Ken Garen, CPA, Co-Founder and President, UBCC

MIT Scientists Create New Nanoparticle Sensors To Detect Early Cancer Via Simple Paper Test Authored by Bill Pan via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), April 30, 2023 Scientists at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) have designed nanoparticle sensors that could diagnose early-stage cancer through a simple urine test on a strip of paper. The scientists said these sensors, designed to detect many cancerous proteins, could also distinguish the type of tumor, how it responds to treatment, and whether it has metastasized. “We are trying to innovate in a context of making technology available to low- and middle-resource settings. Putting this diagnostic on paper is part of our goal of democratizing diagnostics and creating inexpensive technologies that can give you a fast answer at the point of care,” said Sangeeta Bhatia, a biomedical engineer at MIT and senior author of the study published on April 24 in Nature Nanotechnology. Bhatia’s team had initially investigated the co...

Google Bard Can Now Help Write Software Code Friday, 21 April 2023 12:35 PM EDT Alphabet Inc.'s Google said Friday it will update Bard, its generative artificial intelligence (AI) chatbot, to help people write code to develop software, as the tech giant plays catch-up in a fast-moving race on AI technology. Last month, the company started the public release of Bard to gain ground on Microsoft Corp. The release of ChatGPT, a chatbot from the Microsoft-backed startup OpenAI, last year caused a sprint in the technology sector to put AI into more users' hands. Google describes Bard as an experiment allowing collaboration with generative AI, technology that relies on past data to create rather than identify content. Bard will be able to code in 20 programming languages including Java, C++ and Python, and can also help debug and explain code to users, Google said Friday. The company said Bard can also optimize code to make it faster or more efficient with simple prompts such a...

AI Will Eventually Be 'As Good A Tutor As Any Human': Bill Gates Authored by Samantha Flom via The Epoch Times (emphasis ours), April 21, 2023 Artificial intelligence (AI) may not be advanced enough to replace teachers now, but according to Bill Gates, that time is not far off. “The AIs will get to that ability to be as good a tutor as any human ever could,” the Microsoft co-founder said at the ASU+GSV Summit in San Diego on April 18. “We have enough sample sets of those things being done well that the training can be done,” he added. “So, I’d say that is a very worthwhile milestone, is to engage in a dialogue where you’re helping to understand what they’re missing. And we’re not that far.” Gates’ comments came within the context of a larger conversation about the future role of technology in education with Jessie Woolley-Wilson, CEO of DreamBox Learning. “AI has, ever since the focus became machine learning, it’s achieved some unbelievable milestones,” Gates told Woolley-...

X.AI - Musk Reportedly Creating ChatGPT Artificial Intelligence Rival BY TYLER DURDEN SATURDAY, APR 15, 2023 - 07:55 AM Despite recent outspoken criticism of artificial intelligence - warning of the "danger of training AI to be woke" - it appears Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk is working on an AI-related project that will reportedly take on ChatGPT. The Wall Street Journal and the Financial Times reported that Musk has started a new AI firm called X.AI Corp. Developing artificial intelligence is nothing new for Musk. Together with the company’s current CEO, Sam Altman, he co-founded and chaired OpenAI in 2015. The revelation came after information surfaced that Musk is assembling a team of AI researchers and engineers, according to The FT. Musk incorporated a company named X.AI on March 9, according to Nevada business records. He is the company’s only director, its secretary is listed as Jared Birchall, the ex-Morgan Stanley banker who manages Musk’s wealth. Musk rec...

Samsung accidentally leaked its secrets to ChatGPT — three times! By Andy Sansom April 5, 2023 Samsung learns a lesson in security It appears that like the rest of the world, Samsung is impressed by ChatGPT but the Korean hardware giant trusted the chatbot with much more important information than the average user and has now been burned three times. The potential for AI chatbots in the coding world is significant and Samsung has, until now, allowed staff in its Semiconductor division to use OpenAI’s bot to fix coding errors. After three information leaks in a month, expect Samsung to cancel their ChatGPT Plus subscription. Indeed the firm is now developing its own internal AI to assist with coding to avoid further slip-ups. One of the leaks reportedly concerns an employee asking ChatGPT to optimize test sequences for identifying faults in chips, an important process for a firm like Samsung that could yield major savings for manufacturers and consumers. Now, OpenAI is sitting o...

Mass Automation To Sweep Across Walmart Stores By 2026 BY TYLER DURDEN THURSDAY, APR 06, 2023 - 05:25 PM Walmart, the largest private employer in the US, revealed on Tuesday plans to automate a large swath of its stores and warehouses within a three-year timeframe. This move aligns with the surge of artificial intelligence technologies being introduced into the economy to enhance efficiency; however, it also threatens to displace millions of jobs. In a press release, the mega-retailer with more than 1.6 million US employees said: By the end of Fiscal Year 2026, Walmart believes roughly 65% of stores will be serviced by automation, approximately 55% of the fulfillment center volume will move through automated facilities, and unit cost averages could improve by approximately 20%. As Walmart's stores and warehouses shift towards automation, the demand for human labor will drop. Nevertheless, the retailer noted that the reduction in the workforce could lead to increased wages fo...

Scientists discover lithium replacement that may revolutionize EV batteries: ‘99.7% efficient after over 400 hours of use’ Story by Ben Stern • 14h ago Maryland is already famous for its crabs — but researchers at the University of Maryland are looking to give that distinction an entirely different meaning. A team of scientists at the school’s Center for Materials Innovation found that crustaceans like crabs and lobsters contain a chemical in their shells called chitin, which can be used to power batteries when combined with zinc. Crustacean shells packed with this chemical are typically thrown out en masse by restaurants that have no other use for them. But researchers believe this waste could serve as a powerful resource in the search for more sustainable batteries. Lithium-ion batteries, the common kind found in most of our cellphones and laptops, can take hundreds of thousands of years to break down after they’re used up — not to mention the devastating environmental impa...