As we cozy up by our digital fireplaces throughout this vacation season, let’s take a whimsical journey again by means of the 12 months 2023, a time when exceptional and generally downright weird tech developments had been all the fashion. So, whilst you sip in your sizzling cocoa and embrace the vacation spirit, be part of me as we embark on a lighthearted journey by means of tech tales that’ll heat your geeky coronary heart and push the boundaries of human ingenuity in a method that solely tech can.Wi-Fi imaging by means of partitions To start out us off, a query: have you ever ever wished to be a superhero with X-ray imaginative and prescient? In January, we heard about scientists from Carnegie Mellon College who’re making it occur. They’re utilizing Wi-Fi routers to see by means of partitions and picture a human’s 3D form and pose. It’s like one thing out of a sci-fi flick, and it has the potential to observe the well-being of aged people or spot suspicious conduct. Let’s simply hope they go away a word for anybody who obtains this superhero tech, reminding them that with nice energy comes nice accountability!De-extinction with genetic engineeringBack in January, the information crossed my desk about Colossal Biosciences planning to convey again the extinct dodo chook utilizing genetic engineering. That’s proper, the dodo might be making a comeback, together with the woolly mammoth and the Tasmanian tiger. They’re not precise copies however the closest analogs science can produce. It sounds cool, but it surely does increase moral and ecological questions concerning the “de-extinction” course of and its potential affect on ecosystems. Both method, maintain onto your feathers, people — we’re in for a wild experience! WordPress breathes new life into jail journalismImagine a world the place WordPress, the go-to platform for bloggers and web site builders, isn’t just in your private musings but in addition for prisoners attempting to make their voices heard. Nicely, that’s precisely what occurred with the Jail Newspaper Venture, courtesy of the Jail Journalism Venture (PJP). In February, they launched their information portal on WordPress, giving incarcerated people a platform to share their tales and join with a world viewers. The PJP’s progressive transfer to modernize these newsrooms with WordPress not solely offers prisoners an opportunity to precise themselves but in addition opens doorways for educators, researchers, and readers worldwide to have interaction with their narratives. It’s a narrative that reveals know-how’s energy to interrupt down boundaries, even those fabricated from metal bars.Mushroom computer systems in Bristol Now, let’s get a little bit wild with this one. Image this: mushrooms, sure, these fungi you place in your pizza, teaming up with motherboards. In Bristol, on the College of the West of England, some good minds launched into a quest to combine oyster mushrooms into pc infrastructure. As we found again in February, these mushrooms have a reminiscence and may ship and obtain indicators. The truth is, they’ve a communication system that’s usually in comparison with the Web. The thought is to mix the powers of Mom Nature with the prowess of silicon chips, creating computer systems which can be half organic and half synthetic. Think about a future the place our computer systems and networks are intertwined with the pure world, very similar to the Matrix however hopefully with out the dystopian mayhem.AI deciphers animal communication Ever wished to have a heart-to-heart chat together with your furry, feathery, or scaly associates? The Earth Species Venture is taking a leap in direction of making it occur. This non-profit, based by some massive photographs from Mozilla Labs and Twitter, is on a mission to make use of synthetic intelligence to decode non-human communication. In Might, we realized how scientists are working to decipher the bioacoustic knowledge collected from our animal friends and translate it into human languages. Giant machine learning-based language fashions, much like those powering ChatGPT and Google Bard, are working to know the relationships between phrases and meanings in varied languages. The potential right here is staggering, particularly for wildlife conservation and scientific analysis. Think about understanding the key language of animals, from dolphins clicking beneath the waves to birds chirping within the treetops. It’s a narrative straight out of a science fiction novel, but it surely’s taking place proper earlier than our eyes.NASA’s speaking spaceshipsIt’s not simply animals! On the planet of area exploration, NASA is taking a web page out of your favourite chat app and creating speaking spaceships. Again in June, we realized that these spacecraft will characteristic a ChatGPT-style interface to converse with astronauts and mission controllers. Think about astronauts having an informal chat with their spaceship, discussing the mysteries of the universe over a cup of cosmic espresso. This might revolutionize area exploration and make lonely area voyages a factor of the previous!AI and the ultimate Beatles recordNow, for the music lovers amongst us, the Beatles are again, because of AI! Information broke again in June that Sir Paul McCartney and a group of sound engineers used synthetic intelligence to create the “last Beatles file.” They extracted John Lennon’s voice from an outdated demo to finish the 1978 Lennon composition “Now And Then.” It’s a mix of outdated and new, a musical reunion transcending time and know-how. And regardless of his reservations, even McCartney admits that AI is the way forward for music. The tune dropped in November to the delight of Beatles followers around the globe. Rock on, AI!NFTs take a diveRemember NFTs, the once-red-hot craze that had everybody dropping their minds throughout the pandemic? Now, the tradeable digital picture fad is wanting extra like a flash within the pan. As we realized in September, 95% of these NFTs at the moment are as useful as a display door on a submarine. dappGambl’s evaluation of over 73,000 NFT collections revealed that almost all people holding these digital treasures at the moment are caught with digital mud collectors. Solely 21% of those collections had been absolutely offered, signaling a declining demand for what was as soon as the speak of the city. It looks like the NFT bubble has burst — and I’m not shedding any digital tears for it.AI diagnoses power painNow, let’s discuss a heartwarming story that we realized about in September. A boy named Alex was in power ache for 3 lengthy years, visiting 15+ medical doctors with no luck. That’s when his mom, Courtney, determined to show to synthetic intelligence for assist. She offered detailed MRI notes to ChatGPT, and the AI chatbot urged tethered wire syndrome as a attainable prognosis. Seems, the AI was spot on! This story underscores the potential AI instruments have to enhance and even save lives, and it’s a testomony to how know-how can bridge gaps in healthcare. Kudos, AI, you’re a lifesaver!Disney’s robo-dazzlerWrapping up our look again at know-how within the information, we’ve obtained Disney taking the stage with a showstopper on the 2023 IEEE/RSJ Worldwide Convention on Clever Robots and Techniques. Disney Analysis unveiled a robotic character with persona. Think about R2-D2’s sass, WALL-E’s appeal, and the Terminator’s strikes all rolled into one. Due to some genius work by Moritz Bächer’s group, they streamlined the fusion of animator imaginative and prescient and real-world robotic motions utilizing reinforcement studying. The outcome? A 3D-printed robotic that’s filled with equal elements charisma and mobility, boasting a four-degree-of-freedom head and five-degree-of-freedom legs. Disney’s moving into an entire new world of robotics, and I’m right here for it!The 12 months 2023 shall be one to rememberAh, what a experience it’s been! These are a couple of of the tales I discovered to be essentially the most compelling over the previous 12 months as a result of they remind me that the tech world is something however predictable. As we stay up for 2024, I’m excited to see what the longer term holds. I wager will probably be crammed with surprises and improvements past our wildest goals. Subsequent month, we’ll take a look at a few of my predictions about the place tech might be headed.Till then — preserve your curiosity alive and keep geeky, my associates!
