Toggle light / dark theme

AI for Earth

The program awards cloud computing resources to individuals and organizations working on data-intensive projects, specifically focused on leveraging AI technologies.


AI for Earth is a Microsoft program aimed at empowering people and organizations to solve global environmental challenges by increasing access to AI tools and educational opportunities, while accelerating innovation.

Why robots could replace teachers as soon as 2027

Will they teach humanities?


Some experts have suggested that autonomous systems will replace us in jobs for which humans are unsuited anyway — those that are dull, dirty, and dangerous. That’s already happening. Robots clean nuclear disaster sites and work construction jobs. Desk jobs aren’t immune to the robot takeover, however — machines are replacing finance experts, outperforming doctors, and competing with advertising masterminds.

The unique demands placed on primary and secondary school teachers make this position different from many other jobs at risk of automation. Students all learn differently, and a good teacher must attempt to deliver lessons in a way that resonates with every child in the classroom. Some students may have behavioral or psychological problems that inhibit or complicate that process. Others may have parents who are too involved, or not involved enough, in their education. Effective teachers must be able to navigate these many hurdles while satisfying often-changing curriculum requirements.

In short, the job demands that teachers have nearly superhuman levels of empathy, grit, and organization. Creating robotic teachers that can meet all these demands might be challenging, but in the end, could these AI-enhanced entities solve our most pervasive and systemic issues in education?

Fizeau, Foucault and Astronomical Photography

On April 2, 1845, Armand Hippolyte Louis Fizeau and Jean Bernard Léon Foucault manage to make the very first photography of the Sun. Thereby, they both initiate astronomical photography.

From a previous blog post you may remember Léon Foucault’s Pendulum.[4] The instrument was used to proof Earth’s rotation in the 1850s and counts to one of Foucault’s biggest scientific achievements. But let’s start a little bit earlier. Leon Foucault was born on September 18, 1819 as the son of a publisher in Paris. After an education received chiefly at home, he studied medicine, which he abandoned in favour of physics due to a fear of blood.

Meanwhile, astronomical photography started to establish slowly. There were not many experts in the field back then, since the very long exposures needed to capture relatively faint astronomical objects and many technological problems had to be overcome. Completely new telescopes had to be developed that were rigid enough in order to not lose the focus during exposure time. Also the telescopes had to be attached to a rotating mount that would move at a constant rate very accurately. Next to the telescope building itself, the technology of photography needed improvement as well. The daguerreotype was just introduced in 1839 and came into a very widespread use. However, for astronomical photography, the process was too slow and was only able to record very bright objects. Also, the exposure time was very limited using this method due to the wet plate collodion process.

Elon Musk Urges People to Watch Chris Paine’s A.I. Movie While It’s Free

“Do You Trust this Computer?” is a documentary about artificial intelligence and it’s free to stream until tonight.


Chris Paine, the man behind “Who Killed the Electric Car” that looked at General Motors and Tesla, has a new documentary called “Do You Trust This Computer” that looks at how artificial intelligence could threaten the future of humanity. Elon Musk shared the video on Twitter.

We will all serve under an immortal ROBOT DICTATOR‘, says Elon Musk

Elon Musk has famously compared AI to ‘summoning the devil’.

Now the Tesla billionaire claims the technology could lead to the creation of immortal robot leaders from which humanity can never escape.

His comments were made in the new documentary ‘Do You Trust This Computer?’ by Chris Paine which premiered in Los Angeles last night.

Sana Labs is showing how Artificial Intelligence will Disrupt Education

While Big Tech has gotten more headlines in 2018 with its impact on healthcare, where artificial intelligence has even more potential to impact is actually in education. An early winner in the field has been identified.

Sana Labs is an education tech startup founded by Joel Hellermark, 21 who happens to be an AI-prodigy. Education is a 6-trillion dollar industry and the most robust first AI solution to impact it, stands to become a giant in the future of the industry.

Stockholm is home to many emerging startups and of note, Spotify, but this company has a pretty major unique value proposition. Sana Labs is aiming to build a scalable platform where AI will be able to change how we learn. It’s even gotten the attention of Tim Cook and Mark Zuckerberg.

That Chinese Space Station Hurtling Toward Earth Could Hit One Of These U.S. Cities

Well, here’s some terrifying news: There’s a Chinese space station out in the galaxy that is hurtling towards Earth, and it is expected to hit the planet on or around Apr. 1, 2018. There’s no stopping it, and scientists have stated that they really don’t have much control over it either. On top of that, it could either cause a lot of damage or it could do almost nothing. In other words, it’s a very unclear situation! The question on everyone’s mind is an important one: where is the Chinese space station going to crash? Do you need to be worried about being destroyed by a flying space station on Easter Sunday?

Here’s the deal: in 2016, China lost control of their first space station, called Tiangong-1, which is about the size of a school bus (so, yes, it’s very large). According to Vox, China had once been planning on trying to give the space station a controlled descent to Earth so that we didn’t all have to worry about having large pieces of it fall on or around our homes. That’s when things got more out of control: the space station malfunctioned, for reasons we still don’t really know. Due to “orbital decay” (which is defined as “the process of prolonged reduction in the altitude of a satellite’s orbit.” So, essentially, it’s when objects enter the Earth’s atmosphere and burn up), the space station has been heading towards Earth since it went off on its own.

The time has now come for that space station to hit Earth. It is said to be about 124 miles above the Earth, and is expected to crash through the atmosphere on or around Apr. 1, according to the European Space Agency. The good news is that a lot of it will burn up in the atmosphere. The bad news is that there will still be some heavy pieces that get through and hit the ground. Also bad news: we can’t control any of it. Oh, and no one knows where it will land.

/* */