A paralysed man has regained feeling in his limbs after an AI-enabled implant was placed in his brain. The first-of-its-kind clinical trial used novel stimulation technology to restore the sense of touch and movement to 45-year-old Keith Thomas, who was paralysed from the chest down in 2020 after diving into a swimming pool. After living as a quadriplegic for more than a year, Mr Thomas was approached by the Feinstein Institutes for Medical Research in the US to take part in a study that proposed a double neural bypass to re-route signals from the brain in order to restore movement and sensation. Artificial intelligence was able to re-link his brain to his body through microchips implanted into his brain during a 15-hour surgical procedure. “This is the first time the brain, body and spinal cord have been linked together electronically in a paralysed human to restore lasting movement and sensation,” said Chad Bouton, a professor at the Institute of Bioelectronic Medicine at the Feinstein Institutes, who led the clinical trial. “When the study participant thinks about moving his arm or hand, we ‘supercharge’ his spinal cord and stimulate his brain and muscles to help rebuild connections, provide sensory feedback, and promote recovery. This type of thought-driven therapy is a game-changer.” Over 100 million people around the world currently live with some form of paralysis or movement impairment, with the scientists hopeful that the new method could provide new pathways toward improving the condition of many of them. Mr Thomas has already regained more than double his arm strength since enrolling in the clinical trial, and also reported feeling sensations in his forearm even when the system was switched off. “There was a time that I didn’t know if I was even going to live, or if I wanted to, frankly,” said Mr Thomas. “Now I can feel the touch of someone holding my hand. It’s overwhelming.” Read More Paralysed man communicates first words in months using brain implant: ‘I want a beer’

By Josh Ye HONG KONG China's Lenovo Group Ltd on Wednesday reported a 24% fall in revenue for

Facebook parent company Meta is reportedly planning to internally release an artificial intelligence chatbot called “Gen AI Personas” aimed at younger users. The chatbot, similar to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, is set to be launched during Meta’s Connect Event on Wednesday. The tech giant is testing the chatbot, which comes in multiple “personas” aimed to engage young users, including a “sassy robot” persona inspired by Bender from Futurama,according to The Wall Street Journal. Meta is reportedly developing “dozens” of these chatbots, including some to help with “coding and other tasks” and improve productivity as well as a tool to help celebrities make their own chatbots for their fans. The development of some of these chatbots – including one with the personality of former US president Abraham Lincoln – are part of Meta’s attempts to boost engagement on its social media platforms, reports previously suggested. The development of these new chatbots are signs of Meta’s growing interest in the market for large language models (LLM) similar to ChatGPT. It launched a new version of its open-source model in July called Llama 2 for commercial use, becoming the first major tech firm to release its AI chatbot. Meta chief Mark Zuckerberg said at the time of Llama 2’s release that it would “drive progress across the industry” while the firm’s chief AI scientist Yann LeCun said it will “change the landscape of the LLM market”. The tech firm’s development of “personas” also comes as tech industry leaders called for a balanced approach towards regulating AI at a historic gathering convened by US senate majority leader Chuck Schumer. At the meeting held earlier this month, Mr Zuckerberg said the two defining issues for AI are “safety and access.” He urged the US Congress should “engage with AI to support innovation and safeguards”. “New technology often brings new challenges, and it’s on companies to make sure we build and deploy products responsibly,” the Meta chief said. “This is an emerging technology, there are important equities to balance here, and the government is ultimately responsible for that,” he added. Read More Meta’s new end-to-end encryption ‘means thousands of criminals could go undetected’ Elon Musk warns of ‘civilisational risk’ posed by AI at historic gathering of tech giant chiefs WhatsApp update brings ‘channels’, allowing people to follow updates from celebrities and companies Facebook changes logo to ‘make F stand apart’ – but can you tell the difference? Elon Musk warns of ‘civilisational risk’ posed by AI at historic gathering Nasa just delivered a piece of a distant asteroid to Earth

A British startup spun out from University College London and the University of Bristol raised £13 million ($16.5

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MIAMI--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Aug 10, 2023--

'Call Of Duty: Modern Warfare III' will have the most Zombie action of all time.

(This story has been refiled to fix the dateline) By Foo Yun Chee and Chavi Mehta The U.S.

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