Articles by Richard Yonck

Richard Yonck is a Seattle-based futurist and keynote speaker who explores future trends and emerging technologies, identifying their potential impacts on business and society. He’s written for dozens of national and global publications and is author of two books about the future of artificial intelligence, Heart of the Machine and Future Minds. Follow him on Twitter @ryonck and reach him at futurist@richardyonck.com.

University of Washington researchers develop smaller, cheaper form of LiDAR technology

Latest from Richard Yonck

Allen Institute for AI takes new approach to managing AI risks and promoting transparency

by Richard Yonck on August 7, 2023August 7, 2023 at 8:09 am

Artificial intelligence is becoming more deeply embedded in our world, enabling all sorts of new possibilities — but also raising new risks and dangers as well. Data privacy, embedded biases,… Read More

Study shows how pandemic decreased income diversity of urban encounters, even after lockdowns

by Richard Yonck on July 29, 2023July 29, 2023 at 8:29 am

There were many fallouts from the COVID-19 pandemic, but one that is rarely discussed is its effect on diverse encounters and social mixing in our cities. Greater interaction between different… Read More

University of Washington researchers develop smaller, cheaper form of LiDAR technology

by Richard Yonck on July 5, 2023July 5, 2023 at 7:12 pm

Devices that move and operate in physical space need sensors to read their environment. One such sensing technology, LiDAR, has many potential applications, but is often too large or too… Read More

University of Washington team detects atomic ‘breathing’ for quantum computing breakthrough

by Richard Yonck on June 23, 2023June 23, 2023 at 9:42 am

Most of us don’t think of atoms as having their own unique vibrations, but they do. In fact, it’s a feature so fundamental to nature’s building blocks that a team… Read More

Generative AI hackathon in Seattle encourages entrepreneurs to tinker with ‘magic wand’

by Richard Yonck on June 5, 2023June 5, 2023 at 9:37 am

Generative AI is taking the tech world by storm and has already developed to the point that a full stack ecosystem exists, allowing for the rapid prototyping and development of… Read More

Allen Institute for AI creating an open generative AI language model ‘by scientists, for scientists’

by Richard Yonck on May 11, 2023May 17, 2023 at 3:06 pm

You can’t read the news today without seeing a story about the latest advances in artificial intelligence, particularly in the nascent area of generative AI and large language models (LLMs).… Read More

AI2 researchers release new multimodal approach to boost AI capabilities using images and audio

by Richard Yonck on April 29, 2023April 29, 2023 at 8:39 am

Our world is a nuanced and complex place, best experienced through the mixed modalities of our senses. Given this, AI researchers have also started applying multimodal strategies to create in-context… Read More

Researchers find new upcycling technique to transform plastics into fuel

by Richard Yonck on February 27, 2023February 27, 2023 at 8:48 am

Each year, more than 390 million metric tons of plastics are produced globally, yet close to half are single-use varieties that can be economically challenging to recycle. Now, recent research… Read More

AI2 researchers win ‘Test-of-Time’ award that honors long-lasting influence for AI-related papers

by Richard Yonck on May 25, 2022May 25, 2022 at 1:54 pm

The fields of artificial intelligence and computational linguistics have seen tremendous advances in recent decades. Because of this, once novel-approaches frequently are quickly superseded by newer innovations. For this reason,… Read More

New AI model shows how machines can learn from vision, language and sound together

by Richard Yonck on April 16, 2022April 16, 2022 at 8:49 am

Most of us have watched television with the sound turned off at one time or another. While it’s usually possible to follow the story at least to some degree, the… Read More

Researchers develop reactor that refines waste carbon into chemicals while generating hydrogen

by Richard Yonck on March 27, 2022March 28, 2022 at 8:41 am

In a world faced with dual concerns about climate change and growing energy needs, developing renewable replacements for fossil fuels has been a long-sought dream. While considerable progress has been… Read More

AI2 releases demo of question-answering model it claims outperforms GPT-3

by Richard Yonck on January 21, 2022January 21, 2022 at 8:53 am

From the beginning of the digital age, we’ve looked to our computers for answers. Nowhere is this so evident as in the computer science discipline known as question answering, or… Read More

Teaching artificial intelligence right from wrong: New tool from AI2 aims to model ethical judgments

by Richard Yonck on November 29, 2021November 29, 2021 at 7:03 am

During the past two decades, machine ethics has gone from being a curiosity to a field of immense importance. Much of the work is based on the idea that as… Read More

Video

Q&A with Amazon Alexa chief Rohit Prasad on the future of ambient computing

by Richard Yonck on August 15, 2021August 19, 2021 at 12:29 am

When Amazon’s first Alexa-enabled smart speaker debuted in 2014, it was something of a novelty: A voice-activated natural language processing interface that could perform a number of simple tasks. Fast… Read More

Video

This startup aims to improve workplace conversations with ’empathy-as-a-service’ software

by Richard Yonck on July 17, 2021July 17, 2021 at 11:34 am

Most of us have had the experience of sending a text or email that came across sounding insensitive or angry, even though that wasn’t our intent. Unfortunately, the lack of… Read More

Video

How researchers are mapping the future of quantum computing, using the tech of today

by Richard Yonck on February 19, 2021February 19, 2021 at 11:25 am

Imagine a future where new therapeutic drugs are designed far faster and at a fraction of the cost they are today, enabled by the rapidly developing field of quantum computing.… Read More

Articles by Richard Yonck

Top Stories from Richard Yonck

University of Washington researchers develop smaller, cheaper form of LiDAR technology

Latest from Richard Yonck

Allen Institute for AI takes new approach to managing AI risks and promoting transparency

Study shows how pandemic decreased income diversity of urban encounters, even after lockdowns

University of Washington researchers develop smaller, cheaper form of LiDAR technology

University of Washington team detects atomic ‘breathing’ for quantum computing breakthrough

Generative AI hackathon in Seattle encourages entrepreneurs to tinker with ‘magic wand’

Allen Institute for AI creating an open generative AI language model ‘by scientists, for scientists’

AI2 researchers release new multimodal approach to boost AI capabilities using images and audio

Researchers find new upcycling technique to transform plastics into fuel

AI2 researchers win ‘Test-of-Time’ award that honors long-lasting influence for AI-related papers

New AI model shows how machines can learn from vision, language and sound together

Researchers develop reactor that refines waste carbon into chemicals while generating hydrogen

AI2 releases demo of question-answering model it claims outperforms GPT-3

Teaching artificial intelligence right from wrong: New tool from AI2 aims to model ethical judgments

Q&A with Amazon Alexa chief Rohit Prasad on the future of ambient computing

This startup aims to improve workplace conversations with ’empathy-as-a-service’ software

Researchers create ‘Shadow Figment’ cybersecurity decoy tech that lures attackers into a fake world

Researchers develop new way to help machine-generated language systems reduce toxic language

Can machine learning help save the whales? How PNW researchers use tech tools to monitor orcas

Why ‘deepfake geography’ presents significant risks — and how researchers are detecting it

Vulcan and Tableau team up to protect the planet with EarthRanger data analysis project

Cure of the common code: OpenMRS aims to boost medical record systems in developing countries

The curse of neural toxicity: AI2 and UW researchers help computers watch their language

How researchers are mapping the future of quantum computing, using the tech of today