April 3, 2023: A selection of three essential articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. This week, the China-US contest is entering a new and more dangerous phase, how the tech giants are going all in on artificial intelligence (10:26) and why rice is fuelling climate change and diabetes (25:03).
World Economic Forum (March 18, 2023) – This week’s top stories of the week include:
0:15Silicon Valley Bank collapse explained – On 10 March, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) failed after a ‘run’ on the bank from customers wishing to draw cash. The bank didn’t have enough funds to pay them. So federal regulators had to step in and shut it down. Silicon Valley Bank is the biggest US bank to fail since the 2008 financial crisis and the second-biggest ever. Just a few days ago, it was a respected player in the tech space, with thousands of venture capital-backed start-ups among its customers. So how did things go wrong so quickly? Watch the video to learn more about the Silicon Valley Bank collapse.
2:14Aviation will be net zero by 2050 – Altogether, aviation is currently responsible for 2.5% of global emissions. Without action to reduce emissions, demand could see this soar 300% by 2050. 65% of the way to net zero will come from switching to sustainable aviation fuels (SAF). Its production uses a fraction of the carbon footprint generated by petroleum fuel.
3:49AI detects lung cancer better than humans – It reads routine chest X-rays to highlight up to 29 abnormalities. Including the patient’s risk of lung cancer so a radiologist can take a look. Usually, human radiologists scour X-rays by eye. But 20% of lung cancer risks go undetected this way, causing a potential delay in diagnosis and poorer outcomes. The new tool was developed by Qure.ai and is being scaled up in partnership with AstraZeneca. The tool was trained using over 4 million X-rays. In trials, it was 17% more sensitive than a human. Early data indicates impressive accuracy for identifying risk of malignancy
5:18Researchers restore movement for stroke victims – Doctors implant electrodes in the patient’s neck. These stimulate undamaged parts of the spinal cord and bring movement back to paralyzed arms and hands.
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National Science Foundation (March 13, 2023) – Harnessing the power of AI, researchers calculate our brain’s age leading to earlier detection of Alzheimer’s and other cognitive diseases.
Researchers at USC have developed a new artificial intelligence model that more accurately captures brain age. This study could result in earlier detection of Alzheimer’s and other cognitive diseases and provide important information about how quickly our brains age.
‘What is lost is (not) lost forever’ imagines how extraordinary species which have become extinct in the last few centuries would look today, had they survived.
Hydrodamalis gigas (also called Steller’s sea cow): extinct large aquatic mammal
designboom (March 6, 2023) – To visualize this new AI-generated series, Italian architect Angelo Renna looks to scientific research and characteristic descriptions of these animals and plants, feeding them as text prompts to Midjourney to visualize their appearances. The project, he notes, is not de-extinction or a revival of extinct species but is instead an educative process to learn about other forms of life in history.
Conilurus albipes: extinct white-footed rabbit rat — a rodent related to rats, mice, and squirrels
Arthropleura: extinct millipede arthropods that lived in North America and Europe around 345 to 290 million years ago
A new book digs into the communication giant’s troubled history as investors await a turnaround under CEO Robert Bakish and nonexecutive Chair Shari Redstone.
A selection of three essential articles read aloud from the latest issue of The Economist. This week, President Joe Biden’s plan to remake America’s economy, Ukraine’s troops in the east are quietly confident (11:20) and the race of the AI labs heats up (18:10).
OpenAI’s AI Text Classifier aims to spot content generated by AI platforms before it can be used by bad actors, but the company admits it’s not perfect
A week is a long time in artificial intelligence, so here’s a round-up of the AI Magazine articles that have been starting conversations around the world
designboom – Taking their cues from Haussmann’s work, the architects at Vincent Callebaut Architecture continue to explore the concept of climate and energy solidarity by using new artificial intelligence tools.
The French architects draw inspiration from existing buildings, as well as ecosystem feedback loops and biomimetics, to create a series of green, organic structures distributed throughout Paris. Through a sensitive and contemporary dialog that preserves the historical heritage of the French capital, the project creates islands of urban freshness by reviving nature, biodiversity and permaculture urban agriculture in the heart of the city.
Chat GPT is the world’s most powerful AI chatbot. It offers a human-like alternative to search engines and can do everything from compile a menu to writing a TV script to explaining quantum physics. Could it also transform the jobs of hundreds of millions of people?
News, Views and Reviews For The Intellectually Curious
Conilurus albipes: extinct white-footed rabbit rat — a rodent related to rats, mice, and squirrels
designboom – Taking their cues from Haussmann’s work, the architects at Vincent Callebaut Architecture continue to explore the concept of climate and energy solidarity by using new artificial intelligence tools. 
Boomers Daily 