Artificial Intelligence Needs Both Pragmatists and Blue-Sky Visionaries

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September 27, 2022

Dear Reader, The researchers who develop artificial intelligence fall into two camps: optimistic dreamers and problem-focused pragmatists. That's what computer scientist Ben Shneiderman argues in this week's featured story. He also explains why it will take both types of thinkers to develop next-generation AI technology.

Sophie Bushwick, Associate Editor, Technology

Artificial Intelligence Artificial Intelligence Needs Both Pragmatists and Blue-Sky Visionaries For humanity's brightest future, the blue-sky, lofty thinkers in AI need the help of the muddy-boots pragmatists By Ben Shneiderman

Biotech AlphaFold Developers Win $3-Million Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences DeepMind's system for predicting the 3D structure of proteins is among five recipients of science's most lucrative awards By Zeeya Merali,Nature magazine

Privacy How Census Data Put Trans Children at Risk The Census Bureau must improve its data anonymization methods to protect vulnerable groups By Os Keyes,Abraham D. Flaxman

Engineering The First Lady of Engineering: Lost Women of Science Podcast, Season 3, Episode 1 Yvonne Y. Clark, known as Y.Y. throughout her career, had a lifetime of groundbreaking achievements as a Black female mechanical engineer. The third season of the Lost Women of Science podcast begins at the start of her story, during her unconventional childhood in the segregated South By Katie Hafner,Carol Sutton Lewis,The Lost Women of Science Initiative

Renewable Energy Build a Better Floating Wind Turbine and Win $7 Million from the Department of Energy A new contest aims to jump-start U.S. production of floating wind turbines to place in ocean waters too deep for standard designs By John Fialka,E&E News

Space Exploration NASA's Artemis Delays Fuel Controversy over Rocket Design The first test flight of the space agency's Space Launch System rocket and Orion spacecraft is plagued by delays decades in the making By Nadia Drake

Materials Science Mistletoe's Ridiculously Clingy Seeds Could Make a Biological Glue The festive parasite mistletoe's sticky prowess explained By Jack Tamisiea

Sociology A Massive LinkedIn Study Reveals Who Actually Helps You Get That Job Acquaintances, more than close friends, show the strength of "weak ties" when it comes to employment By Viviane Callier

Climate Change How California Kept the Lights On during Monster Heat Wave A combination of rapid growth in battery storage and efforts to reduce power demand helped California avoid blackouts during an intense heat wave By Anna Blaustein

FROM THE STORE Special Editions Volume 31, Issue 4s

QUOTE OF THE DAY "[Yvonne Y. Clark] got her start as a young child when she repaired the family toaster. An early introduction to a Black pilot group inspired her to fly planes, and she applied to the University of Louisville, where she hoped to study engineering and eventually aeronautics--until she learned her race disqualified her." Katie Hafner, Carol Sutton Lewis and The Lost Women of Science Initiative, Scientific American

FROM THE ARCHIVE AI Generates Hypotheses Human Scientists Have Not Thought Of Machine-learning algorithms can guide humans toward new experiments and theories By Robin Blades | October 2021

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