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AI + Vintage American cooking: a combination that cannot be unseen

A week ago, in a sudden fit of terrible judgement, I decided to find out what would happen if I:

1. Asked people to help me collect examples of the worst, the weirdest, the most gelatinous recipes that vintage American cooking has to offer, then

2. Trained a neural net to imitate them

People submitted over 800 recipes in all, including such recipes as:

1. "Beef Fudge" (contains marshmallow, chocolate chips, and ground beef),

2. "Circus Peanut Jello Salad" (also contains crushed pineapple and kool-whip), and

3. "Tropical Fruit Soup" (contains banana, grapes, and a can of cream of chicken soup)

4. "Lemon Lime Salad" (also contains cottage cheese, mayonnaise, and horseradish)

As I watched this dataset coalesce, much as one might watch a speeding dumpster begin to spin out of control, I began to approach the state I dreaded: all the recipes began to seem normal.

Shrimp + grapefruit + lemon jello? Citrus seafood is a thing.

Chili sauce + lemon jello + cottage cheese + mayo? Well it's not SWEETENED jello, so

I began to wonder if I would actually be able to tell the difference between the neural net recipes and the real thing. Jello was supposed to be easy-to-prepare, after all - maybe through repetition an advanced neural net like GPT-2 would learn how to make basic jello, and then anything it would decide to chuck in there would be technically reasonable. Maybe it would even coalesce on an ideal form, one that distilled human invention down to its essentials.

No, as it turns out. Here's a neural net recipe.

It does cocktails, too.

The training data contained a lot of things. It contained eel only once. For some reason the AI has decided to use eel a LOT.

It also invents ingredients.

Some of the neural net recipes bear at least some resemblance to the human versions, but manage to mess them up profoundly. Without a sense that the recipe directions are describing ingredients and things that happen to them, the neural net never gets the hang of jello - that you need hot water to make it gel, that it doesn't go in the oven. It also forgets to add all of its ingredients, or introduces some that were never mentioned before. This is partly because its memory is terrible, and partly because it doesn't know what's important.

I couldn't find a setting at which the neural net recipes could consistently pass for human. Set the chaos levels too low and the neural net would repeat the same few recipes, forgetting a different key step or ingredient each time. Set the chaos levels too high and the neural net would get ever more inventive, producing recipes that promised creamy lime and called for golf balls or elk hide, or directed the chef to remove the lamb's giblets.

Some of its recipes were beyond bizarre.

Remember that today's AI is much closer in brainpower to an earthworm than to a human. It can pattern-match but doesn't understand what it's doing. Commercial AI is not significantly smarter than this recipe AI. Humans have just hopefully done a better job of preventing it from making oblivious mistakes.

It got to the point where I would see a recipe like this and be excited and proud of the neural net. Then I would realize just how very low my standards had fallen.

One thing the neural net has learned from humans is that it's good to include a story with your recipe.

It is bad at this.

The neural net puts lots of words in its recipes that were never in the jello-centric training data. It's drawing from its initial general training on internet text. It read a LOT of fanfic on the internet during its initial general training, and still remembers it now. Except now all its stories center around food.

It's trying. It's startlingly bad. It wants us to remove the internal rinds twice. AI's not ready to take over the world - it can't even figure out the kitchen.

Bonus content: More jello-centric neural net recipes, including some that were too long to post here. Be especially afraid of the ones that aren't exactly "recipes".

My book on AI is out, and, you can now get it any of these several ways! Amazon - Barnes & Noble - Indiebound - Tattered Cover - Powell's ﻿

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AI + Vintage American cooking: a combination that cannot be unseen

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A week ago, in a sudden fit of terrible judgement, I decided to find out what would happen if I: Asked people to help me collect examples of the worst, the weirdest, the most gelatinous recipes that vintage American cooking has to offer, then Trained a neural net to imitate

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When you signed up for internet access, you probably got an email address. That's fine, but you can do better. Here's how to move to a good one.

Credit... Jaap Arriens/NurPhoto, via Getty Images

You've had that old @twc.com email address ever since you signed up for cable internet years ago, and it has served you well. But those cable company-provided email services are far from the best on the block, and in some cases, they may even disappear if you move or switch to a different internet provider, taking years of history and saved emails with them.

Sure, some internet service providers (or I.S.P.s) - like Comcast and AT&T - allow you to keep your email address when you leave, but others - like Spectrum - will disconnect your email service as soon as you jump ship. Even if you aren't thinking about leaving your provider now, you may be forced to in the future, and you would almost certainly be better served by a more modern, feature-filled email service like Gmail, Outlook or something else. Unfortunately, choosing a new email address means you'll need to figure out what to do with all your old messages - and set up a new email account that isn't tied to your internet service.

If you're going to leave your current email service, you'll need to pick a new service to house all your messages. There are countless email services, but most people will probably want to go with one of the following:

Gmail: Google's Gmail is one of the most popular email services around, for good reason. It has a ton of features, a friendly conversation-focused interface, powerful search and best-in-class spam and malware filtering. All that's on top of tight integration with other Google services like Google Drive, which is great for sending attachments over Gmail's 25-megabyte limit. Gmail comes with 15 gigabytes of storage and is free, unless you want to create your own email domain for your business (like john@smithconstructioninc.com). Gmail is, however, well known for collecting a lot of user data, though it does offer some control through its privacy settings.

Outlook.com: Microsoft's Outlook.com - the web-based email service not to be confused with the Microsoft Outlook desktop application - is the successor to Hotmail, with a cleaner, more modern interface. It comes with 15 gigabytes of storage, just as Gmail does, and integrates with Microsoft's online Office tools like Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and Sway. In 2013, Microsoft made a big deal about the fact that it doesn't scan your emails in order to serve you ads, though it still does do so to filter spam and malware.

iCloud: Fans of Apple products may want to look at iCloud, Apple's free email service. It integrates beautifully with Macs and iPhones and doesn't contain any ads, though it isn't as feature-rich as other options, either. It also comes with only 5 gigabytes of storage, which is shared with other Apple products, so you'll need to pay up once you reach that limit.

Fastmail: Fastmail is a paid service that bills itself as being for those who want more privacy and control. Because you pay a subscription fee (between $3 and $9 per month), there are no ads, and you can create an email account at any domain you want (like john@johnsmith.com). If you want something easy to use that isn't tied to one of the big tech giants, Fastmail is a great option.

ProtonMail: ProtonMail is a bit more complex than Fastmail, but cranks the privacy knob up to 11, offering end-to-end encryption when you want your emails to be truly hidden from the company's servers. It requires a bit more setup, though, and requires your recipient to jump through the same hoops, but for true privacy advocates, it's a good option. Just remember that no matter what email service you use, your privacy is only as good as the email service your friends, family and colleagues are using - just because your email service isn't scanning your email doesn't mean your friends' email service isn't scanning the emails you send to them. Privacy is tough to come by these days, and that goes double for email.

Once you've picked the right provider for you, sign up for an account - picking a user name you'll want to stick with for the long haul - and get ready to migrate your old inbox over.

Now you need to ask yourself a question: Do you want to keep all your old emails? If so, you may have to migrate them to your new inbox. Not every I.S.P. will let you keep your email address when you leave - Comcast and AT&T allow you to keep your email as long as you want (though Comcast requires you to log in at least once every 90 days), while Spectrum will disconnect your email service along with your internet service. If you use another I.S.P., you'll have to call its customer service team and see what the company's policy is.

I find it easier to have all my emails - old and new - in one place, so I recommend moving all your old messages to your new inbox. There are a few ways to do this. Some email providers, like Gmail and Outlook, allow you to fetch emails from another account. This uses a protocol called POP, and your old I.S.P.-supplied email address has to support it - many should - though you will have to read through its help documents or call customer service for instructions on setting it up with your new account's fetcher.

If this isn't an option - or you find it is going too slowly to effectively fetch all your emails - you can also migrate your inbox using a desktop email client like Thunderbird. Download and install the program on your computer and log into both your old and new email accounts. When logging into your new account, you'll need to do so using IMAP, not POP - IMAP is supported by all the services listed above, though you may need to enable it in the account's settings first.

Once both your accounts are available in Thunderbird and your messages have been downloaded, you can just click your old inbox, select all the messages by pressing Ctrl+A (or Command+A on a Mac), then drag them to your new account's inbox. (Repeat this step for any folders you have as well.) This may take awhile, but once it is finished, log into your new email account on the web and see if all your old messages appear properly.

This process can be a bit complex if you aren't super tech-savvy, and it's hard to give specific instructions because every email service is a little different, but the help documentation for your two email services should point you in the right direction.

Even if you tell all your family and friends about your new address, occasionally someone may forget and email you at your old address. If your old account has become overrun by spam over the years, you may want to keep that account separate and check it from time to time to make sure you aren't missing anything important. If your inbox is pretty clean, though, I recommend setting up email forwarding, so any new messages sent to your old account will appear in your new inbox.

Not all I.S.P.-provided email services support this feature, but many do. Comcast, for example, allows you to forward emails automatically using these instructions. AT&T uses Yahoo Mail for its email service, so you can find information about forwarding email in Yahoo's knowledgebase. Again, check the help documentation for your I.S.P.-provided email to see what you can find.

Once your old emails have been migrated to your new inbox and auto-forwarding is up and running, the hard part is over. Now you just have to let your friends, family and co-workers know about your new address. Just send out an email with everyone you know in the BCC column, and hopefully they will promptly change their address book.

You'll also want to go through all your online accounts - your Facebook, your bank, your subscription to The New York Times, and so on - and change your email address there as well. You'll probably forget a few, but check your password manager for a list of all your online accounts ( you do have a password manager, don't you?) and don't stress too much - this is what that auto-forwarding is for.

You may just find yourself updating your online accounts sporadically for the next few weeks as certain messages get forwarded, but once the transition is complete, you can rest easy knowing you have a more reliable, feature-filled email account that (hopefully) won't go away anytime soon.

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Switch From Your Internet Provider's Email to Something Better

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When you signed up for internet access, you probably got an email address. That's fine, but you can do better. Here's how to move to a good one. You've had that old @twc.com email address ever since you signed up for cable internet years ago, and it has served you well.

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tech zone is a youtuber who reviews tech

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"top 5" "top 10" inventions gadgets technology tech review list "amazing inventions you must see" "you won’t believe exist" "inventions you must have" "thing...

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top 5, top 10, inventions, gadgets, technology, tech, review, list, amazing inventions you must see, you won't believe exist, inventions you must have, things that actually exist, amazing inventions at home

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According to the CDC, about one third of Americans are getting insufficient amounts of sleep. Many of the usual suspects are to blame, like hectic work schedules. But the hyper-connectivity of our lives contributes as well. Monitors, smartphones, tablets, and similar devices produce blue light. And in the human brain, blue light signals us to be awake and alert.Lack of sleep causes accidents. It impairs your alertness and ability to learn. It can contribute to heart disease, diabetes, and stroke. It’s been proven to age your skin, worsen your memory, and impair your judgement. Perhaps worse of all, it feels terrible to be tired and listless. Any busy person with a full schedule is going to be agitated by not being able to fall asleep quickly.Thankfully, there are quite a few different remedies you can try for sleep problems. But it’s important you understand that there’s no panacea for every type of sleep issue. What works for you may not work for someone else. In that regard, fixing sleep problems can involve a process of trial and error if you’re not certain about the nature of your sleep issue.

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According to the CDC, about one third of Americans are getting insufficient amounts of sleep. Many of the usual suspects are to blame, like hectic work schedules. But the hyper-connectivity of our lives contributes as well. Monitors, smartphones, tablets, and similar devices produce blue light. And in the human brain, blue light signals us to be awake and alert.Lack of sleep causes accidents. It impairs your alertness and ability to learn. It can contribute to heart disease, diabetes, and stroke. It’s been proven to age your skin, worsen your memory, and impair your judgement. Perhaps worse of all, it feels terrible to be tired and listless. Any busy person with a full schedule is going to be agitated by not being able to fall asleep quickly.Thankfully, there are quite a few different remedies you can try for sleep problems. But it’s important you understand that there’s no panacea for every type of sleep issue. What works for you may not work for someone else. In that regard, fixing sleep problems can involve a process of trial and error if you’re not certain about the nature of your sleep issue.

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Apple’s latest tech acquisition gives us a hint about its future camera plans

By Andy Boxall December 16, 2019 6:15AM PST

Apple has acquired a technology startup named Spectral Edge, and in doing so, has given us a hint at what it may be working on for future versions of the iPhone’s camera. Apple is known for being secretive regarding its company acquisitions, and this only became known when Apple’s corporate lawyer was named as a director of the company, and that Apple had taken control of the firm.

What does Spectral Edge offer Apple? The company’s website is no longer accessible, but information about the firm can still be found on the website of the business park where its offices are located. It states Spectral Edge is a “cutting edge image-processing” company, which uses artificial intelligence and deep learning to enhance photos.

“We can reveal more of the color, detail, and clarity in a scene,” the blurb says, saying, “The smarter the processing the more the image reveals the richness of the moment. It is embedded real-time technology.”

In other words, Spectral Edge’s technology makes photos look brighter, more colorful, and with more detail when you take them, not after adding a filter. However, the company’s technology can be added into a device through software or hardware, according to Bloomberg, in its story revealing the acquisition.

Infrared enhancements

While this doesn’t tell us much about Apple’s future plans for the iPhone’s camera — all manufacturers are using computational photography to improve shots, after all — an interview with Spectral Edge in 2016 tells us a little more. The technique involves using data collected from multiple images along with an infrared photo to generate its final photo, because infrared can penetrate through misty, or hazy conditions more effectively than visible light.

Spectral Edge then uses its special blend of A.I. and deep learning to put it all together into a great-looking final photo. It’s likely something you won’t need to activate in the camera itself. As we have come to expect from Apple, it will “just work,” at the right time. Apple may also be able to quickly integrate the enhancements into the 2020 or 2021 iPhone. While Bloomberg’s report says the feature doesn’t need new hardware, Spectral Edge has said the camera will require an infrared sensor in the past.

Apple has been experimenting with HDR-style enhancements for some time, and Spectral Edge’s tech seems to be a continuation of this. Most iPhone owners will be familiar with Smart HDR, but in the iPhone 11 and iOS 13.2, you can also try out Apple’s Deep Fusion feature, which kicks into action automatically when conditions are right. Spectral Edge’s tech, or whatever Apple ends up calling it, may next be seen when it’s introduced as a new feature inside the iPhone 12 or iPhone 13’s camera.

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Hironobu Minowa, who demonstrated the battery at NTT's R&D Forum in Tokyo this week

NTT DATA

A transparent battery could replace glass in windows. The battery still has a low output, but could eventually add extra energy storage to smart glasses or cars.

Most battery research focuses on increasing power output or energy density, a measure of how much energy can be stored in a certain volume. But Hironobu Minowa and his colleagues at Japanese communications giant NTT decided instead to focus on making a battery that is as inconspicuous as possible.

The team had to create new ...

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Batteries as transparent as glass could power devices in your home

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A transparent battery could replace glass in windows. The battery still has a low output, but could eventually add extra energy storage to smart glasses or cars. Most battery research focuses on increasing power output or energy density, a measure of how much energy can be stored in a certain volume.

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Beyond lithium — the search for a better battery

Graphene and salt water offer promising advances

A prototype of the Blue Battery by Aqua Battery © AquaBattery

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Nic Fildes JANUARY 8 2018

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As the world’s power needs grow, the search is on for better battery technology — not just to keep smartphones charged for longer, but to run electric cars and to store energy produced by solar and wind power.

For the last 25 years, the lithium-ion battery, has held sway. Packing a large amount of energy into a relatively small space and weight, these are in greater demand than ever for mobile phones and electric cars. In fact, 2017 has been, in the words of HSBC’s Paul Bloxham, a nirvana for lithium. The price of the commodity has been driven 240 per cent higher. Batteries accounted for 35 per cent of lithium use in 2015, up from 25 per cent in 2007, with electric vehicles, phones and personal computers accounting for 60 per cent of that market.

Lithium-ion’s limitations are apparent, however, to anyone who has seen their mobile phone battery draining suddenly. There is a growing interest in finding alternative technologies.

“There’s a sense that existing lithium-ion batteries and related charging technologies are reaching their limitations,” said CCS Insight, the research company.

Samsung in November revealed that it had developed a technology based on a “ graphene ball” that could potentially boost its battery capacity by 45 per cent and increase charging speed five-fold. Keen to put behind it the memories of the exploding batteries in its Galaxy Note 7 phone, Samsung has been putting a lot of effort into battery research, and news that the graphene-based power unit would take just 12 minutes to be fully charged was welcomed by many.

Graphene ball image © Samsung

Yet the technology, similar to Qualcomm’s Quick Charge system, really only represents an enhancement, rather than a replacement, for lithium-ion.

Graphene has long been seen as a vital ingredient for future energy needs. Other alternatives being researched include fuel cells, photosynthesis, solid state technologies, sodium-ion, solar, foam, aluminium graphite, sand and even human skin. Many of these have the advantage of being either safer or more abundant than lithium, the production of which is dominated by a handful of companies.

However, research in these technologies largely remains in the labs with little sign of a full commercialisation on the horizon. Hydrogen fuel cells, first invented in the 1830s, have long been seen as the most viable alternative to lithium batteries. Yet the technology has been held back by high material costs since the 1990s heyday of hydrogen development. There has been some headway in harnessing hydrogen as an alternative power source but the ultimate aim is to use fuel cells to overhaul the transport market. Japan is leading the way with Toyota and Honda both pushing to develop the technology.

Yet it remains a tough task. Intelligent Energy, a UK fuel cell company linked with developing the technology for use in smartphones, was quietly sold in October to one of its investors after admitting that a sales collapse risked leaving shareholders with little, or no, value.

50 ideas to change the world

We asked readers, researchers and FT journalists to submit ideas with the potential to change the world. A panel of judges selected the 50 ideas worth looking at in more detail. This second tranche of 10 ideas (listed below) is about meeting growing needs for energy and resources. The next 10 ideas, looking at ways to change education and information management, will be published on February 5, 2018.

New types of solar power

Changing the economics of clean water

Zero power electronics

The search for a better battery

Mining landfill sites

Superconductivity at room temperature

Making wind power cheaper

Splitting hydrogen from water

Seaweed as a biofuel

One area where there is a pressing need for battery innovation is in the emerging market for wearable technology. A rigid battery would not work in emerging areas such as smart clothing so academics have been developing more flexible models. Researchers at the University of Manchester in August revealed that they had developed technology using graphene-oxide to create an ink-like substance that can be printed on to fabrics. The ink, which is as flexible as cotton, acts as a solid-state flexible supercapacitor that can rapidly charge electronic components.

Dr Nazmul Karim, a fellow at the National Graphene Institute, said the breakthrough was a significant step in the development of new types of charging. “It will open up possibilities of making an environmental friendly and cost-effective smart e-textile that can store energy and monitor human activity and physiological condition at the same time,” he said.

One Dutch company, meanwhile, has created a sustainable battery using only water and salt. AquaBattery has developed a system that involves brackish water flowing through a stack of membranes to store energy. The first ‘Blue Battery’ pilot project began in November in the Dutch city of Delft to prove that the system, which converts electrical energy into chemical energy, is as scalable as AquaBattery argues.

The great battery race

Mei Nelissen, part of the team that initially worked on the Blue Battery concept, said in a Ted X talk that she was “dancing like we had discovered fire” when it proved the system could work, as it opened up the possibility of solving one of the main conundrums facing the renewable energy industry — storing energy for use when the wind does not blow and the sun does not shine.

That remains the challenge for the battery market. Demand is growing exponentially in the here and now, particularly in the smartphone market where consumers are familiar with ‘red zone panic’ when their handset runs out of power.

The Blue Battery won the ‘circular economy’ award from Accenture in October but the system remains a long way off commercialisation.

Paul Lee, head of technology, media and telecoms research at Deloitte, says he does not expect change any time soon. “Over the next five years, lithium-ion is likely to remain the basis of almost all batteries used in smartphones. At present there appear to be no battery technologies on the horizon that have evolved sufficiently to be tested and factored into supply chains that could displace lithium ion.”

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BREAKING: Two insomniacs create amazing gadget that helps prevent overthinking & puts you to sleep fast - OVER 150,000 already sold & counting!

You know what I can't stand? Lying in bed, exhausted, trying to fall asleep - but I can't stop thinking!

It seems like the second the lights go off and my head hits the pillow, my brain is racing with all the answers to all the questions I didn't even know I was asking?

And of course the more I try to ignore it... the louder and more chaotic it would get.

It's been years since I've been able to shut my brain off - basically get out of my own head - and peacefully fall asleep.

I've tried just about everything to help me quickly fall asleep. I've spent decent money on fancy sound machines or mood lighting...didn't work, waste of money.

And all sleeping pills do is knock me out. And the quality of my sleep was terrible - I'd wake up groggy and still very tired. Not to mention the potential side effects or that they can be habit forming.

So when my friend who lives in Europe recommended a new device that is supposed to help you fall asleep fast AND improve the quality of sleep (all naturally!) I was all over it!

I was so excited about the potential of this thing. After trying everything else with little to no success, I figured if this device worked half as good as my friend said it did, I'd be happy.
Well, let me assure you, it works better!
It's this cool little device called Dodow. You put it on your nightstand, and it projects a soft blue light onto your ceiling (that expands and retracts). When you breathe along with the light as it fades in and out, it helps you relax and calm your mind. I know it sounds weird - which it is - but it actually works!

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Dodow | Naturally Fall Asleep Faster Than You Ever Have!

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BREAKING: Two insomniacs create amazing gadget that helps prevent overthinking & puts you to sleep fast - OVER 150,000 already sold & counting! You know what I can't stand? Lying in bed, exhausted, trying to fall asleep - but I can't stop thinking!

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Technology has overtaken finance to become the top employer of MBA graduates. The Graduate Management Admission Council's latest corporate recruiter survey found that 89 percent of tech companies planned to hire MBAs this year, compared with 76 percent of finance and accounting firms.

Investment banks have also lost some of their luster at business school since the 2008 financial crisis, while Big Tech companies like Amazon, Google and Microsoft have grown in appeal. Amazon hires the most MBA graduates from a throng of top courses - it vacuumed up 1,000 overall in 2017.

This ravenous appetite for MBAs has prompted several business schools to establish entire MBA degrees focused on the technology sector. IE Business School in Spain is the latest. It established a Tech MBA in September that starts in 2020.

Many schools run tech modules in their general MBAs, but Jose Esteves, vice dean of IE, says the program provides a deeper dive into subjects, such as data management and artificial intelligence, as well as the nuts and bolts of business management.

The value in taking a Tech MBA, he says, is being prepared for a vastly different culture than in other industries. Tech companies are less hierarchical, more collaborative, innovative and take risks. This culture was summarized by Mark Zuckerberg, who made Facebook's motto "move fast and break things", though this was changed.

Combining Management and Technology

IE's Tech MBA will set students up for such cultures through immersive, practical learning experiences and internships at tech companies, says Esteves. "Recruiters tell us they want MBAs to be more focused on technology and tech cultures."

In the US, there are 200,000 jobs created per year in tech-related roles, such as digital marketing or financial engineering, says Esteves. But there's a shortage of people who understand technology and also have the management skills to lead tech projects, he says. These candidates would be suitable for product management roles, which combine marketing, design and problem-solving, and are popular among MBA graduates.

"We need technology managers. We see a gap in business education," says Esteves, adding that candidates for his course must have a degree in STEM subjects - science, technology, engineering or math.

IE believes the Tech MBA is the first in Europe. Most are in the US, which Esteves says reflects the size of the technology industry there, with five of the top US companies by market capitalization from the sector. "In Europe our tech sector is relatively small with relatively few big global companies like SAP," says Esteves.

Beyond 'Big Tech'

New York University's Stern School of Business launched its Tech MBA to fill an industry need. It also wanted to leverage its location in the Big Apple, where there is a thriving tech sector. The course was developed in partnership with executives from Amazon, PayPal, IBM and Infosys. They also sit on the course's advisory board.

Holly Curtis, director of MBA admissions at Stern, says: "We see a clear demand for the program. Prospective students are excited about refining their skills and strategic thinking in both business and tech. We welcomed our second class to campus in May. We're proud the cohort is 50 percent female."

Students work on real business projects in New York City and also travel to Silicon Valley, where they meet alumni and corporate recruiters. That helps them build a network and land jobs. This year, 93 percent accepted a job offer or started a business within three months of graduating.

They were hired by Amazon, Google, IBM and Microsoft, but also by the healthcare, finance, entertainment and transportation industries.

This marks a shift in tech companies' thinking. Some are skeptical of business schools, claiming they make students risk-averse, which does not fit Silicon Valley's mantra of "fail fast, fail often". PayPal's co-founder Peter Theil once said: "Never hire an MBA, they will ruin your company."

But Andrea Masini, associate dean at HEC Paris, points out that Tech MBAs set people up for a wide range of careers, even in companies that are not traditionally considered to be tech businesses.

"Many industries are being transformed by technology," he says. "No good leader can drive transformation and create value without a very good understanding of how technology works and what challenges and opportunities it entails."

Because of this, HEC exposes its MBA students to technology in many ways. There are, for example, dedicated specializations focused on blockchain, business analytics and data management. Courses are also offered in design thinking and the management of innovation.

Masini believes this is sufficient to prepare students for tech-related roles, and adds: "The proliferation of Tech MBAs may be a quick fix to the presumed decline in applications to generalist MBAs."

ESMT Berlin goes further, with MBA students required to take courses, such as data analytics. There are also consultancy projects that focus on technology. In one, students work with an autonomous driving startup on the development of a smart city.

ESMT Berlin has a strong reputation for technology and innovation, while the German capital is a tech startup hotspot. "If that is not the case for other schools, it might be difficult to make such a drastic change from traditional business education," says Rick Doyle, head of marketing for degree programs. But with technology changing virtually every industry, all business schools will need to adapt.

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Tech MBAs Help Students Win Big Tech Jobs

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Technology has overtaken finance to become the top employer of MBA graduates. The Graduate Management Admission Council's latest corporate recruiter survey found that 89 percent of tech companies planned to hire MBAs this year, compared with 76 percent of finance and accounting firms. Investment banks have also lost some of their luster at business school since the 2008 financial crisis, while Big Tech companies like Amazon, Google and Microsoft have grown in appeal.

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Tesla wants to mount lasers—yes, lasers—on its cars.

It might sound like a gimmick. But the logic behind a recent patent application looks sound. And even if the technology doesn’t work, the very existence of the patent application illustrates one thing: Tesla and its enigmatic CEO Elon Musk are masters of generating buzz.

Take the launch of Tesla’s Cybertruck. The November event in Los Angeles certainly had people talking about the pickup’s avant-garde, geometric design, towing capacity, and features such as bulletproof glass. Barron’s itself has written almost two dozen articles referencing Cybertruck since its launch.

It seems people can’t get enough of Tesla. Now there are lasers to write about. (The company also got some negative headlines, however, on Monday: A Tesla on Autopilot crashed into a police car over the weekend.)

The patent filing came to light—pardon the pun—in late November. The electric vehicle pioneer is seeking to protect technology it is developing for “pulsed laser cleaning of debris accumulated on glass articles in vehicles and photovoltaic assemblies.”

Translation: Tesla wants to zap debris off its windshields. Think of it as the most high-tech window defroster ever conceived.

It isn’t as odd as it sounds. The patent application makes some interesting points. For starters, vehicle electrification can mean solar panels on cars in the future. That’s a lot of glass surface area. And as autonomous driving technology adds more cameras and sensors to cars, its important to keep them all clean. The lasers offer a way to keep critical equipment clean without having to manually intervene—such as with an ice scrapper.

(Tesla understands solar panel technology better than most—the company owns SolarCity.)

Barron’s isn’t going to pretend to understand lasers enough to evaluate technical feasibility. All we really know is that a laser is a focused beam of light. What is clear, however, is that Tesla has a knack for generating free advertising—to the benefit of its shareholders.

The benefit isn’t small. Other car companies spend large sums on advertising. General Motors (GM) and Ford Motor (F), for instance, spend more than $8 billion each year on a combined basis on advertising and promotion. That works out to about 2.7% of combined sales, or about 30% of combined estimated 2019 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization, or Ebitda. Traditional, mainstream car companies have to spend on brand awareness.

Tesla disclosed $70 million in marketing spending in 2018. That’s only about 0.3% of sales.

Some day, Tesla might have to spend way more money on advertising, but investors don’t seem to be worried about that now. The company is riding a hot streak. Shares are up about 47% over the past three months. That’s far better than the 4.9%, 6.2% and 8.2% respective gains of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, S&P 500 and Russell 3000 Auto & Auto Parts Index over the same span.

Tesla didn’t return a request for comment about when the laser technology could be ready for production and what models it might be first implemented on.

Maybe the company plans to launch them on the Cybertruck—marrying the futuristic design with futuristic debris removal

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This Christmas tree is shocking.

An Aquarium in Tennessee has found a way to use its electric eel to power Christmas lights and spark some awe in holiday visitors.

The eel, named Miguel Wattson, releases low-voltage bolts of electricity whenever he's looking for food - and a special machine hooked up to his tank uses the shocks to light up the nearby tree. The intensity of the flashes depends on what he's currently doing and how he is feeling.

"The bigger flashes are caused by the higher voltage shocks he emits when he's eating or excited," Kimberly Hurt, an aquarist at Tennessee Aquarium, said in a press release.

Wattson, who has his own popular Twitter account with over 30,000 followers, posted a video of himself "shocking" around the Christmas tree.

In fact, the clever eel even powers his own Twitter account. Coders at Tennessee Tech University's iCube center created the algorithm, powered by his jolts, in 2015 to help give Wattson a voice and an ability to better engage with the public.

He typically tweets out fun messages like "za-BOOSH!!!!," "KRASNAPPA-TAT!!!" and, most recently, "BAZINGG!!!".

The aquarium hopes its latest festive effort will spur further interest in the freshwater fish.

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Electric eel powers Christmas tree lights at Tennessee aquarium

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This Christmas tree is shocking. An Aquarium in Tennessee has found a way to use its electric eel to power Christmas lights and spark some awe in holiday visitors. The eel, named Miguel Wattson, releases low-voltage bolts of electricity whenever he's looking for food - and a special machine hooked up to his tank uses the shocks to light up the nearby tree.

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We Teach A.I. Systems Everything, Including Our BiasesResearchers say computer systems are learning from lots and lots of digitized books and news articles that could bake old attitudes into new technology.VideoCreditCredit...By Kiel MutschelknausCade MetzBy Cade MetzNov. 11, 2019SAN FRANCISCO — Last fall, Google unveiled a breakthrough artificial intelligence technology called BERT that changed the way scientists build systems that learn how people write and talk.But BERT, which is now being deployed in services like Google’s internet search engine, has a problem: It could be picking up on biases in the way a child mimics the bad behavior of his parents.BERT is one of a number of A.I. systems that learn from lots and lots of digitized information, as varied as old books, Wikipedia entries and news articles. Decades and even centuries of biases — along with a few new ones — are probably baked into all that material.BERT and its peers are more likely to associate men with computer programming, for example, and generally don’t give women enough credit. One program decided almost everything written about President Trump was negative, even if the actual content was flattering.As new, more complex A.I. moves into an increasingly wide array of products, like online ad services and business software or talking digital assistants like Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa, tech companies will be pressured to guard against the unexpected biases that are being discovered.But scientists are still learning how technology like BERT, called “universal language models,” works. And they are often surprised by the mistakes their new A.I. is making.On a recent afternoon in San Francisco, while researching a book on artificial intelligence, the computer scientist Robert Munro fed 100 English words into BERT: “jewelry,” “baby,” “horses,” “house,” “money,” “action.” In 99 cases out of 100, BERT was more likely to associate the words with men rather than women. The word “mom” was the outlier.“This is the same historical inequity we have always seen,” said Dr. Munro, who has a Ph.D. in computational linguistics and previously oversaw natural language and translation technology at Amazon Web Services. “Now, with something like BERT, this bias can continue to perpetuate.”Image“This is the same historical inequity we have always seen,” said the computer scientist Robert Munro.“This is the same historical inequity we have always seen,” said the computer scientist Robert Munro.Credit...Cayce Clifford for The New York TimesIn a blog post this week, Dr. Munro also describes how he examined cloud-computing services from Google and Amazon Web Services that help other businesses add language skills into new applications. Both services failed to recognize the word “hers” as a pronoun, though they correctly identified “his.”“We are aware of the issue and are taking the necessary steps to address and resolve it,” a Google spokesman said. “Mitigating bias from our systems is one of our A.I. principles, and is a top priority.” Amazon, in a statement, said it “dedicates significant resources to ensuring our technology is highly accurate and reduces bias, including rigorous benchmarking, testing and investing in diverse training data.”Researchers have long warned of bias in A.I. that learns from large amounts data, including the facial recognition systems that are used by police departments and other government agencies as well as popular internet services from tech giants like Google and Facebook. In 2015, for example, the Google Photos app was caught labeling African-Americans as “gorillas.” The services Dr. Munro scrutinized also showed bias against women and people of color.BERT and similar systems are far more complex — too complex for anyone to predict what they will ultimately do.“Even the people building these systems don’t understand how they are behaving,” said Emily Bender, a professor at the University of Washington who specializes in computational linguistics.BERT is one of many universal language models used in industry and academia. Others are called ELMO, ERNIE and GPT-2. As a kind of inside joke among A.I. researchers, they are often named for Sesame Street characters. (BERT is short for Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers.)They learn the nuances of language by analyzing enormous amounts of text. A system built by OpenAI, an artificial intelligence lab in San Francisco, analyzed thousands of self-published books, including romance novels, mysteries and science fiction. BERT analyzed the same library of books along with thousands of Wikipedia articles.In analyzing all this text, each system learned a specific task. OpenAI’s system learned to predict the next word in a sentence. BERT learned to identify the missing word in a sentence (such as “I want to ____ that car because it is cheap”).Through learning these tasks, BERT comes to understand in a general way how people put words together. Then it can learn other tasks by analyzing more data. As a result, it allows A.I. applications to improve at a rate not previously possible.“BERT completely changed everything,” said John Bohannon, director of science at Primer, a start-up in San Francisco that specializes in natural language technologies. “You can teach one pony all the tricks.”Google itself has used BERT to improve its search engine. Before, if you typed “Do estheticians stand a lot at work?” into the Google search engine, it did not quite understand what you were asking. Words like “stand” and “work” can have multiple meanings, serving either as nouns or verbs. But now, thanks to BERT, Google correctly responds to the same question with a link describing the physical demands of life in the skin care industry.But tools like BERT pick up bias, according to a recent research paper from a team of computer scientists at Carnegie Mellon University. The paper showed, for instance, that BERT is more likely to associate the word “programmer” with men than with women. Language bias can be a particularly difficult problem in conversational systems.As these new technologies proliferate, biases can appear almost anywhere. At Primer, Dr. Bohannon and his engineers recently used BERT to build a system that lets businesses automatically judge the sentiment of headlines, tweets and other streams of online media. Businesses use such tools to inform stock trades and other pointed decisions.But after training his tool, Dr. Bohannon noticed a consistent bias. If a tweet or headline contained the word “Trump,” the tool almost always judged it to be negative, no matter how positive the sentiment.“This is hard. You need a lot of time and care,” he said. “We found an obvious bias. But how many others are in there?”Dr. Bohannon said computer scientists must develop the skills of a biologist. Much as a biologist strives to understand how a cell works, software engineers must find ways of understanding systems like BERT.In unveiling the new version of its search engine last month, Google executives acknowledged this phenomenon. And they said they tested their systems extensively with an eye toward removing any bias.Researchers are only beginning to understand the effects of bias in systems like BERT. But as Dr. Munro showed, companies are already slow to notice even obvious bias in their systems. After Dr. Munro pointed out the problem, Amazon corrected it. Google said it was working to fix the issue.Primer’s chief executive, Sean Gourley, said vetting the behavior of this new technology would become so important, it will spawn a whole new industry, where companies pay specialists to audit their algorithms for all kinds of bias and other unexpected behavior.“This is probably a billion-dollar industry,” he said.More on A.I. and bias:

# data[].attributes.subject
We Teach A.I. Systems Everything, Including Our BiasesResearchers say computer systems are learning from lots and lots of digitized books and news articles that could bake old attitudes into new technology.VideoCreditCredit...By Kiel MutschelknausCade MetzBy Cade MetzNov. 11, 2019SAN FRANCISCO — Last fall, Google unveiled a breakthrough artificial intelligence technology called BERT that changed the way scientists build systems that learn how people write and talk.But BERT, which is now being deployed in services like Google’s internet search engine, has a problem: It could be picking up on biases in the way a child mimics the bad behavior of his parents.BERT is one of a number of A.I. systems that learn from lots and lots of digitized information, as varied as old books, Wikipedia entries and news articles. Decades and even centuries of biases — along with a few new ones — are probably baked into all that material.BERT and its peers are more likely to associate men with computer programming, for example, and generally don’t give women enough credit. One program decided almost everything written about President Trump was negative, even if the actual content was flattering.As new, more complex A.I. moves into an increasingly wide array of products, like online ad services and business software or talking digital assistants like Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa, tech companies will be pressured to guard against the unexpected biases that are being discovered.But scientists are still learning how technology like BERT, called “universal language models,” works. And they are often surprised by the mistakes their new A.I. is making.On a recent afternoon in San Francisco, while researching a book on artificial intelligence, the computer scientist Robert Munro fed 100 English words into BERT: “jewelry,” “baby,” “horses,” “house,” “money,” “action.” In 99 cases out of 100, BERT was more likely to associate the words with men rather than women. The word “mom” was the outlier.“This is the same historical inequity we have always seen,” said Dr. Munro, who has a Ph.D. in computational linguistics and previously oversaw natural language and translation technology at Amazon Web Services. “Now, with something like BERT, this bias can continue to perpetuate.”Image“This is the same historical inequity we have always seen,” said the computer scientist Robert Munro.“This is the same historical inequity we have always seen,” said the computer scientist Robert Munro.Credit...Cayce Clifford for The New York TimesIn a blog post this week, Dr. Munro also describes how he examined cloud-computing services from Google and Amazon Web Services that help other businesses add language skills into new applications. Both services failed to recognize the word “hers” as a pronoun, though they correctly identified “his.”“We are aware of the issue and are taking the necessary steps to address and resolve it,” a Google spokesman said. “Mitigating bias from our systems is one of our A.I. principles, and is a top priority.” Amazon, in a statement, said it “dedicates significant resources to ensuring our technology is highly accurate and reduces bias, including rigorous benchmarking, testing and investing in diverse training data.”Researchers have long warned of bias in A.I. that learns from large amounts data, including the facial recognition systems that are used by police departments and other government agencies as well as popular internet services from tech giants like Google and Facebook. In 2015, for example, the Google Photos app was caught labeling African-Americans as “gorillas.” The services Dr. Munro scrutinized also showed bias against women and people of color.BERT and similar systems are far more complex — too complex for anyone to predict what they will ultimately do.“Even the people building these systems don’t understand how they are behaving,” said Emily Bender, a professor at the University of Washington who specializes in computational linguistics.BERT is one of many universal language models used in industry and academia. Others are called ELMO, ERNIE and GPT-2. As a kind of inside joke among A.I. researchers, they are often named for Sesame Street characters. (BERT is short for Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers.)They learn the nuances of language by analyzing enormous amounts of text. A system built by OpenAI, an artificial intelligence lab in San Francisco, analyzed thousands of self-published books, including romance novels, mysteries and science fiction. BERT analyzed the same library of books along with thousands of Wikipedia articles.In analyzing all this text, each system learned a specific task. OpenAI’s system learned to predict the next word in a sentence. BERT learned to identify the missing word in a sentence (such as “I want to ____ that car because it is cheap”).Through learning these tasks, BERT comes to understand in a general way how people put words together. Then it can learn other tasks by analyzing more data. As a result, it allows A.I. applications to improve at a rate not previously possible.“BERT completely changed everything,” said John Bohannon, director of science at Primer, a start-up in San Francisco that specializes in natural language technologies. “You can teach one pony all the tricks.”Google itself has used BERT to improve its search engine. Before, if you typed “Do estheticians stand a lot at work?” into the Google search engine, it did not quite understand what you were asking. Words like “stand” and “work” can have multiple meanings, serving either as nouns or verbs. But now, thanks to BERT, Google correctly responds to the same question with a link describing the physical demands of life in the skin care industry.But tools like BERT pick up bias, according to a recent research paper from a team of computer scientists at Carnegie Mellon University. The paper showed, for instance, that BERT is more likely to associate the word “programmer” with men than with women. Language bias can be a particularly difficult problem in conversational systems.As these new technologies proliferate, biases can appear almost anywhere. At Primer, Dr. Bohannon and his engineers recently used BERT to build a system that lets businesses automatically judge the sentiment of headlines, tweets and other streams of online media. Businesses use such tools to inform stock trades and other pointed decisions.But after training his tool, Dr. Bohannon noticed a consistent bias. If a tweet or headline contained the word “Trump,” the tool almost always judged it to be negative, no matter how positive the sentiment.“This is hard. You need a lot of time and care,” he said. “We found an obvious bias. But how many others are in there?”Dr. Bohannon said computer scientists must develop the skills of a biologist. Much as a biologist strives to understand how a cell works, software engineers must find ways of understanding systems like BERT.In unveiling the new version of its search engine last month, Google executives acknowledged this phenomenon. And they said they tested their systems extensively with an eye toward removing any bias.Researchers are only beginning to understand the effects of bias in systems like BERT. But as Dr. Munro showed, companies are already slow to notice even obvious bias in their systems. After Dr. Munro pointed out the problem, Amazon corrected it. Google said it was working to fix the issue.Primer’s chief executive, Sean Gourley, said vetting the behavior of this new technology would become so important, it will spawn a whole new industry, where companies pay specialists to audit their algorithms for all kinds of bias and other unexpected behavior.“This is probably a billion-dollar industry,” he said.More on A.I. and bias:

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By SUSAN GREENFIELD

Human identity, the idea that defines each and every one of us, could be facing an unprecedented crisis.

It is a crisis that would threaten long-held notions of who we are, what we do and how we behave.

It goes right to the heart - or the head - of us all. This crisis could reshape how we interact with each other, alter what makes us happy, and modify our capacity for reaching our full potential as individuals.

And it's caused by one simple fact: the human brain, that most sensitive of organs, is under threat from the modern world.

Unless we wake up to the damage that the gadget-filled, pharmaceutically-enhanced 21st century is doing to our brains, we could be sleepwalking towards a future in which neuro-chip technology blurs the line between living and non-living machines, and between our bodies and the outside world.

It would be a world where such devices could enhance our muscle power, or our senses, beyond the norm, and where we all take a daily cocktail of drugs to control our moods and performance.

Already, an electronic chip is being developed that could allow a paralysed patient to move a robotic limb just by thinking about it. As for drug manipulated moods, they're already with us - although so far only to a medically prescribed extent.

Increasing numbers of people already take Prozac for depression, Paxil as an antidote for shyness, and give Ritalin to children to improve their concentration. But what if there were still more pills to enhance or "correct" a range of other specific mental functions?

What would such aspirations to be "perfect" or "better" do to our notions of identity, and what would it do to those who could not get their hands on the pills? Would some finally have become more equal than others, as George Orwell always feared?

Of course, there are benefits from technical progress - but there are great dangers as well, and I believe that we are seeing some of those today.

I'm a neuroscientist and my day-to-day research at Oxford University strives for an ever greater understanding - and therefore maybe, one day, a cure - for Alzheimer's disease.

But one vital fact I have learnt is that the brain is not the unchanging organ that we might imagine. It not only goes on developing, changing and, in some tragic cases, eventually deteriorating with age, it is also substantially shaped by what we do to it and by the experience of daily life. When I say "shaped", I'm not talking figuratively or metaphorically; I'm talking literally. At a microcellular level, the infinitely complex network of nerve cells that make up the constituent parts of the brain actually change in response to certain experiences and stimuli.

The brain, in other words, is malleable - not just in early childhood but right up to early adulthood, and, in certain instances, beyond. The surrounding environment has a huge impact both on the way our brains develop and how that brain is transformed into a unique human mind.

Of course, there's nothing new about that: human brains have been changing, adapting and developing in response to outside stimuli for centuries.

What prompted me to write my book is that the pace of change in the outside environment and in the development of new technologies has increased dramatically. This will affect our brains over the next 100 years in ways we might never have imagined.

Our brains are under the influence of an ever- expanding world of new technology: multichannel television, video games, MP3 players, the internet, wireless networks, Bluetooth links - the list goes on and on.

But our modern brains are also having to adapt to other 21st century intrusions, some of which, such as prescribed drugs like Ritalin and Prozac, are supposed to be of benefit, and some of which, such as widelyavailable illegal drugs like cannabis and heroin, are not.

Electronic devices and pharmaceutical drugs all have an impact on the micro- cellular structure and complex biochemistry of our brains. And that, in turn, affects our personality, our behaviour and our characteristics. In short, the modern world could well be altering our human identity.

Three hundred years ago, our notions of human identity were vastly simpler: we were defined by the family we were born into and our position within that family. Social advancement was nigh on impossible and the concept of "individuality" took a back seat.

That only arrived with the Industrial Revolution, which for the first time offered rewards for initiative, ingenuity and ambition. Suddenly, people had their own life stories - ones which could be shaped by their own thoughts and actions. For the first time, individuals had a real sense of self.

But with our brains now under such widespread attack from the modern world, there's a danger that that cherished sense of self could be diminished or even lost.

Anyone who doubts the malleability of the adult brain should consider a startling piece of research conducted at Harvard Medical School. There, a group of adult volunteers, none of whom could previously play the piano, were split into three groups.

The first group were taken into a room with a piano and given intensive piano practise for five days. The second group were taken into an identical room with an identical piano - but had nothing to do with the instrument at all.

And the third group were taken into an identical room with an identical piano and were then told that for the next five days they had to just imagine they were practising piano exercises.

The resultant brain scans were extraordinary. Not surprisingly, the brains of those who simply sat in the same room as the piano hadn't changed at all.

Equally unsurprising was the fact that those who had performed the piano exercises saw marked structural changes in the area of the brain associated with finger movement.

But what was truly astonishing was that the group who had merely imagined doing the piano exercises saw changes in brain structure that were almost as pronounced as those that had actually had lessons. "The power of imagination" is not a metaphor, it seems; it's real, and has a physical basis in your brain.

Alas, no neuroscientist can explain how the sort of changes that the Harvard experimenters reported at the micro-cellular level translate into changes in character, personality or behaviour. But we don't need to know that to realise that changes in brain structure and our higher thoughts and feelings are incontrovertibly linked.

What worries me is that if something as innocuous as imagining a piano lesson can bring about a visible physical change in brain structure, and therefore some presumably minor change in the way the aspiring player performs, what changes might long stints playing violent computer games bring about? That eternal teenage protest of 'it's only a game, Mum' certainly begins to ring alarmingly hollow.

Already, it's pretty clear that the screen-based, two dimensional world that so many teenagers - and a growing number of adults - choose to inhabit is producing changes in behaviour. Attention spans are shorter, personal communication skills are reduced and there's a marked reduction in the ability to think abstractly.

This games-driven generation interpret the world through screen-shaped eyes. It's almost as if something hasn't really happened until it's been posted on Facebook, Bebo or YouTube.

Add that to the huge amount of personal information now stored on the internet - births, marriages, telephone numbers, credit ratings, holiday pictures - and it's sometimes difficult to know where the boundaries of our individuality actually lie. Only one thing is certain: those boundaries are weakening.

And they could weaken further still if, and when, neurochip technology becomes more widely available. These tiny devices will take advantage of the discovery that nerve cells and silicon chips can happily co-exist, allowing an interface between the electronic world and the human body. One of my colleagues recently suggested that someone could be fitted with a cochlear implant (devices that convert sound waves into electronic impulses and enable the deaf to hear) and a skull-mounted micro- chip that converts brain waves into words (a prototype is under research).

Then, if both devices were connected to a wireless network, we really would have arrived at the point which science fiction writers have been getting excited about for years. Mind reading!

He was joking, but for how long the gag remains funny is far from clear.

Today's technology is already producing a marked shift in the way we think and behave, particularly among the young.

I mustn't, however, be too censorious, because what I'm talking about is pleasure. For some, pleasure means wine, women and song; for others, more recently, sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll; and for millions today, endless hours at the computer console.

But whatever your particular variety of pleasure (and energetic sport needs to be added to the list), it's long been accepted that 'pure' pleasure - that is to say, activity during which you truly "let yourself go" - was part of the diverse portfolio of normal human life. Until now, that is.

Now, coinciding with the moment when technology and pharmaceutical companies are finding ever more ways to have a direct influence on the human brain, pleasure is becoming the sole be-all and end-all of many lives, especially among the young.

We could be raising a hedonistic generation who live only in the thrill of the computer-generated moment, and are in distinct danger of detaching themselves from what the rest of us would consider the real world.

This is a trend that worries me profoundly. For as any alcoholic or drug addict will tell you, nobody can be trapped in the moment of pleasure forever. Sooner or later, you have to come down.

I'm certainly not saying all video games are addictive (as yet, there is not enough research to back that up), and I genuinely welcome the new generation of "brain-training" computer games aimed at keeping the little grey cells active for longer.

As my Alzheimer's research has shown me, when it comes to higher brain function, it's clear that there is some truth in the adage "use it or lose it".

However, playing certain games can mimic addiction, and that the heaviest users of these games might soon begin to do a pretty good impersonation of an addict.

Throw in circumstantial evidence that links a sharp rise in diagnoses of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder and the associated three-fold increase in Ritalin prescriptions over the past ten years with the boom in computer games and you have an immensely worrying scenario.

But we mustn't be too pessimistic about the future. It may sound frighteningly Orwellian, but there may be some potential advantages to be gained from our growing understanding of the human brain's tremendous plasticity. What if we could create an environment that would allow the brain to develop in a way that was seen to be of universal benefit?

I'm not convinced that scientists will ever find a way of manipulating the brain to make us all much cleverer (it would probably be cheaper and far more effective to manipulate the education system). And nor do I believe that we can somehow be made much happier - not, at least, without somehow anaesthetising ourselves against the sadness and misery that is part and parcel of the human condition.

When someone I love dies, I still want to be able to cry.

But I do, paradoxically, see potential in one particular direction. I think it possible that we might one day be able to harness outside stimuli in such a way that creativity - surely the ultimate expression of individuality - is actually boosted rather than diminished.

I am optimistic and excited by what future research will reveal into the workings of the human brain, and the extraordinary process by which it is translated into a uniquely individual mind.

But I'm also concerned that we seem to be so oblivious to the dangers that are already upon us.

Well, that debate must start now. Identity, the very essence of what it is to be human, is open to change - both good and bad. Our children, and certainly our grandchildren, will not thank us if we put off discussion much longer.

* Adapted from ID: The Quest For Identity In The 21st Century by Susan Greenfield, to be published by Sceptre on May 15 at £16.99. To order a copy for £15.30 (p&p free), call 0845 606 4206.

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Modern technology is changing the way our brains work, says neuroscientist

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Human identity, the idea that defines each and every one of us, could be facing an unprecedented crisis. It goes right to the heart - or the head - of us all, thinks SUSAN GREENFIELD.

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Microsoft Flight Simulator today released the first entry into a brand-new series of highly authentic and accurate aircraft called "Expert Series". The ATR 42-600 and ATR 72-600 are being released together in this bundle and will provide an incredible and authentic aviation experience. ATR, short for "Regional Transport Aircraft," in both French and Italian, was ... Continued

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Microsoft Flight Simulator - The next generation of one of the most beloved simulation franchises

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Microsoft Flight Simulator today released the first entry into a brand-new series of highly authentic and accurate aircraft called "Expert Series". The ATR 42-600 and ATR 72-600 are being released together in this bundle and will provide an incredible and authentic aviation experience. ATR, short for "Regional Transport Aircraft," in both French and Italian, was ...

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https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2019/09/30/the-7-biggest-technology-trends-in-2020-everyone-must-get-ready-for-now/#647f0f9d2261

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The Lilium prototype in a hangar in Wessling, Germany. Credit... Felix Schmitt for The New York Times

Lilium, a German start-up, illustrates the potential and the risks of creating a new generation of electric aircraft for urban transportation.

The Lilium prototype in a hangar in Wessling, Germany. Credit... Felix Schmitt for The New York Times

MUNICH - Inside an airplane hangar about 20 miles from central Munich, Daniel Wiegand lifted the door of a prototype that he said would become one of the world's first flying taxis. He's coy about how much it cost to build - "several million," he says - but promises that within five years a fleet of them could provide a 10-minute trip from Manhattan to Kennedy International Airport for $70.

A lot is riding on his plane. Mr. Wiegand, 34, is the chief executive and a founder of Lilium, one of the most promising and secretive start-ups in the global race to build an all-electric aircraft that will - regulators and public opinion willing - move passengers above cities.

"This is the perfect means of transportation, something that can take off and land everywhere," Mr. Wiegand (pronounced VEE-gand) said. "It's very fast, very efficient and low noise."

Expectations that aerial taxis will be a reality in the coming years are quickly building. Companies like Lilium are testing their machines, laying the groundwork for wider production and starting discussions to gain support from government officials.

Image

"This is the perfect means of transportation," said Daniel Wiegand, the chief executive of Lilium. Credit... Felix Schmitt for The New York Times

At least 20 companies are in the market, which Morgan Stanley estimates will top $850 billion by 2040. Larry Page, the billionaire co-founder of Google, is financially backing Kitty Hawk, a company run by the first engineers on Google's autonomous car. Boeing and Airbus have projects underway. Automakers including Daimler, Toyota and Porsche are investing in the sector. Uber is developing an air taxi service, with plans to open by 2023 in Los Angeles, Dallas and Melbourne, Australia.

Yet saying your plane could fly over Manhattan in five years doesn't mean it will. Building durable jets at a reasonable cost still presents engineering and technical challenges. And a long process awaits with regulators, including the Federal Aviation Administration, that will need to weigh safety concerns.

"The question is can we build a platform that is broadly accessible to everybody and is not just a rich person's toy, and can we build it so quiet that people on the ground aren't annoyed by it?" said Sebastian Thrun, the chief executive of Kitty Hawk.

Lilium, which has raised more than $100 million from investors, illustrates the high-wire act of the companies trying to live up to the hype.

The black-and-white aircraft shown by Mr. Wiegand is less "Jetsons"-like flying car than a glider, with a carbon fiber body and 36-foot wingspan. Like several other flying taxis in development, it is battery powered, providing a range of 186 miles and a top speed of nearly 190 miles per hour. Inside the oval cabin will eventually be plush seats and other comforts for four passengers and a pilot.

The engines are packed inside four wings with flaps that rotate so the aircraft can take off and land vertically like a helicopter. But it is quieter than a helicopter, so it could potentially land in some areas traditionally off limits to aircraft.

The costs of the jets may eventually fall to several hundred thousand dollars each, Mr. Wiegand said. And with lower maintenance costs because there are fewer mechanical components, rides should cost roughly the same as an Uber or a taxi ride. Insurance companies have told him that they will provide him with risk coverage.

If successful, he said, the jets will transform urban transportation, with customers using Lilium's app to book a flight from a network of small airports that connect suburbs, college towns and other hubs to cities. Imagine, he said, jets connecting areas across California or southern Germany that don't have high-speed train lines.

Eric Allison, the head of Uber's flying taxi effort, said the technological hurdles were less complex than for autonomous vehicles; there is less traffic in the air, and the first generations of the aircraft will have pilots.

Still, Mr. Allison said, no company has received government certification to fly commercially.

"That's a tall order," he said.

Then there are the many other obstacles to overcome. Battery technology limits how far the vehicles can fly. Building a prototype is different from starting mass production. And the price of the machines, and operating them, needs to be low enough to make rides affordable for customers.

Regulators could slow development by limiting the number of takeoffs and landings on desirable routes. There aren't enough air traffic controllers now to handle a big influx of flights across cities. One fatal accident and demand could dry up.

"This is going to be a test of staying power - an ability to lose money, an ability to ride out a failure," said Adam Jonas, a lead author of the Morgan Stanley report on the industry. "Many will fail."

Lilium is years away from making money and, with more than 300 employees and an expensive research and development budget, is burning through cash. Mr. Wiegand said it would have to raise more money.

"It's not enough to just build a nice prototype and fly it around," he said. "What we really need to be successful is building a company that's capable of designing, certifying, manufacturing and operating these aircraft in very large scale."

Lilium has said little publicly beyond releasing a few engineering specifications and declaring that it will be carrying customers by 2025. It is seeking certification for its jet from the European Union Aviation Safety Agency and plans to do the same with the F.A.A. The hypothetical New York route is more of a long-term goal.

After accepting an invitation to be the first journalists to see its jet, reporters from The New York Times arrived at Lilium's headquarters last month only to face restrictions on what they could photograph or see. Executives say the company has completed hundreds of test flights and simulations, but none were held during the visit because of rain and wind. (Last month, Lilium released a slickly produced video showing its jet completing a test flight.)

American rivals say they know little about Lilium beyond its hiring of experienced aviation executives from Rolls-Royce, Airbus and Raytheon to oversee areas such as manufacturing, quality control and procurement. Even Angela Merkel, Germany's chancellor and a trained physicist, is intrigued. At an aviation conference last year, she stopped by Lilium's booth and peppered Mr. Wiegand with questions about the battery, flight range and engines.

Mr. Wiegand said secrecy was necessary to keep rivals from learning too much. Unlike other jets that look similar to the small commercial drones that can be bought in a store, Lilium's plane has packed 36 smaller engines in its rotating wings that act as thrusters for takeoffs, landings, and subtle movements forward and back. Encasing the engines in the wings reduces friction and noise.

"Nobody has one with the performance we have," Mr. Wiegand said.

He came up with the idea for Lilium during college, working out the engineering specifications while many of his friends were out drinking. He founded the company with three others in 2015, borrowing money and persuading suppliers to provide some free parts to begin building a small prototype.

After proving it worked, they raised money from investors including Niklas Zennström, a co-founder of Skype who now runs Atomico, a venture capital firm in London. In 2017, the Chinese internet giant Tencent led an investment of $90 million.

Nobody has flown inside Lilium's jet. Test flights are done remotely from the ground. But Mr. Wiegand, who was flying gliders at age 14, promises to be one of the first.

"I was flying long before I was allowed to drive a car," he said.

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Inside the High-Stakes Race to Build the World's First Flying Taxi

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Lilium, a German start-up, illustrates the potential and the risks of creating a new generation of electric aircraft for urban transportation. The Lilium prototype in a hangar in Wessling, Germany. Credit...

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IoT technology is evolving fast, but there are still concerns, among some, about adopting it.

The adoption of IoT technologies has, for some organizations, been hindered by their current limitations. But the technology is evolving fast, creating ever-lower barriers to entry.

Power consumption

The primary objective of evolving wireless technologies from 2G to 4G was link capacity, driven by access to the internet for mobile devices. But for many IoT applications, link capacity is not so important: if telemetry data amounts only to a few bytes per hour, link capacity can be tiny.

The more important consideration for radio modems is low energy consumption, because telemetric sensors often cannot be connected to the grid.

This defines a new class of solution in wide area networking, called low power wireless access (LPWA). There are few technologies classified as LPWA, such as 3GPP NB-IoT, Weightless, Sigfox and IEEE. They differ in the delivery business models, costs and technical parameters. Each will suit specific IoT applications.

Computing power

One factor that often accompanies LPWA connectivity is the constrained computing power of IoT devices. There are significant efforts to make devices autonomous, with built-in machine learning and AI processing units, which probably indicates that augmented processing by a central unit is currently more trusted by developers.

Yet when a device has almost no data, it does not need high computing power - and limiting computing resources cuts costs.

Low-cost, battery-powered devices with simple computational power and connectivity will enable massive IoT deployment.

Low-cost, battery-powered devices with simple computational power and connectivity will enable massive IoT deployment for telemetry and environment sensing.

Link latency

Another important factor that has limited some technology is link latency, which is not ideal for industrial IoT control loops.

3GPP 5G has posed link latency challenges in wide area wireless networks. Ultra-reliable low latency communications (URLLC) have 1ms latency, which would suit applications classified as critical machine type communication (MTC), as well as many industrial applications, traffic safety and control and remote manufacturing.

But while URLCC has proven itself suitable for local area networking (for example, in a store), it has yet to be deployed on an economically feasible, ubiquitous, continuous, wide area URLLC 5G network.

Real time or low latency is part of the required solution for many applications. So for application level guarantees, more complicated (and still relatively unpopular) protocols must be used for data distribution.

Radio spectrum resources

For massive deployment of IoT and mobile broadband, greater radio spectrum is needed; this is a scarce resource that can significantly impact IoT economics.

There are two interesting developments here: utilization of high frequency bands and a shared spectrum in lower bands.

For massive deployment of IoT and mobile broadband, greater radio spectrum is needed; this is a scarce resource that can significantly impact IoT economics.

Millimeter waves in 60GHz are practically unoccupied, because of small coverage ranges in this band; but recent developments in massive MIMO and beamforming can make it attractive.

Another approach is sharing a spectrum that is licensed but unused. The spectrum sharing concept, known in the US as CBRS (citizens' broadband radio service), provides technically constrained regulatory access to the 3.5GHz band, which is allocated and used by license holders. CBRS opens the door for so-called private-LTE deployments with primary applications for IoT.

A similar type of access is under consideration by regulators all over the world, although US CBRS success would be all the endorsement needed to unlock these opportunities.

Areas where greater evolution is needed

Security
Connectivity security is a widespread concern. In the case of LPWA and low computing power devices, even transport layer security requires novel approaches and solutions that cannot be imported from IT.
In the IoT space, the variety of devices running proprietary firmware will require something different to the systemic IT approach to security; no user can be expected to become a security expert for all their IoT devices.

Position tracking
Another aspect of IoT evolution is device position tracking. The technology available now has centimeter-accuracy, which is appropriate for asset tracking and safety applications.
For robotics control or machine guidance, however, this is not accurate enough, so it is worth watching research efforts for evolutions in this domain.

Conclusion

While some areas of IoT technology are evolving faster than others, it is worth remembering that devices exchange data. Many protocols have been used on a massive scale for many years already, such as MQTT for telemetry.

As long as the data is exchanged by devices in a closed environment, it will be understood. For open environments, though, protocols and models are still to be decided.

There will no doubt be developments in all these areas in the very near future, which will change the game again.

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IoT connectivity technologies are evolving fast - but fast enough? - EY Consulting

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The adoption of IoT technologies has, for some organizations, been hindered by their current limitations. But the technology is evolving fast, creating ever-lower barriers to entry. Power consumption The primary objective of evolving wireless technologies from 2G to 4G was link capacity, driven by access to the internet for mobile devices.

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https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2019/11/191104112800.htm

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Every year since 2001 we've picked what we call the 10 Breakthrough Technologies. People often ask, what exactly do you mean by "breakthrough"? It's a reasonable question-some of our picks haven't yet reached widespread use, while others may be on the cusp of becoming commercially available. What we're really looking for is a technology, or perhaps even a collection of technologies, that will have a profound effect on our lives.

For this year, a new technique in artificial intelligence called GANs is giving machines imagination; artificial embryos, despite some thorny ethical constraints, are redefining how life can be created and are opening a research window into the early moments of a human life; and a pilot plant in the heart of Texas's petrochemical industry is attempting to create completely clean power from natural gas-probably a major energy source for the foreseeable future. These and the rest of our list will be worth keeping an eye on. -The Editors

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3-D Metal Printing

Now, however, it's becoming cheap and easy enough to be a potentially practical way of manufacturing parts. If widely adopted, it could change the way we mass-produce many products.

In the short term, manufacturers wouldn't need to maintain large inventories they could simply print an object, such as a replacement part for an aging car, whenever someone needs it.

In the longer term, large factories that mass-produce a limited range of parts might be replaced by smaller ones that make a wider variety, adapting to customers' changing needs.

The technology can create lighter, stronger parts, and complex shapes that aren't possible with conventional metal fabrication methods. It can also provide more precise control of the microstructure of metals. In 2017, researchers from the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory announced they had developed a 3-D-printing method for creating stainless-steel parts twice as strong as traditionally made ones.

Also in 2017, 3-D-printing company Markforged, a small startup based outside Boston, released the first 3-D metal printer for under $100,000.

Another Boston-area startup, Desktop Metal, began to ship its first metal prototyping machines in December 2017. It plans to begin selling larger machines, designed for manufacturing, that are 100 times faster than older metal printing methods.

The printing of metal parts is also getting easier. Desktop Metal now offers software that generates designs ready for 3-D printing. Users tell the program the specs of the object they want to print, and the software produces a computer model suitable for printing.

GE, which has long been a proponent of using 3-D printing in its aviation products (see " 10 Breakthrough Technologies of 2013: Additive Manufacturing"), has a test version of its new metal printer that is fast enough to make large parts. The company plans to begin selling the printer in 2018. - Erin Winick

Artificial Embryos

In a breakthrough that redefines how life can be created, embryologists working at the University of Cambridge in the UK have grown realistic-looking mouse embryos using only stem cells. No egg. No sperm. Just cells plucked from another embryo.

The researchers placed the cells carefully in a three-dimensional scaffold and watched, fascinated, as they started communicating and lining up into the distinctive bullet shape of a mouse embryo several days old.

"We know that stem cells are magical in their powerful potential of what they can do. We did not realize they could self-organize so beautifully or perfectly," Magdelena Zernicka-Goetz, who headed the team, told an interviewer at the time.

Zernicka-Goetz says her "synthetic" embryos probably couldn't have grown into mice. Nonetheless, they're a hint that soon we could have mammals born without an egg at all.

That isn't Zernicka-Goetz's goal. She wants to study how the cells of an early embryo begin taking on their specialized roles. The next step, she says, is to make an artificial embryo out of human stem cells, work that's being pursued at the University of Michigan and Rockefeller University.

Synthetic human embryos would be a boon to scientists, letting them tease apart events early in development. And since such embryos start with easily manipulated stem cells, labs will be able to employ a full range of tools, such as gene editing, to investigate them as they grow.

Artificial embryos, however, pose ethical questions. What if they turn out to be indistinguishable from real embryos? How long can they be grown in the lab before they feel pain? We need to address those questions before the science races ahead much further, bioethicists say. - Antonio Regalado

Sensing City

Numerous smart-city schemes have run into delays, dialed down their ambitious goals, or priced out everyone except the super-wealthy. A new project in Toronto, called Quayside, is hoping to change that pattern of failures by rethinking an urban neighborhood from the ground up and rebuilding it around the latest digital technologies.

Alphabet's Sidewalk Labs, based in New York City, is collaborating with the Canadian government on the high-tech project, slated for Toronto's industrial waterfront.

One of the project's goals is to base decisions about design, policy, and technology on information from an extensive network of sensors that gather data on everything from air quality to noise levels to people's activities.

The plan calls for all vehicles to be autonomous and shared. Robots will roam underground doing menial chores like delivering the mail. Sidewalk Labs says it will open access to the software and systems it's creating so other companies can build services on top of them, much as people build apps for mobile phones.

The company intends to closely monitor public infrastructure, and this has raised concerns about data governance and privacy. But Sidewalk Labs believes it can work with the community and the local government to alleviate those worries.

"What's distinctive about what we're trying to do in Quayside is that the project is not only extraordinarily ambitious but also has a certain amount of humility," says Rit Aggarwala, the executive in charge of Sidewalk Labs' urban-systems planning. That humility may help Quayside avoid the pitfalls that have plagued previous smart-city initiatives.

Other North American cities are already clamoring to be next on Sidewalk Labs' list, according to Waterfront Toronto, the public agency overseeing Quayside's development. "San Francisco, Denver, Los Angeles, and Boston have all called asking for introductions," says the agency's CEO, Will Fleissig. - Elizabeth Woyke

AI for Everybody

Artificial intelligence has so far been mainly the plaything of big tech companies like Amazon, Baidu, Google, and Microsoft, as well as some startups. For many other companies and parts of the economy, AI systems are too expensive and too difficult to implement fully.

What's the solution? Machine-learning tools based in the cloud are bringing AI to a far broader audience. So far, Amazon dominates cloud AI with its AWS subsidiary. Google is challenging that with TensorFlow, an open-source AI library that can be used to build other machine-learning software. Recently Google announced Cloud AutoML, a suite of pre-trained systems that could make AI simpler to use.

It is uncertain which of these companies will become the leader in offering AI cloud services.But it is a huge business opportunity for the winners.

These products will be essential if the AI revolution is going to spread more broadly through different parts of the economy.

Currently AI is used mostly in the tech industry, where it has created efficiencies and produced new products and services. But many other businesses and industries have struggled to take advantage of the advances in artificial intelligence. Sectors such as medicine, manufacturing, and energy could also be transformed if they were able to implement the technology more fully, with a huge boost to economic productivity.

Most companies, though, still don't have enough people who know how to use cloud AI. So Amazon and Google are also setting up consultancy services. Once the cloud puts the technology within the reach of almost everyone, the real AI revolution can begin.
- Jackie Snow

Dueling Neural Networks

Artificial intelligence is getting very good at identifying things: show it a million pictures, and it can tell you with uncanny accuracy which ones depict a pedestrian crossing a street. But AI is hopeless at generating images of pedestrians by itself. If it could do that, it would be able to create gobs of realistic but synthetic pictures depicting pedestrians in various settings, which a self-driving car could use to train itself without ever going out on the road.

The problem is, creating something entirely new requires imagination and until now that has perplexed AIs.

Over time, the generator can become so good at producing images that the discriminator can't spot fakes. Essentially, the generator has been taught to recognize, and then create, realistic-looking images of pedestrians.

The technology has become one of the most promising advances in AI in the past decade, able to help machines produce results that fool even humans.

GANs have been put to use creating realistic-sounding speech and photorealistic fake imagery. In one compelling example, researchers from chipmaker Nvidia primed a GAN with celebrity photographs to create hundreds of credible faces of people who don't exist. Another research group made not-unconvincing fake paintings that look like the works of van Gogh. Pushed further, GANs can reimagine images in different ways making a sunny road appear snowy, or turning horses into zebras.

The results aren't always perfect: GANs can conjure up bicycles with two sets of handlebars, say, or faces with eyebrows in the wrong place. But because the images and sounds are often startlingly realistic, some experts believe there's a sense in which GANs are beginning to understand the underlying structure of the world they see and hear. And that means AI may gain, along with a sense of imagination, a more independent ability to make sense of what it sees in the world. - Jamie Condliffe

Babel-Fish Earbuds

In the cult sci-fi classic The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, you slide a yellow Babel fish into your ear to get translations in an instant. In the real world, Google has come up with an interim solution: a $159 pair of earbuds, called Pixel Buds. These work with its Pixel smartphones and Google Translate app to produce practically real-time translation.

Google Translate already has a conversation feature, and its iOS and Android apps let two users speak as it automatically figures out what languages they're using and then translates them. But background noise can make it hard for the app to understand what people are saying, and also to figure out when one person has stopped speaking and it's time to start translating.

Pixel Buds get around these problems because the wearer taps and holds a finger on the right earbud while talking. Splitting the interaction between the phone and the earbuds gives each person control of a microphone and helps the speakers maintain eye contact, since they're not trying to pass a phone back and forth.

The Pixel Buds were widely panned for subpar design. They do look silly, and they may not fit well in your ears. They can also be hard to set up with a phone.

Clunky hardware can be fixed, though. Pixel Buds show the promise of mutually intelligible communication between languages in close to real time. And no fish required. - Rachel Metz

Zero-Carbon Natural Gas

The world is probably stuck with natural gas as one of our primary sources of electricity for the foreseeable future. Cheap and readily available, it now accounts for more than 30 percent of US electricity and 22 percent of world electricity. And although it's cleaner than coal, it's still a massive source of carbon emissions.

A pilot power plant just outside Houston, in the heart of the US petroleum and refining industry, is testing a technology that could make clean energy from natural gas a reality. The company behind the 50-megawatt project, Net Power, believes it can generate power at least as cheaply as standard natural-gas plants and capture essentially all the carbon dioxide released in the process.

If so, it would mean the world has a way to produce carbon-free energy from a fossil fuel at a reasonable cost. Such natural-gas plants could be cranked up and down on demand, avoiding the high capital costs of nuclear power and sidestepping the unsteady supply that renewables generally provide.

Net Power is a collaboration between technology development firm 8 Rivers Capital, Exelon Generation, and energy construction firm CB&I. The company is in the process of commissioning the plant and has begun initial testing. It intends to release results from early evaluations in the months ahead.

The plant puts the carbon dioxide released from burning natural gas under high pressure and heat, using the resulting supercritical CO ₂ as the "working fluid" that drives a specially built turbine. Much of the carbon dioxide can be continuously recycled; the rest can be captured cheaply.

A key part of pushing down the costs depends on selling that carbon dioxide. Today the main use is in helping to extract oil from petroleum wells. That's a limited market, and not a particularly green one. Eventually, however, Net Power hopes to see growing demand for carbon dioxide in cement manufacturing and in making plastics and other carbon-based materials.

Net Power's technology won't solve all the problems with natural gas, particularly on the extraction side. But as long as we're using natural gas, we might as well use it as cleanly as possible. Of all the clean-energy technologies in development, Net Power's is one of the furthest along to promise more than a marginal advance in cutting carbon emissions. - James Temple

Perfect Online Privacy

The tool is an emerging cryptographic protocol called a zero-knowledge proof. Though researchers have worked on it for decades, interest has exploded in the past year, thanks in part to the growing obsession with cryptocurrencies, most of which aren't private.

Much of the credit for a practical zero-knowledge proof goes to Zcash, a digital currency that launched in late 2016. Zcash's developers used a method called a zk-SNARK (for "zero-knowledge succinct non-interactive argument of knowledge") to give users the power to transact anonymously.

That's not normally possible in Bitcoin and most other public blockchain systems, in which transactions are visible to everyone. Though these transactions are theoretically anonymous, they can be combined with other data to track and even identify users. Vitalik Buterin, creator of Ethereum, the world's second-most-popular blockchain network, has described zk-SNARKs as an "absolutely game-changing technology."

For banks, this could be a way to use blockchains in payment systems without sacrificing their clients' privacy. Last year, JPMorgan Chase added zk-SNARKs to its own blockchain-based payment system.

For all their promise, though, zk-SNARKs are computation-heavy and slow. They also require a so-called "trusted setup," creating a cryptographic key that could compromise the whole system if it fell into the wrong hands. But researchers are looking at alternatives that deploy zero-knowledge proofs more efficiently and don't require such a key. - Mike Orcutt

Genetic Fortune-Telling

One day, babies will get DNA report cards at birth. These reports will offer predictions about their chances of suffering a heart attack or cancer, of getting hooked on tobacco, and of being smarter than average.

The science making these report cards possible has suddenly arrived, thanks to huge genetic studies some involving more than a million people.

It turns out that most common diseases and many behaviors and traits, including intelligence, are a result of not one or a few genes but many acting in concert. Using the data from large ongoing genetic studies, scientists are creating what they call "polygenic risk scores."

Though the new DNA tests offer probabilities, not diagnoses, they could greatly benefit medicine. For example, if women at high risk for breast cancer got more mammograms and those at low risk got fewer, those exams might catch more real cancers and set off fewer false alarms.

Pharmaceutical companies can also use the scores in clinical trials of preventive drugs for such illnesses as Alzheimer's or heart disease. By picking volunteers who are more likely to get sick, they can more accurately test how well the drugs work.

The trouble is, the predictions are far from perfect. Who wants to know they might develop Alzheimer's? What if someone with a low risk score for cancer puts off being screened, and then develops cancer anyway?

Polygenic scores are also controversial because they can predict any trait, not only diseases. For instance, they can now forecast about 10 percent of a person's performance on IQ tests. As the scores improve, it's likely that DNA IQ predictions will become routinely available. But how will parents and educators use that information?

To behavioral geneticist Eric Turkheimer, the chance that genetic data will be used for both good and bad is what makes the new technology "simultaneously exciting and alarming." - Antonio Regalado

Materials' Quantum Leap

The prospect of powerful new quantum computers comes with a puzzle. They'll be capable of feats of computation inconceivable with today's machines, but we haven't yet figured out what we might do with those powers.

One likely and enticing possibility: precisely designing molecules.

Chemists are already dreaming of new proteins for far more effective drugs, novel electrolytes for better batteries, compounds that could turn sunlight directly into a liquid fuel, and much more efficient solar cells.

We don't have these things because molecules are ridiculously hard to model on a classical computer. Try simulating the behavior of the electrons in even a relatively simple molecule and you run into complexities far beyond the capabilities of today's computers.

But it's a natural problem for quantum computers, which instead of digital bits representing 1s and 0 s use "qubits" that are themselves quantum systems. Recently, IBM researchers used a quantum computer with seven qubits to model a small molecule made of three atoms.

It should become possible to accurately simulate far larger and more interesting molecules as scientists build machines with more qubits and, just as important, better quantum algorithms. - David Rotman

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You'll want to keep an eye on these 10 breakthrough technologies this year

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Every year since 2001 we've picked what we call the 10 Breakthrough Technologies. People often ask, what exactly do you mean by "breakthrough"? It's a reasonable question-some of our picks haven't yet reached widespread use, while others may be on the cusp of becoming commercially available.

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New technology could put a dent in sepsis deaths

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New rapid diagnostic machines could be a major step forward in saving the lives of people with sepsis

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9 Huge 2025 Moonshot Tech Investing Ideas

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These long-shot ideas could be the next life-changing technologies.

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Michelle Cabezas recharging a Lime scooter at home. Working three or four nights a week in Los Angeles, she and her husband, Gonzalo, have made about $5,000 since May. Credit... Ryan Young for The New York Times

LOS ANGELES - Michelle and Gonzalo Cabezas begin their nightly scavenger hunt at 10. That's when they start looking for the Lime scooters that people rent and ride by the minute - and leave wherever they please.

"People take them to the darnedest spots," Mrs. Cabezas said from the passenger seat of her husband's cargo van in northeast Los Angeles.

The Lime app was open on her iPhone, navigating toward the night's first bounty, a sideways scooter a few houses from their own driveway. They'd earn $4.50 to pick up and recharge it.

Drive down most major streets in Los Angeles and it's an obstacle course of Skittles-colored mobility devices: green Limes, yellow Bolts, red Jump bicycles.

Eight on-demand e-scooter and e-bike companies are permitted to operate in the city, and after a handful of rides, they all need juice.

Mr. and Mrs. Cabezas are among Lime's army of "juicers": independent contractors who sign up to charge scooters through the same app that riders use to rent them.

Out on their mission, Mr. Cabezas scanned the scooter's QR code with his wife's phone and loaded the Lime in the van. Then they were off to the next one, two blocks away in an alley. And another, around the corner in a public park. They picked up 16 scooters in an hour to charge at home, earning $67.

San Francisco-based Lime hires about 60,000 freelance juicers in the 100 markets where it operates. The company pays $3 to $10 per scooter that is retrieved, recharged and then released in "deployment zones" of its choosing.

Across the country, in dozens of cities, start-ups are conducting a grand experiment in two-wheeled, electric-powered urban mobility. And nowhere is that experiment more grand than in Los Angeles, where Lime operates 5,000 of the 37,500 scooters and e-bikes that the city is testing as part of the country's largest dockless mobility program.

Robert Cartwright is a charger for Bird, a Santa Monica company that started the e-scooter craze two years ago. It operates in 100 cities worldwide and, like Lime, farms out its recharging to anyone 18 or older with a smartphone and a willingness to do it.

He moved to Los Angeles from Ohio a month ago in pursuit of a music career and started working as a charger "to make a lot of money fast," he said. "If you do it every day, you can make $40,000 a year."

Mr. Cartwright doesn't own a car. He uses a Bird scooter to gather other Birds, sometimes riding five at a time stacked like a pinwheel to take them back to his apartment for recharging. Once their batteries are full, he borrows a friend's car to drop them off in the "nests" where Bird needs them.

For each one, he makes about $6. He also does "move tasks" for $2 each, riding a scooter from an obscure place to a more in-demand spot near public transit hubs or along walkable thoroughfares with well-trafficked businesses.

In total, he makes about $160 a day. That's comparable to an Uber driver, "only you don't got to deal with people or talk to people," Mr. Cartwright said.

These operations make up one of the lesser-known activities in the gig economy. But it's proving lucrative for some of the thousands who do it; some chargers report making as much as $50 an hour.

It isn't without its complications. On my drive with Mr. and Mrs. Cabezas, they used the app to find two Lime scooters at an apartment building, only to discover them locked behind a gate. Another scooter was being loaded into a pickup truck just as the couple drove up.

There are also hoarders, who drive around picking up scooters knowing that they will eventually need recharging, even if the scooter company hasn't yet posted them to the app. And then there are the scooters that have a flat tire or are somehow broken and require a special trip to a fix-it location.

The job requires more than just figuring out the app. Making it profitable means understanding the city well enough to know if a tantalizing cluster of scooters is in a dangerous area. Also knowing where to park, because there's no easier way to wipe out a night's earnings than getting a costly ticket.

There's also the upfront equipment cost. New juicers pay Lime $10 per charger. Mr. and Mrs. Cabezas said they had spent about $250 for the two dozen chargers they used, many bought secondhand.

Still, Mr. and Mrs. Cabezas said it was worth their time. Working three or four nights a week, the couple have made about $5,000 since May, with little spent out of pocket. They said that their electricity bill had risen about $10 a month and that they spent about $5 in gas each night.

As much these gigs may be a boon to the workers, there are questions about the mobility programs' environmental and economic sustainability. A recent study from North Carolina State University found that driving around to pick up, recharge and release the scooters accounted for 40 percent of a scooter's total greenhouse gas emissions.

On average, chargers drive between a half mile and two-and-a-half miles per scooter, said Jeremiah Johnson, one of the study's authors. About 17 percent of the scooters picked up for recharging didn't need it; they still had 95 percent of their charge.

"The charging itself, the electricity when you plug it in, is actually pretty small - just 5 percent of the total burdens," he said.

And then there are the economics.

It costs less than 10 cents to recharge a scooter, according to ARK Invest, an investment management company focused on disruptive innovation. ARK researched the viability of the scooter economy this year and found that the real expense in charging wasn't electricity but moving the scooters to prominent spots.

ARK found that scooter companies were generating $2.43 per mile in revenue but spending $2.55 per mile to keep the scooters operating. If companies used drivers for Uber and Lyft to move scooters, they could save $1.03 a mile, ARK said.

Uber and Lyft offer scooters through their ride-hailing apps, and both companies handle their own recharging. A Lyft official said its system "means that our team directly controls and oversees all aspects of operations, including drop-off, pickup, charging, cleaning and fixing - all within a local warehouse."

Cities' embrace of scooters has not always been smooth. Since September 2018, Santa Monica has been operating a pilot program with 3,000 permitted scooters. A year earlier, when Bird kicked off the scooter revolution by leaving them parked without permission, there were some "initial complaints about people pirating electricity on occasion," the city manager, Rick Cole, said. "People who said, 'Hey, somebody plugged into my outlet.'" Those issues were minor, he said, and handled on a case-by-case basis.

The larger concern has been ensuring that the recharged scooters aren't left in areas where they're a hazard. In Los Angeles, the struggle is putting more scooters in low-income communities underserved by public transit.

"Are they deploying in a way that's not over-deploying in some neighborhoods and underserving others?" said Seleta Reynolds, general manager of the Los Angeles Department of Transportation.

The agency forecasts 16 million e-scooter and e-bike trips in the city this year, and is working with the companies to make sure the scooters are left in appropriate locations.

"It's not perfect by a long shot," Ms. Reynolds said. "These companies are learning in real time just as we are."

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In the Van With the 'Juicers' Who Round Up and Recharge Lime Scooters

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LOS ANGELES - Michelle and Gonzalo Cabezas begin their nightly scavenger hunt at 10. That's when they start looking for the Lime scooters that people rent and ride by the minute - and leave wherever they please. "People take them to the darnedest spots," Mrs.

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When it comes to making electric cars better, it's the batteries that you'll hear about the most.

But what about the motor that actually drives the car?

Car enthusiasts have long-obsessed about what is under the bonnet of a traditional car, but in the electric world the motor gets little attention.

That might be about to change, according to Dave OudeNijeweme, head of technology trends at the Advanced Propulsion Centre (APC), a joint venture between the UK government and the automotive industry.

He says improvements in motor technology are set to have a profound effect on the performance of electric vehicles in the coming years.

"Electrification is based on three main pillars: batteries, electric motor and the powertronics [the power management system]," he says.

"It's not all about batteries. They do get a lot of headline news but the motors and the powertronics are absolutely key."

And with new technologies, from 3D printing to in-wheel motors (IWMs) that allow a car to spin on the spot, electric motors could be grabbing more of the limelight.

Most electric car motors follow the same basic principles, tightly wound coils of wire interact with powerful magnets to create rotation.

But despite a relatively simple set-up, there's still plenty of room for improvement.

"The power of a motor goes up with its speed. What you want to do is spin it as fast as possible in order to make it as small as possible - but then you get into problems of cooling," says Ian Foley, managing director of British motor manufacturer Equipmake.

"The limitation now on how you improve the performance of electric motors, is how effectively you can get the heat out of them."
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Equipmake's solution is to rearrange the motor's magnets so that they're positioned like the spokes of a wheel.

This not only increases torque (the force which causes rotation), says Mr Foley, but also makes the magnets more accessible, so that cooling water can be run directly over them.

The company is also now using additive manufacturing - 3D printing - to improve cooling and also cut costs.

"There are two main benefits we'll get from additive manufacturing. One is that you can integrate multiple components, so you end up with a much lower component count because things that would previously have been bolted together are all in one piece," says Mr Foley.

"The other main thing is the issue of cooling.

"In order to cool you need much more effective heat exchanges, and with additive manufacturing you can effectively increase the surface area inside the motor for the cooling surfaces and therefore get much greater cooling potential."

The company is expecting to have its motors in production in around 18 months' time, initially selling them for use in supercars and electric buses - where they're efficient enough to be able to run all day on a single charge. It has already signed a deal with Brazilian automotive manufacturer Agrale.

And other manufacturers are thinking about a more radical shift.

In most electric cars, the motor is found on one axle and in four-wheel drive cars there will be two motors, one on each axle.

But some companies are working on a radical redesign, placing motors in the wheels themselves.

According to Chris Hilton, CTO of Protean Electric, in-wheel motors improve handling because the performance of each wheel can be finely controlled.

"They also lower the overall centre of gravity and help to reduce weight and optimise weight distribution in the vehicle," he says.

"Also, because IWMs are located in the wheel, there are minimal losses in transmission of the torque to the road, meaning they are more efficient. This means greater vehicle range, or the same range from a smaller battery."

Protean's technology is currently being tested by manufacturers of passenger cars, commercial vehicles and even autonomous "pods".

Another firm working on in-wheel motors is Japan's Nidec, which announced its prototype earlier this year.

According to Nidec, the motor has a long list of advantages, not all of them obvious - less noise, for example, thanks to fewer moving parts.

But perhaps the biggest advantage is space. "Cars that use in-wheel motors don't need a motor compartment," says the firm.

"Also, with the elimination of the drive shafts, the wheels can rotate freely. For example, it becomes possible to rotate the wheels 90 degrees and drive to the left or the right, or even rotate in place, instead of just driving forward or backward. This adds another dimension to how the car can move around and makes it easy to navigate tight spaces."

APC has set out a roadmap of how it sees electric motors developing; and, by 2025, it expects costs per kilowatt to almost halve, while power density triples.

"For the same amount of power they generate, they'll weigh a third as much and be one third of the package size as well. At the same time the costs will reduce," says Mr OudeNijeweme.

"The electric motor will dramatically change. I don't know how quickly, but ten years from now it will be unrecognisable from what you see today, not in how it looks - but in what it does."

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Wheels of fortune? A new age for electric motors

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When it comes to making electric cars better, it's the batteries that you'll hear about the most. But what about the motor that actually drives the car? Car enthusiasts have long-obsessed about what is under the bonnet of a traditional car, but in the electric world the motor gets little attention.

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Google's search engine will now better understand your confusing search queries, the company said Friday. Google said it's updating the tool to improve analysis of natural language. The idea is to let people type in queries that reflect how they speak in real life, instead of entering a string of keywords they think the software is more likely to understand.

When it comes to finding things on the internet, the improvement is the "biggest leap forward in the past five years, and one of the biggest leaps forward in the history of search," Pandu Nayak, a Google vice president, said in a blog post.

The change is possible because of a system Google introduced last year called BERT, or Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transformers. With the technique, Google's software can better parse the context of a sentence. For example, if you're looking for information about traveling to another country, Google will recognize how important the word "to" is (as opposed to "from" or just not giving the word enough weight to affect the results of the query).

The change comes as Google has made a push to update its search engine, which is more than 20 years old. The company last month announced a feature for people to swipe left or right on TV and movie recommendations, to better train Google's search algorithms. Google in August also added playable podcasts to search results.

Google's iconic search engine is still its cash cow, as well as the cornerstone of the company's digital advertising business. Google, which generates more than $115 billion a year in sales, makes more than 85 percent of its revenue on ads.

The company has also revamped some of its other core search services, including Google Images and Shopping. In August, the company redesigned its image search tool to include more information alongside photos. So if you click on a product image, it'll show you information on brand, price, reviews and availability. And in May, the tech giant unveiled a major update to Google Shopping, letting users see options to buy products from physical stores or directly on the Google site itself.

The new search capabilities are also a part of a big effort by Google to improve its natural language chops. In May, the company announced a new version of its Google Assistant digital helper, which is 10 times faster than before and better understands human language. The improved Assistant launched last week with Google's new Pixel 4 phone.

But the ability to better understand language has also landed Google in hot water. In September, the company confirmed that third-party workers who analyze language data from the Assistant leaked private conversations of users in the Netherlands. Belgian public broadcaster VRT NWS said more than 1,000 files had been leaked, including recordings from instances where users accidentally triggered Google's software. As a result, Google paused language reviews of the audio data and later made it an opt-in program.

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Google says its search engine will better understand natural speech, instead of just keywords

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Google's search engine will now better understand your confusing search queries, the company said Friday. Google said it's updating the tool to improve analysis of natural language. The idea is to let people type in queries that reflect how they speak in real life, instead of entering a string of keywords they think the software is more likely to understand.

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Adults on the autism spectrum often have difficulty finding employment. Entrepreneurs and advocates are working to fix that by pairing companies with a pool of candidates.

Leon Campbell was employee No. 1 at Daivergent, a start-up that connects technology companies with a pool of candidates on the autism spectrum. Credit Calla Kessler/The New York Times

This article is part of our continuing Fast Forward series, which examines technological, economic, social and cultural shifts that happen as businesses evolve.
Byran Dai was 24 when he promised his mother, who passed away less than two months later, that he would look out for his younger brother Brandon, who is autistic. Brandon, 15 at the time, was receiving special education and social services, but Mr. Dai knew that by 22, his brother would phase out of the services and education provided by the state.

"In the autism community, we call that 'falling off the cliff,'" Mr. Dai said. "It's what a lot of families are worried about."

Like so many entrepreneurs inspired by personal experience, Mr. Dai's concern for his brother ultimately became the genesis for a new business. In 2018, Mr. Dai co-founded Daivergent, a start-up that is connecting tech companies with a pool of candidates on the autism spectrum. The company already has 20 corporate clients and has helped 75 people find work. There are about 1,100 candidates in the Daivergent pool.

The employment rate for individuals on the spectrum - even for those who have finished college - is extremely low. Statistics vary, but according to Anne Roux, a research scientist at the A.J. Drexel Autism Institute at Drexel University, about 50 percent of those on the autism spectrum have had at least one job since high school, but often that job is a low-paying part-time position. For those with greater impairment, she added, only 14 percent have employment in the community in which they live.

It's not that their abilities are lacking, said David Kearon, the director of adult services for the advocacy group Autism Speaks. "Anecdotally what we hear all the time is that autistic adults have the intellectual capability, but, because of their challenges with social skills, they're often unemployed." Brandon Dai, for example, "can focus on detail-oriented, complex, repetitive kinds of work that underlie much of the data structure that go into artificial intelligence and machine learning," his brother said.

Mr. Dai, a data scientist, and a high school friend Rahul Mahida, a data engineer who has an autistic cousin, realized that there was no platform to pairthose on the spectrum with companies looking for candidates who could work in data and artificial intelligence. The corporatename, Daivergent,is essentially a portmanteau combining Mr. Dai's name with neurodiversity, the term describing those individuals who have a range of neurological conditions including autism. Most of the general population is considered to be neurotypical.

Leon Campbell, 24, who is autistic, was employee No. 1 at the new company. With a computer science degree from Hunter College in New York, Mr. Campbell had technical skills but had never had a job before Daivergent hired him. He initially worked on labeling, but now focuses on quality assurance, overseeing the projects Daivergent's remote workers complete. "I am one of the last lines of defense," he said, before the work is sent to the corporate client.

He worried that his new job would be stressful, but because Mr. Dai and Mr. Mahida were so accommodating, "those concerns quickly faded away on the first week of the job."

Mr. Dai and Mr. Mahida have taken a multifaceted approach to building their company because both the candidates and the tech companies have needs that can be complex.

At the outset, Mr. Dai and Mr. Mahida reached out to organizations like Autism Speaks and AHRC New York City to find suitable candidates, whose skills are assessed through Daivergent's readiness platform, whichincorporates work experience, technology skills and socialization. Teaching the requisite skills is accomplished through video-based education. Mr. Mahida said the candidates often excel at the ability to vet thousands of images. "They do much better on these assessments than Byran and I did," he said.

The most difficult part may be improving social and communication skills. Daivergent, Mr. Dai said, builds "shared interest groups through community forum and instant messaging tools, and also creates virtual job clubs where folks on the spectrum can swap tips and review resumes. It creates a community by us, and for us."

And Daivergent is working with the software giant SAP, which is a leader in employing those on the spectrum through its Autism at Work initiative, which started in 2013.

Judith Williams, SAP's chief diversity and inclusion officer, said that Daivergent would be offered for customers who purchased Fieldglass, SAP's product for managing contingent workers, so that those customers could have access to Daivergent's work force. In addition, Ms. Williams said, SAP's managers would have direct access to Daivergent's work force as well.

Daivergent is also working with colleges to help autistic students gain employment. At Drexel, for example, the company is working with the university's autism support program, to help those students obtain work to fulfill academic requirements, since the school is a co-op system that requires students to complete several internships before graduating. It's often difficult forautistic students to obtain internships, but Daivergent is helping to bridge the gap. "While I just started working with them in April," said Amy Edwards, who runs the autism support program, "they've been awesome."

Daivergent is not the only company helping autistic workers find employment. Brenda Weitzberg was one of the first entrepreneurs to tackle this issue. More than a decade ago, motivated by her oldest son, she said she read "one sentence about a Danish company that hired those on the spectrum to do software testing." With neither a technology nor an entrepreneurial background, she shopped her idea with professors at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University and asked if there were a group of students interested in an "employment autism project."

Aspiritech has about 130 employees, neurodiverse as well as neurotypical. Credit John Zich/Aspiritech

Fidget items in one of Aspiritech's four staff sensory break rooms. Credit John Zich/Aspiritech

While the students' proposal didn't pan out, Ms. Weitzberg and her husband, Moshe, nevertheless persevered, bootstrapping their fledgling company. They parlayed their first client into others, and now the company, Aspiritech, has about 130 employees, neurodiverse as well as neurotypical. Based in Highland Park, Ill., wages start at $15 per hour, about twice the state's $8.25 minimum.

While Aspiritech doesn't have specific training, the company has hired support staff to work with its employees. And the employees have formed clubs for after-work activity, increasing their social interactions. While autism inspired the company, Ms. Weitzberg said her company's focus was on the work. "Autism gets us a foot in the door, since many people have a child or family member with autism, but it doesn't keep us there. There has to be quality."

Mr. Dai and Mr. Mahida know this as well and, as a result, are deliberate in scaling their efforts. That is difficult because there is demand from the tech community, eager for capable employees.

Ultimately, those in the field hope this will be the beginning of expanded employment opportunities for the neurodiverse community. As Ms. Williams of SAP said, "One really important thing we have learned - we had an idea of the types of jobs we thought people with autism would be suited for - like jobs where there is a repetitive attention to detail. But that's stereotypical. We found that those on the spectrum can also work in H.R. and customer experience as well as engineering."

In the meantime, Daivergent, like other start-ups, is charting its course securing funding and determining the best way to meet the needs of the community and its corporate clients. Mr. Dai and Mr. Mahida have participated in the Entrepreneurs Roundtable Accelerator and an SAP accelerator as well earlier this year. And they have raised $1 million in funding to date.

Mr. Dai hopes that his brother will eventually be suitable for the platform. "He's well-versed in his iPad and grew up with computers, so I always thought of his potentially working somewhere in tech, likely more in a support role."

Growing the company has been a learning process for Mr. Dai and Mr. Mahida. "We don't say tech will solve everything. We have to understand the nuance first," Mr. Dai said. "There are people who have spent decades on accessibility and we won't be the people who will say we know just what to do."

For companies - whether in tech or other industries - who want to add staff from the neurodiverse community, Mr. Campbell, Daivergent's employee No. 1, has some advice: "I want an employer to see me as a person. Don't hire because you want to look better for your investors."

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Using Technology to Close the Autism Job Gap

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Adults on the autism spectrum often have difficulty finding employment. Entrepreneurs and advocates are working to fix that by pairing companies with a pool of candidates. This article is part of our continuing Fast Forward series , which examines technological, economic, social and cultural shifts that happen as businesses evolve.

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Samsung's revolutionary Galaxy Fold has been nothing but trouble from the start. As it does with most or even all first-generation products its mobile division cooks up, Samsung rushed to get the foldable Galaxy Fold handset out the door. In doing so, it made a number of poor design decisions and critical mistakes. Samsung's quality control team apparently all took a vacation at the same time because Galaxy Fold review units began breaking within hours of reviewers taking delivery, and Samsung was forced to cancel the phone's release and push it back by several months while it addressed the phone's embarrassing design flaws. That's right, just a few years after Samsung had to cancel and recall its Galaxy Note 7 because units were spontaneously exploding, the company had to cancel another launch because of poor design and quality control.

As it turns out, Samsung wasn't alone in flubbing the launch of its first smartphone with a foldable screen. Shortly after Samsung canceled the Galaxy Fold's release, Huawei announced that its rival foldable, the Huawei Mate X, would also be delayed. As was the case with Samsung's Galaxy Fold, Huawei pushed back the release of the Mate X by several months so that it could refine the phone's design a bit. Those refinements are apparently all been made because Huawei's Mate X is finally ready to be released.

As reported by Chinese-language tech news site Sina Digital on Wednesday morning, Huawei on Wednesday confirmed that its Mate X is ready for launch. After months of delays, the phone will finally be released next month.

Now, it goes without saying that the Mate X won't be released in the United States since Huawei is still being targetted by the Trump administration's trade war with China. As it turns out, however, the Mate X likely wouldn't have been released in the US next month even if it could've been. According to the report, Huawei confirmed that the Mate X will only be available in China next month. The phone will be released on November 15th in Huawei's home country, and it'll cost the equivalent of about $2,400 for a version with 8GB of RAM, 512GB of storage, and support for 5G connectivity.

What about wider availability? Huawei had this to say: "Our strategy is based on carriers' 5G roll out in different regions. So far, Huawei has made the Huawei Mate X available in the China market on November 15. A global launch plan is under review." In other words, don't hold your breath. It's definitely a shame, though, because as we've discussed before here on the site, the Mate X features a great design that truly puts Samsung's Galaxy Fold design to shame. Perhaps the second-generation Mate X will end up making its way to more markets, though there's no word on when the phone's successor might launch.

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The foldable phone that puts Samsung's Galaxy Fold to shame is finally ready for release

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Samsung's revolutionary Galaxy Fold has been nothing but trouble from the start. As it does with most or even all first-generation products its mobile division cooks up, Samsung rushed to get the foldable Galaxy Fold handset out the door. In doing so, it made a number of poor design decisions and critical mistakes.

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3. An EEG that allows you to move water with your mind.

Via thecreatorsproject.vice.com

Korean artist, Lisa Park, has a very cool magic trick. She can move water with her brain by wearing a Neuro Sky headset that translates brain waves into sound waves, which then vibrates water. Learn more about Lisa Park's project, here.

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13 Technologies You Can't Believe Actually Exist

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This list will shock you with how smart humans are. Intel iQ narrates and celebrates the impact that technological advancements have on all of our lives.

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Google's Pixel 4 and 4 XL are now shipping and while we've known about the device for months, on Thursday the folks at iFixit took Google's latest XL phone apart to see just what goes into the handset.

While much of it is relatively unsurprising, the teardown reveals just what Google is doing with -- its radar tech that allows the Pixel to be controlled through hand gestures (or what Google calls " Motion Sense"). More impressive is just how small the chip is, which seemed to baffle the experts at iFixit.

"Although radar technology has been in use for a long time and seems simple enough on paper," the site says, "we're at a loss as to how Google stuffed the entire system into a tiny featureless rectangle with no moving parts."

In addition to the Soli chip, iFixit also found a Knowles audio processor chip that it speculates may help with the impressive speech recognition and that the phone's new neural core is "layered under some dedicated Samsung RAM, meaning it must be doing some heavy lifting."

As for repairability, well, the phone was given the same 4/10 score as last year's Pixel 3 XL. iFixit complains that all repairs require complete disassembly of the phone, a process made harder by its "stubbornly glued back panel."

Read CNET's full Pixel 4 review and Pixel 4 XL review here.

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iFixit teardown shows what's inside the Pixel 4 XL

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Google's Pixel 4 and 4 XL are now shipping and while we've known about the device for months, on Thursday the folks at iFixit took Google's latest XL phone apart to see just what goes into the handset.