Welcome to the April 5, 2024 edition of ACM TechNews, providing timely information for computer professionals three times a week.

HEADLINES AT A GLANCE

• AI Researcher Takes on Election Deepfakes
• 'Cockroach Drone' Explores Forest Canopy
• Veterans Use VR to Cope with PTSD
• Shrinking Arctic Ice Redraws Map for Internet Cable Connections
• Teaching Robots Household Chores with Verbal Commands
• Smartphone App Could Help Detect Early-Onset Dementia Cause
• Amazon Pulls Plug on Cashierless System in U.S. Grocery Stores
• For Data-Guzzling AI Companies, the Internet Is Too Small
• Microsoft, Quantinuum Turn Down Noise in Quantum Computing
• Taiwan Earthquake a Stark Reminder of Risks to Region's Chipmaking Industry
• Tiny Biosensor Is Just a Cup, Membrane, and Magnet
• World's Largest Digital Camera to Research Elusive Dark Matter, Dark Energy

AI Researcher Takes on Election Deepfakes

TrueMedia.org, founded by Oren Etzioni (pictured), founding chief executive of the Allen Institute for AI, has rolled out free tools that journalists, fact-checkers, and others can use to detect AI-generated deepfakes. Etzioni said the tools will help detect "a tsunami of misinformation" that is expected during an election year. However, he added that the tools are not perfect, noting, "We are trying to give people the best technical assessment of what is in front of them. They still need to decide if it is real."
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'Cockroach Drone' Explores Forest Canopy

Researchers at the Swiss Federal Institute of Forest, Snow and Landscape Research have developed a drone inspired by the body structure of cockroaches to increase access to the forest canopy for environmental monitoring. The drone, which is streamlined and made from low-friction material, is equipped with haptic feedback technology, allowing it to react when it comes into contact with its surroundings. The researchers plan to improve the drone to react to multiple objects simultaneously.
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Veterans Use VR to Cope with PTSD

Programs offered by the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs and the Wounded Warrior Project (WWP) are helping thousands of veterans manage post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) using VR technology. Mynd Immersive has provided 500 VR headsets to almost 100 long-term veteran care facilities, allowing veterans to virtually revisit the USS Eisenhower aircraft carrier. WWP uses VR to enable veterans to re-experience painful memories in a safe, controlled environment, after which they engage in cognitive therapy to help them process those memories.
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Shrinking Arctic Ice Redraws Map for Internet Cable Connections

New routes for submarine Internet cables may be possible due to thawing Arctic ice. The €1-billion (US$1.08-billion) Far North Fiber project will connect Europe to Japan via a 14,500km. (9,010-mile) cable through the Arctic's Northwest Passage. Landing sites would be located in Japan, the U.S. (Alaska), Canada, Norway, Finland, and Ireland. The project is set to go live in 2027.
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Teaching Robots Household Chores with Verbal Commands

Stanford University researchers developed AI modules that plan a robot's actions based on spoken instructions, then turn those actions into motor control movements. The goal is to allow humans to provide feedback to workplace or household robots on the fly. The training process involved human operators controlling two robotic arms while narrating each step of the particular task out loud, including mistakes that were corrected, then transcribing the audio and synchronizing it with the robot's movement to generate labeled training data.
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Smartphone App Could Help Detect Early-Onset Dementia Cause

University of California, San Francisco researchers, in collaboration with the software firm Datacubed Health, developed a smartphone app that can detect early signs of frontotemporal dementia. The app records the user's speech during several cognitive tests and also features tests that assess walking, balance, slowed movements, and language. In a test of 360 adults at high genetic risk of developing frontotemporal dementia, the app accurately identified dementia even in users without obvious symptoms.
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Amazon Pulls Plug on Cashierless System in U.S. Grocery Stores

Amazon will not install its cashierless system in its new Fresh grocery store locations slated to open later this year, and the Just Walk Out system also will be removed from existing Fresh grocery stores as they are remodeled. The system will still be used at Amazon Go stores and licensed to other retailers. Instead, Amazon will focus on Dash Cart, a system that allows shoppers to scan items as they go.
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For Data-Guzzling AI Companies, the Internet Is Too Small

Companies working on powerful AI systems are encountering a lack of quality public data online, especially as some data owners block access to their data. One possible solution to the data shortage is the use of synthetic training data, though this has raised concerns about the potential for severe malfunctions. DatologyAI is experimenting with curriculum learning, which feeds data to language models in a certain order to improve the quality of connections between concepts.
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Microsoft, Quantinuum Turn Down Noise in Quantum Computing

Microsoft and Quantinuum announced a quantum computing breakthrough that could increase qubit reliability. An error-correction algorithm developed by Microsoft researchers was applied to Quantinuum's physical qubits, yielding around four reliable qubits out of 30 physical ones. Microsoft's Jason Zander said, "With this system, we ran more than 14,000 individual experiments without a single error."
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Taiwan Earthquake a Stark Reminder of Risks to Region's Chipmaking Industry

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC), the world's largest chipmaker, expected its operations to have fully recovered by April 4, following a 7.4-magnitude earthquake that hit the island the previous day. However, TSMC said, "Certain production lines in areas which experienced greater seismic impact are expected to require more time for adjustment and calibration before returning to fully automated production."
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Tiny Biosensor Is Just a Cup, Membrane, and Magnet

Researchers at China's Peking University developed a wireless, chipless biosensor implant that could continuously monitor a body’s various biochemical and physiological markers. The implant consists of a silicone polymer cup covered by a silicone polymer membrane and a cylindrical micromagnet. The sensor detects the magnet's motions and sends the resulting signal to a handheld device via Bluetooth.
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World's Largest Digital Camera to Research Elusive Dark Matter, Dark Energy

A 3,200-megapixel camera developed by a team led by researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy's SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory will be located at the Vera C. Rubin Observatory being built in Chile, and will be used to research dark matter and dark energy. The three-ton, high-resolution Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) camera features three large lenses and six filters that can be switched to analyze different spectra of light.
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