Current News/Innovations

Nigerian Oshi Agabi has unveiled a computer based not on silicon but on mice neurons at the TEDGlobal conference in Tanzania. The system has been trained to recognise the smell of explosives and could be used to replace traditional airport security, he said. Eventually the modem-sized device - dubbed Koniku Kore - could provide the brain for future robots. Experts said that making such systems mass-market was challenging. All of the big tech firms, from Google to Microsoft, are rushing to create artificial intelligence modelled on the human brain. While computers are better than humans at complex mathematical equations, there are many cognitive functions where the brain is much better: training a computer to recognise smells would require colossal amounts of computational power and energy, for example. Mr Agabi is attempting to reverse-engineer biology, which already accomplishes this function with a fraction of the power it would take a silicon-based processor. ...

Several global robotics technology leaders, including Tesla founder Elon Musk, submitted an open letter to the United Nations, imploring governments to issue ban on "lethal autonomous weapons," also known as killer robots. "Lethal autonomous weapons threaten to become the third revolution in warfare. Once developed, they will permit armed conflict to be fought at a scale greater than ever, and at timescales faster than humans can comprehend," the letter said. "These can be weapons of terror, weapons that despots and terrorists use against innocent populations, and weapons hacked to behave in undesirable ways." The letter was signed by 116 founders of robotics and artificial intelligence companies from 26 countries. They added: "We do not have long to act. Once this Pandora's box is opened, it will be hard to close. We therefore implore the High Contracting Parties to find a way to protect us all from these dangers." Concern about leth...