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Skin in the game. How a start-up is cracking one of the biggest challenges in robotics

Imagine a robot working in a field delicately picking strawberries, with the dexterity and soft touch of a human. Or a robot carefully handling nuclear waste materials with no damage from high radiation levels. Or a robot that has such a sensitive sense of touch that it can be used to tend vulnerable, post-operation hospital patients. For Dr Zaki Hussein, CEO and founder of Touchlab, these are all within the realms of possibility, thanks to the development of an e-skin that can replicate human touch.

Touchlab, which has just received a £3.5m injection of cash from early-stage investor Octopus Ventures, has created an e-skin that is thinner than human skin and yet, according to Hussein, can already withstand extreme environments, such as acid and high and low temperatures. Although robot skins are not new, one of the biggest remaining challenges for robot makers was the ability to create a human-like sensitive skin that, for one, would enable a more measured grip of objects.

According to Hussein, Touchlab’s e-skin uses just four wires (each the size of a human hair) to create a customisable material capable of measuring touch, force and position. It can be wrapped around new or existing robots and even works in conjunction with human tele-operated avatars.

The idea was borne out of Hussein’s initial PhD research into electronic skin, developing deformable patches to deliver drugs or get diagnostics on patients. This led to the creation of Touchlab. Currently based at the Higgs Centre for Innovation at The Royal Observatory in Edinburgh, the company plans to move to The National Robotarium, a centre for leading research and development in AI and robotics. It’s a clear indication of its future intentions, to collaborate and grow within an ecosystem of robotics start-ups and leading researchers.

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Why the fake news problem needs an AI and a blockchain solution

The Russian invasion of Ukraine has given new impetus to online fake news to the extent that anti-misinformation firm NewsGuard is currently tracking 201 sites that it claims are spreading myths about the war. It’s not a new problem. War, of course, only accelerates it and the tactic is as old as the hills – the British famously set-up a transmitter called Aspidistra in 1942 to transmit programmes that would try to convince the German people that the war was going badly for their country.

The problem is that misinformation appears to be growing and it’s not all about Russia and Ukraine. There was a spike during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, as well as recent elections and referendums in the US and Europe. Where there’s an opportunity to polarise opinion, or to steal data, it seems fake news will increasingly emerge.

The worrying development though is that AI is now being used to disseminate fake news. Julia Ebner, senior research fellow at the Institute for Strategic Dialogue recently detailed how Russian AI was used to identify, amplify and exploit grievances online, in order to undermine peace in Western nations. Speaking at a recent Cityforum webinar, she said that in effect, Russian was using AI to weaponise extremist ideologies and conspiracies.

AI, though, has huge potential in fighting it too. We need it, because we have to remember; we are all prone to being duped. As the World Economic Forum warned in its recent report  ‘The Ability to ‘Distil the Truth’, it’s not just those with “with poor science knowledge, low cognitive abilities and a tendency to be accepting of weak claims,” that believe false stories. No one is immune, which is why a technology solution it the best way to go.

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Why self-regulation and government intervention are at a crossroads

For some politicians and business leaders, regulation is a dirty word. The arguments generally go that regulation is bad for economies as it stifles innovation and growth. Too much red tape and bureaucracy, too much government intervention. Triumphalist, propaganda-like statements from the White House in the US last October, and a bizarre Economic Report of the President 2020 have done little to clarify the argument, either for or against. Claims that the Trump administration’s repeal of the net neutrality rules will increase real incomes by more than $50 billion per year and consumer welfare by almost $40 billion per year seem ridiculous. There is no evidence that de-regulation in the US has or will improve broadband prices or services, either now or in the future.

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We’re only human: AI ethics and the business of trust

According to figures released earlier this month from the Capgemini Research Institute, ethical AI is not just a major concern for consumers (74 percent), it could also impact customer loyalty. If a business can show ethical AI use, 62 percent of consumers would place higher trust in that company. By contrast, 41 percent said they would complain over misuse of AI and 34 percent would stop interacting with a company if its AI use was unethical.

It’s not wholly unsurprising research but it does raise the whole issue of trust. It also raises the point of what is deemed ethical, when it comes to AI use. Who decides? Businesses, consumers, governments, academics or a mash-up of all of them?

Interestingly, the Capgemini research also revealed that 74 percent of consumers want more transparency when a service is powered by AI, and over three quarters think there should be further regulation on how companies use AI.

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Are a skills gap and delusional thinking losing the AI race for Europe?

Job killer or job creator? The debate over whether or not AI will decimate or create jobs in the future has been raging for a few years now and while 2018 was a massive year for AI hype, it was also significant for its development.

There are, according to a Harvey Nash Tech Survey, four in ten organisations now using AI in a commercial way, moving beyond experimentation. A recent report from Dun and Bradstreet claims 40 percent of respondents from a survey of 100 execs from Forbes Global 2000 businesses are adding more jobs as a result of AI deployment, with only eight per cent saying they were axing jobs because of AI implementation. In January this year, research firm Gartner revealed that despite talent shortages, the percentage of enterprises employing AI grew 270 per cent in four years.

While most of this is, in all likelihood, machine learning, the intention is clear. Businesses increasingly want to use data science, analytics and automation in their products and infrastructures and are prepared to invest.

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