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MONITOR

Dual-domain medical materials for Space and Earth

The development of advanced material technologies to address the medical risks of spaceflight, such as cosmic radiation and microgravity, has been in the works since the early days of the Space Race. However, with missions such as Artemis and the cost-reduction enabled by SpaceX’s launch platforms, there’s a growing imperative to make Space even more habitable. Innovations include “living pharmacies”, drug delivery, regenerative medicine, and bioprinting for better healthcare. These technologies aim to ensure astronauts’ safety and well-being during missions. These are all areas of interest for advancing health care for us Earthlings and our space-faring brethren. (🚩Nature)

Congratulations on the publication, Miguel, Gio, and Bob!

The dangers of humanizing machines and dehumanizing each other via machines

“The tendency to anthropomorphize AI systems can lead to unrealistic expectations about their capabilities and reliability,” writes James Johnson in his commentary at War on the Rocks. It’s a perspective I share and imbue in participants in the courses I facilitate in robotics and machine intelligence. When we apply human-like traits to AI systems, this tendency can negatively affect trust, performance, and ethical considerations in human-machine teams. At other times, it enhances interaction and effectiveness. As an example, we can tamp-down anthropomorphism by avoiding labeling a robot by gender designation such as “he'“ or “she” – just refer to it as “it”. In burgeoning military applications, we need to exhibit careful design, training, and ethical guidelines to balance AI’s benefits and challenges while ensuring meaningful human control and preventing dehumanization in warfare. Johnson’s commentary links to a variety of resources on these topics.

My colleague David Mindell’s book “Our Robots, Ourselves” is a great read for cultivating an intuitive understanding of how robots and humans reflect each other and where they diverge.

Advocating for AI development amid regulatory concerns

Regulate applications, not technologies, writes Andrew Ng in a piece critical of California’s proposed law SB-1047, which imposes stringent safety assessments and liability for AI models, potentially stifling innovation. The bill’s “hazardous capability” designation could hinder model development, especially for open-source projects. Ng emphasizes the need to support innovation while ensuring safety and calls for opposition to the bill to prevent its negative impact on research and development.

BLIPS

A wooden satellite is about to head to space. See yours truly give an impromptu response to 🎥 “What is tough tech?”. Could a huge organization-of-organizations such as the U.S. Department of Defense improve its “innovation” by adopting a framework of capability, concept, and process?

PROGRAM

No One Builds Alone.

/N1BA

Telemetry is written by JMill of The End Effector.