Recently, robots designed at the University of Buffalo are being trained through the use of gamer’s brainwaves. These robots will be a part of a robot swarm that could be useful for a variety of military tasks. The Government believes that these robots could enhance the autonomous ability of air and ground robots used by the military. Instead of using one extremely complex robot to complete tasks, the idea is that a bunch of smaller simpler robots in a large group will be able to be more efficient and complete a larger variety or complex tasks. The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency or “DARPA” supports the research of these robots at the University of Buffalo, and has given them a $316,000 federal grant to study these brainwaves that will be used to develop the AI for the robot swarms (Linder 2020).

I believe that while this technology is really useful and could be used in a variety of cool ways by the military, there are some potential risks with implementing it. A question and concern that I have about these robots is the question of what happens if one of these robots malfunctions do the rest of them keep going or does the whole swarm fail? If the swarm doesn’t fail then I see no issues with this type of technology besides the obvious concern about privacy with all artificial intelligence. Finally, if the gamer’s information is protected and the drones have some sense of privacy, I think this technology would work very well.

Source: https://www.popularmechanics.com/technology/robots/a30855506/darpa-swarm-robots-video-game/

Giggle, a social media platform developed specifically for women, is receiving back-lash from a variety of red flags arising including a “bio-metric gender verification software” that is used to tell if the user of the app is actually a female. While it may seem like a good idea to have a platform to empower women and have many of their collective thoughts in one place, many issues with the app include the inability for the software to detect trans people and therefore doesn’t allow them to use the app. Along with this, there are many private policy issues that could possibly jeopardize the personal information of many of the users of the app (Schiffer 2020).

I believe that in general the idea to create “Giggle” was a good, but I do think that it is worrisome using AI to determine who can use the app or not. Especially since the app run through AI is also collecting private information from pictures to other documents, a couple red flags are raised once the app is analyzed a little bit. Overall, I think that Giggle should still be an app, but should be reevaluated on how users input their information and get scanned into the app.

Source: https://www.theverge.com/2020/2/7/21128236/gender-app-giggle-women-ai-screen-trans-social

In this article, the debate over whether there should be universal charging for all mobile devices is discussed. Members of the European Parliament are in favor for changing to a universal charging method and passed a resolution 582 votes to 40 (BBC 2020). While it would be easier to just have one type of charger for everything, Apple and other companies are reluctant about making the switch due to a variety of issues claimed to come with it. Some of these issues include e-waste and a claim that changing to one form of charging for all devices will hurt innovation and slow down further improvements of technology (BBC 2020).

For me personally, I think that a switch to universal charging would be amazing and solve many problems related to not having the correct charger and things like that. I wouldn’t be upset if a bill for universal charging in the united states was passed, but I do see how it could potentially effect many companies and possibly slow down their progress for developing new technology. My question then here is if universal charging actually becomes a thing, what happens if a faster and better way to charge devices is developed?   In this case I guess they would have to start over, but I do like the idea of having one thing for all of my devices.

Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-51324847

Through the use of modern day scanning technologies, scientists were able to re-create the voice of Nesyamun, a 3000 year old Egyptian mummy. Nesyamun, who was identified to be a priest during his time alive, is the first ever ancient being to have their voice recreated (Malsbury 2020). A tomography scanner was used to create a model of the vocal tract of the mummy, which would then be 3D printed and attached to a voice box. This voice box would provide a source to create an artificial noise of the mummy’s voice once projected through the 3D model of the vocal tract (Malsbury 2020).

It is incredible to me how humans have developed technology like this that can recreate something that happened over three thousand years ago. By combining multiple pieces of technology such as 3D printing, scanners, and even sound boxes, an incredible feat can be accomplished. If something as crazy as recreating someones voice can be accomplished with the use of some modern pieces of technology, I am exited to see what is in store for the next couple of decades in terms of the other achievements will be reached through combining even more complex pieces of technology. My final thought about this article is that almost anything can be done with the right use of technology.

Source: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/01/dead-speak-scientists-re-create-voice-3000-year-old-mummy

Joshua Bongard from the University of Vermont, is a robotics expert and computer scientist who helped discover the research of robots which are made up of living frog cells. Joshua and his colleagues at the UVM used a supercomputer to configure what these robot organisms would actually look like, while biologists from Tuffs University actualy constructed them. The purpose for the creation of these robot organism hybrids is to achieve tasks which weren’t previously capable by modern technology. These hybrids, which will be able to be controlled and told what to do, will change the way certain medicines are delivered and will be used to collect and destroy waste in the environment and toxic materials in humans alike. (University of Vermont, 2020)

Personally I believe the creation of controllable organisms such as these will be not only be extremely impressive, but will also serve as a great innovation for the medical field and really any other field that could use them in a responsible manner. Another thing that I found really cool is that since these robots are made up of living cells, they are able to regenerate themselves if damaged and are biodegradable once their job is finished. (University of Vermont, 2020). My only concern with this type of technology is the possibility of it ending up in the wrong hands further down the road where people may take advantage of it and create something that could be harmful in some way.

Overall, I think that the scientists at both UVM and Tuffs University have created something that will benefit a variety of fields, and have used information responsibly to create something that’s never been seen before.

Source: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2020/01/200113175653.htm