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News of the week selected by Impactscool – December 14th

14 December 2020 | Written by La redazione

China has also achieved quantum supremacy

Quantum supremacy is a term that is used in the research of quantum computers to indicate the achievement of a calculation speed such that a traditional supercomputer would take an unimaginable number of years to perform a specific, complex, task. Last year Google and IBM were involved in a diatribe regarding the achievement of quantum supremacy, today, even China has declared that it has reached this milestone. His name is Jiuzhang and he performed calculations in 2 minutes that the third most powerful supercomputer in the world would take 2 billion years to do. Google’s and Chinese computers work differently, the former using metals cooled to temperatures close to zero, the latter developing a quantum circuit that uses photons. Two different but still immature approaches to find real uses in the real world.

 

Japan wants to use artificial intelligence to increase births

From next year, the Japanese government will allocate $ 19 million to finance projects and startups that use artificial intelligence to help people find a partner. In fact, in 2019, only 865,000 babies were born, a negative record for an increasingly aging nation, which could see its population halve by the end of the century.

 

There is more plastic, steel and asphalt in the world than organic matter

The enormous human footprint on our planet is larger than that of all other living beings. According to research, only plastic has a higher mass than all land and marine animals. This study is yet another confirmation that man’s impact on the world is reaching critical mass and that a rethinking of production, consumption and recycling systems is necessary, finding a new balance between nature and man. According to the research, the plastics, asphalt, concrete, metal, bricks and other unnatural materials we produce by mass exceed the biomass of the whole planet: each person would therefore be responsible for the creation of these materials by a quantity equal to your weight for each week.

 

Hyundai has acquired Boston Dynamics

Robotics plays an increasingly important role for Hyundai, which aims to have about 20% of the company committed to this in the coming years. For this reason, the company has decided to acquire Boston Dynamics, the company that for years has delighted the fantasies of robotics enthusiasts with androids gymnasts and robot dogs capable of performing many different tasks and recently put on the market. Hyundai spent a billion dollars to bring the parent company of Atlas and Spot Mini into its offices. It is not yet clear how Boston Dynamics will fit into Hyundai, which becomes the third owner of Boston Dynamics in seven years. It was acquired by Google in 2013 and sold to Softbank Group in 2017.

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