Gadgetory

welcome to what the future on today's show China sets its sights on the far side of the Moon where no lunar lander has gone before planets can drive robots now thanks to researchers at MIT and deep mines alpha 0 AI reaches an incredible milestone let's get into it China aims to break new ground in lunar exploration early Saturday morning the chung e4 rocket launched into the sky the rover on board is headed to a crater on the far side of the Moon which is always facing away from the earth due to the moon's rotation no Lander has ever touched down on the far side of the Moon before humans have only observed it via aerial surveillance landing their presents some unique challenges the moon will block all communications from Earth that's why the Chinese launched a satellite into lunar orbit over the far side of the moon back in May to relay messages between the rover and Earth the radio silence will allow the chungee for a unique opportunity to observe the sounds of space without interference from earth noise the rover will also study rocks solar wind and according to the Xinhua news agency it will test whether silkworm eggs will hatch in moon gravity an official landing date hasn't been announced yet though some have suggested early January is a likely possibility since the Sun will be shining on the far side of the Moon and the chun-hee 4 is solar-powered we'll keep you posted on what the Cheonggye 4 uncovers as the voyage to the far side of the Moon continues plants can drive robots now this plant robot hybrid is named Ella WAN brought to you by the mad scientists at the MIT Media Lab lo1 uses the plant's natural signals to trigger movement in the robot underneath here's how it works plant cells and tissue react to external forces such as light and gravity in this experiment researchers attached silver electrodes to the plant to detect its signals and place lights on either side to trigger those signals the result is a robo plant that can drive itself toward the light researchers say the eventual goal would be a new breed of self-powered growing plant robot hybrids now if all this has you picturing the dawn of some sort of vegan Skynet where by robotic plant overlords seek revenge on salad-eating humans you're not alone I'm picturing it too specifically I'm recalling a scene from the 1979 documentary The Secret Life of plants in which a plant reacts to the destruction of its comrade and then seems to recognize the attacker when they reenter the room hours later I can't speak to the accuracy of the science conducted in that movie but I haven't looked at my houseplants the same since maybe it's just me being paranoid but I feel like we should be 100% certain that plants don't hold grudges before we start turning them into cyborgs computers have been beating master chess players since the 90s but deep mines new AI is unique not because it wins but because of how it wins previous chess computers have relied on known chess strategies and use their processing power to examine thousands of possible moves and outcomes alpha zeros method of mastery practice practice practice starting as a novice player making random moves alpha zero played itself a lot and not just chess it also mastered the classic games of shogi and go it beat the Masters of each game with what some have been calling human-like intuition and creativity developers say that the end goal is for AI to become smart enough to help us solve some of the greatest problems facing our world today but the real world isn't like a board game where the pieces are neatly laid out at all times that's why the next challenge will be to make an AI that can master games with incomplete information such as a card game where the opponent's cards are hidden from view alpha zero feels like the end of the board game era of AI development and the dawn of a new chapter that's all for this week if you enjoyed the show please like subscribe share or leave a comment below telling us what made you say WTF this week thanks so much for watching what the future I'm Jessie Earl and this will be my last show for 2018 so Happy Holidays to all you wTF is out there I'll see you next year in the future