Monthly Archives: March 2020

Antibiotic discovered by artificial intelligence

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Thanks to very fast development of artificial intelligence, every day new applications of this technology are being invented. Scientists from Massachusetts Institute of Technology have just discovered a completely new, very effective antibiotic – halicin. It took its name after the HAL 9000 computer from the movie 2001: A Space Odyssey. Halicin, despite its unconventional structure, has a strong bactericidal activity with a very broad spectrum, also against antibiotic-resistant strains. It influences the bacterial cell membrane, disrupting its ability to produce energy.

Znalezione obrazy dla zapytania: artificial intelligence

In the first stage, the algorithm developed by researchers learned to identify the desired features of a new antibiotic using a database containing detailed information on 2,500 medicines. In the next step, the program analyzed another database containing over 6,000 molecules for potential applications in medicine. Finally, the program selected 99 compounds that were tested in the laboratory. Over half of them showed strong antibiotic effects.

Halicin has been pre-tested on mice only for now. The medicine will soon be included in clinical tests. According to scientists, this is just the beginning of new discoveries. They are planning to use their algorithm to analyze the entire giant database containing about 1.5 billion chemical compounds. Scientists also predict that in the future algorithm will not only analyze exisiting data, but also create new medicines from many components.

Resources: https://mlodytechnik.pl/news

Hyper Poland is looking for funding for next stage of work on the magnetic rail

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Hyperloop is a new type of transport enabling people to travel at a very high speed and it’s a combination of a train and a plane. It will allow travel from Krakow to Gdansk in less than 35 minutes at a speed close to the speed of sound. The capsule moves in a special tube in which the pressure is as low as at a height of 10 kilometers, and because of that air resistance is reduced. The vehicle moves without contact with the ground using magnetic levitation.

Znalezione obrazy dla zapytania: hyper poland

Hyper Poland needs 200,000 euro to complete the construction of the magnetic rail demo which was developed in Poland. The first thing that they need to do is to adapt today’s infrastructure to the requirements of the “rail of the future”. Plan assumes that in the first half of 2020 it will be possible to create a full-scale train in one of the railway test centers. Private issue of shares took place on Friday. It was addressed to investors who had previously declared their willingness to support the project. Launch of an open crowdfunding action on the British platform Seedrs was planned for today. Company has already completed most of the research and development work. The result is seven patent applications for elements adapting existing railway lines and tracks to the needs of magnetic rail, as well as for engine technology, propulsion and levitation.

Company representatives say that railways from all around the world are interested in such vehicles. Hyper Poland already has many potential customers who want to watch the demo, for example Austria, Switzerland, Portual, Spain or India.

resources:

https://www.pb.pl/polski-hyperloop-pokaze-sie-swiatu-956277

https://www.hyperpoland.com/pl/

Polish start-up enters the US market

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YetiForce, a polish start-up run by Błażej Pabiszczak and Jerzy Kotkowski is a CRM platform for managing relations with customers. To enter the market, YetiForce proposes a free tool with open software. The fast rate of innovation excludes building everything from basics. It is estimated that modern applications contain more than 80% of open source code.

Znalezione obrazy dla zapytania: yetiforce

Their business model means that along with access to the software they also transfer its source code, which allows customers to rebuild and adapt the tool to their own needs. Thanks to this, the company has a fast scale of operation, because it does not waste time adjusting the product to each customer. At the same time, customers are not dependent on the software provider and do not need to be afraid of delays or increasing costs. In a short time, they achieved more than 35 000 customers from more than 100 countries.

The free version of application gives e-mail system, communication modules and a “virtual desk”. Their software also allows you to coordinate accounting and secretariat, supervise projects, marketing campaigns, create a customer, suppliers and partners base and see history of their relationship with the company.  The business model is about offering additional paid services. Start-up has also launched an online shop integrated with its CRM system. In the future, access to this shop’s services will be offered in a subscripition model.

The most famous investor sells his Apple shares

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One of the most famous people in business world, Warren Buffet sold his Apple shares worth at least $800 mln. This is only just a part of Apple’s shares that he is controlling.

The infomation was provided by Business Insider. Analyzing SEC documents, we can see that Berkshire Hathaway (investment fund run by Warren Buffet) sold his shares between October and December last year, when one Apple’s share price increased by 30% (from $219 to $294). Buffet’s company still owns more than 245 mln shares valued at $72 billions. That means that he is an owner of 5.4% of total Apple shares.

Warren only sold a small part of his Apple shares, so we can believe that he still sees the company’s investment potential. Probably his fund was just looking for opportunities to diversify its asssets, because Apple still stands for over 32% of Berkshire Hathaway general portfolio. The company has recently made significant investments in the Kroger food network and the biotechnology company Biogen. The investment fund’s portfolio also includes the following companies: Bank of America, Coca-Cola, American Express, Wells Fargo, Kraft Heinz, JP Morgan Chase & Co., USBancorp, Moody`s and Delta Airlines.

Currently, shares of the technology giant cost about $320 per one. Their price has increased in the last twelve months by nearly 90%.

 

Resources:https://innpoland.pl/158147,warren-buffet-sprzedal-akcje-apple-o-wartosci-800-mln-dol

Autonomous Learning

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Google is creating AI-powered robots that navigate without human intervention—a prerequisite to being useful in the real world. It took 10 minutes for baby fawn to be able to stand and seven hours to walk. While autonomous robots are already familiar concept, autonomously learning robots are at the beginning of their development. Existing learning algorithms are still relying on human intervention.

The work is based on a project that took place one year ago, when the group discovered how to get the robot to learn in the real world. But a human still had to take care of the robot, and manually conflict  hundreds of times, says Jie Tan, a paper coauthor who leads the robotics locomotion team at Google Brain. “Initially I didn’t think about that,” he says.

So they began to solve this new problem. First, they restricted the area that the robot could explore and told him to train on many maneuvers simultaneously. If the robot reaches the edge of the boundary while learning to walk forward, it changes direction and begins learning to reverse.

Secondly, the researchers also limited the robot’s trial movements, making it careful enough to minimize damage caused by repeated falling. At a time when the robot inevitably collapsed, they added another encoded algorithm to help it stand up.

Thanks to these various modifications, the robot has learned to walk independently on several different surfaces, including a flat surface, a memory foam mattress and a wiper with slots. The work shows the potential of future applications that may require robots to move in difficult and unknown terrain without human presence.

Polish scientists have created a revolutionary bionic pancreas

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One year ago, Polish scientists managed to print the first fully vascularized prototype of bionic pancreas in the world using a 3D printer. Despite such great success, they are still working hard on improving the organ. They are planning to open an European Center for Medical Biotechnology in which they could implement a bionic pancreas in real cases. Currently there is no place in Poland where bionic pancreas transplant therapy can be organized.

Znalezione obrazy dla zapytania: medical scientist

In order to achieve this goal, they organized an auction. Charity auction for the Research and Science Development Foundation will take place on March 12, 2020. Instead of standard photographs, unusual photographs taken with a microscope while working on bionic pancreas will be auctioned. Collected funds will be allocated for the construction of the European Center for Medical Biotechnology.

Printing an organ makes patients completely independent of a potential donor. You don’t need to wait for the organ. “Instead, the patient comes, we take cells from him, isolate the appropriate cell fractions, then transform into insulin and glucagon producing cells; we make pancreatic islets from them, put them in a 3D printer and after printing the organ we transplant it to the patient.” – says Michał Wszoła, director of the project. The researchers also point out that developed technology will allow the printing of organs with a tumor, which will allow the study of cancer.

Resources: https://innpoland.pl/158427,michal-wszola-o-bionicznej-trzustce-i-centrum-biotechnologii-medycznej

Technology which Apple got rid off appeared on Android!

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Google has just suprised us with another invention – they elaborated technology that will enable smartphones to have “3d touch” without using any special sensors. Technology has been presented by Apple some years ago, but it required expensive screen parts. Google scientists have been thinking about improving this function for years, and now, thanks to machine learning technology and artificial intelligence they were able to develop it.

It was very hard to achieve this technology only by updating software, but thanks to no need for sensors, it is possible that every Android smartphone will have 3d touch after update (if it is still supported). Software trained with machine learning technology is able to estimate pressure by analyzing touch surfaces; as the pressure increases, larger part of the fingertip touches the screen. What is interesting, Apple couldn’t solve this problem only with code and their costs of production turned out to be too high. That is why newest iPhone 11 Pro is the first Apple smartphone since 2016 that is deprived of this function.

Znalezione obrazy dla zapytania: 3d touch

First smartphone to have this new function is Google’s Pixel 4 and “3d touch” impression will be available after newest software update (March 2020). Firstly, function will be available only in several google’s applications, but we can expect that app developers will make use of this technology.

Resources:

3D Touch od Google już działa na Pixelach. Na zwykłym ekranie!

The Photo Stick – save all your documents quickly

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Don’t you have enough of importing, organizing, and backing up all of your photos and important documents to your computer? It’s a monotonous, tiring process which takes too much time but everyone knows we have to do it. No one wants memories going down the drain in case a computer crashes. Wedding photos, family photos, anniversaries, birthdays – we all want to have it safe but even the most organized person can get tired of sorting out stuff.
That’s why The Photo Stick is one of the best things to help you with this issue recently.

It’s a helpful gadget that does all the exhausting work of photo backup. The Photo Stick is a small, USB thumb drive that searches through your files, identifies your photographs, and instantly saves them. There is no technical know-how needed to use The Photo Stick. Even if you know nothing about computers, you can save your family photographs using The Photo Stick. The device has the capability to keep your pictures and videos, up to 60,000 of them, secure and safe in its memory. It is very useful when being worried about any unexpected situations connected to your main modem or hard drive such as computer break down. You will need the mobile version of the PhotoStick if you wish to use it directly on your smartphones. The device looks just like the flash drive everyone knows and have. It contains software that searches through folders to find images you lost. Not only does Photo Stick work on photos, but it can also find videos and documents too. It is very useful and recommended.

Sources:

  • https://www.top10gadgets.shop/thephotostick-review/
  • https://www.holgadirect.com/photo-stick-review/

UV Cleanizer Zoom – an innovative cleaning way

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People have many cleaning products claiming an efficient cleaning facility. Vacuum cleaners are used by most of the users to clean the debris from carpets and floor. There are also robotic vacuum cleaners which comes with advanced features so that it can clean up all the dust efficiently.

There is a new opportunity to make surrounding neat and tidy – UV Cleanizer Zoom – an automated and disinfecting robot with a built in AI system, which helps you fight dust and dirt in a comfortable way without any effort. Rooms that experience constant human turnover, such as public toilets, may be tiresome to clean. Manual sanitization of such places may also not eradicate all the germs, thus the need for a UV Cleanizer Zoom. This device requires only one operator and covers more space than humans. Getting yourself a UV Cleanizer Zoom will, therefore, not only guarantee you quick cleaning of your surroundings but also prevent the infection of diseases.

The device eliminates the germs to maximum (up to 99%) using UV light, does not need any other chemicals and is library tested. It is portable, practical in traveling, useful for sanitizing hotels’ bed very effective without using much effort. The smart sensors keep the robot going without getting stuck or falling of edges. UV Cleanizer Zoom Technical Specs: 3 Sanitizing Modes, 18 Sensors Mapping, Press and Go Setting, Portable Pocket Size, 3 Hours Running Time, 4 AI Insert UV-C Lights, 3700 mAh Power Bank and Super Light Weight 220G. It is a super innovative device which everyone should have home to provide healthy and safe environment and surrounding for your own good and the good of your relatives.

Sources:

  • https://www.top10gadgets.shop/uv-cleanizer-zoom-review/
  • https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9azl3v-Now

Limit(AI)tions

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Nowadays computers have learned how to translate languages, drive cars or diagnose a disease. They outsmart profesionals at strategic games, recognize complicated patterns and provide weather.

In spite of the fact that they are already powerful, artificial intelligence has its borders.

When it comes to situations they haven’t come across before, machine-learning systems can be confused and will not execute their tasks properly.

Such thing exist because of one reason. AI systems do not understand causation. They see that some events have something in common with other ones, but can not grasp cause and effect. It is like if you knew that if the presence of sun made the hot day more possible, but you did not know the sun caused the rise of temperature.

Grasping cause and effect is huge part of what we know as common sense. Artificial Inteligence does not have it. There is a growing consent that AI progress will be grounded ic computers will not handle causation better. If machines would learn how to differ cause and effect, there would not be a need to teach them everything anew all the time. They could use its skills form one area and try to implement it to another one. What is more, the trust to the AI-powered machines would rise extremely if we knew that they trustworthy as they would not make silly mistakes.

We can not predict how long will it take for computers to get reasonable causal reasoning abilities. The first move will be to develop machine-learning tools that mix data with available scientific knowledge.“We have a lot of knowledge that resides in the human skull which is not utilized.”

 

Sources:

blog.huree.co

towardsdatascience.com