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Category: robotics/AI – Page 2

AI uses too much energy—nanotech is the solution | Dr. Mark Hersam | TEDxChicago

Mark Hersam is a nanotechnologist who believes that understanding materials at the shortest of length scales can provide solutions to the world’s largest problems. Using an interdisciplinary approach at the intersection of neuroscience and nanoelectronics, Hersam presents a solution to the greatest societal threat posed by AI.

Dr. Mark C. Hersam, the Walter P. Murphy Professor of Materials Science and Engineering, Director of the Materials Research Center, and Chair of the Materials Science and Engineering Department at Northwestern University, has made major breakthroughs in the field of nanotechnology. His research interests include nanomaterials, additive manufacturing, nanoelectronics, scanning probe microscopy, renewable energy, and quantum information science. Dr. Hersam has received several honors including the Marshall Scholarship, Presidential Early Career Award for Scientists and Engineers, American Vacuum Society Medard Welch Award, U.S. Science Envoy, and MacArthur Fellowship. In addition, he is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, National Academy of Engineering, and National Academy of Inventors and has founded two companies, NanoIntegris and Volexion, which are suppliers of nanoelectronic and battery materials, respectively.

This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community.

Balaji on AI

A few miscellaneous thoughts.

First, the new bottleneck on AI is prompting and verifying. Since AI does tasks middle-to-middle, not end-to-end. So business spend migrates towards the edges of prompting and verifying, even as AI speeds up the middle.

Second, AI really means amplified intelligence, not agentic intelligence. The smarter you are, the smarter the AI is. Better writers are better prompters.

TSMC Arizona Chips Are Reportedly Being Flown Back to Taiwan For Packaging; U.S. Semiconductor Supply Chain Still Remains Dependent on Taiwan

A new report says that chips made by TSMC Arizona are being sent back to Taiwan for packaging, fulfilling demand coming from the AI markets.

These two game-changing breakthroughs advance us toward artificial general intelligence

As humans, we rely on all sorts of stimuli to navigate in the world, including our senses: sight, sound, touch, taste, smell. Until now, AI devices have been solely reliant on a single sense—visual impressions. Brand-new research from Duke University goes beyond reliance only on visual perception. It’s called WildFusion, combining vision with touch and vibration.

The four-legged robot used by the research team includes microphones and tactile sensors in addition to the standard cameras commonly found in state-of-the-art robots. The WildFusion robot can use sound to assess the quality of a surface (dry leaves, wet sand) as well as pressure and resistance to calibrate its balance and stability. All of this data is gathered and combined or fused, into a single data representation that improves over time with experience. The research team plans enhance the robot’s capabilities by enabling it to gauge things like heat and humidity.

As the types of data used to interact with the environment become richer and more integrated, AI moves inexorably closer to true AGI.

SpaceX launches UK satellite to create semiconductors in low Earth orbit — sub-zero temps and vacuum of space could advance AI data centers and quantum computing

In-space manufacturing is a relatively new field that seeks to utilize the unique characteristics of outer space and/or low-Earth orbit to achieve fabrication methods not possible on Earth. Space Forge’s primary goals are to produce semiconductors for data center, quantum, and military use cases, using “space-derived crystal seeds” to initiate semiconductor growth, utilizing unlimited vacuum and subzero temperatures for manufacturing, and then returning the chips to Earth for packaging.

The ForgeStar-1 satellite will not bring the cargo it manufactures back to Earth at the completion of its mission. Acting more as a proof-of-concept and prototype for a litany of technologies engineered by Space Forge, the satellite will be tasked with running through the successful application of key technologies for in-space manufacturing, and will end its mission with a spectacular fireball.

Space Forge plans to test both the best-case and worst-case scenarios for the satellite’s recovery. First, it will deploy its proprietary Pridwen heat shield and on-orbit controls to steer the satellite, and then test its failsafe mechanism, which involves disintegrating the craft in orbit.