Jeremy Hsu

Too many electric cars charging at night may overload electrical grid

The growth in electric car ownership could strain power grids if most drivers continue charging primarily at home overnight. Investment in daytime charging options will be crucial to help the western US power grid handle the demand with an estimated…

Drone swarm that 3D prints cement structures could construct buildings

Drones working together can create large 3D-printed structures made of foam or cement. The experiments are paving the way for a future where swarms of drones could help construct extremely tall or intricate buildings and other structures like bridges…

A third of scientists working on AI say it could cause global disaster

More than one-third of artificial intelligence researchers around the world agree that AI decisions could cause a catastrophe as bad as all-out nuclear war in this century. The findings come from a survey covering the opinions of 327 researchers who…

AI climate negotiators can debate 100 years worth of policy in seconds

A simulation consisting of 27 AIs representing different regions in climate negotiations is part of a competition to find out which policies and incentives could have the best chances of success AIs representing different parts of the world can…

People prefer tech they think is old – even when it's actually not

A series of experiments found that people prefer technology they think was invented before they were born. The effect seems to hold if the technology isn't really as old as people think it is People prefer technologies that were invented or…

Apps used as alternatives to prison in US found to have privacy flaws

An analysis of 16 apps used as alternatives to incarceration found numerous privacy problems including in an app used to track almost 248,000 immigrants An analysis of monitoring apps installed on people’s smartphones in the US as an alternative to…

DeepMind AI learns to play soccer using decades of match simulations

Artificial intelligence has learned to play soccer. By learning from decades worth of computer simulations, an AI took digital humanoids from flailing tots to proficient players. Researchers at the AI research company DeepMind taught the AI how to…

Hacking device can secretly swipe and tap your smartphone screen

A stealthy way to gain access to a phone or tablet uses electromagnetic signals to swipe and tap on a touchscreen left on a table. Devices capable of carrying out such an attack could be used to force someone’s device to download malware or to send…

Underwater data centre in the Pacific could be running by end of year

An underwater data centre could start operating off the west coast of the US before the end of 2022. The project is an attempt to show the viability of using the ocean to provide cooling, which normally accounts for a large portion of data centre…

Supercharging tweak could fill electric car batteries 90% in 10 mins

A modification to the way electric cars are charged could allow them to get 90 per cent battery from nothing in just 10 minutes. A standard approach would take half an hour Tweaking the way electric vehicle batteries are charged could make it…

Rubik's Cube solution unlocked by memorising 3915 final move sequences

A Rubik’s cube solver has become the first person to show proof of successfully combining the final two steps of solving the mechanical puzzle into one move. The feat required the memorisation of thousands of possible sequences for the final step.…

Your smartphone could recognise you just by the way you hold it

Your phone may be able to recognise you just from the vibrations in your hand. An algorithm trained to identify people this way did so with more than 90 per cent accuracy. Gentian Jakllari at the Toulouse Institute of Computer Science Research in…

US CO2 shortage worsened by contaminated gas from an extinct volcano

The US is experiencing a carbon dioxide shortage, which has now been intensified by natural contaminants found in the CO2 supply that comes from an extinct volcano in Mississippi. This underground CO2 source is particularly crucial for bubbly…

Big Tech and Civil War enthusiasts clash over historic US battlefields

Northern Virginia is home to many American Civil War battlefield sites as well as the largest concentration of data centres in the world. Plans for more data centres are now pitting preservationists and big technology companies against each other The…

Experimental earphone can ‘hear’ commands user is silently mouthing

People could soon let their ears do the talking when using a virtual assistant thanks to an ear-reading device. When we speak or mouth words, our facial muscles move and our ear canals change shape. The new earphone technology detects those changes,…

Ultrasound stickers could continuously image internal organs for days

Patches the size of a postage stamp stuck to your skin can provide continuous ultrasound imaging of internal organs for 48 hours. This can reveal details such as the human heart changing shape during exercise, or the stomach expanding and shrinking…

AI learns how to recognise the species of splatted mosquitoes

Artificial intelligence trained to recognise both living and dead mosquitoes could help track the three species most responsible for transmitting disease. Mosquitoes kill more people than any other animal because they can transmit diseases such as…

The US military is making uniforms with built-in bug spray

Future US military uniforms could grant protection against disease-carrying mosquitoes by having insect repellent embedded within the fabric itself. Testing by military researchers has shown that specially manufactured nylon fibres can provide slow…

Prehistoric dart-throwing atlatl weapon even more deadly than thought

Tests of a prehistoric dart-throwing weapon have shown it is even more effective than previously thought. The atlatl weapon can puncture vital organs in bison carcasses and travel so far through the body it protrudes from the other side. “Some…

AI can convert almost any 3D scene into the style of a famous artwork

Getting immersed in a 3D-version of your favourite painting could be made possible thanks to an artificial intelligence that can transfer artistic styles onto 3D scenes. AI has been used before to transfer an artistic style onto images that can be…