Sep 27
“I don’t know what to say,” Willie Geist, of the “Morning Joe” show, responded to the montage.
Sep 27
This fall is really lining up to be an incredible one for sci-fi nerds. Dune is coming to Netflix in October, The Creator is releasing this week, and spooky season is coming. It’s a plethora of riches. Also, keep your eyes peeled for news of a SAG-AFTRA-supported Video Game Actor’s strike. Spoilers, clear your…
Sep 27
The ARC nerve-stimulation system could help quadriplegic patients move their arms again
Posted in: Today's ChiliThe ARC nerve stimulation therapy system from startup Onward Medical passed another developmental milestone on Wednesday, as the company announced the first successful installation of its brainwave-driven implantable electrode array to restore function and feeling to a patient’s hands and arms. The news comes just five months after the researchers implanted a similar system in a different patient to help them regain a more natural walking gait.
The ARC system used differs depending on how what issue it’s being applied to. The ARC-EX is an external, non-invasive stimulator array that sits on the patient’s lower back and helps regulate their bladder control and blood pressure, as well as improving limb function and control. Onward’s lower limb study from May employed the EX along with a BCI controller from CEA-Clinatec to create a “digital bridge” spanning the gap in the patient’s spinal column.
The study published Wednesday instead utilized the ARC-IM, an implantable version of the company’s stimulator array which is installed near the spinal cord and is controlled through wearable components and a smartwatch. Onward had previously used the IM system to enable paralyzed patients to stand and walk short distances without assistance, for which it was awarded an FDA Breakthrough Device Designation in 2020.
Medical professionals led by by neurosurgeon Dr. Jocelyne Bloch, implanted the ARC-IM and the Clinatec BCI into a 46-year-old patient suffering from a C4 spinal injury, in mid-August. The BCI’s hair-thin leads pick up electrical signals in the patient’s brain, convert those analog signals into digital ones that machines can understand, and then transmits them to a nearby computing device where a machine learning AI interprets the patient’s electrical signals and issues commands to the implanted stimulator array. The patient thinks about what they want to do and these two devices work to translate that intent into computer-controlled movement.
How well that translation occurs remains to be seen while the patient learns and adapts to the new system. “The implant procedures involving the Onward ARC-IM and Clinatec BCI went smoothly,” Dr. Bloch said in an press release. “We are now working with the patient to use this cutting-edge innovation to recover movement of his arms, hands, and fingers. We look forward to sharing more information in due course.”
“If the therapy continues to show promise, it is possible it could reach patients by the end of the decade,” Onward CEO Dave Marver said in a statement to Engadget. “It is important to note that we do not expect people with spinal cord injury to wait that long for Onward to commercialize an impactful therapy – we hope to commercialize our external spinal cord stimulation solution, ARC-EX Therapy, to restore hand and arm function in the second half of 2024.”
Onward Medical among a quickly expanding field of BCI-based startups working to apply the fledgling technology to a variety of medical maladies. Those applications include loss of limb and self-regulatory function due to stroke, traumatic brain or spinal cord injury, physical rehabilitation from those same injuries, as well as a critical means of communication for people living with Locked-In Syndrome.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-arc-nerve-stimulation-system-could-help-quadriplegic-patients-move-their-arms-again-053027395.html?src=rss
Sep 27
Seattle Residents Mock Fox News Reporter’s Attempt To Discuss The City’s Crime
Posted in: Today's ChiliThe city’s residents were not buying the right-wing network’s talking points.
Sep 27
This fall is really lining up to be an incredible one for sci-fi nerds. Dune is coming to Netflix in October, The Creator is releasing this week, and spooky season is coming. It’s a plethora of riches. Also, keep your eyes peeled for news of a SAG-AFTRA-supported Video Game Actor’s strike. Spoilers, clear your…
Sep 27
The Federal Communications Commission plans to reinstate net neutrality protections that were nixed in 2018 during the Trump administration. Restoring those Obama-era rules has been on President Joe Biden’s agenda for years, but a deadlocked FCC has prevented that from happening during his time in the White House so far. Now, one day after Anna Gomez was sworn in as the third Democratic member on the FCC’s five-person panel, the agency is pushing forward with an attempt to bring back net neutrality regulations.
When net neutrality rules are enforced, internet service providers are not allowed to block or give preference to any content. They can’t throttle access to specific websites or charge the likes of streaming services for faster service. They must provide users with access to every site, content and app at the same speeds and conditions. Advocates tout net neutrality protections as the foundation of an open and equitable internet.
FCC Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel, a long-term supporter of net neutrality rules, announced a plan to restore the protections on Tuesday. “This afternoon, I’m sharing with my colleagues a rulemaking that proposes to reinstate net neutrality,” Rosenworcel said at an event at the National Press Club. “We will need to develop an updated record to identify the best way to restore these policies and have a uniform national open internet standard.”
The aim is to “largely return to the successful rules” that the FCC adopted in 2015 when President Barack Obama was in office. The proposal aims to reclassify both fixed and mobile broadband as an essential communications service under Title II of the Communications Act, akin to water, power and phone services.
“The Chairwoman is proposing the FCC take the first procedural steps toward reaffirming rules that would treat broadband internet service as an essential service for American life,” the FCC said. “As work, healthcare, education, commerce, and so much more have moved online, no American household or business should need to function without reliable internet service.”
Rosenworcel noted that this is a first step in the process of reviving net neutrality. It will take quite some time until the previous rules are restored, as Bloomberg notes. The FCC commissioners will vote on the Notice of Proposed Rulemaking at their next monthly meeting on October 19.
If, as seems likely, the agency votes in favor, it will start a new rulemaking and then seek public comments on the proposal. After reviewing the comments, Rosenworcel will decide how to move forward. In all likelihood, the commissioners will then vote on whether to adopt the final rules. While the push to restore net neutrality rules may prove successful, the implementation could still be delayed by legal challenges.
“For everyone, everywhere, to enjoy the full benefits of the internet age, internet access should be more than just accessible and affordable,” Rosenworcel said. “The internet needs to be open.” She added that repealing net neutrality protections “put the FCC on the wrong side of history, the wrong side of the law and the wrong side of the American public.”
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/the-fcc-plans-to-restore-obama-era-net-neutrality-rules-184624637.html?src=rss
Sep 27
The many examples of Commander injuring people has prompted conversations about how the dogs may have made the White House an unsafe workplace.
Sep 27
If The Animal Kingdom was an average movie, you could figure out the whole story from just the premise. It’s a film about a world where humans have begun to mutate into animals. So, of course, it’s got to be about how most humans hate these mutants, treat them terribly, and we get to see how a small group of them…
Sep 27
The CIA and other US intelligence agencies will soon have an AI chatbot similar to ChatGPT. The program, revealed on Tuesday by Bloomberg, will train on publicly available data and provide sources alongside its answers so agents can confirm their validity. The aim is for US spies to more easily sift through ever-growing troves of information, although the exact nature of what constitutes “public data” could spark some thorny privacy issues.
“We’ve gone from newspapers and radio, to newspapers and television, to newspapers and cable television, to basic internet, to big data, and it just keeps going,” Randy Nixon, the CIA’s director of Open Source Enterprise, said in an interview with Bloomberg. “We have to find the needles in the needle field.” Nixon’s division plans to distribute the AI tool to US intelligence agencies “soon.”
Nixon says the tool will allow agents to look up information, ask follow-up questions and summarize daunting masses of data. “Then you can take it to the next level and start chatting and asking questions of the machines to give you answers, also sourced,” he said. “Our collection can just continue to grow and grow with no limitations other than how much things cost.”
The CIA hasn’t specified which AI tool (if any) it’s using as the foundation for its chatbot. Once the tool is available, the entire 18-agency US intelligence community will have access to it. However, lawmakers and the public won’t be able to use it.
Nixon said the tool would follow US privacy laws. However, he didn’t state how the government would safeguard it from leaking onto the internet or using information that’s sketchily acquired but technically “public.” Federal agencies (including the Secret Service) and police forces have been caught bypassing warrants and using commercial marketplaces to buy troves of data. These have included phones’ locations, which the government can technically describe as open-source.
“The scale of how much we collect and what we collect on has grown astronomically over the last 80-plus years, so much so that this could be daunting and at times unusable for our consumers,” Nixon said. He envisions the tool allowing a scenario “where the machines are pushing you the right information, one where the machine can auto-summarize, group things together.”
The US government’s decision to move forward with the tool could be influenced by China, which has stated that it wants to surpass its rivals and become the world’s de facto AI leader by 2030.
The US has taken steps to counter China’s influence while examining AI’s domestic and economic risks. Last year, the Biden administration launched a Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights, defining the White House’s generative AI values. It has also pushed for an AI risk management framework and invested $140 million in creating new AI and machine learning research institutes. In July, President Biden met with leaders from AI companies, who agreed to (non-binding) statements that they would develop their products ethically.
This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/even-the-cia-is-developing-an-ai-chatbot-192358767.html?src=rss
Sep 27
Federal Judge Strikes Down Texas Ban On Drag Performances As ‘Unconstitutional’
Posted in: Today's ChiliThe ruling comes a month after the judge issued a temporary injunction the day before the law was set to take effect, writing that it restricts freedom of speech.
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