Emerging Tech

The Rand Corporation released a report suggesting that the U.S. military should use artificial intelligence to examine social media trends to determine whether any military members are at risk of becoming extremists.

Doctors at the UMass Memorial Medical Center have employed a new assistant on different surgeries: the Single-Port DaVinci robot. The robot is able to make much smaller incisions, which helps with recovery.

Speakers at an Open Technology Institute event said government needs to establish clear procedures for vetting high-risk AI systems for bias and discriminatory impacts plus attach enforcement policies to drive change.

More AI tools are becoming available to help recruit and hire new technology staff. They take some of the burden off management to find the right people and also reduce bias in the process.

Truepic created a software platform that helps verify digital photos and videos online in the quest to bust deepfakes. The company pulled in funding from Microsoft’s venture capital arm M12 and other investors.

Branch Technologies, a company based in Chattanooga, Tenn., is trying to change the way building structures are created with its 3D printing process. The company recently received a $300,000 state grant.

The Whitby Autonomous Vehicle Electric project is a nearly 4-mile autonomous electric shuttle route in Whitby, Ontario. The project integrates with local public transit and smart city technologies in the region.

A new robotics engineering technology program at the Ohio university’s Middletown campus offers hands-on training and industry-recognized credentials for robotics systems in health care and manufacturing.

MiamiCoin is a new cryptocurrency by CityCoins Inc., which hopes to generate interest in a city’s municipal projects. Like Bitcoin, it is created through a technical process involving computers “mining” the coin.

The Maryland college has catalogued close to 600 immersive, interactive experiences with 360-degree views and sound to help teach coding, sciences, engineering, anatomy, history and languages.

Using software bots has become commonplace in many workplaces around the world, but with worker shortages, will robots start filling more roles soon?

"Gita," a $3,200 robot, is now carrying food orders to passengers at their gates within the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. The fee for the service is $2.99, and a human worker escorts the robot.

New classroom software uses artificial intelligence for speech recognition and running teacher-supervised chatbots to help students practice words and pronunciations before they embarrass themselves in real conversation.

An associate professor in engineering at Washington State University, Néstor Pérez-Arancibia, helped develop an 88-milligram insectoid robot that crawls and simulates muscle movement by constricting a shape-memory alloy.

Fully vaccinated residents of the state of Hawaii will soon be able to show digital proof of their vaccination status on mobile phones before entering businesses and other venues that require it.

Through a $20 million partnership with quantum computing company IonQ, university students, faculty and researchers will have access to a commercial-grade quantum computer for the development of new applications.

Researchers hope to turn the 400-acre Discovery Park District into a research incubator for 6G smart city technology of tomorrow, in collaboration with university and industry partners creating next-generation networks.

Ongoing efforts to automate manual processes are underway in the city with the end goal of making government more responsive, efficient and mobile. Citizen programmers and developers are helping this along.