Lifeboat Foundation

By Gitta Kutyniok

The recent unprecedented success of foundation models like GPT-4 has heightened the general public’s awareness of artificial intelligence (AI) and inspired vivid discussion about its associated possibilities and threats. In March 2023, a group of technology leaders published an open letter that called for a public pause in AI development to allow time for the creation and implementation of shared safety protocols. Policymakers around the world have also responded to rapid advancements in AI technology with various regulatory efforts, including the European Union (EU) AI Act and the Hiroshima AI Process.

One of the current problems—and consequential dangers—of AI technology is its unreliability and subsequent lack of trustworthiness. In recent years, AI-based technologies have often encountered severe issues in terms of safety, security, privacy, and responsibility with respect to fairness and interpretability. Privacy violations, unfair decisions, unexplainable results, and accidents involving self-driving cars are all examples of concerning outcomes.

After two decades of design, production, fabrication and assembly on three continents, the historic, multinational ITER fusion energy project today celebrates the completion and delivery of its massive toroidal field coils from Japan and Europe.

Masahito Moriyama, Japan’s Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology, and Gilberto Pichetto Fratin, Italy’s Minister of Environment and Energy Security, will attend the ceremony with officials from other ITER members.

Nineteen gigantic toroidal field coils have been delivered to southern France. They will be key components in ITER, the experimental fusion mega-project that will use magnetic confinement to imitate the process that powers the sun and stars and gives Earth light and warmth.

By Julia Robinson 2024–06-24T12:55:00

Researchers are on a quest to outsmart and overcome the sophisticated security system of the brain. Julia Robinson reports on some of the approaches being studied.

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (June 17, 2024) – Redwire Corporation (NYSE: RDW), a leader in space infrastructure for the next generation space economy, announced today that it has been awarded a contract from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to be the prime mission integrator for the development of a revolutionary air-breathing satellite that will demonstrate the use of novel electric propulsion systems in very low-Earth orbit (VLEO) using Redwire’s SabreSat VLEO platform. The program leverages Redwire’s worldwide leadership in developing and providing VLEO capabilities.

The strategic significance of VLEO is growing – especially for national security missions. While low-Earth (LEO) and geosynchronous (GEO) orbits are becoming increasingly congested and contested, spacecraft in VLEO operate in a relatively unimpaired environment. Bridging the gap between air and space, VLEO spacecraft fly above airborne anti-access areas while operating significantly closer to the area of responsibility on the ground than existing satellites. Additionally, unlike LEO and GEO, debris in VLEO deorbits in hours or days rather than in decades or more.

“We are proud to be leveraging our SabreSat satellite design to support critical VLEO technology advancements for DARPA’s game-changing Otter program,” said Spence Wise, Redwire Senior Vice President, Missions and Platforms. “As VLEO emerges as a critical domain for national security missions, Redwire is continuing to make investments to support technology innovation and strategic operations in this environment.”

But while medical research facilities are subject to privacy laws, private companies — that are amassing large caches of brain data — are not. Based on a study by The Neurorights Foundation, two-thirds of them are already sharing or selling the data with third parties. The vast majority of them also don’t disclose where the data is stored, how long they keep it, who has access to it, and what happens if there’s a security breach…

This is why Pauzauskie, Medical Director of The Neurorights Foundation, led the passage of a first-in-the-nation law in Colorado. It includes biological or brain data in the State Privacy Act, similar to fingerprints if the data is being used to identify people.

“This is a first step, but we still have a long way to go,” he says.

Researchers develop versatile paper-based electronic devices demonstrating both neuromorphic computing capabilities and physically unclonable functions for security applications.

Many people are familiar with oncogenes—genes long known to be involved in cancers in humans, such as the gene Src. What’s less widely understood is that oncogenes didn’t evolve just to cause cancer in species, but rather to control events of normal growth and differentiation.

face_with_colon_three year 2021.

The solar aircraft is made by a Spanish-American aerospace startup called Skydweller Aero. Based in Oklahoma City, the company raised $32 million in its Series A funding round, led by Italian aerospace firm Leonardo.

Continue reading “This Autonomous Solar-Powered Aircraft Will Fly for 90 Days Straight” »

For more than 15 years, a group of scientists in Texas have been hard at work creating smaller and smaller devices to “see” through barriers using medium-frequency electromagnetic waves — and now, they seem closer than ever to cracking the code.

In an interview with Futurism, electrical engineering professor Kenneth O of the University of Texas explained that the tiny new imager chip he made with the help of his research team, which can detect the outlines of items through barriers like cardboard, was the result of repeat advances and breakthroughs in microprocessor technology over the better half of the last two decades.

“This is actually similar technology as what they’re using at the airport for security inspection,” O told us.