Artificial neurons that behave like real brain cells

USC researchers built artificial neurons that replicate real brain processes using ion-based diffusive memristors. These devices emulate how neurons use chemicals to transmit and process signals, offering massive energy and size advantages. The technology may enable brain-like, hardware-based learning systems. It could transform AI into something closer to natural intelligence.

Human-centric photo dataset aims to help spot AI biases responsibly

A database of more than 10,000 human images to evaluate biases in artificial intelligence (AI) models for human-centric computer vision is presented in Nature this week. The Fair Human-Centric Image Benchmark (FHIBE), developed by Sony AI, is an ethically sourced, consent-based dataset that can be used to evaluate human-centric computer vision tasks to identify and …

Databricks research reveals that building better AI judges isn’t just a technical concern, it’s a people problem

The intelligence of AI models isn’t what’s blocking enterprise deployments. It’s the inability to define and measure quality in the first place. That’s where AI judges are now playing an increasingly important role. In AI evaluation, a “judge” is an AI system that scores outputs from another AI system.  Judge Builder is Databricks’ framework for …

Strengthening Our Core: Welcoming Karyne Levy as VentureBeat’s New Managing Editor

I’m thrilled to announce a fantastic new addition to our leadership team: Karyne Levy is joining VentureBeat as our new Managing Editor. Today is her first day. Many of you may know Karyne from her most recent role as Deputy Managing Editor at TechCrunch, but her career is a highlight reel of veteran tech journalism. …

FSNet finds feasible power grid solutions in minutes, outperforming tried-and-true tools

Managing a power grid is like trying to solve an enormous puzzle. Grid operators must ensure the proper amount of power is flowing to the right areas at the exact time when it is needed, and they must do this in a way that minimizes costs without overloading physical infrastructure. Even more, they must solve …

Moving past speculation: How deterministic CPUs deliver predictable AI performance

For more than three decades, modern CPUs have relied on speculative execution to keep pipelines full. When it emerged in the 1990s, speculation was hailed as a breakthrough — just as pipelining and superscalar execution had been in earlier decades. Each marked a generational leap in microarchitecture. By predicting the outcomes of branches and memory …

Large reasoning models almost certainly can think

Recently, there has been a lot of hullabaloo about the idea that large reasoning models (LRM) are unable to think. This is mostly due to a research article published by Apple, “The Illusion of Thinking” Apple argues that LRMs must not be able to think; instead, they just perform pattern-matching. The evidence they provided is …