Matthew Sparkes
New Scientist
United Kingdom
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Past articles by Matthew:
Amazon wants you to help train robots by playing a video game
A computer game being developed by Amazon, called Alexa Arena, is designed to harvest information on how humans interact with robots so the firm can train the machines on how best to go about their duties in offices and homes → Read More
Heating water with computer servers could save UK homes £150 a year
Data centres often waste the heat generated by servers, but UK firm Heata intends to bring servers into people's homes where the waste energy can be used to heat up people's hot water for showers → Read More
AI masters video game 6000 times faster by reading the instructions
An artificial intelligence has learned to master an Atari skiing game in days of playing time rather than the decades it took a specialist DeepMind AI, simply by reading the instructions written for humans before it started → Read More
How AI chatbots in search engines will completely change the internet
Moves by Google, Microsoft and Baidu to bring AI chatbots into their search engines may bring big advantages, but they could also damage many industries and change the very way we interact with the web → Read More
AI search heats up as Google and Baidu race to launch ChatGPT rivals
Google Bard and Baidu's Ernie Bot are set to go head-to-head with OpenAI's ChatGPT as tech giants race to combine AI chatbots with search engines → Read More
Diving drone can switch between flying and swimming
A drone that can fly like a standard quadcopter but also operate underwater could be developed as a tool for engineers and search and rescue teams → Read More
San Francisco is getting cold feet about self-driving car tests
San Francisco officials have called for a slower, more considered expansion of the use of autonomous vehicles, which have blocked traffic and hampered emergency services → Read More
Drone with sticky patches studies biodiversity by bumping into trees
A drone has revealed information on the animals inhabiting a tree's canopy simply by brushing against branches and collecting loose particles of environmental DNA with its sticky surfaces → Read More
Chocolate with a low-fat centre could still feel luxurious to eat
Fat on the outside of chocolate may be key for its mouthfeel, suggesting that fat content could be reduced in the centre without compromising the sensation → Read More
High-tech wood filled with air cavities could insulate your home
Removing polymers from wood, leaving tiny cavities, can drastically improve the material's insulating properties without removing too much of its strength, which might make it useful in buildings → Read More
Achieving nuclear fusion would be building on the shoulders of giants
It took generations of work by engineers and scientists to reach this month’s nuclear fusion milestone, but there are big challenges ahead, says Matthew Sparkes → Read More
AI made it possible to create a picture of almost anything in 2022
The rapid rise of text-to-image generators powered by artificial intelligence has thrilled some people, but left others concerned for the future of art → Read More
Twitter security flaw may leave videos sent in direct messages exposed
Videos sent in Twitter direct messages can theoretically be viewed by anyone, a weakness that could be leveraged by hackers, but the company isn't planning on fixing this flaw → Read More
Unlimited energy from fusion became a more feasible prospect in 2022
Landmark confirmations of physics theory, including an energy production breakthrough at the end of the year, have turned fusion power stations into an engineering challenge rather than a physics one → Read More
Toughest material ever is an alloy of chromium, cobalt and nickel
An alloy made of almost equal amounts of chromium, cobalt and nickel resists fracturing even at incredibly cold temperatures, which could make it useful for building spacecraft → Read More
Light-based computer could outpace traditional electrical chip designs
A computer that uses light rather than electricity to transmit and manipulate data could carry out the same tasks faster and using less power → Read More
Mussel numbers in the river Thames have dropped by up to 99 per cent
Populations of native mussels in the river Thames have dropped massively between 1964 and 2020, possibly because of the effects of pollution and invasive species → Read More
BBC documentary used face-swapping AI to hide protesters' identities
Filmmakers used an AI to swap the faces of anti-government protesters in Hong Kong for those of actors to protect the protestors' identities while maintaining their facial movements and emotional expressions → Read More
Prosthetic leg can 'change gears' to make going up stairs easier
A robotic leg with a big toe and motors that can "change gear" like a bicycle can enable a wearer to walk up stairs and slopes → Read More
Filling the internet with AI-created images will harm future AIs
The performance of image-generating AIs drops when trained using images previously created by other AIs, which may create problems for them given the proliferation of these images → Read More