Transhumanismus

This Week’s Awesome Tech Stories From Around the Web (Through March 30)

Singularity HUB - 30 Březen, 2024 - 16:00

The Best Qubits for Quantum Computing Might Just Be Atoms
Philip Ball | Quanta
“In the search for the most scalable hardware to use for quantum computers, qubits made of individual atoms are having a breakout moment. …’We believe we can pack tens or even hundreds of thousands in a centimeter-scale device,’ [Mark Saffman, a physicist at the University of Wisconsin] said.”

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

AI Chatbots Are Improving at an Even Faster Rate Than Computer Chips
Chris Stokel-Walker | New Scientist
“Besiroglu and his colleagues analyzed the performance of 231 LLMs developed between 2012 and 2023 and found that, on average, the computing power required for subsequent versions of an LLM to hit a given benchmark halved every eight months. That is far faster than Moore’s law, a computing rule of thumb coined in 1965 that suggests the number of transistors on a chip, a measure of performance, doubles every 18 to 24 months.”

FUTURE

How AI Could Explode the Economy
Dylan Matthews | Vox
“Imagine everything humans have achieved since the days when we lived in caves: wheels, writing, bronze and iron smelting, pyramids and the Great Wall, ocean-traversing ships, mechanical reaping, railroads, telegraphy, electricity, photography, film, recorded music, laundry machines, television, the internet, cellphones. Now imagine accomplishing 10 times all that—in just a quarter century. This is a very, very, very strange world we’re contemplating. It’s strange enough that it’s fair to wonder whether it’s even possible.”

DIGITAL MEDIA

What’s Next for Generative Video
Will Douglas Heaven | MIT Technology Review
“The first batch of models that could turn text into video appeared in late 2022, from companies including Meta, Google, and video-tech startup Runway. It was a neat trick, but the results were grainy, glitchy, and just a few seconds long. Fast-forward 18 months, and the best of Sora’s high-definition, photorealistic output is so stunning that some breathless observers are predicting the death of Hollywood. …As we continue to get to grips what’s ahead—good and bad—here are four things to think about.”

SENSORS

Salt-Sized Sensors Mimic the Brain
Gwendolyn Rak | IEEE Spectrum
“To gain a better understanding of the brain, why not draw inspiration from it? At least, that’s what researchers at Brown University did, by building a wireless communications system that mimics the brain using an array of tiny silicon sensors, each the size of a grain of sand. The researchers hope that the technology could one day be used in implantable brain-machine interfaces to read brain activity.”

ROBOTICS

Understanding Humanoid Robots
Brian Heater | TechCrunch
“A lot of smart people have faith in the form factor and plenty of others remain skeptical. One thing I’m confident saying, however, is that whether or not future factories will be populated with humanoid robots on a meaningful scale, all of this work will amount to something. Even the most skeptical roboticists I’ve spoken to on the subject have pointed to the NASA model, where the race to land humans on the moon led to the invention of products we use on Earth to this day.”

INTERNET

Blazing Bits Transmitted 4.5 Million Times Faster Than Broadband
Michael Franco | New Atlas
“An international research team has sent an astounding amount of data at a nearly incomprehensible speed. It’s the fastest data transmission ever using a single optical fiber and shows just how speedy the process can get using current materials.”

COMPUTING

How We’ll Reach a 1 Trillion Transistor GPU
Mark Liu and HS Philip Wong | IEEE Spectrum
“We forecast that within a decade a multichiplet GPU will have more than 1 trillion transistors. We’ll need to link all these chiplets together in a 3D stack, but fortunately, industry has been able to rapidly scale down the pitch of vertical interconnects, increasing the density of connections. And there is plenty of room for more. We see no reason why the interconnect density can’t grow by an order of magnitude, and even beyond.”

SPACE

Astronomers Watch in Real Time as Epic Supernova Potentially Births a Black Hole
Isaac Schultz | Gizmodo
“‘Calculations of the circumstellar material emitted in the explosion, as well as this material’s density and mass before and after the supernova, create a discrepancy, which makes it very likely that the missing mass ended up in a black hole that was formed in the aftermath of the explosion—something that’s usually very hard to determine,’ said study co-author Ido Irani, a researcher at the Weizmann Institute.”

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

Large Language Models’ Emergent Abilities Are a Mirage
Stephen Ornes | Wired
“[In some tasks measured by the BIG-bench project, LLM] performance remained near zero for a while, then performance jumped. Other studies found similar leaps in ability. The authors described this as ‘breakthrough’ behavior; other researchers have likened it to a phase transition in physics, like when liquid water freezes into ice. …[But] a new paper by a trio of researchers at Stanford University posits that the sudden appearance of these abilities is just a consequence of the way researchers measure the LLM’s performance. The abilities, they argue, are neither unpredictable nor sudden.”

Image Credit: Aedrian / Unsplash

Kategorie: Transhumanismus

A New Treatment Rejuvenates Aging Immune Systems in Elderly Mice

Singularity HUB - 29 Březen, 2024 - 19:32

Our immune system is like a well-trained brigade.

Each unit has a unique specialty. Some cells directly kill invading foes; others release protein “markers” to attract immune cell types to a target. Together, they’re a formidable force that fights off biological threats—both pathogens from outside the body and cancer or senescent “zombie” cells from within.

With age, the camaraderie breaks down. Some units flare up, causing chronic inflammation that wreaks havoc in the brain and body. These cells increase the risk of dementia, heart disease, and gradually sap muscles. Other units that battle novel pathogens—such as a new strain of flu—slowly dwindle, making it harder to ward off infections.

All these cells come from a single source: a type of stem cell in bone marrow.

This week, in a study published in Nature, scientists say they restored the balance between the units in aged mice, reverting their immune systems back to a youthful state. Using an antibody, the team targeted a subpopulation of stem cells that eventually develops into the immune cells underlying chronic inflammation. The antibodies latched onto targets and rallied other immune cells to wipe them out.

In elderly mice, the one-shot treatment reinvigorated their immune systems. When challenged with a vaccine, the mice generated a stronger immune response than non-treated peers and readily fought off later viral infections.

Rejuvenating the immune system isn’t just about tackling pathogens. An aged immune system increases the risk of common age-related medical problems, such as dementia, stroke, and heart attacks.

“Eliminating the underlying drivers of aging is central to preventing several age-related diseases,” wrote stem cell scientists Drs. Yasar Arfat Kasu and Robert Signer at the University of California, San Diego, who were not involved in the study. The intervention “could thus have an outsized impact on enhancing immunity, reducing the incidence and severity of chronic inflammatory diseases and preventing blood disorders.”

Stem Cell Succession

All blood cells arise from a single source: hematopoietic stem cells, or blood stem cells, that reside in bone marrow.

Some of these stem cells eventually become “fighter” white blood cells, including killer T cells that—true to their name—directly destroy cancerous cells and infections. Others become B cells that pump out antibodies to tag invaders for elimination. This unit of the immune system is dubbed “adaptive” because it can tackle new intruders the body has never seen.

Still more blood stem cells transform into myriad other immune cell types—including those that literally eat their foes. These cells form the innate immune unit, which is present at birth and the first line of defense throughout our lifetime.

Unlike their adaptive comrades, which more precisely target invaders, the innate unit uses a “burn it all” strategy to fight off infections by increasing local inflammation. It’s a double-edged sword. While useful in youth, with age the unit becomes dominant, causing chronic inflammation that gradually damages the body.

The reason for this can be found in the immune system’s stem cell origins.

Blood stem cells come in multiple types. Some produce both immune units equally; others are biased towards the innate unit. With age, the latter gradually take over, increasing chronic inflammation while lowering protection against new pathogens. This is, in part, why elderly people are advised to get new flu shots, and why they were first in line for vaccination against Covid-19.

The new study describes a practical approach to rebalancing the aged immune system. Using an antibody-based therapy, the scientists directly obliterated the population of stem cells that lead to chronic inflammation.

Blood Bath

Like most cells, blood stem cells have a unique fingerprint—a set of proteins that dot their surfaces. A subset of the cells, dubbed my-HSCs, are more likely to produce cells in the innate immune system, which triggers chronic inflammation with age.

By mining multiple gene expression datasets from blood stem cells, the team found three protein markers they could use to identify and target my-HSCs cells in aged mice. They then engineered an antibody to target the cells for elimination.

Just a week after infusing it into elderly mice, the antibody had reduced the number of myHSC cells in their bone marrow without harming other blood stem cells. A genetic screen confirmed the mice’s immune profile was more like that of young mice.

The one-shot treatment lasted “strikingly” long, wrote Kasu and Signer. A single injection reduced the troublesome stem cells for at least two months—roughly a twelfth of a mouse’s lifespan. With my-HSCs no longer dominant, healthy blood stem cells gained ground inside the bone marrow. For at least four months, the treated mice produced more cells in the adaptive immune unit than their similarly aged peers, while having less overall inflammation.

As an ultimate test, the team challenged elderly mice with a difficult virus. To beat the infection, multiple components of the adaptive immune system had to rev up and work in concert.

Some elderly mice received a vaccine and the antibody treatment. Others only received the vaccine. Those treated with the antibody mounted a larger protective immune response. When given a dose of the virus, their immune systems rapidly recruited adaptive immune cells, and fought off the infection—whereas those receiving only the vaccine struggled.

Restoring Balance

The study shows that not all blood stem cells are alike. Eliminating those that cause inflammation directly changes the biological “age” of the entire immune system, allowing it to better tackle damaging changes in the body and fight off infections.

Like a leaking garbage can, innate immune cells can dump inflammatory molecules into their neighborhood. By cleaning up the source, the antibody could have also changed the environment the cells live in, so they are better able to thrive during aging.

Additionally, the immune system is an “eye in the sky” for monitoring cancer. Reviving immune function could restore the surveillance systems needed to eliminate cancer cells. The antibody treatment here could potentially tag-team with CAR T therapy or classic anti-cancer therapies, such as chemotherapy, as a one-two punch against the disease.

But it isn’t coming to clinics soon. Without unexpected setbacks or regulatory hiccups, the team estimates three to five years before testing in people. As a next step, they’re looking to expand the therapy to tackle other disorders related to a malfunctioning immune system.

Image Credit: Volker Brinkmann

Kategorie: Transhumanismus

[PDF] Data Science market Research Report 2020: size, share, opportunities, and forecast 2030

Home AI - 6 Březen, 2023 - 08:52

The Data Science Market includes a wide range of products and services, including data analytics software, data visualization tools, machine learning …