Lifeboat Foundation

Artificial photosynthesis, the next-generation technology, has now come this far! It is a technology that mimics plant photosynthesis to produce energy from resources found on earth such as sunlight and carbon dioxide. This is a promising new solution to energy and environmental problems as it can efficiently produce hydrogen and other substances. Japan was one of the first countries to recognize this technology and had launched a national project that involved the collaboration among industry, academia, and government. In 2021, they successfully produced large amounts of hydrogen, taking the world by surprise. Also in this episode, take a look at a system that can power homes using carbon dioxide. Find out the latest in artificial photosynthesis with reporter Michelle YAMAMOTO.

Cybersecurity experts uncover an ongoing threat to government and telecom entities in Asia. Learn how a campaign named “Stayin’ Alive” is deploying #malware.

Check out the details:

“This isn’t a conspiracy theory. Listen to former Israeli officials such as Brig. Gen. Yitzhak Segev, who was the Israeli military governor in Gaza in the early 1980s. Segev later told a New York Times reporter that he had helped finance the Palestinian Islamist movement as a ” counterweight” to the secularists and leftists of the Palestine Liberation Organization and the Fatah party, led by Yasser Arafat (who himself referred to Hamas as ” a creature of Israel.”)

The Israeli government gave me a budget, the retired brigadier general confessed, and the military government gives to the mosques.

Hamas, to my great regret, is Israel’s creation, Avner Cohen, a former Israeli religious… More.

Continue reading “Blowback: How Israel Went From Helping Create Hamas to Bombing It” »

As creative industries grapple with AI’s explosion into every artistic medium at once, separate calls from artists warning the world to take action before it’s too late are starting to converge. From fake Drake songs to stylized Instagram profile pictures, art conjured with newly sophisticated AI tools is suddenly ubiquitous — and so are conversations about how to rein in the technology before it does irrevocable harm to creative communities.

This week, digital rights organization Fight for the Future partnered with music industry labor group United Musicians and Allied Workers to launch #AIdayofaction, a campaign that calls on Congress to block corporations from obtaining copyrights on music and other art made with AI.

The idea is that by preventing industry behemoths like major record labels, for example, from copyrighting music made with the assistance of AI, those companies will be forced to keep looping humans into the creative process. But those same concerns — and the same potential strategies for pushing back against the onslaught of AI — exist across creative industries.

The nation is looking into emissions-free travel.

According to a report by Reuters.

“It will be on trial for next week, hopefully for the next few months. We will have the first hydrogen train in the Middle East,” the government official said during the UN MENA Climate Week in Riyadh.

America in the near future has lost the war against drugs. Paranoia reigns as 2 out of every 10 Americans have been hired by the government to spy on the other 8 in the name of national security and drug enforcement. Enter Fred, a reluctant undercover cop recruited by the government. To maintain his cover, Fred regularly ingests the popular Substance D. The drug has caused Fred to develop a split personality, of which he is unaware; his alter ego is Bob Arctor, a drug dealer. Fred’s superiors set up a hidden holographic camera in his home as part of a sting operation to snare Bob. A “scramble suit” that changes his appearance allows Fred to appear on camera as Bob and prevents his colleagues from knowing his true identity. The camera in Fred/Bob’s apartment reveals that Bob’s friends regularly betray one another for the chance to score more drugs.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P-2P3MSZrBM

Joscha Bach is the VP of Research at the AI Foundation, previously doing research at MIT and Harvard. Joscha work explores the workings of the human mind, intelligence, consciousness, life on Earth, and the possibly-simulated fabric of our universe.

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Continue reading “Joscha Bach: Artificial Consciousness and the Nature of Reality” »

This summer the federal government took steps to boost connectivity by expanding existing broadband infrastructure. In late June the Biden administration announced a $42.45 billion commitment to the Broadband Equity, Access, and Deployment (BEAD) program, a federal initiative to provide all U.S. residents with reliable high-speed Internet access. The project emphasizes broadband connectivity, but some researchers suggest a more powerful cellular connection could eventually sidestep the need for wired Internet.

The 6G network is so early in its development that it is still not even clear how fast that network will be. Each new generation of wireless technology is defined by the United Nations’ International Telecommunication Union (ITU) as having a specific range of upload and download speeds. These standards have not yet been set for 6G—the ITU will likely do so late next year—but industry experts are expecting it to be anywhere from 10 to 1,000 times faster than current 5G networks. It will achieve this by using higher-frequency radio waves than its predecessors. This will provide a faster connection with fewer network delays.

No matter how fast the new network turns out to be, it could enable futuristic technology, according to Lingjia Liu, a leading 6G researcher and a professor of electrical and computer engineering at Virginia Tech. “Wi-Fi provides good service, but 6G is being designed to provide even better service than your home router, especially in the latency department, to address the growing remote workforce,” Liu says. This would likely result in a wave of new applications that have been unfathomable at current network speeds. For example, your phone could serve as a router, self-driving cars may be able to communicate with one another almost instantaneously, and mobile devices might become completely hands-free. “The speed of 6G will enable applications that we may not even imagine today. The goal for the industry is to have the global coverage and support ready for those applications when they come,” Liu says.

Google Maps can now calculate rooftops’ solar potential, track air quality, and forecast pollen counts.

The platform recently launched a range of services like Solar API, which calculates weather patterns and pulls data from aerial imagery to help understand rooftops’ solar potential. The tool aims to help accelerate solar panel deployment by improving accuracy and reducing the number of site visits needed.

As seasonal allergies get worse every year, Pollen API shows updated information on the most common allergens in 65 countries by using a mix of machine learning and wind patterns. Similarly, Air Quality API provides detailed information on local air quality by utilizing data from multiple sources, like government monitoring stations, satellites, live traffic, and more, and can show areas affected by wildfires too.