Scientists in the US have revealed that the first-ever AI-designed living robots, xenobots, can now self-replicate. It’s a wonderful discovery, so what are its potential benefits and risks?
A team of scientists at the University of Vermont, Tufts University, and Harvard University have created ‘living robots’ (called Xenobots) that can reproduce themselves in an entirely new process of biological propagation. They have recently published the results of their research in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
They first successfully created Xenobots in 2020 from embryonic cells of the African clawed frog (Xenopus laevis). But with the aid of artificial intelligence the scientists have recently discovered that these tiny computer-designed organisms can travel, gather cells (loose stem cells) and assemble their own Xenobots inside themselves. After a gestation period of a few days within their ‘mouths,’ the new Xenobots look and behave just like their ‘parent’ – and can also replicate themselves, ad infinitum.
The team was amazed when they saw the AI-designed bio-bots were capable of simple tasks, but they were positively shocked to see they soon found a way to spontaneously reproduce. It would seem that the genome, once freed from the natural design to become a frog, seeks a proactive new way to flourish. A plasticity of routes to survival appears to be coded in the essence of cells themselves. Including, according to the team, a ‘collective intelligence.’
A lead author of the study, Sam Kriegman, PhD, spoke of the profundity of the project: “No animal or plant known to science replicates in this way.”
The project required the assistance of an AI program at UVM’s Vermont Advanced Computing Core. This AI tested billions of body shapes in simulation with an ‘evolutionary algorithm’ in an effort to find a shape that allowed the cells to be more effective at what they call “kinematic” replication, which has only previously been observed at the molecular level, and never before at the cellular. The AI settled on a final shape which apparently resembles the ‘Pac-Man’ video game.
We are headed towards a strange and dark future...
One other new development recently announces is the "new and improved" robot design that is eerily human-like and makes one wonder what we are going to have to deal with in the coming decades.
A new humanoid robot has made a huge step towards crossing the ‘uncanny valley,’ with the machine filmed displaying a whole range of almost realistic human facial expressions.
‘Ameca’ has been described by its British developers at Engineered Arts as “the perfect humanoid robot platform for human-robot interaction.”
The footage, which captured the terrifyingly real robot in action, proves that the company’s bold statement isn’t much of a stretch.
The grey-colored machine, which vaguely resembles the characters from the 2004 movie ‘I, Robot,’ offers a whole range of human emotions, coupled with realistic eye movement.
The 4th industrial revolution and The Great Reset truly shows the global establishment's disdain for the natural and highlights their desire to transition to the artificial.
Embedded within this agenda is the goal to alter the evolutionary tract of the human race and shape life on earth to fit their needs.
There is more going on beneath the surface than just technological improvement...we are in the beginning stages of a dystopian nightmare.