AI-controlled brain stimulation helps improve memory

AI-controlled brain stimulation helps improve memory
Machine-learning works out when to prod an individual's brain into remembering things.
Backstory: Electrical stimulation to improve brain performance isn't a new idea —but knowing how to deliver the pulses is tough.
First, learn: Researchers from University of Pennsylvania gathered data from 25 epilepsy patients, with upto 200 electrodes already implanted in their brain for monitoring purposes, while they performed memory tasks. That formed a training set for AI to learn personalized models about how brain activity relates to remembering something.
Then, do: The same electrodes can be used for stimulation. The researchers had patients perform memory tasks, while using the AI to plan stimulatoin when it thought they might forget something. It worked : patients with AI stimulation performed 15 percent better than controls on word-recall tasks.
Why it matters: Human understanding of the brain remains limited. The approach may help build systems to improve brain function even if precise understanding of how memory works alludes us.
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AI-controlled brain stimulation helps improve memory
Machine-learning works out when to prod an individual's brain into remembering things.
Backstory: Electrical stimulation to improve brain performance isn't a new idea —but knowing how to deliver the pulses is tough.
First, learn: Researchers from University… Read more
Machine-learning works out when to prod an individual's brain into remembering things.
Backstory: Electrical stimulation to improve brain performance isn't a new idea —but knowing how to deliver the pulses is tough.
First, learn: Researchers from University of Pennsylvania gathered data from 25 epilepsy patients, with upto 200 electrodes already implanted in their brain for monitoring purposes, while they performed memory tasks. That formed a training set for AI to learn personalized models about how brain activity relates to remembering something.
Then, do: The same electrodes can be used for stimulation. The researchers had patients perform memory tasks, while using the AI to plan stimulatoin when it thought they might forget something. It worked : patients with AI stimulation performed 15 percent better than controls on word-recall tasks.
Why it matters: Human understanding of the brain remains limited. The approach may help build systems to improve brain function even if precise understanding of how memory works alludes us.
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SpaceX’s monster rocket success will make big launches affordable
Falcon Heavy’s maiden voyage takes Elon Musk closer to his vision of cheap space travel.
What happened: The new Falcon Heavy rocket launched safely  and put its experimental payload—Elon Musk’s Tesla Roadster— into orbit . SpaceX then landed two of the… Read more
Falcon Heavy’s maiden voyage takes Elon Musk closer to his vision of cheap space travel.
What happened: The new Falcon Heavy rocket launched safely  and put its experimental payload—Elon Musk’s Tesla Roadster— into orbit . SpaceX then landed two of the rocket’s three boosters back on Earth.
Big and cheap: The rocket hauls a lot and is (comparatively) frugal. As the Economist notes , a Falcon Heavy launch using old rockets costs $90 million and can put a 64-ton payload into low-Earth orbit. That’s a quarter the cost of the next most powerful rocket, Delta IV Heavy, which can take just half the payload.
Why that matters: The rocket could do things like put large sets of internet-delivering satellites into orbit or fire supplies toward Mars more cheaply than any other. Meanwhile, NASA looks on: its heavy-lift rocket, Space Launch System, isn’t due to fly until 2020.
Next up: Musk has bigger ideas, with a five-booster Falcon Super Heavy and his Mars-going Big F****** Rocket in the works.
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A biotech CEO explains why he injected himself with a DIY herpes treatment on Facebook Live
Aaron Traywick took to the stage at a biohacking conference in Austin, Texas, dropped his pants, and injected himself in the thigh with an experimental herpes treatment created by his company, Ascendance Biomedical.
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Cyberwarfare is taking to the skies, aboard drones
Hovering computers will make it increasingly possible to hack equipment that doesn’t connect directly to the internet.
The drones:  Cyberscoop rounded up a selection of drones that hack into networks. Take your pick: flying wiretaps for mobile networks,… Read more
Hovering computers will make it increasingly possible to hack equipment that doesn’t connect directly to the internet.
The drones:  Cyberscoop rounded up a selection of drones that hack into networks. Take your pick: flying wiretaps for mobile networks, home-brew devices that turn off smart bulbs , or giants with 20-foot wingspans that meddle with Wi-Fi networks.
What the experts say: “This market is about to blow up,” Francis Brown of thecybersecurity firm Bishop Fox told Cyberscoop. “Everyone is dumping money into this.”
Why it matters: It’s often assumed that devices that don’t directly connect to the internet are relatively sheltered from attack. While it’s not straightforward, hovering a drone close to a vehicle or building could enable people to hack devices that use wireless communication but were once thought relatively safe.
Hack backs: It’s also worth noting that drones, with wireless connections and precarious modes of travel, are highly susceptible to being hacked out of the sky, too.
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Uber’s formula for paying drivers is causing a gender gap
Uber uses a master algorithm to determine how much money its drivers make—and women are ending up with less.
The gap: In a study released today of over 1.8 million drivers on the platform, women were found to earn $1.24 per hour less than men. Women… Read more
Uber uses a master algorithm to determine how much money its drivers make—and women are ending up with less.
The gap: In a study released today of over 1.8 million drivers on the platform, women were found to earn $1.24 per hour less than men. Women also earned $130 less per week on average, in part because they tend to drive fewer hours.
The cause: The study, which was carried out by researchers at Stanford and Uber and has not undergone peer review, attributed the difference in pay to fact that male Uber drivers:
—Are more likely to drive in higher-paying locations
—Drive faster
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This AI software dreams up new designs for 3-D-printed parts before your eyes
Desktop Metal’s new software lets regular people design objects optimized for 3-D printing, no experience required.
The news:  Desktop Metal ’s new LiveParts is a piece of software that automatically generates designs of objects ready for 3-D printing.… Read more
Desktop Metal’s new software lets regular people design objects optimized for 3-D printing, no experience required.
The news:  Desktop Metal ’s new LiveParts is a piece of software that automatically generates designs of objects ready for 3-D printing. Users just tell it the structural constraints of the object they’re building, and it uses biology-inspired AI models to quickly generate a design suited to additive manufacturing.
Better components: The software ensures that parts take advantage of 3-D printing’s capabilities. “This would enable weight reductions between 25 and 60 percent of many kinds of general-purpose parts,” says Desktop Metal CEO Ric Fulop, “while spreading loads more evenly and improving fatigue resistance.”
3-D printing for the masses? Desktop Metal says the software is easy to use even if you have no experience designing parts for additive manufacturing. That could help move 3-D printing closer to being able to create whatever you need, whenever you need it—no engineering degree required.
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Junk news on social media is shared predominantly by the right wing
Analyzing the dynamics of online political news sharing shows that there’s an ideological pattern to who’s spreading the bad stuff.
The study: Researchers at the Oxford Internet Institute monitored 13,500 politically active US Twitter users and 48,000… Read more
Analyzing the dynamics of online political news sharing shows that there’s an ideological pattern to who’s spreading the bad stuff.
The study: Researchers at the Oxford Internet Institute monitored 13,500 politically active US Twitter users and 48,000 public Facebook pages for the three months ahead of the recent State of the Union address . They then studied how political news that was extremist, sensationalist, conspiratorial, fake, or otherwise characteristic of “junk” got shared.
The results: On Twitter, a core of Trump supporters shared “the widest range of known junk news sources” and circulated “more junk news than all the other groups put together.” On Facebook, extreme hard-right pages (not Republican pages) achieved a similar feat.
Why it matters: Fake news remains a huge headache for social networks and political leaders . A better understanding of how it’s shared could help clean it up.
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The ozone layer is thinning in places around the equator
The planet’s natural protection from UV radiation may be in danger over some of the world’s most populous areas.
Backstory: Huge ozone loss hit Earth in the 1980s, especially above Antarctica. The Montreal Protocol banned the chemicals that were responsible… Read more
The planet’s natural protection from UV radiation may be in danger over some of the world’s most populous areas.
Backstory: Huge ozone loss hit Earth in the 1980s, especially above Antarctica. The Montreal Protocol banned the chemicals that were responsible for the depletion, and ozone levels in the upper stratosphere grew again.
What’s new: In a paper published in Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics , researchers explain that the ozone in the lower stratosphere is now thinning at lower latitudes. Near the equator, where billions of people live and sunlight is at its most intense, the resulting loss of UV protection could be a disaster.
What’s causing it? That’s still unclear. It may be that changes in atmospheric circulation due to global warming are shifting ozone toward the poles. Or some industrial chemicals once thought to safely break down in the lower atmosphere may, in fact, make their way high enough to account for the damage. 
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South Korea says North Korea won’t stop hacking its cryptocurrency exchanges
North Korea seems to have a new strategy to overcome international economic sanctions and raise millions of dollars: steal hard-to-trace cryptocurrency.
The news: State-sponsored hackers from North Korea pilfered cryptocurrency from South Korean exchanges… Read more
North Korea seems to have a new strategy to overcome international economic sanctions and raise millions of dollars: steal hard-to-trace cryptocurrency.
The news: State-sponsored hackers from North Korea pilfered cryptocurrency from South Korean exchanges last year worth “billions of won,” according to a member of South Korea’s parliament . That’s more than a million dollars, at the least. And the attacks haven’t stopped, either.