Edd Gent
IEEE Spectrum
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Past articles by Edd:
MIT Makes Low-Power Underwater Communication Practical
New approach revives 70-year-old idea to boost ranges 15-fold → Read More
Xerox Donates Legendary PARC Research Center
The lab that pioneered personal computing will become part of SRI International → Read More
The Stickle-Brick Approach To Big AI
Large language models could improve their performance by outsourcing tasks to specialist AIs → Read More
When AI’s Large Language Models Shrink
Smaller models trained on more data challenge the dominance of ChatGPT, GPT-4, and company → Read More
How to Turn the Lights Back on After a Blackout
Cold starting an entire electrical grid is a complex and delicate process. A new computer model from Sandia National Laboratories that combines optimization, physical simulations and cognitive models of grid operators promises to come up with a fast and reliable plan to get the lights back on. → Read More
Log4Shell Still Has Sting In The Tail
The December holiday plans of IT workers were thrown into disarray last year after the disclosure of a major bug in the widely-used Log4j tool. The discovery led to months of feverish activity to patch the vulnerability, but a year on it has slipped off the radar. The threat hasn’t gone away though. → Read More
Is Worldcoin a Crypto-currency for the Masses or Your Digital ID?
In a college classroom in the Indian city of Bangalore last August, Moiz Ahmed held up a volleyball-size chrome globe with a glass-covered opening at its center. Ahmed explained to the students that if they had their irises scanned with the device, known as the Orb, they would be rewarded with 25 → Read More
Hello, ChatGPT—Please Explain Yourself!
A new AI-powered chatbot released by OpenAI called ChatGPT has taken the Internet by storm. More than one million people have signed up to try out the free service since it was launched last week. To delve deeper into this buzzy new AI tool, Spectrum decided to put some questions to ChatGPT itself. → Read More
Golf Robot Learns To Putt Like A Pro
A solid putting game is often what separates a golf champion from the journeymen. A robot built by German researchers is quickly becoming a master of this short game using a clever combination of classical control engineering and machine learning. → Read More
India’s First Private Space Rocket Blasts Off
A rocket built by Indian start-up Skyroot has become the country’s first privately developed launch vehicle to reach space, following a successful maiden flight earlier today. The sub-orbital mission is a major milestone for India’s private space industry. → Read More
Robotic Falcon Keeps Birds Away From Airports
Collisions with birds are a serious problem for commercial aircraft, costing the industry billions of dollars and killing thousands of animals every year. New research shows that a robotic imitation of a peregrine falcon could be an effective way to keep them out of flight paths. → Read More
Micro 4D Printing Builds on Programmable Matter
Objects that can transform themselves after they’ve been built could have a host of useful applications in everything from robotics to biomedicine. A new technique that combines 3D printing and an ink with dynamic chemical bonds can create microscale structures of alterable sizes and properties. → Read More
Blockchain Ride-hailing App Drife Takes on Uber in India
Ride-hailing in India is dominated by Uber and local rival Ola, but start-up Drife thinks blockchain technology could be the key to breaking up their duopoly. → Read More
Central Banks Join The Cryptocurrency Goldrush
One of the primary motivations is to improve the cost, speed and flexibility of digital payment, says Veneris. “Payment systems today are expensive, they are clumsy and slow,” he says, pointing out that much of the underlying technology is more than 40 years old. → Read More
Regulators Rush to Become “Crypto-Friendly”
There’s no established playbook for how to regulate cryptocurrency and blockchain technologies though, and Sergiu Hamza, CEO of crypto analyst firm Coinhub, says the pace of experimentation has accelerated dramatically in the last year. → Read More
Regulators Rush to Become “Crypto-Friendly”
There’s no established playbook for how to regulate cryptocurrency and blockchain technologies though, and Sergiu Hamza, CEO of crypto analyst firm Coinhub, says the pace of experimentation has accelerated dramatically in the last year. → Read More
Can Cryptocurrencies Actually Be Legal Tender? Should They?
When the blueprint for Bitcoin was unveiled in 2008, the goal was to create a new form of electronic cash that bypassed traditional financial institutions. Today, though, a handful of governments are bringing blockchain tech back to its roots by making cryptocurrencies legal tender. → Read More
Can Cryptocurrencies Actually Be Legal Tender? Should They?
When the blueprint for Bitcoin was unveiled in 2008, the goal was to create a new form of electronic cash that bypassed traditional financial institutions. Today, though, a handful of governments are bringing blockchain tech back to its roots by making cryptocurrencies legal tender. → Read More
IBM’s Target: a 4,000-Qubit Processor by 2025
An update to IBM’s quantum computing roadmap says the company is now on course to build a 4,000-qubit machine by 2025. But getting the device to do anything useful will require the development of a powerful new software stack that will enlist the help of classical hardware to combat noise. → Read More
Quantum Communication at Room Temperature
Quantum networks could provide essentially unhackable communication channels, but first they need a reliable source of single photons. Normally these require cryogenic temperatures, but Australian researchers have created an SPS that operates at room temperature. → Read More