Tech
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Computing
There’s no cheating this random number generator
From jury duty to tax audits, randomness plays a big role. Scientists used quantum physics to build a system that ensures those number draws can’t be gamed.
- Artificial Intelligence
A new AI-based weather tool surpasses current forecasts
The AI tool used machine learning to outperform current weather simulations, offering faster, cheaper, more accurate forecasts.
- Tech
New audio tech could let you listen privately without headphones
Private listening out in the open is possible thanks to acoustic metasurfaces that precisely bend and direct sound waves.
- Tech
A new 3-D display lets you reach in and touch virtual objects
These hands-on displays might be used to create more immersive video games, educational tools and museum exhibits.
- Artificial Intelligence
Tech billionaires’ vision of an AI-dominated future is flawed — and dangerous
Adam Becker’s new book, More Everything Forever, investigates the dangers of a billionaire-driven tomorrow, in which trillions of humans live in space, served by AI.
- Artificial Intelligence
Spotting climate misinformation with AI requires expertly trained models
When classifying climate misinformation, general-purpose large language models lag behind models trained on expert-curated climate data.
- Computing
New computer chips do math with light
Two companies have announced photonic devices that could solve specific real-world problems faster and with less energy than conventional computers.
- Earth
The ozone layer shields life on Earth. We’ll soon lose a key way to monitor its health
Imminent loss of NASA's Aura and Canada's SCISAT will severely diminish scientists’ ability to monitor ozone-depleting substances in the stratosphere.
- Artificial Intelligence
AI is helping scientists decode previously inscrutable proteins
A new set of artificial intelligence models could make protein sequencing even more powerful for better understanding cell biology and diseases.
- Space
‘Star Wars’ holds clues to making speedier spacecraft in the real world
Controlled fusion, solar sails or ion engines could someday help spaceships travel between star systems.
- Tech
A hopping robot shows off its squirrel-like skills
Salto the jumping robot can take a flying leap and land on a narrow pipe — just like a squirrel soaring from branch to branch.
- Artificial Intelligence
As AI advances, the meaning of artificial general intelligence remains murky
AI models are growing ever-more capable, accurate and impressive. The question of if they represent “general intelligence” is increasingly moot.
