Coinbase Global plans to cut 1,100 jobs, or 18% of staff

Coinbase Global says it plans to cut about 1,100 jobs, or approximately 18% of its global workforce, as part of a restructuring in order to help manage its operating expenses in response to current market conditions.

source https://www.lifetechnology.com/blogs/life-technology-technology-news/coinbase-global-plans-to-cut-1-100-jobs-or-18-of-staff

Musk to face Twitter employees at meeting

Billionaire Elon Musk will address Twitter employees at a meeting this week, the company confirmed Tuesday, in a first since launching his troubled $44 billion bid for the social media platform.

source https://www.lifetechnology.com/blogs/life-technology-technology-news/musk-to-face-twitter-employees-at-meeting

New fire shelter prototypes could buy time for wildfire firefighters

North Carolina State University researchers found that four new designs for shelters to protect firefighters trapped in wildfires could increase the survival time inside the shelter compared with the current industry standard. In lab simulations of wildfire burn-overs—where a wildfire sweeps over a group of trapped firefighters or equipment—temperatures inside the shelters remained within survival limits for longer, and the shelters took longer to break open.

source https://www.lifetechnology.com/blogs/life-technology-technology-news/new-fire-shelter-prototypes-could-buy-time-for-wildfire-firefighters

A neuromorphic computing architecture that can run some deep neural networks more efficiently

As artificial intelligence and deep learning techniques become increasingly advanced, engineers will need to create hardware that can run their computations both reliably and efficiently. Neuromorphic computing hardware, which is inspired by the structure and biology of the human brain, could be particularly promising for supporting the operation of sophisticated deep neural networks (DNNs).

source https://www.lifetechnology.com/blogs/life-technology-technology-news/a-neuromorphic-computing-architecture-that-can-run-some-deep-neural-networks-more-efficiently

A Google software engineer believes an AI has become sentient. If he's right, how would we know?

Google's LaMDA software (Language Model for Dialogue Applications) is a sophisticated AI chatbot that produces text in response to user input. According to software engineer Blake Lemoine, LaMDA has achieved a long-held dream of AI developers: it has become sentient.

source https://www.lifetechnology.com/blogs/life-technology-technology-news/a-google-software-engineer-believes-an-ai-has-become-sentient-if-hes-right-how-would-we-know

How facial recognition technology is being used in Ukraine and why it's still so controversial

Facial recognition technology is being used in warfare for the first time. It could be a game changer in Ukraine, where it is being used to identify the dead and reunite families. But if we fail to grapple with the ethics of this technology now, we could find ourselves in a human rights minefield.

source https://www.lifetechnology.com/blogs/life-technology-technology-news/how-facial-recognition-technology-is-being-used-in-ukraine-and-why-its-still-so-controversial

Shape-shifting drone flies and dives to find aquatic environmental clues

A new Imperial-developed "dual robot" drone can both fly through air and land on water to collect samples and monitor water quality.

source https://www.lifetechnology.com/blogs/life-technology-technology-news/shape-shifting-drone-flies-and-dives-to-find-aquatic-environmental-clues

Geometrically engineered rigid island array for stretchable electronics

Stretchable electronics can be developed by integrating rigid components in a soft polymer matrix. However, it is challenging to eliminate cracks at the interface between soft and rigid materials. In a new report now published and illustrated on the cover page of Science Advances, Jun Chang Yang, Seungkyu Lee, and a research team in Materials Science, and Mechanical Engineering at the Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology in the Republic of Korea, developed geometrically engineered Ferris wheel–shaped islands to effectively suppress crack propagation at the interface under various deformation modes. The optimized shape showed increased strain at failure and fatigue life compared with conventional shapes, including circle and square-shaped islands. The team showed how the electronic skin could differentiate various tactile stimuli without interference while demonstrating notable enhanced durability to withstand conditions of daily use.

source https://www.lifetechnology.com/blogs/life-technology-technology-news/geometrically-engineered-rigid-island-array-for-stretchable-electronics