Category archives: Computer science

Is AI really an existential risk for humanity?

Is AI really an existential risk for humanity?

Computer scienceEthicsPhilosophy of science

By Invited Researcher

risk The authors of this article are members of The European Lab for Learning & Intelligent Systems (ELLIS) Board: Nuria Oliver, Directora de la Fundación ELLIS Alicante & honorary professor Universidad de Alicante; Bernhard Schölkopf, , Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems; Florence d’Alché-Buc, Professor, Télécom Paris – Institut Mines-Télécom; Nada Lavrač, Research Councillor at […]

A resistive switching memory based on hafnium dioxide

A resistive switching memory based on hafnium dioxide

Computer scienceMaterials

By César Tomé

A novel computer memory design has been created by researchers, offering significant enhancements in performance while simultaneously addressing the pressing need to minimize energy consumption in internet and communications technologies. Projections suggest that these technologies could account for nearly one-third of the world’s electricity consumption within the next decade. A team of researchers has devised […]

How artificial intelligence language models could take over elections

How artificial intelligence language models could take over elections

Computer scienceSociology

By Invited Researcher

artificial intelligence Authors: Archon Fung, Professor of Citizenship and Self-Government, Harvard Kennedy School, and Lawrence Lessig, Professor of Law and Leadership, Harvard University Could organizations use artificial intelligence language models such as ChatGPT to induce voters to behave in specific ways? Sen. Josh Hawley asked OpenAI CEO Sam Altman this question in a May 16 […]

Organoid intelligence: brains acting as computers

Organoid intelligence: brains acting as computers

Computer scienceNeuroscience

By Rosa García-Verdugo

While for long in neuroscience, computers were used to model brain function, organoid intelligence, a new scientific field, aims to do the opposite by developing biological computers which would benefit from the efficiency of our most complex biological machine: the brain. Fear not. The objective is not to connect humans by their brains to power […]

Autonomous methods can discover new materials, faster

Autonomous methods can discover new materials, faster

Computer scienceMaterialsNanotechnology

By César Tomé

Scientists have successfully demonstrated that autonomous methods can discover new materials. The artificial intelligence (AI)-driven technique led to the discovery of three new nanostructures, including a first-of-its-kind nanoscale “ladder.” The newly discovered structures were formed by a process called self-assembly, in which a material’s molecules organize themselves into unique patterns. Scientists at Brookhaven’s Center for […]

The dawn of the quantum network: quantum interference over 300 km of optical fiber

The dawn of the quantum network: quantum interference over 300 km of optical fiber

Computer scienceCondensed matterPhysicsQuantum physics

By César Tomé

Last year’s Nobel Prize in Physics celebrated the fundamental interest of quantum entanglement, and also envisioned the potential applications in “the second quantum revolution” — a new age when we are able to manipulate the weirdness of quantum mechanics, including quantum superposition and entanglement. A large-scale and fully functional quantum network is the holy grail […]

Machine learning to understand water’s liquid phases

Machine learning to understand water’s liquid phases

ChemistryComputer scienceCondensed matterMaterialsPhysics

By César Tomé

Water has puzzled scientists for decades. For the last 30 years or so, they have theorized that when cooled down to a very low temperature like -100 ºC, water might be able to separate into two liquid phases of different densities. Like oil and water, these phases don’t mix and may help explain some of […]

Neuromorphic electronics into bacterial cells

Neuromorphic electronics into bacterial cells

BiotechnologyComputer science

By César Tomé

Bringing together concepts from electrical engineering and bioengineering tools, scientists have produced genetic “devices” designed to perform neuromorphic computations like artificial neural circuits in bacterial cells. The genetic material was inserted into bacterial cells in the form of a plasmid: a relatively short DNA molecule that remains separate from the bacteria’s “natural” genome. Plasmids also […]