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Articles by Chris WiltzAutomation
You'll Need an RFID Implant to Fire This Smart Gun
The gun control debate isn't one that's going to slow down or resolve itself any time soon. But some companies are working on ways to create safer "smart guns" that only respond to their owner. The idea is to create a gun that can only be fired by an authorized user. Common approaches to the smart gun concept have suggested using an RFID-enabled wristband or implementing a biometric fingerprint scanner into a gun so it would only activate when it recognizes its owner's fingerprints.
Google Created AIs That Can Teach and Program Themselves
Two new projects from Google are leading the way toward AI that can learn on its own and even create its own algorithms. With only a little over a year having passed since Google's AI AlphaGo beat world champions at Go, it is no longer the smartest AI in classroom. Google has developed a new AI, AlphaGO Zero, that is better at Go than its predecessor (beating it 100-0 in head-on matches). But what's truly impressive is that it did it all by teaching itself.
New Soft Actuator Creates Robots that 'Breathe'
Someday robots could be using the air we breathe for power. Scientists at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL), have developed a soft pneumatic actuator that is vacuum-powered. EPFL researchers say the new actuator is modular and versatile enough that it can be configured to allow robots to perform a wide range of tasks.
With Isaac, Nvidia Trains Robots in Virtual Environments
Remember how the heroes in The Matrix were able to learn new skills almost instantly by training in a virtual environment? It might not be a realistic way for humans to learn (yet), but Nvidia believes it can already be done for robots. Wednesday, at his keynote during Nvidia's GPU Technology Conference (GTC), Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang called for an “alternate universe,” where robots could learn but not be beholden to the laws of time. “This universe needs to train at warp speed,” he said.
If Robots Replace Humans, Maybe They Should Be Taxed
Imagine a human factory worker who does $50,000 worth of work. As such this human worker pays income tax, social security, state, federal, ect. Now imagine that the factory converts to a smart factory and his job is replaced by a robot. Shouldn't that robot be subject to similar taxation? That's the argument Bill Gates made in a recent interview with Quartz.
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