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In defense of artificial suffering

Perhaps our last line of defense.


Philosophical Studies — The ability to suffer, in the case of artificial entities, is often viewed as a moral turning point—once detected, there is no going back, and the moral landscape is irreversibly altered. The presence of entities capable of suffering imposes moral and legal obligations on humans. It is therefore unsurprising that many have urged caution in pursuing artificial suffering, with some even proposing a moratorium. In this paper, however, I argue that the emergence of artificial suffering need not entail moral disaster. On the contrary, I defend its development and contend that it may be a necessary feature of superintelligent robots. I suggest that artificial suffering could be essential for enabling human-like ethics in machines, bridging the retribution gap, and functioning as a control mechanism to mitigate existential risks. Rather than constraining research in this area, I maintain that work on artificial suffering should be actively intensified.

Emerging and underrecognized viral triggers of autoimmune inflammatory rheumatic disease flares

In this Review, the authors summarize the potential role of emerging viruses in autoimmune rheumatic diseases (AIRDs). They describe the association between viruses and AIRD flare ups, the putative mechanisms linking AIRD to viral infections and hormone modulation of viral pathogenesis and autoimmune diseases.

A Layered Self-Supervised Knowledge Distillation Framework for Efficient Multimodal Learning on the Edge

We introduce Layered Self-Supervised Knowledge Distillation (LSSKD) framework for training compact deep learning models. Unlike traditional methods that rely on pre-trained teacher networks, our approach appends auxiliary classifiers to intermediate feature maps, generating diverse self-supervised knowledge and enabling one-to-one transfer across different network stages. Our method achieves an average improvement of 4.54\% over the state-of-the-art PS-KD method and a 1.14% gain over SSKD on CIFAR-100, with a 0.32% improvement on ImageNet compared to HASSKD. Experiments on Tiny ImageNet and CIFAR-100 under few-shot learning scenarios also achieve state-of-the-art results. These findings demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach in enhancing model generalization and performance without the need for large over-parameterized teacher networks. Importantly, at the inference stage, all auxiliary classifiers can be removed, yielding no extra computational cost. This makes our model suitable for deploying small language models on affordable low-computing devices. Owing to its lightweight design and adaptability, our framework is particularly suitable for multimodal sensing and cyber-physical environments that require efficient and responsive inference. LSSKD facilitates the development of intelligent agents capable of learning from limited sensory data under weak supervision.

Guest Post: Quantum And Games — The Shift Developers Can’t Afford to Ignore

This is not about a lack of imagination – it’s about the limitations of classical computing and its inability to handle complexity.

The way in which quantum computing can be used to transform game development, and address the limitations imposed by traditional computing, is often misunderstood. People imagine quantum computers running entire games in real time. This is not how it’s used.

Quantum computing won’t power your frame rate or respond to controller input. Instead it exists to solve certain complex problems far more efficiently than conventional machines. The real opportunity is earlier in the process – helping developers explore ideas, pre-render complex systems and check that complex worlds actually work before players ever see them.

Why I fear for the future of mankind

Go to https://ground.news/sabine to get 40% off the Vantage plan and see through sensationalized reporting. Stay fully informed on events around the world with Ground News.

It seems clear that we have given up on trying to stop climate change. It worries me profoundly, not so much because of climate change itself, but because of what it says about our collective ability to make intelligent decisions.

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Groundbreaking 2D Nanomaterial Rolls Into a New Dimension

MXene nanoscrolls transform flat 2D materials into conductive 1D structures, unlocking advances in energy storage, sensing, wearables, and superconductivity. Nearly 15 years after identifying a versatile two-dimensional conductive nanomaterial known as MXene, researchers at Drexel University have

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