All posts tagged: develop

UK industry giants join forces to develop sovereign frontier AI model

UK industry giants join forces to develop sovereign frontier AI model

Published by skeptic

British artificial intelligence (AI) company Cosine has brought together some of the UK’s largest organisations to help design Lumen Sovereign, a new frontier AI model that will be trained entirely within the UK. The project is being developed under the government’s £500m  Sovereign AI programme and will run exclusively on Isambard-AI, one of Europe’s most powerful supercomputing systems. Among the organisations participating in the design phase are Babcock International Group, BT, Lloyds Banking Group, London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG), NatWest Group, PwC, Thales UK, and Telefónica Tech UK&I. The companies have signed Memoranda of Understanding (MoU) with Cosine and will help shape the model’s technical requirements, governance framework and real-world applications. The initiative aims to provide UK organisations with greater control over how advanced AI systems are trained, deployed and managed. Lumen Sovereign is expected to reach deployment readiness by the end of 2026 and is designed to operate entirely within a customer’s own infrastructure, eliminating the need for external data transfers. Commenting on the landmark frontier AI model, Alistair Pullen, CEO and co-founder, Cosine, …

Brain scans shed light on why women develop romantic feelings for AI companions

Brain scans shed light on why women develop romantic feelings for AI companions

Published by José Betancourt

Two studies in China found that female university students are most likely to become romantically interested in artificial intelligence agents that are both physically attractive and highly interactive. The perceived interactivity of a virtual agent also affected the patterns of brain activity the students displayed during their interactions. The paper was published in Humanities and Social Sciences Communications. Virtual agents are computer-based systems that can interact with people or digital environments in a partly independent way. They can answer questions, give instructions, make recommendations, perform tasks, or simulate conversation. Some appear as simple chat windows, while others feature a voice, an animated character, or a specific role inside a digital game or virtual world. These systems use artificial intelligence to interpret text, speech, or other data to choose responses that fit a user’s request. Modern examples include customer service bots, virtual tutors, digital assistants like Siri, and video game characters. Unlike a simple script, an advanced virtual agent can adapt its behavior to different situations. However, it does not truly understand or feel emotions, as …

Scientists develop 3D-printed ceramic bone implants — just like real human bone

Scientists develop 3D-printed ceramic bone implants — just like real human bone

Published by Jenni Sidey

Millions of people each year undergo painful procedures to repair damaged or missing bone. Whether caused by injury, aging or disease, bone loss can dramatically affect mobility, independence and quality of life. Now, researchers at Tampere University in Finland say they may have developed a more personalized and accessible solution using 3D-printed ceramic implants designed to closely imitate natural human bone. The research team created bone-like scaffolds using hydroxyapatite, the same mineral compound found in real bone tissue. By combining this material with advanced ceramic 3D printing, the scientists produced implants with carefully controlled internal structures that support the body’s natural ability to rebuild bone. The findings could mark a major step toward customized bone implants designed specifically for each patient. Researchers believe the technology may eventually replace some traditional bone graft procedures, which often require tissue from donors or the patient’s own body. “By using the same material that nature uses and shaping it through ceramic 3D printing, the implants can be precisely tailored to match a patient’s individual bone defect, without relying on …

Inside the Race to Develop a Test for the Rare Andes Hantavirus

Inside the Race to Develop a Test for the Rare Andes Hantavirus

Published by skeptic

As passengers return to the US from the cruise that saw a rare hantavirus outbreak, much of the country is lacking a basic public health tool: a test to diagnose the illness in the earliest stages of infection. Nebraska may be the first state with the ability to do so. In just a few days, a lab at the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha developed its own diagnostic test for the Andes virus in anticipation of receiving 16 American passengers from the ship. “I believe we might be the only lab in the nation that has this test available at the moment,” Peter Iwen, director of the Nebraska Public Health Laboratory tells WIRED, referring to polymerase chain reaction (PCR) testing, which was important during the Covid-19 pandemic. Its ability to detect tiny quantities of the virus before patients have full-blown symptoms makes it crucial for identifying cases quickly, getting patients prompt medical treatment, and preventing the spread of disease. The university’s medical center is home to a highly specialized biocontainment unit designed to …

4 Disturbing Symptoms People Often Develop After Being In A Relationship With A Narcissist

4 Disturbing Symptoms People Often Develop After Being In A Relationship With A Narcissist

Published by Jenni Sidey

All people have some narcissistic traits: They can help you become a tougher person, give you the right amount of confidence, and allow you to set limits on how others treat you. Research has shown how narcissism can be activated in situations of need, scarcity, stress, and survival. Nevertheless, some people take these traits to a disturbing and unhealthy extreme. If you are in a relationship with a narcissist, you’ll notice they expect endless praise from you. Narcissists want to control others, usually by separating them from the ones who support them. Narcissists try to lower others’ self-esteem to boost their own. All of these actions are abusive, and victims of such abuse may find that they develop post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms. This condition is called Post Narcissist Stress Disorder (PNSD). Much like PTSD, PNSD is a condition that affects people who have been in a close relationship with a narcissist. Living with a narcissist can be extremely exhausting and can cause psychological trauma to the other person because narcissists are usually manipulative and …

Fathers who fear divorce are more likely to develop distrust in political institutions

Fathers who fear divorce are more likely to develop distrust in political institutions

Published by José Betancourt

A recent study published in Acta Sociologica suggests that partnered fathers who worry about an impending divorce tend to develop greater distrust in political institutions over time. The research indicates that the subjective fear of family instability can spill over into a broader dissatisfaction with government actors. These findings highlight a unique source of political disaffection among men, shifting the focus away from traditional economic explanations. Staffan Kumlin conducted this study to better understand the growing gender differences in political orientations across Western democracies. Kumlin is a professor and the Head of PhD Studies in Political Science at the University of Oslo. He is also the author of the book Election Campaigns and Welfare State Change: Democratic Linkage and Leadership Under Pressure, published by Oxford University Press. Kumlin was motivated by the intensified debate about growing political gender gaps in Western societies, specifically regarding support for populist parties and general trust in mainstream institutions. “We currently lack full explanations of why these gaps seem to be growing, and especially why they are often larger among …

UPenn researchers develop bioengineered chewing gum to fight head and neck cancers

UPenn researchers develop bioengineered chewing gum to fight head and neck cancers

Published by Jenni Sidey

A piece of chewing gum may sound out of place in a cancer lab. Yet in this case, it became the delivery system for two plant-based compounds. These were aimed at something doctors often struggle to control: the microbes tied to head and neck cancer. Researchers led by Henry Daniell of the UPenn School of Dental Medicine tested extracts from a bioengineered chewing gum against oral samples from patients with head and neck squamous cell carcinoma, or HNSCC. The gum was built from lablab bean powder and carried two active ingredients, FRIL, a naturally antiviral protein, and protegrin-1, an antimicrobial peptide. Together, they sharply cut levels of three microbes linked to these cancers. These microbes are human papilloma virus, known as HPV, and the bacteria Porphyromonas gingivalis and Fusobacterium nucleatum. That matters because HNSCC is a common cancer that forms in the lining of the mouth and throat. It can be aggressive, and outcomes are often poor when it is found late. Daniell said many recently approved cancer drugs have not made a major difference …

How to Develop Creative Potential

How to Develop Creative Potential

Published by Jenni Sidey

Creativity scholars are often asked whether everyone is creative. Not everyone is creative in the sense of having developed new products that enrich our lives or make them more convenient. However, everyone might be able to build their creative potential. What do we mean by creative potential? Creative potential is best described as including capacity for creative thinking and the drive for creativity. In other words, the potential means being able to think in original ways and being motivated to do so. Creative thinking is called for when we are facing open-ended problems which cannot be addressed by following a precise step-by-step process. Scientists have devised tests that can assess how people think when multiple answers are possible. Such tests might ask people to think of unusual uses for common objects (e.g., a tin can) or come up with ideas for what would happen in fanciful scenarios (e.g., if people could speak with animals). Responses are scored for how many ideas people generate, how original the ideas are, and how much they detail is included …

Scientists develop laser-powered graphene propulsion for next-generation space travel

Scientists develop laser-powered graphene propulsion for next-generation space travel

Published by Jenni Sidey

A laser hit the tiny black cube, and it lurched forward almost at once. That split-second jump, caught during a zero-gravity arc aboard a parabolic flight, points to a strange and promising idea for space travel. A class of ultralight graphene aerogels, when illuminated under microgravity, can turn light into motion with surprising force. In the experiment, the material accelerated so quickly that the main burst was over in about 30 milliseconds. “The reaction was fast and furious. Before you could even begin to blink, the graphene aerogels experienced large accelerations. It was all over in 30 milliseconds,” said Marco Braibanti, ESA’s project scientist for the experiment, Light-driven propulsion of graphene aerogels in microgravity. The work came out of an international team led by researchers at the Université Libre de Bruxelles in Belgium and Khalifa University in the United Arab Emirates. Their findings, published in Advanced Science, suggest that light-driven propulsion in graphene aerogels becomes far more effective when gravity is stripped away. Inside a vacuum chamber, a continuous laser fired at three tiny graphene …