While we are all well aware of the exceptional technology we are surrounded by today, numerous of scientists’ most incredible advancements go unnoticed daily– particularly in the realm of AI and robotics. A few of the most notable discoveries and breakthroughs this February involve the following: a robotic fish with the ability to control schools, the reintroduction of the long-extinct dodo bird, and AI technology that can flawlessly dub and lip-sync movies.
Recently, researchers from Polytechnic Institute of New York University (NYU-Poly), have been experimenting with biomimetics to uncover what might enable a robotic fish to incorporate itself into a school of live fish and lead them. After narrowing it down to the motion of the tail, they soon discovered that in nature, the leader typically propels itself with a greater frequency than the others, creating a flow, or a wake. The right ratio of water velocity to tail beats per second would result in a frequency that allowed other fish to follow the “current” created by the robot fish, which live fish liked to follow. This particular discovery could be crucial in learning to guide similar species away from disasters such as oil or chemical spills, as well as other man-made dangers.
On a similar note, a gene editing company known as Colossal Biosciences is attempting to resurrect the dodo bird, last seen around the 17th century in the island of Mauritius. They plan to reconstruct the dodo’s genome from preserved remains of dead birds, as they were in collection all around the world. This information can be used to “transfer” key traits into the dodo’s closest living relative, the pigeon. This in turn, will be able to simulate what a dodo would have looked and acted like, although it is impossible to recreate to perfection an extinct species. The researchers hope this development can serve as a reminder of the damage human activity has done in the world, seeing as the dodo remains the poster child for one of humanity’s worst and most unfortunate crimes.
Finally, AI’s latest dialogue replacement trick. Watching films in other languages tends to be distracting and quite a challenge, as the only options are multitasking by reading subtitles, or listening to a dubbed version, where the actor’s voice is clearly disconnected from the film. The UK-based company flawless, came up with a solution using technology called TrueSync. The AI is programmed to picture what the actor’s mouth would look like if speaking a new language, and takes sounds the actor made throughout the film and complies them to create a fluid speech. “It’s able to essentially take an ‘ooh’ sound from Robert De Niro 20 minutes earlier and place that in a different moment in the film,” says Scott Mann. The intention was to facilitate the spread of film making, and encourage non-English speaking countries to share work with a larger audience. However, many fear it could be used to manipulate people’s words, causing others to appear to be saying words that never left their mouths in the first place.
Innovation will always be exciting and equally daunting simultaneously, as no one can guess what a new discovery will be used for in the future. Nonetheless, beauty remains in the remarkable scientific projects scientists have shared this month.
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