They say digital twins are the future. At first we were talking about making models of industrial or fabrication processes, so that we can study the model in a way we can't study the real thing. And that's still happening, and will continue to happen until we have an entire Earth that's a replica of the original (which we're already making by the way), but now we've got digital twins of people.
Digital twins of people are already out there for medical purposes, so they can run a chemotherapy treatment on your simulation, to know in advance if it will work. But now we're talking about real time digital twins based not on your genetics or your phenotype, but on your behavior and the way you talk. They will be trained on you, all of you, the way the models are now trained on the entire Internet's worth of data. And so now is the time for you to start thinking about what that insurance policy will look like and which one will be right for you. Wouldn't want anyone breaching that dataset now would you?
Digital twin helps optimize manufacturing speed while satisfying quality constraints
May 2024, phys.org
The algorithm achieved that goal, with an experimental test of the method reducing the cycle time by 38% for a 3-axis desktop CNC machine tool and by 17% for a desktop 3D printer.The researchers developed the method using a digital twin, a virtual model that mimics the behavior of a real system, based on the physics of the machine and data collected in real-time from sensors.
via University of Michigan College of Engineering: Heejin Kim et al, Intelligent Feedrate Optimization Using an Uncertainty-Aware Digital Twin Within a Model Predictive Control Framework, IEEE Access (2024). DOI: 10.1109/ACCESS.2024.3384471
Controlling chaos using edge computing hardware: Digital twin models promise advances in computing
May 2024, phys.org
Digital twins meets reservoir computing - I'm having a hard time figuring out what's going on here, but it sounds like you can reduce the compute of a system controller by creating a digital twin of the system, and computing on it (machine-learning-it) using this new chip, which is some kind of reservoir computer. But they created the model for using such a chip, not the chip itself?
via Ohio State University: Robert M. Kent et al, Controlling chaos using edge computing hardware, Nature Communications (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-48133-3
Zoom CEO envisions AI deepfakes attending meetings in your place
May 2024, Ars Technica
Now we need to distinguish between digital twins for industry, like models of fabrication processes etc, and digital twins for people, like ... digital twins for people:
Instead of relying on a generic LLM to impersonate you, in the future, people will train custom LLMs to simulate each person."Sometimes I want to join, so I join. If I do not want to join, I can send a digital twin to join. That’s the future."
The future.
Researchers create 'digital babies' to improve infant health care
Jun 2024, phys.org
The team created 360 advanced computer models that simulate the unique metabolic processes of each baby. The digital babies are the first sex-specific computational whole-body models representing newborn and infant metabolism with 26 organs, six cell types, and more than 80,000 metabolic reactions.
via University of Galway's Digital Metabolic Twin Centre and Heidelberg University: Elaine Zaunseder et al, Personalized metabolic whole-body models for newborns and infants predict growth and biomarkers of inherited metabolic diseases, Cell Metabolism (2024). DOI: 10.1016/j.cmet.2024.05.006
Future-self chatbot gives users a glimpse of the life ahead of them
Jun 2024, phys.org
Allows users to chat with a potential version of their future selves.The research team found mostly positive results—most users reported feeling more optimistic about their future and more connected to their future selves. And one of the researchers, after a session with the new bot, found himself more aware of the limited amount of time he would have with his parents and began to spend more time with them.
via MIT and KASIKORN Labs in Thailand: Pat Pataranutaporn et al, Future You: A Conversation with an AI-Generated Future Self Reduces Anxiety, Negative Emotions, and Increases Future Self-Continuity, arXiv (2024). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2405.12514
Clinical study shows zebrafish avatars of cancer patients have high predictive power
Jun 2024, phys.org
Already exists - zAvatars - avatars of cancer patients to help guide therapeutic decisions.
To create the avatars, the researchers inject tumoral cells taken from patients directly into the zebrafish embryos.
via Cancer Development and Innate Immune Evasion Group at the Champalimaud Foundation: Bruna Costa et al, Zebrafish Avatar-test forecasts clinical response to chemotherapy in patients with colorectal cancer, Nature Communications (2024). DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-49051-0
