CYBATHLON - The Olympics for Cyborgs - Weekly News Roundup - Issue #453
CYBATHLON - The Olympics for Cyborgs - Weekly News Roundup - Issue #453Plus: scammers steal $25 million with deepfakes; Bard becomes Gemini and Gemini Ultra is out; playing DOOM on cells; world's first transgenic ants; Atlas does something useful; and more!Welcome to the Weekly News Roundup, Issue #453. This week, I'd like to highlight CYBATHLON - The Olympics for Cyborgs - set to take place in October this year. In other news, Google has renamed Bard to Gemini and has finally released Gemini Ultra. Over in Hong Kong, scammers have used deepfakes to steal $25 million. Meanwhile, an MIT student has managed to play DOOM on living cells, and Boston Dynamics' Atlas has done something useful instead of doing parkour or dance. Later this year, the world’s top athletes will gather to compete in various categories to find who is the best among them. But instead of meeting in Paris, these athletes will meet in Zurich. Instead of competing who is the fastest runner or the strongest lifter, these athletes will be competing in everyday tasks. And instead of reaching the peak of human performance, these athletes will be overcoming disabilities with the help of technology. Welcome to CYBATHLON, the competition for people with disabilities using assistive devices who compete against each other to solve everyday tasks. The goal of the competition, organised by ETH Zurich, is to advance the research and development of assistive technologies and to foster inclusion for people with disabilities. The idea of organizing competitions to advance technology is not new. For example, self-driving cars and humanoid robots have seen significant advancements thanks to DARPA’s challenges. CYBATHLON hopes to achieve the same but for assistive technologies to improve the lives of people with disabilities and enable them to live more independently and happily. Teams from around the globe, consisting of engineers and researchers as well as the pilots using the assistive devices, bring their best brain-computer interfaces, robotic arms, exoskeletons and other devices to push them to their limits—and beyond. Simultaneously, the pilots are testing their enhanced bodies and minds to the utmost, showing what is possible with cutting-edge assistive technology. The first CYBATHLON took place in 2016 and was the first international competition of its kind, featuring 66 pilots from 25 nations competing in front of 4,600 spectators. The next edition, in 2020, had to be done remotely due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The teams set up the infrastructure for the competition at their home bases and the races were done via video, with Cybathlon officials overseeing the competitions. The next edition of the competition is scheduled to take place from October 25th to 27th, 2024, in Zurich. 160 teams from all over the world will compete in eight different categories. The categories range from performing daily activities such as changing a lightbulb or picking water bottles, to races with powered wheelchairs or races in exoskeletons. Recently, two new categories have been added to the competitions - a race using smart visual assistive technologies and a race using assistive robots. Last weekend, 18 teams from 10 countries participated in the third and final CYBATHLON Challenges. This event was the last opportunity for the teams to test their assistive systems in a competitive environment before the global competition in October. If you are interested in viewing the teams' performances, the livestream has been uploaded to YouTube. The teams participating in the CYBATHLON global event in October now have about eight months to perfect their exoskeletons, powered wheelchairs, BCIs and robotic arms. It’s going to be interesting to see what the teams will bring and which teams will emerge as the best. CYBATHLON helps push the assistive technologies forward and shows how these devices—from BCIs to prosthetics and exoskeletons—can significantly enhance the independence and quality of life for people with disabilities. If you enjoy this post, please click the ❤️ button or share it. Do you like my work? Consider becoming a paying subscriber to support it. For those who prefer to make a one-off donation, you can 'buy me a coffee' via Ko-fi. Every coffee bought is a generous support towards the work put into this newsletter. Your support, in any form, is deeply appreciated and goes a long way in keeping this newsletter alive and thriving. 🦾 More than a humanOne-shot CRISPR treatment for inherited disease aces first human trial Why prosthetic limbs need not look like real ones 🧠 Artificial IntelligenceFinance worker pays out $25 million after video call with deepfake ‘chief financial officer’ Bard becomes Gemini and Gemini Ultra is out EU’s AI Act passes last big hurdle on the way to adoption Apple says it’ll show its GenAI efforts ‘later this year’ Building an early warning system for LLM-aided biological threat creation If you're enjoying the insights and perspectives shared in the Humanity Redefined newsletter, why not spread the word? 🤖 RoboticsWatch Boston Dynamics’ Atlas humanoid handle automotive struts Boston Dynamics has published a video of their humanoid robot, Atlas, doing something useful. Instead of doing parkour or dancing, the video shows the robot grabbing struts and placing them on a shelf. Recently, other humanoid robot companies have started trial programs to test the commercial viability of humanoid robots - Agility Robotics’ Digit is being tested at Amazon while the Figure 01 robot scored a job at BMW’s factory. There is a possibility that Boston Dynamics was pressured to demonstrate the commercial potential of their humanoid robot. Goodbye for Now to the Robot That (Sort Of) Patrolled New York’s Subway ▶️ Are Drones That Flap Their Wings Better? (6:18) 🧬 BiotechnologyMeet Boo — the first dog dosed in pivotal study for extending healthy lifespan in dogs of nearly all sizes ▶️ Running Doom on cells? (6:52) There is an ongoing challenge in the computer science community to make the original DOOM from 1993 run on everything - from traditional computers to exotic devices such as a pregnancy test or a Porsche car. You can even play DOOM inside DOOM. Now we can add cells to the list, although it will be more like a slideshow and it would take about 600 years to complete the entire game this way. Making the First Transgenic Ants Thanks for reading. If you enjoyed this post, please click the ❤️ button or share it. Humanity Redefined sheds light on the bleeding edge of technology and how advancements in AI, robotics, and biotech can usher in abundance, expand humanity's horizons, and redefine what it means to be human. A big thank you to my paid subscribers, to my Patrons: whmr, Florian, dux, Eric, Preppikoma and Andrew, and to everyone who supports my work on Ko-Fi. Thank you for the support! |
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