At Build 2018, Microsoft announced a new Remote Assist app that lets users connect with remote experts in mixed reality. In other words, HoloLens is now more collaborative. With Remote Assist, Microsoft wants workers to be able to solve problems quicker together, even if they're not physically the same. For example, HoloLens users will be... Continue Reading →

Boston Dynamics' Atlas robot has been untethered and set free, which, for anyone convinced of an imminent robot uprising, is a rather worrying development. A video posted on YouTube this week shows the humanoid robot running at a fair clip across open land before jumping over a log that it finds in its path. It's... Continue Reading →

Innovation in technology has had multiple repercussions; one key area has been the future of work. At the moment, in India, there are 17 mn new entrants into the workforce year on year however only 5.5 mn jobs created. This implies that people of the future will be directed to one of two options. They... Continue Reading →

While basic income is often described as a revolutionary proposal, we do have programs in the federal government and some U.S. states that contain elements of a basic income, namely the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). The California Budget & Policy Center (CBPC) has studied the effects of the EITC, and what it might look... Continue Reading →

A study published this week in the journal Plos One showed that plants communicate with each other in a new unique way. The paper, entitled “Aboveground mechanical stimuli affect belowground plant-plant communication,” illustrates that plants use their roots to prompt their neighbors to grow, when in crowded competitive environments, by secreting chemicals. “If we have a... Continue Reading →

A new study from the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev (BGU) in Beer-Sheva, Israel, published in Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience, illustrates for the first time a robotic system that can help patients with rehabilitation. The system, that plays Tic Tac Toe with patients, was successful in improving real-life task performance. “Effective human-robot interactions in rehabilitation... Continue Reading →

Autonomous cars are much in the news, mostly because of the collisions that are bound to happen as we mix human and robot drivers. These raise obvious questions — who pays when a robocar kills? — but the uproar over safety overlooks the fact that autonomous technology will take over commercial trucking long before the average person has... Continue Reading →

They call it “the hive,” or “the grid.” Or sometimes just: “the machine.” It’s a huge structure that fills a warehouse on the outskirts of Andover, a small and quiet town in southeast England. It’s impossible to take in at a single glance, but standing on a maintenance walkway near the building’s rafters, you look... Continue Reading →

The U.S. is embroiled in several technological races, including one to capitalize on the artificial intelligence market. And in an effort to win, the White House is meeting with industry leaders to see what they can do to better implement AI into the U.S. workforce. The U.S. is currently considered the leader of the pack in AI because it has the most... Continue Reading →

When Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified before House and Senate panels earlier this month, he explained how his company uses the data of millions of Americans. This particular set of hearings was urgent because our elected leaders have realized the power that lies in Facebook’s hidden trove of networked knowledge — its potential... Continue Reading →