Futurism | Peter Schulte

California passes two new bills protecting actors and performers against AI

By Peter Schulte / September 19, 2024

In a potentially precedent-setting moment for tech legislation across the country, the new laws not only bolster those existing protections but extend them to everyone in California — not just to people working in front of a camera in Hollywood, as IndieWire notes. Together, the bills make it illegal to use an AI-generated digital replica of an actor’s likeness or voice — or technically, any Californian’s — without their explicit consent. Studios will also be prohibited from cloning deceased actors unless they have permission from their estates.

Japanese scientists reverse Alzheimer’s synapse damage in mice

By Peter Schulte / June 22, 2024

Scientists from the Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology say they have reversed the signs of Alzheimer’s disease in lab mice by restoring the healthy function of synapses, critical parts of neurons that shoot chemical messages to other neurons. If the treatment successfully survives the gauntlet of clinical studies with human participants, it could potentially lead to a groundbreaking new treatment for humans suffering from the deadly disease.

ITER Fusion Reactor. Tokamak. Thermonuclear Experimental power plant. Industrial zone with power station atomic energy production. 3D Render

Japan completes and begins operating world’s largest fusion reactor

By Peter Schulte / December 8, 2023

The reactor, dubbed JT-60SA, represents the latest testbed for a potentially transformative source of renewable energy harvested from atoms fusing together under immense pressure and incredibly high temperatures — without risking a nuclear meltdown.

Heirloom Carbon Technologies opens first carbon capture facility in the U.S.

By Peter Schulte / November 15, 2023

The team behind the project said their newly opened direct air capture (DAC) facility near San Francisco will be able to siphon CO2 out of the atmosphere and store it securely underground in concrete.

New York surgeons perform world’s first successful eyeball transplant

By Peter Schulte / November 15, 2023

Besides the eyeball, the patient, 46-year-old Aaron James of Hot Springs, Arkansas, also received a partial face transplant and an infusion of donor stem cells to the optic nerve during the more than 20-hour surgery.

Chinese scientists develop novel gene therapy that allows deaf children to hear for the first time

By Peter Schulte / October 31, 2023

The scientists from Shanghai’s Fudan University implanted new genetic code into a harmless virus and then injected the viruses into the children’s cochlea. They say the experiment has sparked hearing in four out of five children who received the treatment.