will live on the resources that they would have if they were on the Moon, or Mars. The students will have to generate life-giving oxygen from plants, recycle their own urine into drinkable water, and being conservative with their supplies.

The biggest test of all, will be the psychological side of being isolated from the world. In this world of instant gratification from social media, what will people do with 200 days away from smartphones, their friends and family, and the world at large? The test will show how they will react to not having sunlight for 200 days, which will effect both their physical and mental health.

China's launch of the heavy-lift carrier rocket Long March-5 Y2, carrying its heaviest ever satellite, has failed on Sunday, China's official news agency Xinhua said.

The rocket lifted off at 7:23 PM local time, but 40 minutes after the launch, the state-run Xinhua news agency announced that the launch was a failure, without providing any further details.

"Anomaly was detected during its flight, and further investigation will be carried out," stated the agency.

Back in March, SpaceX successfully launched and landed an already used Falcon 9 rocket, which was the first time in history that an already used rocket was launched again.

This weekend, the company marked the second reflight of a Falcon 9 first stage. SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket successfully launched the BulgariaSat-1 satellite into orbit - the first geostationary communications satellite in Bulgaria's history.

Now, the company has published images of this historic launch.

SpaceX has successfully completed its second launch and landing this week. The two Falcon 9 launches and landings in 48 hours show the strength of SpaceX rockets, previously stating that the company intends to up the pace of its launches.

SpaceX's rocket took off from California's Vandenberg Air Force Base at 1:25 PM Pacific Time, and launched ten satellites to low-Earth orbit for Iridium, a global leader in mobile voice and data satellite communications.

This is the second set of 10 satellites in a series of 75 total satellites that SpaceX will launch for Iridium's next-generation global satellite constellation, Iridium NEXT.

SpaceX has successfully launched and landed another Falcon 9 rocket. This mission marked the second reflight of a Falcon 9 first stage, having previously supported the Iridium-1 mission from Vandenberg Air Force Base in January of this year.

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket successfully launched the BulgariaSat-1 satellite into orbit - the first geostationary communications satellite in Bulgaria's history.

Following stage separation, the first stage of Falcon 9 successfully landed on SpaceX's East Coast droneship 'Of Course I Still Love You,' stationed in the Atlantic Ocean.

NASA plans to send a spacecraft straight into the Sun next year. The space agency made the announcement during a news conference and a ceremony at the University of Chicago.

The mission begins in August 2018. Since this isn't a journey that a human can take, NASA will send a 10-foot high probe on the historic mission, since this will mark the first time humanity has reached the giant star.

NASA named the probe Parker Solar Probe in honor of astrophysicist Eugene Parker, which is the first time in the space agency's history a space vessel is named after a living person.

NASA has published an artist' concept of the Mars 2020 rover, which should join Opportunity and Curiosity rover on the Red Planet in 2020.

The Mars 2020 rover is intended to investigate an astrobiological relevant ancient environment on Mars, investigate its surface geological processes and history, including the assessment of its past habitability, the possibility of past life on Mars, and a potential for preservation of biosignatures within accessible geological materials.

The Mars 2020 rover introduces a drill that can collect core samples of the most promising rocks and soils and set them aside on the surface of Mars. A future mission could potentially return these samples to Earth.

NASA's astronauts have successfully completed an emergency spacewalk after a key equipment failure on the ISS. The Expedition 51 astronauts had to fix a problem after a computer failure on ISS over the weekend.

Expedition 51 Commander Peggy Whitson and Flight Engineer Jack Fischer of NASA had to change out a multiplexer-demultiplexer (MDM) data relay box on the S0 truss that failed on Saturday morning. The cause of the MDM failure is not known. The data relay box is one of two fully redundant systems housed in the truss that controls the functionality of radiators, solar arrays, cooling loops and other station hardware. The other MDM in the truss is functioning perfectly, providing uninterrupted telemetry routing to the station's systems.

NASA pointed out that the crew was never in any danger.

Just two weeks after their last launch, SpaceX has successfully launched another Falcon 9 rocket.

The company launched a communications satellite that will complete Inmarsat's fifth-generation broadband network. The Inmarsat-5 F4 communications satellite is the heaviest object delivered by the company to space, for now.

Getting the 13,400-lb. (6,100 kilograms) heavy F4 into its intended orbit emptied the Falcon's fuel tanks, leaving no propellant for the landing attempt.

We've heard a lot about Tesla's solar roof tiles products, but the most important piece of information was missing - the price.

The company has now announced the prices, and they are lower than expected. Consumer Reports estimates that a Solar Roof for an average size U.S. home would need to cost less than $24.50 per square foot to be cost-competitive with a regular roof. The cost of Solar Roof is less.

Tesla says that typical homeowner can expect to pay $21.85 per square foot for Solar Roof. The $21.85 per square foot price point was calculated for a roof where 35 percent of the tiles are solar (solar tiles cost more per square foot than non-solar tiles). A 14kWh Powerwall 2 is also an available option.