420 tiny protruding needles in your brain
And other new AI and tech developments
How many needles in your brain is too many needles in your brain?
That was the question Neuralink competitor Paradromics definitely wasn’t asking when they created a new device designed to support communication for people with a disability.
If a device in your brain feels a little too intimate, this week’s AI and tech recommendations also include a lighter-touch use to find your next book, an (extremely obvious?) way to create your next shopping list, and why now’s the time to become an influencer (finally!).
Six ways to use Lifestyle Tech this week
Brain implants are here and may help people speak again
So this is fun! I mean terrifying.
Over a year ago, Elon Musk’s company Neuralink implanted a brain-computer interface (brain chip) into Noland Arbaugh, an American quadriplegic.
Now, Paradromics, a brain-computer interface startup, has inserted their device into someone’s temporal lobe (where auditory information is processed) for 10 minutes before removing it again.
The company aims to “restore speech and communication in people with spinal cord injury, stroke, or amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, also known as ALS,” according to Wired.
It’s worth reading the whole Wired article, if only to see the incredible(ly freakish) photo of the device that contains “420 tiny protruding needles that are pushed into the brain tissue” 🙃.
Speaking of tech in healthcare…
Could robots help reduce nurse burnout?
Moxi is a physical robot that helps nurses with clinical tasks. It’s the creation of Diligent Robotics, a company founded by Andrea Thomaz and Vivian Chu.
Chu, an engineer, co-created the robot to reduce nurse burnout, according to Girls Who Code.
Diligent Robotics describes Moxi as “A.I. with heart” which they mean literally: the robot’s ‘eyes’ turn into heart shapes, and it’s designed to be socially intelligent.
It’s simultaneously a fantastic, female-led step in a much-needed direction and… somehow, a little disconcerting.
Photo via Diligent Robotics Facebook
Find your next book with AI.
In a much more straightforward use of AI, have you considered using it to help find your next great read?
A few months ago, I went down the ‘smutty-faerie-porn’ rabbit hole. That is, I bought four books in the A Court of Thorns and Roses series by Sarah J. Maas.
For the uninitiated, this series (fondly known as ACOTAR by TikTok fanatics), follows a normy woman who falls in love with a magical man and goes to live with him in his faerie land, before falling for a different magical man and living with him instead. And there’s a war in there at some point, and she also becomes magical, and it’s all a bit seeeeexy.
This incredibly vague summary is because I genuinely cannot remember the plot. This is thanks in part to pregnancy brain, but more likely because... I found it just wasn’t very memorable.
I’m so sorry ACOTAR TikTok! I tried. I really did.
Anyway, this long preamble is to say, after I abandoned the series, I plugged in books I’d actually loved, along with my preferred genres, into ChatGPT and voilà: I had a list of books to read, with not one of them including provocative descriptions of faerie wings.
Female AI “book” clubs
Calling this a book club is really just a nice segue, as this isn’t really about books at all, but more the book club concept.
I was recently added to a group chat started by an entrepreneurial friend of a friend who is encouraging the women in her life to consider how to thoughtfully and intentionally use AI.
The group meets monthly, and is the perfect idea for anyone who joined book clubs mostly for the wine, cheese, and chats (all of us, right?).
Now’s the time to become an influencer
This is according to Bay Area Times, a “visual daily newsletter on business and tech”.
Full disclosure, this newsletter is a bit tech-bro-centric, but is a great way to get a quick snapshot of the current tech and AI space.
And, to convince you to quit that job and become a full-time influencer, once and for all.
Just look at these stats:
Shared shopping lists
I’m worried about this rec. There’s a real risk that it’s blindingly obvious, that most people are already doing it, and by recommending it in the first place I expose my finger being somewhat off the pulse (like that time I recommended the TV series Nobody Wants This to my sisters, please see their mocking response below).
BUT, it recently came to my attention that not everybody uses a shared shopping list with their partner. For this large or small percentage of people, please read on.
A great way to share the mental load of shopping lists is to create a shared note in your Notes app with your partner / housemate / etc (Apple users only, apologies), and add to it as things run out during the week.
Then, come shopping time, your list is populated and ready to go.
Even better: create a new Shopping List in the Reminders app, share it, and use Siri to add your items directly (E.g. after the list is created, say “Siri, add bacon to shopping list” and watch as your list is populated with delicious food).
For those shaking their heads saying WE KNOW, please enjoy this interaction with my sisters last year:
I put this recommendation last so you can immediately reply and tell me how very obvious it is. You’re welcome!
Until next week,
Dimity