Computing
Apple’s Eddy Cue: ‘You May Not Need an iPhone 10 Years From Now’Wes Davis and Lauren Feiner | The Verge
“That may seem like a silly thing for Apple to say, given that more than half of its revenue is iPhone sales. But Cue calls AI a ‘huge technological shift,’ and suggests that such shifts can humble companies that once seemed unassailable.”
Robotics
Amazon’s Vulcan Robots Now Stow Items Faster Than HumansEvan Ackerman | IEEE Spectrum
“More than 14 billion items are stowed by hand every year at Amazon warehouses. Amazon is hoping that Vulcan robots will be able to stow 80 percent of these items at a rate of 300 items per hour, while operating 20 hours per day. It’s a very, very high bar. After a lot of practice, Amazon’s robots are now quite good at the stowing task.”
Tech
Google Searches Are Falling in Safari for the First Time Ever—Probably Because of AIEmma Roth | The Verge
“[Apple’s Eddy] Cue linked the dip in searches to the growing use of AI, which the company is now considering putting into Safari. The rise of web search in AI tools like ChatGPT, Perplexity, Gemini, and Microsoft Copilot may make users less inclined to visit Google as their primary way of finding information.”
Artificial Intelligence
A New AI Translation System for Headphones Clones Multiple Voices SimultaneouslyRhiannon Williams | MIT Technology Review
“Imagine going for dinner with a group of friends who switch in and out of different languages you don’t speak, but still being able to understand what they’re saying. This scenario is the inspiration for a new AI headphone system that translates the speech of multiple speakers simultaneously, in real time.”
Future
‘I Loved That AI:’ Judge Moved by AI-Generated Avatar of Man Killed in Road Rage IncidentMatthew Gault and Jason Koebler | 404 Media
“An AI avatar made to look and sound like the likeness of a man who was killed in a road rage incident addressed the court and the man who killed him. …It was the first time the AI avatar of a victim—in this case, a dead man—has ever addressed a court, and it raises many questions about the use of this type of technology in future court proceedings.”
Biotechnology
Scientists Have Just Discovered a New Type of Electricity-Conducting BacteriaRitsuko Kawai | Wired
“According to the research team, this new species, because it combines high-electrical conductivity and environmental adaptability, has the potential to be used as a new material in the field of bioelectronics. Potentially it could help with the creation of biodegradable electronic devices and biosensors in the future.”
Computing
Cisco Says Its New Entanglement Chip Could Speed Up Practical Quantum Computing Timeline by a DecadeSam Becker | Fast Company
“‘Our thesis is pretty straightforward: To make [quantum computing] practical, you need to scale it out,’ [says Viljoy Pandey, senior vice president at Outshift by Cisco], ‘You need a network, and to have a quantum network, you need a quantum entanglement chip. That’s the first building block.’ In practice, the chip will allow quantum computers to be networked together—similar to existing networks for classical computers—enabling distributed quantum computing.”
Artificial Intelligence
How to Build a Better AI BenchmarkRussell Brandom | MIT Technology Review
“In a paper in March, researchers from Google, Microsoft, Anthropic, and others laid out a new framework for improving evaluations—with validity as the first step. ‘AI evaluation science must,’ the researchers argue, ‘move beyond coarse grained claims of “general intelligence” towards more task-specific and real-world relevant measures of progress.'”
Energy
A Decade-Long Search for a Battery That Can End the Gasoline EraJack Ewing | The New York Times
“For Ms. Huang and her company, the battery had the potential to change the way consumers think about electric vehicles, give the United States and Europe a leg up on China, and help save the planet. Factorial is one of dozens of companies trying to invent batteries that can charge faster, go farther, and make electric cars cheaper and more convenient than gasoline vehicles.”
Computing
The World’s Smallest SSD Is Almost Impossibly TinyGeorgina Torbet | Digital Trends
“Japanese company Suneast have announced a new product for the tiniest of bragging rights: the world’s smallest SSD. Released today, Friday May 9, the USB 3.2 device is less than an inch across in all dimensions and looks more like a dongle than an SSD, but it still offers up to 512 GB of storage.”
Artificial Intelligence
Coding Emerges as Generative AI’s Breakout Star Mark Sullivan | Fast Company
“Today, OpenAI’s top model, o3, ranks as the 175th best competitive coder in the world on that same test. The rapid leap in performance suggests an AI coding assistant could soon claim the number-one spot. ‘Forever after that point computers will be better than humans at writing code,’ said [OpenAI’s chief product officer, Kevin Weil].”
FAA Green-Lights Starship Launches Every Other Week From StarbaseEric Berger | Ars Technica
“After a lengthy review, the federal agency agreed to allow SpaceX to substantially increase the number of annual launches from its Starbase launch site in South Texas. Previously, the company was limited to five launches, but now it will be able to conduct up to 25 Starship launches and landings during a calendar year.”
Tech
This Startup Has Created AI-Powered Signing Avatars for the DeafSimon Hill | Wired
“A future version that can translate speech, text, and sign language in any direction is a truly tantalizing prospect. For now, the focus is to build a strong foundation, prove that the technology works, and show it has a role to play in immediately improving accessibility for the deaf.”
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