Quantum Computing Scientists Call for Ethical Guidelines
A group of quantum computing experts are raising ethical concerns about the technology’s potential to accelerate human DNA manipulation.
Health and Medical Applications
Tapping Into the Brain to Help a Paralyzed Man Speak
In a once unimagined accomplishment, electrodes implanted in the man’s brain transmit signals to a computer that displays his words.
Hype vs. Reality at the MIT Media Lab
A feature on MIT's Media Lab, including an agricultural project involving food computers.
Majority of Europeans would consider human augmentation, study finds
A study finds that two-thirds of Europeans surveyed would consider human augmentation. The article breaks down the study to see how location, age, gender impacted responses, and what concerns people had.
Bioterrorists can trick scientists into making dangerous toxins or viruses by infecting lab computers with malware that alters synthetic DNA they produce for experiments
Cyber security researchers uncovered an online attack that tricks scientists into creating toxic chemicals or deadly viruses in their own labs by replacing ordered sequences with malicious ones.
Future mental health care may include diagnosis via brain scan and computer algorithm
Experts at the University of Tokyo are combining machine learning with brain imaging tools to distinguish between those with a mental health condition, specifically schizophrenia and autism.
China Uses DNA to Map Faces, With Help From the West
Beijing’s pursuit of control over a Muslim ethnic group pushes the rules of science and raises questions about consent.
Cigna Uses AI to Check if Patients Are Taking Their Medications
Cigna Corp. plans to expand a system that uses artificial intelligence to identify gaps in treatment of chronic diseases, such as patients skipping their medications, and deliver personalized recommendations for specific patients.
AI Can Now Make Medical Predictions From Raw Data. But Can Deep Learning Be Trusted?
Discussions are raised around the black boxes that are deep learning models, particularly in medical applications like mammography.
Google’s ‘Project Nightingale’ Gathers Personal Health Data on Millions of Americans
Google is engaged with one of the U.S.’s largest health-care systems on a project to collect and crunch the detailed personal-health information of millions of people across 21 states. However, neither patients nor doctors have been notified.