Edd Gent
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Articles by Edd Gent
Is AI Really a Black Box? Neural Networks May Be Easier to Understand Than We Thought
The idea that the neural networks underpinning modern AI are “black boxes” almost impossible to understand has become received wisdom. But a provocative blog post from a researcher who played a key role in setting that narrative says these models may be far more interpretable than we thought. The opacity of today’s leading AI models is becoming an increasingly pressing problem as the technology seeps into ever more areas of our lives.
What Biometric Technology Does and Doesn’t Add to Voting Original
Whether voters are alive or dead is of vital interest to democracies. Yet unscrupulous political operators have long voted on behalf of the dead or absent and otherwise committed electoral frauds exploiting the weaknesses of paper identification systems. So some 50 countries now use biometric technologies, such as fingerprint readers or facial recognition technology, at some stage in their elections.
New AI Tool Could Help Scientists Make ‘Rare’ Cross-Disciplinary Leaps More Common
Some major scientific advances involve taking a technique developed in one field and applying it to another, but interdisciplinary research is tricky and time-consuming. Now a new AI research system has automated the process, generating 36 papers in three months. Most researchers work within a narrow specialty, and few have time to comb through unrelated fields for tools that might help them.
This AI Reconstructs What You’re Looking at From a Brain Scan
Brain scans contain clues about what someone is looking at, but turning those signals back into recognizable images is difficult. Now, researchers in Israel have built an AI system that recreates what people are looking at with uncanny accuracy. Functional MRI scans, which track blood flow in the brain, are a common tool for decoding what is going on in people’s minds.
ETH Zurich Researchers Develop Self-Contained Robotic Hand That Walks on Its Fingers
Researchers from ETH Zurich have transformed a standard robotic hand into a self-sufficient robot capable of walking on its fingertips while manipulating objects. This innovation could enhance operations in confined spaces, such as during maintenance tasks or search and rescue missions, where traditional robotic arms may struggle to reach.
This Disembodied Hand Is All the Robot You Need
A hand attached to the end of an arm is a given for most humans, but what if robots didn’t have to play by the same rules as we do? Researchers from ETH Zurich have turned an off-the-shelf robotic hand into a completely self-contained robot that walks on its fingertips while using those same fingers to manipulate its environment.
This Disembodied Hand Is All the Robot You Need
A hand attached to the end of an arm is a given for most humans, but what if robots didn’t have to play by the same rules as we do? Researchers from ETH Zurich have turned an off-the-shelf robotic hand into a completely self-contained robot that walks on its fingertips while using those same fingers to manipulate its environment.
Star Catcher Is About to Beam Power Between Two Satellites for the First Time
Ambitious plans for orbital data centers and factories face a major problem—getting enough power. A startup will soon test a new fix by transmitting power from one spacecraft to another using lasers. Satellites typically rely on solar panels and batteries for power, but strict weight budgets restrict how much hardware they can bring with them. That’s becoming more of a problem as companies pursue power-hungry activities in space like AI and manufacturing.
World’s First Fully Implanted Cochlear Implant Reaches Patients Original
Cochlear implants have transformed the lives of hundreds of thousands of people around the world by restoring lost hearing. But externally worn sound processors outside the ear have long been a source of friction, limiting daily activities and exposing users to stigma. A new, fully implanted cochlear implant from Austrian company Med-El now offers the prospect of round-the-clock hearing without any visible sign.
World’s First Fully Implanted Cochlear Implant Reaches Patients
5 hours ago The iPhone Duo‘s launch has sparked a duality of opinion: Is it worth upgrading to Apple’s new foldable phone? The conversation around the $1,999 device, which becomes available Oct. 23, is everywhere – and not just in the comments of my Instagram Reels showing the new phone in action. Commentaries …
US Launches $215 Million Race to Build an Error-Corrected Quantum Computer by 2028
Quantum computers could eventually solve scientific problems beyond the reach of conventional supercomputers, but today’s machines are too error-prone for practical work. The US Department of Energy has now launched a $215 million competition challenging teams to build a scientifically useful, fault-tolerant quantum computer by 2028.
Barbara Mazzolai Advocates for Sustainability in Robotics Through Bioinspired Designs
Roboticist Barbara Mazzolai is pioneering a new field called 'sustainability robotics,' which aims to harmonize technology with environmental stewardship. As the associate director for robotics at the Italian Institute of Technology, she emphasizes the importance of reducing the ecological footprint of robotic technologies. Mazzolai's work draws inspiration from nature, including octopuses and plant roots, to create robots that can interact with their environments responsibly.
Barbara Mazzolai Wants to Build a New Field of Robotics
Throughout her career, roboticist Barbara Mazzolai has turned to nature for inspiration. Now she wants to ensure the technology she builds gives back to the environment, too. After starting her career as a biologist, a chance opportunity saw Mazzolai switch streams to engineering and become an early pioneer of bioinspired robotics. Building on her knowledge of biology’s ability to solve a diverse set of problems, she has developed robots based on octopuses, plant roots, and even seeds.
Barbara Mazzolai Wants to Build a New Field of Robotics
Throughout her career, roboticist Barbara Mazzolai has turned to nature for inspiration. Now she wants to ensure the technology she builds gives back to the environment, too. After starting her career as a biologist, a chance opportunity saw Mazzolai switch streams to engineering and become an early pioneer of bioinspired robotics. Building on her knowledge of biology’s ability to solve a diverse set of problems, she has developed robots based on octopuses, plant roots, and even seeds.
Virtual Biotech Company Puts 37,000 AI Agents to Work on Drug Discovery
Developing a new drug can take years and cost hundreds of millions of dollars, and even then, most candidates ultimately fail. Now, researchers at Stanford have built a virtual biotech company with 37,000 AI agents that work together to analyze drug targets and design therapies. Roughly 90 percent of drugs that enter clinical trials never reach the market.
Advancements in Tactile Data Enhance Robot Dexterity for Everyday Tasks
Recent developments in tactile data collection are addressing the challenges of robot dexterity in everyday tasks. Researchers are leveraging vision-language-action models, which have shown promise in guiding robots through complex actions, but still struggle with tasks requiring fine motor skills. By integrating tactile feedback, robots can improve their manipulation capabilities, as demonstrated by recent studies.
Europe’s First Private Rocket Reaches Orbit
Europe has long had to choose between state-backed rocket maker Arianespace and a handful of foreign launch providers to get its satellites into space. Now, there’s a new option. Last weekend, German rocket startup Isar Aerospace became the first private company to reach orbit from the continent.
Robots Are Learning to Feel
Dexterous manipulation remains one of the biggest barriers keeping robots from successfully tackling a wide range of everyday tasks. A sense of touch could be the key, but a lack of quality data has held back progress. This is now starting to change as academic labs and startups race to build new tactile datasets and techniques to put them to use.
Anthropic’s Claude Can Now Autonomously Run Science Experiments With Lab Equipment
Scientific research often depends on complex laboratory equipment that only specialists know how to use. But Anthropic is now rolling out a system that allows AI agents to control lab devices and autonomously carry out experiments. Laboratory automation technology has been around for decades but getting different bits of equipment to talk to each other has traditionally been a major headache.
Are We on the Verge of an Intelligence Explosion? Maybe Not.
There’s growing excitement in the AI industry about the idea that today’s leading models could build the next generation of the technology. But a new study recently found top AI agents struggle on the kind of genuinely open-ended research problems required to push the field forward. Large language models have made rapid progress in many of the day-to-day jobs involved in machine learning research, such as writing code, generating and curating data, and running experiments.
Unitree Claims New Humanoid Robot Outruns Usain Bolt
Increasingly, companies are building humanoid robots that perform impressive athletic feats to mark the field’s progress. Now, Chinese robotics company Unitree says its new "Superman" robot can run 12.66 meters per second, faster than Usain Bolt's top recorded speed. Getting a humanoid robot to run at all requires split-second control and has been a significant engineering challenge occupying roboticists for decades.
Researchers Develop Language Model System for Personalized Self-Driving Car Requests
Researchers at Delft University of Technology (TU Delft) have created a system that allows passengers to influence the driving style of autonomous vehicles using natural language requests. This system utilizes a large language model (LLM) to interpret user instructions, such as adjusting speed or smoothness based on individual preferences, while maintaining safety through a motion-planning algorithm.
Self-Driving Cars Could Someday Take Requests Original
This article is part of our exclusive IEEE Journal Watch series in partnership with IEEE Xplore. The idea of letting a machine do the driving for you may put a lot of people off autonomous vehicles. But research could make it possible to backseat-drive an autonomous vehicle just as you might with a human driver. Self-driving cars carefully balance a host of parameters to ensure a smooth ride, including things like speed, acceleration, and the smoothness of turns.
Self-Driving Cars Could Someday Take Requests
Climate 7 hours ago Trump tried to curb clean energy. It’s booming anyway. Ars Technica - Martha Muir, Financial Times • 7h Capacity will rise by a record 45GW this year, according to S&P Global Energy. Donald Trump is presiding over an unexpected clean energy boom, as … iPhones 8 hours ago iPhone 20 Pro’s all-glass design gets new update from leaker 9to5Mac - Ryan Christoffel • 8h Next year’s iPhone Pro models are expected to feature a new, all-glass design timed for the iPhone’s 20th anniversary.
Scrapping Even a New Gas Car for an Electric One Could Cut Emissions, Study Finds
You might assume scrapping a brand new car would be terrible for the environment, but it depends on what you replace it with. New research suggests replacing a gas car with an electric vehicle can cut overall emissions even when the gas car is only a year or two old. Transportation is the second biggest source of carbon dioxide emissions globally, and passenger vehicles contribute nearly half of them, according to Our World in Data.
Pakistani Judges Give Their Verdict on JudgeGPT Original
Judges around the world have made headlines for illicitly using generative AI in their work. But in Pakistan, a large-scale trial of a specially designed AI tool for judges found the technology—together with appropriate training–boosted the number of cases resolved by 6.3 percent with no obvious drop in the quality of judgments.
Monochrome No More: New Night-Vision Glasses Show Color
Night-vision technology has changed little for decades, producing grainy green images that make it difficult to distinguish objects and depth. Now, researchers have developed a system that converts infrared light into color images. Standard night-vision goggles amplify the scant light available and convert it into monochrome green images that only vary by brightness. This is not a good match for our eyes, which are much better at picking out different shades than gradations of brightness.
Laser-Powered Drones Could Recharge on the Wing Original
Limited battery life can hinder how useful drones are in responding to disasters, inspecting infrastructure, or delivering items. Now researchers in China have designed a system that could transfer power to a drone midflight using lasers. They say it could significantly boost drone flight times. Many drones can stay aloft for less than an hour before they need to land to recharge or swap batteries.
Europe Approves Bionic Eye to Restore Vision Lost to Blindness
Age-related vision loss affects millions of people, and so far, there has been no way to reverse the damage. A newly approved retinal implant could change that by allowing some people with severe vision loss to regain functional sight. More than five million people worldwide suffer from geographic atrophy, the late stage of the progressive eye condition dry age-related macular degeneration.
IBM Claims Quantum Advantage With New Validation Techniques
Quantum computers promise to solve problems beyond the most powerful classical supercomputers. But this raises a fundamental challenge: how do you prove the validity of answers that can’t be calculated any other way? In a trio of papers released yesterday, IBM and collaborators say they have demonstrated several techniques for solving this conundrum.
'World models' are the future of AI, but how do they work?
Artificial Intelligence Now Hugging Face is being used to easily undress women and children The Verge - Jess Weatherbed • 50m ‘No safeguards at all are being implemented at a platform level.’ Hugging Face is being used to make nonconsensual deepfakes, and the popular open-source AI model repository is doing very little to prevent it.
Weak AI Regulation Could Be Worse Than None at All
In the absence of any rules, both firms invest in safety, because the model assumes a safer product earns more revenue. But if the specialist is forced to invest a certain amount into safety to meet regularity requirements, the generalist can cut its own spending and let the downstream firm close the gap.
India’s Space Industry Push Pays Off With Successful Launch Original
India’s efforts to grow a globally competitive private space industry are beginning to pay off, with a successful orbital launch by startup Skyroot Aerospace on 18 July. The company’s Vikram-1 rocket blasted off from the Indian Space Research Organization’s (ISRO) Satish Dhawan Space Centre, Sriharikota, at 12:05 p.m. local time last Saturday and took roughly 15 minutes to reach an orbit of around 450 kilometers.
Space Launch Costs Have Fallen 96% Since 1960. They Aren’t Done Yet.
Rapidly falling launch costs are making space more accessible than ever. But new research suggests the economics are improving even faster than most people realize, potentially opening the door to entirely new industries beyond Earth. For most of the space age, the cost of getting material into space was so vast that only the most well-heeled governments and corporations could participate. In 1960, getting a kilogram of payload into orbit would have cost you more than $87,000 (in 2024 US dollars).
KI in der Softwareentwicklung: Macht uns die Technik wirklich produktiver?
Südeuropa 4 hours ago Griechenlands KI-Wette: Vom einstigen Krisenland zum Technologiestandort riffreporter.de - Nicolas Kaufmann • 4h Mit Supercomputern, KI-Fabriken und einer neuen Digitalstrategie will Griechenland zu einem Knotenpunkt für künstliche Intelligenz im Mittelmeerraum … Netflix 5 hours ago Video-Streaming: Netflix lässt Menschenmengen mit KI generieren Tagesspiegel • 5h Netflix lässt sich auf Künstliche Intelligenz ein, die Szenen ermöglichen soll, die sonst zu teuer wären.
Quantum Sensor Sniffs Out Radio Signals in 3D
Modern battlefields are bathed in radio waves for communications, radar, remote control of drones, and signal jamming to disrupt those functions. The ability to rapidly locate their source could provide considerable tactical advantage, and a new quantum sensor the size of a paper clip promises to work as an “electromagnetic compass” to determine the 3D direction of a wide-range of radio signals.
This Synthetic Cell Grows, Copies Its DNA, and Produces Offspring—But It Isn’t Alive
Synthetic biologists have long dreamed of constructing artificial cells from the bottom up. Researchers have now taken a major step in this direction by demonstrating that non-living components can be assembled into a system that grows, copies its DNA, and divides. The genomic revolution transformed our ability to understand and manipulate cellular machinery, allowing scientists to rewire cells' genetic circuitry to fight disease, produce valuable chemicals, and make crops more resilient.
The Hidden Overthinking Flaw That Could Drag AI Services Down
1 hour ago Horowitch examines whether civilization can survive our postliterate era. For The Atlantic’s August-issue cover story, “The Age of Reading Is Over,” staff writer Rose Horowitch argues that we are living in a “postliterate world” where fewer and fewer adults read books of any kind, and examines whether …
AI Models Overthink Problems—and It’s a Security Risk Original
Large language models (LLMs) that can think through problems step-by-step have significantly increased the scope of tasks that AI can tackle. But new research suggests these reasoning capabilities also introduce a critical vulnerability that could allow attackers to slow these systems to a crawl.
This DNA Switch Could Control Molecular Machines
Scientists have long dreamed of developing nanoscale machines, but building reliable mechanical components at the molecular scale has proved challenging. Researchers have now developed a DNA-based switch that can rapidly and repeatedly snap between two stable states, much like the components that underpin everyday electronics.
Forget Code: AI Is Learning to Hack Society
AI's hacking skills are big news at the moment, but finding vulnerabilities in code may be the least of our worries. A new study suggests AI models can discover potentially damaging loopholes in the rules and regulations underpinning society. Modern AI systems are powerful optimizers. Give them a goal, and they’ll pursue it relentlessly, quickly discovering solutions that would take a human years to find. But they are also incredibly literal in the way they approach a problem.
War Taught this Ukrainian Entrepreneur the Value of Resilience
Salome Mikadze-Struk is no stranger to adversity. The daughter of refugees, she built a software-development business as an undergraduate at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and kept it running despite the outbreak of war in her native Ukraine. Now, she’s drawing on her experiences to mentor tech-startup founders and speak publicly about the importance of resilience in entrepreneurship. Mikadze-Struk was studying at Georgetown University, in Washington, D.C., when COVID-19 struck.
War Taught this Ukrainian Entrepreneur the Value of Resilience
Salome Mikadze-Struk is no stranger to adversity. The daughter of refugees, she built a software-development business as an undergraduate at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic and kept it running despite the outbreak of war in her native Ukraine. Now, she's drawing on her experiences to mentor tech-startup founders and speak publicly about the importance of resilience in entrepreneurship. Mikadze-Struk was studying at Georgetown University, in Washington, D.C., when COVID-19 struck.
Solar Beat Coal in US Electricity Mix for the First Time in May
The transition away from fossil fuels is often framed as a long-term process, but recent data suggests the shift is already happening. Solar power has now crossed a major threshold in the US, surpassing coal in the electricity generation mix for the first time. Despite the Trump administration’s attempts to drive a coal revival, it has been steadily losing ground to other energy sources in recent years, squeezed out by cheap natural gas and rapidly falling renewable energy prices.
Japan Thinks Swarms of Transformer Robots Could Explore the Moon
Exploring the moon’s surface lays crucial groundwork for future crewed settlements, and swarms of tiny robots could be the key. Now researchers have given the first demonstration of the idea after a palm-sized rover autonomously navigated the moon and transmitted images back to Earth. The moon is a tough environment for robots. Its surface is strewn with craters and abrasive moon dust, and communication delays make remotely piloting vehicles a painstaking and risky process.
AI Can Help Track the World’s Shrinking Glaciers
Tracking how fast glaciers are shrinking is crucial for measuring the pace of climate change and projecting future sea level rises. This is normally a painstaking manual job, but a new approach that enables AI to analyze satellite images of glaciers anywhere in the world could help automate the monitoring process. Glaciers that flow directly into the ocean play a crucial role in the earth’s climate, but global warming is making them retreat ever faster.
AI Can Help Track the World’s Shrinking Glaciers
In this satellite image, the yellow line peeking through shows the predicted boundary of the glacier (light gray). The ground truth front is drawn in blue, and the overlap between them is pink. Credit: IEEE; ESA Tracking how fast glaciers are shrinking is crucial for measuring the pace of climate change and projecting future sea level rises.
Orbital Airbag Could Shield Earth From Devastating Solar Storms
Extreme space weather could wreak havoc on the satellites, communications networks, and electrical grids that modern society depends on. Researchers have now proposed an ambitious space-based planetary defense system that would weaken solar storms before they hit Earth. The sun regularly emits massive pulses of radiation, energetic particles, and magnetic fields that interact with the Earth’s own magnetic field.
The Classical Advances Needed to Make Quantum Computers Tick
Quantum computers promise to one day solve problems beyond the most powerful supercomputers imaginable. But it’s often underappreciated how much classical computing it takes just to operate these machines. As qubit counts rise, innovations in this supporting infrastructure will be essential if they’re to live up to their promise.
Sodium Is Cheap, Abundant, and Now Powering Batteries That Could Rival Lithium
As demand for electric vehicles and grid storage surges, battery makers are searching for alternatives to lithium that are cheaper and easier to source. New research suggests sodium-ion batteries, which have long been heralded as a promising alternative, may be maturing faster than expected. Lithium-ion batteries dominate the market thanks to their excellent energy density and well-developed supply chains.
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