First Breaths

Scientists just took a major step forward towards 3D printed organs — with a new lung-like system full of air sacs can expand and contract, filling the same biological role as our lungs do by pumping oxygen into blood.

Bioprinted organs could someday help people who are waiting and sometimes dying on the organ transplant waitlist. In research published in the journal Science last week, the team behind the new printing technique made a similar device and successfully grafted it into mice with injured livers.

In And Out

The 3D printed lung can be seen expanding and contracting, oxygenating blood as it flows past its bulbous transparent air sacs in a video published by Seeker on Friday.

Biological Infrastructure

3D printing blood vessels and other vasculature has remained an elusive challenge for scientists — some teams have even outsourced the endeavor to the International Space Station, where the zero-gravity environment means that small tubes are less likely to collapse under their own weight as they’re being printed.

Per the research, this new lung was printed down here on Earth, suggesting that the new bioprinting technique and materials could help us get to a point where people in need of new organs only need to wait as long as it takes to print one out.

More on 3D bioprinting: These Scientists Are 3D-Printing New Body Parts for Athletes

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Human Error

After spending three years compiling the United Nations’ first comprehensive biodiversity report, researchers came to an alarming conclusion: humans have driven one million species to the brink of extinction — putting more species at risk than ever before in human history.

“Ecosystems, species, wild populations, local varieties, and breeds of domesticated plants and animals are shrinking, deteriorating, or vanishing,” report co-chairman Josef Settele said in a news release. “The essential, interconnected web of life on Earth is getting smaller and increasingly frayed.”

“This loss is a direct result of human activity,” he continued, “and constitutes a direct threat to human well-being in all regions of the world.”

Transformational Change

The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) compiled the 1,800-page-long report, drawing information from 15,000 scientific and government reports, as well as the input of indigenous and local populations.

All that data led the IPBES researchers to conclude that nature is declining rapidly. But according to IPBES Chair Robert Watson, “the Report also tells us that it is not too late to make a difference, but only if we start now at every level from local to global.”

“Through ‘transformative change’, nature can still be conserved, restored and used sustainably – this is also key to meeting most other global goals,” he continued. “By transformative change, we mean a fundamental, system-wide reorganization across technological, economic and social factors, including paradigms, goals and values.”

READ MORE: UN report: Humans accelerating extinction of species [Associated Press]

More on extinction: Climate Change Just Wiped out Its First Mammal

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Striking a Chord

Web developer Victor Pontis has had enough of cars in San Francisco — parking spaces, he says, just take up too much space.

His idea: turn the prime real estate of parking spots into coworking spaces, complete with desks and chairs, that he called WePark — and charge only the price of a parking meter, which is a fraction of the price of other local coworking spaces.

I have set up at 16th and Market and paid the meter a reasonable $2.75 for one hour.

Stop by and say hi! pic.twitter.com/qJCJudEWsh

— Victor Pontis (@VictorPontis) April 25, 2019

The experiment struck a nerve — especially considering the skyrocketing rent in the Californian metropolis — and picked up widespread press coverage.

“Car parking squanders space that can be used for the public good — bike lanes, larger sidewalks, retail, cafes, more housing,” Pontis told Vice. “Let’s use city streets for people, not cars.”

Great first official day of WePark!

We had 3 events across the world today:

– @valdecarpentrie in France
– @graybright in Santa Monica
– @VictorPontis + 30 others in San Francisco. (Recap coming soon.)

And we hear more are coming soon to a city near you! pic.twitter.com/cGnea3G9VQ

— wepark (@weparkweparty) April 30, 2019

Pontis got the idea from a tweet by developer Devon Zuegel, who posted a picture of a specialized bike carrier vehicle that can fit eight bikes in a single parking spot.

This mobile parklet fits 8 bikes. With a license plate, it can be legally parked anywhere for the price of parking 1 car. Genius. https://t.co/cFshYA4C1N pic.twitter.com/p6xTfLd5CA

— Devon (@devonzuegel) March 29, 2019

Everybody Park Now

WePark has quickly garnered the attention from freelancers across the globe. Its operations have expanded to Santa Monica — and a related event even took place in France.

The question remains: is WePark more than a publicity stunt that takes a clear stance against San Francisco’s — perhaps even an American — obsession with cars? That’s hard to tell. But momentum is growing behind the idea regardless.

READ MORE: A Rogue Coder Turned a Parking Spot into a Coworking Space and People Loved It [Vice]

More on the sharing economy: People Love Living in Pods So Much They’re Getting Neck Tattoos About It

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SF Is so Expensive That People Are Using Parking Spots as Offices

A/B Testing

Deepfakes and other AI-generated images have become commonplace the algorithms that churn them out have become widespread.

On one sugar-coated hand, this means cooler movie and video game visual effects. On the other hand, it means that bad actors can produce photorealistic propaganda, fake porn of real people, or other convincing but fake media.

That’s why two University of Washington scientists created a website, “WhichFaceIsReal.com,” which is meant to train people to spot the telltale signs that an alleged photo was actually built by an algorithm — by asking them to guess which of two side-by-side photos a real person and which is an AI-created dupe.

Facial Recognition

The website has been up and running since February, shortly after a website called “ThisPersonDoesNotExist.com” went live.

That site highlights an AI algorithm built by Nvidia called StyleGAN that can create almost-perfect portraits of human faces out of thin air.

WhichFaceIsReal focuses on the specific errors and glitches in StyleGAN portraits, so the tips and tricks — look for asymmetrical glasses, ears, and jewelry; check whether the background is full of mysterious splotches of color — don’t always generalize to other face-generating AI algorithms.

But if nothing else, WhichFaceIsReal can serve as a reminder that AI-generated media is coming soon, and we’re all going to have to be more critical about the images and videos we see every day.

Try It Out: WhichFaceIsReal.com

More on StyleGAN: A New AI Draws Cats, and They’re Utterly Grotesque

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Labeling by Hand

Reuters reports that millions of “Facebook photos, status updates and other content posted since 2014,” including private posts, have been combed over by outsourced workers in India in order to train the company’s AI and develop new features.

It’s yet another example of the social media network’s careless handling of its billions of users’ privacy — giving third party contractors access to data that’s technically labelled as “private” is not a good look.

Outsource Force

Outsourcing firm Wipro Ltd oversaw efforts to label posts and categorize them into five “dimensions,” as Facebook reportedly called them, including the subject, occasion, or intention of each post. About 200 more content labeling projects are in the works, according to Reuters, employing thousands more contracted workers.

The posts include anything from vacation photos to memorials of deceased family members — and yes, they are sometimes tied to user names, company officials told Reuters.

“We make it clear in our data policy that we use the information people provide to Facebook to improve their experience and that we might work with service providers to help in this process,” a Facebook spokeswoman told Reuters.

Bad Record

Previous privacy concerns have been raised around Facebook’s treatment of the data it collects. The company got caught storing “hundreds of millions” of account passwords in plain text in March.

CEO Mark Zuckerberg made it clear that the social giant wants to clear its name. Its F8 developer’s conference at the end of last month was dedicated to brushing up its tarnished reputation, including declaring that it was fully committed to ensuring its users’ privacy.

But if the bad news keep rolling in, that kind of message will ring hollow.

READ MORE: Facebook ‘labels’ posts by hand, posing privacy questions [Reuters]

More on Facebook: InfoWars Made a New Facebook Page One Hour After Ban

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Bad Investment

Back in 2016, Futurism noted that artificial intelligence was creeping into the world of finance, analyzing market data in real-time to autonomously execute trades for investors.

Now, Hong Kong real estate tycoon Samathur Li Kin-kan is suing a company that used one of those trade-executing AIs to manage his account, causing millions of dollars in losses — a first-of-its-kind court case that could help determine who should be held responsible when an AI screws up.

Not-So-Supercomputer

According to a Bloomberg story about the case, Li met Raffaele Costa, CEO and founder of Tyndaris Investments, in March 2017, at which point Costa told Li his company was launching a robot hedge fund controlled by a supercomputer named K1.

Li expressed interest in the fund, so Costa started sharing simulations with Li that showed how K1 could make double-digit returns on investments.

Li was apparently impressed, because he agreed to let K1 manage $2.5 billion, with the goal of eventually increasing that to $5 billion.

Lawsuit Up

K1 began managing Li’s investment in late 2017, and by the time February rolled around, the AI was losing money regularly — on one particularly bad day, its decisions cost Li more than $20 million.

Li pulled his money from the account before the end of that month. Then he filed a $23 million lawsuit against Tyndaris, alleging that Costa exaggerated K1’s abilities.

Tyndaris’ lawyers, meanwhile, deny that allegation, asserting that the company never made any guarantees that the AI would make money for Li. They’re now suing him for $3 million in unpaid fees.

Blame Game

According to Bloomberg, these lawsuits are the first known examples of humans clashing in court over financial losses causing by an AI-powered trading system. However, it likely won’t be the last time we see the judicial system forced to tread new territory thanks to the emergence of AI.

The question of who’s responsible when AI makes a mistake is already lurking at the edge of nearly every industry dabbling in the technology, from transportation to healthcare to law enforcement.

Should it be the person who wrote the code? The person marketing the AI? Or are end users responsible for the outcome given that any new technology is certain to be a bit wonky at first?

The outcome of the K1 trial, which is scheduled for April 2020, might finally start to set some legal precedent.

READ MORE: Who to Sue When a Robot Loses Your Fortune [Bloomberg]

More on AI in finance: The Future of Investing? AI-Run Hedge Funds

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Pop-Ups

In order to curb the spread of dangerous medical misinformation, Instagram is reportedly working on a pop-up style disclaimer that will appear next to anti-vaxxer content.

The pop-up would likely appear when people search for or stumble across vaccine misinformation, an Instagram representative told The Hill, suggesting that Instagram and parent company Facebook are ramping up their fight against the spread of dangerous medical myths on their platforms.

Ban Hammer

Instagram won’t delete anti-vaxxer comment, which scientists have linked to ongoing measles outbreaks in the U.S., but it has blocked hashtags that repeat the repeatedly-debunked myths that vaccines are dangerous or linked in any way to autism spectrum disorder. But that’s created a whack-a-mole problem as anti-vaxxers keep rearing their heads under more positive-sounding hashtags, per The Hill.

“Our approach to misinformation is the same as Facebook’s — when we find misinfo, rather than remove it, we’ll reduce its distribution,” Insta spokeswoman Stephanie Otway told Poynter. “We can use image recognition technology to find the same piece of content on Instagram and take automatic action.”

Status Pending

Instagram didn’t share any details about what the pop-up will look like or what it will say.

But regardless of what specific form it takes, the pop-up will be the first user-facing attempt Instagram has taken to curb misinformation. Compared to its usual approach of tweaking its algorithm to keep from recommending conspiracy theories, we’re hoping this one works out.

READ MORE: Instagram developing ‘pop-up’ message to crack down on vaccine misinformation [The Hill]

More on anti-vaxxers: Scientists: Anti-Vaxxers Are the Moral Equivalent of Drunk Drivers

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Bird Drones

Drones aren’t known for their lengthy flight times. Until we can figure out how to wirelessly charge them from the ground, their battery life will likely remain limited to less than an hour.

But by perching on the side of a building using bird-like claws, according to new research, drones could stay out far longer — since it’d require less energy than hovering in mid-air.

“Birds usually fly somewhere and they stay at the top of the roof or some tree branches,” Kaiyu Hang, a roboticist who worked on the research at Yale University, told NPR.

Perching and Resting

Hang and his colleagues came up with a bird-inspired design that act as the drone’s “modularized landing gears,” as he describes them in his paper, published in the journal Science Robotics in March. The claws are designed to extend and save battery power by allowing the drone to both perch and rest.

And the modular claws could have other benefits, too.

“If you perch, for example, underneath a bridge or underneath the eaves of a building you can ride out storms or bad weather that would make it hard to fly,” Stanford University professor Mark Cutkosky told NPR.

READ MORE: If Drones Had ‘Claws,’ They Might Be Able To Fly For Longer [NPR]

More on flight: Russia Built a Battering Ram Drone to Knock Drones out of the Sky

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Drones’ Batteries Could Last Longer if They Could Perch Like Birds

E For Everyone

A new Microsoft patent shows how the company might make its Xbox console more accessible to visually-impaired people.

The patent describes a new accessory for Xbox controllers that functions like a Braille touchscreen — it’d give gamers a live feed of on-screen text and chat, according to LetsGoDigital.

Live Chat

For people with the degree of visual impairments called “low vision,” 30 percent report that their vision “notably impacts” their ability to use a computer, according to a study conducted by an online accessibility organization called WebAIM.

Almost half of the people surveyed use screen readers, screen magnification tools, or increase the size of text on their computers. But with games, those options aren’t available, so people who can see well enough to play the game but not well enough to read the on-screen text generally miss out.

The Braille display, which sits on the back of the controller where a person’s fingers would already be resting, also lets the gamer type and participate in online chat, and translates voice commands, according to LetsGoDigital.

Fingers Crossed

It’s worth pointing out that the existence of a patent isn’t the same as a real product — though GameInformer speculates that an announcement may be coming at June’s E3 conference. The patent was awarded on Thursday but first filed back in October, so there’s no telling whether Microsoft changed its plans since then.

But given the goodwill Microsoft racked up when it announced its Xbox Adaptive Controller, a simplified controller with two hand-sized buttons and an oversized D-pad for people with physical disabilities, it makes sense for the company to continue pursuing new ways to make gaming more accessible.

READ MORE: Microsoft Xbox game controller with haptic braille output [LetsGoDigital]

More on Xbox: Sailors Use Xbox Controllers to Operate Part of the Navy’s Newest Attack Sub

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Playing The Odds

The cosmos are filled with roughly Earth-sized exoplanets. Various moons, comets, and planets have stores of water, organic molecules, and amino acids like those that make up life on Earth.

Cathal O’Donnell, a 3D bioprinting researcher at St. Vincent’s Hospital in Melbourne, likes those odds — he argues in The Conversation that the abundance of potentially habitable worlds out there makes the discovery of extraterrestrial life “inevitable and possibly imminent.”

One In 40 Billion

O’Donnell argues that the sheer vastness of space and quantity of exoplanets orbiting in habitable zones — the sweet spots where they’re not too close nor too far from their star — makes the discovery of extraterrestrial life overwhelmingly likely, citing research that calculated that billions of such planets may exist.

And just because a planet doesn’t have a temperate climate doesn’t mean life couldn’t exist there — O’Donnell argues that terrestrial life can be found in Antarctica, in deep-sea hydrothermal vents, and other seemingly inhospitable settings.

Numbers Game

The fact remains that we’ve only encountered life in one place: Earth. But O’Donnell predicts that we’ll be able to probe for life in the near future.

“The ancient question ‘Are we alone?’ has graduated from being a philosophical musing to a testable hypothesis,” O’Donnell writes. “We should be prepared for an answer.”

READ MORE: Why the idea of alien life now seems inevitable and possibly imminent [The Conversation]

More on extraterrestrial life: The Scientist Who Reevaluated The Drake Equation Still Thinks Alien Life is Out There

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Scientist: “Alien Life Now Seems Inevitable and Possibly Imminent”

Elite Gaming Internet

Internet service provider Cox Communications is offering a new tier of internet service called “Elite Gamer” for an additional $15 a month. The promise: low latency, which in gaming means less lag, for optimal gaming performance.

Cox Communications’ new offering is technically legal, but arguably flies in the face of the hotly debated subject of net neutrality, which was repealed in the United States in 2018. In essence, net neutrality is the act of treating all “lanes” or connections of data on the internet the same without giving certain connections a fast pass.

Lag Spikes

Cox’s FAQ says wants to offer the “fastest pass to your game server” by reducing “lag spikes” with its Elite Gamer tier internet. Anticipating the negative reactions from net neutrality supporters, Cox told Motherboard that its “Elite Gamer” offering does not “prioritize any traffic over others on our network,” or “alter speed in any way.”

If it doesn’t alter the speed or prioritize traffic, though, how is an “Elite Gamer” internet connection any different than any other? Americans are already paying hand over fist for internet, with very few options available, depending on location.

Cox has the opportunity to sell the service to a limited number of people in Arizona as part of a trial. It will then evaluate how to go forward from there, according to Motherboard.

READ MORE: This ISP Is Offering a ‘Fast Lane’ for Gamers…For $15 More Per Month

More on net neutrality: The Inventor of the Web Says It’s Broken and Net Neutrality Can Fix It

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Faking It

No matter how cute present-day robots are designed to look, no matter how smiley their virtual faces and chipper their beeps and boops, they will never love you back.

The stories of people mourning robots like Jibo, a smart home assistant that announced its own “death” when its servers were scheduled to get shut down last month, are heartwarming. But they also reveal a way, according to the Associated Press, that marketers could exploit the emotions of people — especially kids — by programming robots to seem more emotionally savvy than they really are.

Fast Friends

Humans will bond with seemingly anything, whether it’s a robotic vacuum cleaner that gets pitifully stuck in a corner or Jibo. But that’s because we tend to ascribe intention and consciousness to things that seem to act with purpose, experts told the AP.

“The performance of empathy is not empathy,” MIT AI researcher Sherry Turkle told the AP. “Simulated thinking might be thinking, but simulated feeling is never feeling. Simulated love is never love.”

When a robot does something adorable or seems to have genuine emotions, Turkle suggests that it’s all because of a human-written script — and unfortunately not the basis of a true friendship.

READ MORE: Be wary of robot emotions; ‘simulated love is never love’ [Associated Press]

More on cute robots: Discontinued Robot Assistant Announces Its Own Death

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Expert Warns Against Forming Emotional Attachments With Robots

Deadly Deployment

Facial recognition technology is still in the nascent stages of development, and we’ve already seen many ways it can go wrong, from China using the tech to track and detain minorities to the numerous examples of it perpetuating racial and gender bias.

Now, in an expansive interview with VentureBeat, AI researcher Os Keyesat from the University of Washington has presented several “nightmare scenarios” for transgender people that could result from the deployment of facial recognition tech — and in some cases, they end with the person being killed.

Who’s There?

In the interview, Keyes noted how some apartment buildings are considering the use of facial recognition tech for entry — the idea is a resident would show their face, and the system would recognize them and unlock the door.

Keyes also pointed out how some people are even suggesting facial recognition systems be used to monitor bathrooms.

Keyes told VentureBeat that because some systems have trouble recognizing transgender or gender non-conforming people, they could be flagged, leading to law enforcement being called to the scene — and that could prove deadly for trans people, particularly those of color.

“To be exceedingly deadpan,” Keyes said, “the police’s record with trans people of color is not great, so yeah — the worst case scenario is someone tries to go to the bathroom because they just want to piss and they end up shot or arrested or harassed, or shot and then arrested and then harassed.”

No Good Use

Keyes isn’t just concerned about how facial recognition tech will affect the trans community, though. Another worry is that it doesn’t benefit any members of society enough to warrant further development.

“I would like to see facial recognition development and usage just made straight-up illegal because I don’t think this is a technology with redeeming features,” Keyes told VentureBeat. “Nobody has been able to point me to a use case that directly benefits humanity that can’t be solved with other means. It’s so obviously ripe for abuse and has already been [so] abused that it’s not worth doing.”

READ MORE: A transgender AI researcher’s nightmare scenarios for facial recognition software [VentureBeat]

More on facial recognition: Americans Built Tech for China’s Sinister “Re-Education Camps”

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SpaceX Moment

SpaceX has made rocket launches a whole lot cheaper. And now, according to industry experts who spoke to NBC News, fusion energy production could be next — with decades of scientific research to leverage, it could be startups that finally turn fusion energy into an affordable, commercially viable energy source.

“Fusion is poised for a ‘SpaceX moment,'” General Fusion CEO Christofer Mowry told NBC.

Fusion Synergy

It’s thanks to decades of government-funded research that these companies are able to do what they can do — a clear parallel to SpaceX, which built on years of state space exploration technology as well.

“Everything that the private companies have been able to do is built on the shoulders of giants,” Andrew Holland, executive director of the Fusion Industry Association, a DC-based group that represents 17 different fusion companies, told NBC.

Downscaling

Startups like General Fusion or Commonwealth Fusion Systems aren’t alone in their efforts to generate power from fusion. Several massive, internationally funded fusion reactors are under construction right now including the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor in France, which is designed to produce 500 megawatts bursts of power.

But startups are betting on smaller scale reactors. To get there, scientists are hoping technologies like superconductors, which could withstand extremely strong magnetic fields inside the reactor, could bring the tech into the realm of feasibility.

READ MORE: Fusion power start-ups go small in effort to bring commercial reactors to life [NBC News]

More on fusion: Scientists Just Got Amazing Results From an Old Fusion Reactor

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SpaceX-Like Startups Think They Can Solve Fusion For Cheap

Looking Bleak

The world is not a happy place — at least, not according to the people living in it.

This week, analytics firm Gallup shared the results of a global survey designed to gauge the world’s emotional temperature. Their report suggests that people are sadder, angrier, and more worried than ever before recorded — findings that could have profound implications for global health.

Sad, Mad, and Worried

For its 2018 Global State of Emotions report, Gallup conducted more than 151,000 interviews with adults living in more than 140 countries. They asked survey respondents questions about how they felt the day prior, such as whether they smiled or laughed a lot, and whether they felt sadness or anger.

They found that the number of people who said they’d experienced anger increased by two percentage points over the previous year, while both worry and sadness increased by one percentage point — setting new record highs for all three negative emotions.

Physical Burden

Research has noted the impact negative feelings can have on a person’s physical health — studies have linked anger to an elevated risk of heart attack and stroke, while chronic worry and sadness can be signs of anxiety disorders and depression, which carry an increased risk of heart disease.

If people continue to experience these negative emotions in greater numbers, we could be headed toward a future in which the global population is increasingly unhealthy — a situation that carries its own troubling side effects.

READ MORE: The world is sadder and angrier than ever, major study finds [CNN]

More on sadness: Researchers Found What Sadness Looks Like in the Brain

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New Research: The World Is Sadder, Angrier Than Ever Before

Machine Behaviour

Computer scientists and engineers shouldn’t be the only people shaping the future of artificial intelligence, according to a group led by researchers from MIT’s Media Lab.

“We’re seeing the rise of machines with agency, machines that are actors making decisions and taking actions autonomously,” MIT’s Iyad Rahwan said in a blog post. “This calls for a new field of scientific study that looks at them not solely as products of engineering and computer science, but additionally as a new class of actors with their own behavioral patterns and ecology.”

Rahwan and colleagues call this new field “machine behaviour” — and it could ensure we reap the potential benefits of AI while avoiding the pitfalls.

Team Effort

On Thursday, the group published a paper in the journal Nature describing its vision for this new field of study.

They suggest that while experts in the fields of biology, economics, psychology, and beyond are studying AI, their work is taking place in “silos.” The hope is that giving a name to the wider field of AI research will help forge connections between these currently disparate explorations of the tech.

The more people we have working together in the field of AI, in other words, the more likely we are to understand how AIs behave and their potential impact on the world. And that, as the authors write in their paper, “is essential to our ability to control their actions, reap their benefits, and minimize their harms.”

READ MORE: Studying the behavior of AI [MIT Media Lab]

More on AI: Expert: To Understand an Algorithm, Treat It Like an Animal

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To Prevent the Apocalypse, MIT Says to Study “Machine Behaviour”

Human Choices

A prominent rabbi wants to make sure that artificial intelligence never takes important choices out of human hands.

“The development of AI has the potential to be the source of enormous blessing for our world by augmenting human capacity, and not by replacing it,” Ephraim Mirvis, Chief Rabbi in the Commonwealth, said on BBC Radio, per Jewish News. “But it is imperative that this technology be harnessed to serve us, rather than the reverse.”

Mirvis echoes the sentiments of many other prominent thought leaders who are troubled by the rise of AI technology — and the lack of meaningful discussion about what decisions and aspects of life ought to remain untouched by it.

Final Battle

Mirvis warned listeners of “a desperate struggle for control between artificial intelligence and its creators” — though it bears mentioning that artificial intelligence, for all its wonders, is far away from being able to do any sort of world dominating.

Others have argued that the dangers posed by AI come from mass unemployment as more companies decide to automate their workforces or when governments decide to build autonomous weapons.

“I am troubled,” Mirvis said. “What happens when soulless artificial intelligence, devoid of feeling or emotion, is called upon to make moral or ethical choices on our behalf?”

READ MORE: The crucial fight for control between AI and its creators [Jewish News]

More on conscious AI: Artificial Consciousness: How To Give A Robot A Soul

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Flip Out

The Verge reports that new images have leaked on Chinese social media of Motorola’s folding phone, the RAZR V4.

We don’t know much about the hotly anticipated device yet. But we do know that the RAZR V4 will likely fold vertically like a traditional flip phone rather than horizontally like Samsung’s delayed Galaxy Fold — a smartphone that uses folding to become even smaller, in other words, rather than a tablet that can fit in your pocket.

Nostalgia Sells

But is this really the revival of the popular RAZR flip phones that were first introduced in 2004? Patents filed back in January seem to support the idea that the leaked images could in fact be Motorola’s upcoming design. The Wall Street Journal previously suggested it will go on sale for $1,500.

It’s arguably not the best time to release a folding device meant for everyday consumers. Review units of Samsung’s folding tablet broke earlier this month after only a single dNotificationsay of testing, thanks to a fragile hinge design and a mysterious protective layer covering the device’s screen. Samsung has since delayed the launch of the device, admitting that it “needs further improvements.”

READ MORE: Motorola’s vertically folding RAZR shown in leaked renders [The Verge]

More on folding phones: Samsung Admits Its Folding Smartphone “Needs Further Improvements”

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Leak: Motorola’s Folding Phone Looks Like an Old-School Flip Phone

Contact High

French engineering school IMT Atlantique revealed what it calls “the first stand-alone contact lens with a flexible micro battery” earlier this month.

And, notably, it caught the attention of the U.S. military’s attention: the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is reportedly interested in the contact lens to augment troops’ visual capabilities in the field, according to Task and Purpose — meaning the gadget could represent the augmented contact lens that DARPA has spent a decade searching for.

Weird Flex

The biggest challenge that IMT Atlantique engineers encountered was to scale down the battery. But thanks to a newly developed flexible micro battery, they found a way to continuously light an LED light source for “several hours,” according to a press release.

The release also suggests that “graphene-based flexible electronics” could further enhance the smart contact lens’ capabilities. Applications could range from assisting surgeons in the operating room to helping out drivers on the road.

Enhanced Recon

And now the military wants in on the project as well. French business magazine l’Usine Nouvelle writes that DARPA is interested in the technology. Even tech giant Microsoft is ready to invest two million euros, according to the magazine — which is notable, considering the tech company’s recent HoloLens contract with the U.S. Army.

“All the elements are ready,” Jean-Louis Bougrenet de la Tocnaye, project lead at IMT Atlantique, told l’Usine Nouvelle, as translated from the original French. “We should integrate it in October 2019 and hope to start testing in 2020. Then we will be able to go to the qualifying clinical tests.”

READ MORE: DARPA is Eyeing a High-Tech Contact Lens Straight Out of ‘Mission: Impossible’ [The National Interest]

More on smart contact lenses: DARPA: We’re Moving to Merge Humans and Machines

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DARPA: This Smart Contact Lens Could Give Soldiers Superpowers

Military Mammal

In 2017, Zvezda, a TV station owned by Russia’s Defence Ministry, reported that the nation’s military was training white whales, seals, and dolphins for Arctic missions — and now it seems one of those recruits may be guilty of desertion.

A group of fishers recently told Norwegian broadcaster NRK that they found a white beluga whale wearing a strange harness with the words “Equipment of St. Petersburg” written on its strap — a clue that the animal may have had a role to play in Russia’s futuristic military plans.

Saying “Hi”

According to the fishers, the whale had been harassing their boats, rubbing against the vessels and pulling on accessible straps and ropes. When they removed its strange harness, which appeared designed to hold a camera or weapon, they saw the message written on it.

“We know that in Russia they have had domestic whales in captivity and also that some of these have apparently been released,” Audun Rikardsen, a marine biology professor at the Arctic University of Norway, told NRK, according to The Guardian. “Then they often seek out boats.”

But when Rikardsen reached out to Russian researchers to try to find who owned the whale, they denied having anything to do with it.

“They tell me that most likely is the Russian navy in Murmansk,” Rikardsen told NRK.

READ MORE: Whale with harness could be Russian weapon, say Norwegian experts [The Guardian]

More on Russia’s military: Russia Says “Super Soldiers” Can Crash Computers With Telepathy

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Whale Suspected of Being a Russian Weapon Found in Norway