Tech
We summarize the week's scientific breakthroughs every Thursday.
- Artificial Intelligence
AI’s understanding and reasoning skills can’t be assessed by current tests
Assessing whether large language models — including the one that powers ChatGPT — have humanlike cognitive abilities will require better tests.
- Tech
This 3-D printer can fit in the palm of your hand
Researchers developed a chip-based device for 3-D printing objects on the go.
- Artificial Intelligence
Reinforcement learning AI might bring humanoid robots to the real world
Reinforcement learning techniques could be the keys to integrating robots — who use machine learning to output more than words — into the real world.
- Artificial Intelligence
Should we use AI to resurrect digital ‘ghosts’ of the dead?
Technology that creates deepfake bots of dead loved ones may need safeguards, experts warn.
- Artificial Intelligence
This robot can tell when you’re about to smile — and smile back
Using machine learning, researchers trained Emo to make facial expressions in sync with humans.
- Artificial Intelligence
AI learned how to sway humans by watching a cooperative cooking game
New research used the game Overcooked to show how offline reinforcement learning algorithms could teach bots to collaborate with — or manipulate — us.
- Artificial Intelligence
Why large language models aren’t headed toward humanlike understanding
Unlike people, today's generative AI isn’t good at learning concepts that it can apply to new situations.
- Agriculture
Could a rice-meat hybrid be what’s for dinner?
A hybrid food that combines rice, animal cells and fish gelatin could one day be a more sustainable way to produce meat.
- Artificial Intelligence
How do babies learn words? An AI experiment may hold clues
Using relatively little data, audio and video taken from a baby’s perspective, an AI program learned the names of objects the baby encountered.
- Neuroscience
A new device let a man sense temperature with his prosthetic hand
A device that can be integrated into prosthetic hands capitalizes on phantom sensations to enable users to sense hot and cold.
- Space
How to build an internet on Mars
Future Red Planet inhabitants will need new ways to connect, including improved relay networks and an offshoot internet.
- Tech
‘Nuts and Bolts’ showcases the 7 building blocks of modern engineering
Science News reviews Roma Agrawal's book, which updates the classic list of simple machines and reveals the heart and soul of engineering.
