Friday Futures: embryo editing, bonus moons for Jupiter, safer AI

embryo
Image credit: Volodymyr Tverdokhlib / Shutterstock.com

Welcome to Friday Futures, our weekly guide to the latest visions of  The Future from around the web. This week: embryo editing and ethics; facial recognition; US election rigging; safer AI; drone deliveries; neurons can duplex.

Embryo editing is morally permissible: ethics committee

According to the report, editing human embryos, sperm, or eggs is “morally permissible” as long as the edit doesn’t jeopardize the welfare of the future person (the one born from the edited embryo) or “increase disadvantage, discrimination, or division in society.” Read more…

Microsoft President calls for rules on facial recognition

Last week, Microsoft president Brad Smith called for facial recognition regulations in the US. So far, companies developing and using facial recognition technology haven’t had any rules to follow. But as ethical concerns pile up, some nations have begun to pass laws to rein it in. Read more…

Schools could get facial recognition tech soon … now what?

Over the past two years, RealNetworks has developed a facial recognition tool that it hopes will help schools more accurately monitor who gets past their front doors.  Read more…

12 Russians indicted for influencing US election

According to the indictment, all 12 of the accused are members of the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff (GRU), Russia’s foreign military intelligence agency. Read more…

DeepMind is working on general intelligence for AI machines

On Wednesday, researchers at DeepMind – a Google subsidiary focused on artificial intelligence – published a paper detailing their attempt to measure various AIs’ abstract reasoning capabilities, and to do so, they looked to the same tests we use to measure our own. Read more…

Video: Here are three principles for creating ‘safer’ AI. Watch now…

Neurons are capable of duplexing

New research shows that neurons in the brain can carry two signals at once, using a strategy similar to multiplexing in telecommunications. The results may explain how the brain processes complex information from the world around us, and may also provide insight into some of our perceptual and cognitive limitations. Read more…

We missed 12 moons around Jupiter

Twelve new moons orbiting Jupiter have been found – 11 ‘normal’ outer moons, and one that they’re calling an ‘oddball.’ Astronomers first spotted the moons in the spring of 2017 while they were looking for very distant solar system objects as part of the hunt for a possible massive planet far beyond Pluto. Read more…

How to make drones capable of delivering stuff

This grown-up arts and crafts project represents years of work, and one of many steps on the way to a system that could make drone deliveries actually happen.. Read more…

Video: Here’s what your smart devices collect and report back on you. Watch now…

Video: Here’s how we get people to click on ads (and it’s not ideal). Watch now…

(Compiled by Alex Leslie; Edited by John C Tanner)

Be the first to comment

What do you think?

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.