1. One thing that helps
Inspired by living organisms, scientists at UC Santa Barbara are creating small robots that can adapt and reorganise themselves. Similar in size to a hockey puck, these robots can be rigid or fluid depending on their task.
Motorised gears allow these robots to make precise movements in tightly packed formations. Magnets allow them to attach to each other to form a rigid structure. Light sensors signal instructions to the robots.
I've seen enough movies to be nervous about swarms of robots, but these little guys have so many uses. "In a demonstration of strength, a collective of 30 robots actively supported a human, weighing roughly 150 pounds, as they stepped across. Then, on command, the structure gradually gave way like mud." Very cool.
2. One to be wary of
The BBC asked AI chatbots about the news - giving them full access to the BBC resources. The results are concerning if this is how you get your news.
90% of queries had at least some accuracy issues. 51% of queries contained significant issues. That's not a great standard.
The chatbots attributed quotes to the wrong people and sometimes added quotations randomly. They used editorials and outdated articles and were unable to distinguish fact from opinion (getting quite human-like there).
The BBC’s generative AI programme director Pete Archer wrote about the tech comanies building these bots... "We want to understand how they will rectify the issues we have identified and discuss the right long-term approach to ensuring accuracy and trustworthiness in AI assistants".
Might be best to go direct to the source for your news for a while.
3. One to amaze
Stop reading this and go and tell your kids that unicorns will soon be real!
A start-up called Los Angeles Project is going to bring them to life, strangely along with glow-in-the-dark rabbits.
The Los Angeles Project aims to create animals that are “more complex and interesting and beautiful and unique.” The start-up has been experimenting with Crispr to genetically engineer the embryos of rabbits by inserting green fluorescent protein that makes them glow. Then, by inserting the gene responsible for creating the narwhal’s horn, the start-up hopes to one day create a real-life unicorn!
OK so this should probably be in the wary section but I really want a unicorn.