The week's developments in AI, quantum, and biotech, explained | 27.03.24

If you’re enjoying this briefing, sign up here — and share it with a friend. Reading time: ~4 minutes

This week’s dispatch spans medical innovation and deep space to natural disaster prediction: AI tool ‘Foresight’ is using patient digital twins to predict diseases (with crazy high accuracy) and a new wearable from Mytos can track chronic kidney disease in real-time. Plus, there’ll be more where that came from, as OTB Ventures has secured a NATO backed $185 million fund for European DeepTech ventures — watch this space.

Meanwhile, a recent volcanic eruption in Iceland has spurred researchers to call on AI’s predictive abilities, and a new model is using gen-AI to craft antibiotics capable of combating even the worst superbug strains…

Keep reading for the latest updates on AI ‘orthodontists’, Atomos Space’s trial by fire, and whether LLMs really feel regret — plus the coolest AI tools to chat, meet, and compose…

— Charlie and the Research & Intelligence Team 

PS. We’ve just launched The CogX Transatlantic Accelerator; a joint campaign with the UK Government to connect the most innovative UK startups with US markets. If you are or know a UK startup they can apply for over $20k worth of support to attend, exhibit and network at CogX Festival in LA on 7th May here

Innovation and Releases

👥  AI digital twins can predict future health conditions with remarkable accuracy. The virtual clones from tool ‘Foresight’ are trained on patient medical records, and can forecast both disease development and medication needs, showing an 88% accuracy rate with US data. 

💰 OTB Ventures closed a $185 million fund to invest in European DeepTech, primarily for Series A stages but allowing for seed and follow-on investments. The fund will support disruptive tech in NATO aligned sectors such as space tech, AI, cybersecurity, and fintech.

🩺 Startup developed a biowearable to monitor chronic kidney disease, leveraging biosensor technology to track biomarkers in real-time. The startup, Mytos, has secured a pre-seed funding round of €2.3 million and will enable remote treatment management for doctors. 

🚀 Atomos Space overcomes near-disaster in first orbit mission: After facing critical communication and rotation issues post-launch, Atomos Space quickly deployed software updates to resolve these challenges, paving the way to achieve mission objectives by June.

AI Tools of the Week

🕶️ Meet: Villa uses GenAI to create VR spaces for conferences and meetings, offering an interactive solution to remote work fatigue.

🎶 Compose: Suno is a SoTA text-to-music tool that creates full 2 minute songs from simple, one sentence prompts. 

💬 Chat: Name-Drop AI finds, and engages with social media conversations relevant to your brand, enhancing interaction without big marketing budgets.

Latest Research

🌋 Can tech predict the next volcanic eruption? Following a major eruption in Iceland that required evacuation, researchers are using seismometers, satellites, AI, and drones to enhance volcanic activity monitoring and prediction accuracy.

💊 Researchers build an AI to design superbug-resistant antibiotics. Developed by McMaster and Stanford researchers, gen-AI model SyntheMol designs treatments that target drug-resistant bacteria, including the deadly Acinetobacter baumannii. 

🦷 Watch out Orthodontists, AI may be coming for your job. Researchers have developed an AI tool that optimises brace fittings by predicting tooth movements from jaw scans, reducing the need for frequent adjustments. Plus, the tech even accommodates aligners. 

🤔 Could LLMs feel regret? This study suggests maybe yes, discovering that models, like GPT-4, exhibit regretful behaviours in online learning and game theory settings. They propose a novel unsupervised training loss called "regret-loss" to enhance no-regret actions.

In case you missed it

The race for AI robots just got REAL:

✍️ Enjoying this newsletter?  Subscribe to our free weekly briefings on Preparing for AI, Cinema & AI, The Race to Net Zero, AI & DeepTech and The Future of Work.

🚀 Remember to register your interest for CogX Festival LA 7 May!