Writing is Thinking
This week, researchers at the University of Florida found that while AI can be a valuable assistant, it falls short of replacing human scientists in many critical areas.The researchers tested how well popular generative AI models including OpenAI’s ChatGPT, Microsoft’s Copilot and Google’s Gemini could handle various stages of the research process. They put these AI systems through six stages of academic research – ideation, literature review, research design, documenting results, extending the research and final manuscript production – while limiting any human intervention
Obituary: Karl Kenny, Founder, Kraken Robotics
industry, he led the development of a wide range of advanced marine technologies and products in Canada, the United States, and Europe. Karl spent time as a maritime surface officer with the Canadian Navy and was always involved in high technology. In the 1980’s, he was a part of the Microsoft mouse project team and in the 1990’s he formed Telepix, a leader in photo e-commerce solutions. He co-founded Marport Deep Sea Technologies Inc. in July 2003 and served as its President and CEO until December 2011. In 2012, Karl founded Kraken to commercialize compact, lower-cost synthetic
Most Data Lives in the Cloud. What if it Lived Under the Sea?
vast amounts of data and provide services to hungry consumers.All this infrastructure is expensive to build and run, and has a considerable environmental impact. In search of cost savings, greater sustainability and better service, data center providers are looking to get their feet wet.Tech giant Microsoft and other companies want to relocate data centres into the world’s oceans, submerging computers and networking equipment to take advantage of cheap real estate and cool waters. Is this a good thing? What about the environmental impact? Are we simply replacing one damaging practice with another
Inside the Subsea Cable Firm Secretly Helping America Take on China
;s preeminent superpower.SubCom, a company born out of a U.S. Cold War project to spy on Soviet submarines, is living a double life.Publicly, it is one of the world’s biggest developers of undersea fiber-optic cables for telecom firms and tech giants like Alphabet’s Google, Amazon, Microsoft and Meta Platforms.Behind the scenes, SubCom is the exclusive undersea cable contractor to the U.S. military, laying a web of internet and surveillance cables across the ocean floor, according to the four people with knowledge of the matter: two SubCom employees and two U.S. Navy staffers. The
Tech File: Dual-Arm AUV Emerges from German Consortium
between the AUV, the control station and the internal business infrastructure.Virtual Co-PilotA virtual co-pilot developed at DFKI's Cognitive Assistance Systems research department supports human personnel in the control station during teleoperation tasks. For this purpose, it is equipped with a Microsoft HoloLens, which can be used either in combination with the control station or as a lightweight separate interaction medium, e.g., on board a ship. Thanks to a holographic 3D representation on the display, the operator is always informed about the status of the AUV and the underwater structure.
China's Guangdong to Move Data Centers Undersea to Cut Power Use
government will lend support for related technological breakthroughs, it added.The plan comes on the heels of efforts by the southern Chinese island province of Hainan, which has commenced work on the world's first undersea commercial data center aiming to complete it in five years.In 2018, Microsoft lowered a non-commercial data center the size of a truck about 35 meters (117 feet) into the sea off Britain. The miniature data center was retrieved last year, and Microsoft declared the experiment a success.Greenpeace has warned that electricity consumption from China's data centers and 5G
Meet NOUS: An Underwater ‘Artificial Mind’
in the National Marine Park of Alonissos Northern Sporades (N.M.P.A.N.S.), with the prospect of extending the EEAX Peristera at Stratoni, Halkidiki. In this direction, image processing and classification tests for the fish fauna observed at the wreck site have already started.In April 2021, Microsoft has chosen to support the biodiversity conservation effort through "NOUS" by providing technical support on AI issues and access to its computing infrastructure in the form of a grant, supporting the proposal "Machine Learning and Real Time Monitoring for the conservation of marine
Moguchaya Named CEO of Earth Science Analytics
joining Earth Science Analytics, Moguchaya worked at the Norwegian unicorn start-up, Cognite, where she was responsible for customer success and research and development. With an MSc in Computer Science, Mathematics and Physics, she has also worked as the program manager for Petrel at Schlumberger and Microsoft
Ocean Influencer: Karl Kenny, Kraken Robotics
hard to ensure that his company continually evolves the technology, particularly the ability to work more efficiently and to ‘see’ better underwater, as he understands that the quality of data starts with its collection: “Garbage in, garbage out,” says Kenny, who worked at Microsoft before it was a public company. Kenny thinks big, beyond the confines of his company and his Canadian home.The subsea industry is about a generation behind robotics markets on the land and in the air for a fairly simple reason: working under the water in the ocean is an extremely difficult and
February 2025
