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The US scientists who created the first living robots say the life forms, known as xenobots, can now reproduce — and in a way not seen in plants and animals.

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“China has an overall goal … to become the leading country in the world, the wealthiest country in the world, and the most powerful country in the world,” according to Biden, as quoted by Reuters.

“That’s not going to happen on my watch because the United States is going to continue to grow,” he added.

In an apparent dig at Chinese President Xi Jinping and Russian President Vladimir Putin, Biden said: “He’s (Xi’s) one of the guys, like Putin, who thinks that autocracy is the wave of the future, (and) democracy can’t function in an ever-complex world.”

He said he made it clear to Xi that while the U.S. is not looking for a confrontation, it would insist on China abiding by international rules on fair competition, fair trade, and human rights.

“As long as you and your country continue to so blatantly violate human rights, we are going to continue, in an unrelenting way, to call it to the attention of the world, and make it clear what’s happening. And he understood that” Biden said, recounting his two-hour conversation with Xi soon after taking office.

Biden said he would also work with U.S. allies to hold China accountable for its actions on Taiwan, Hong Kong, the South China Sea, and its Uighur minority.

Failing to do so would undermine America’s credibility, he noted.

Biden also promised greater U.S. investment in new technologies, such as quantum computing and artificial intelligence, and revealed plans to scale up investment in research and technology development from 0.7 percent to 2 percent of GDP, as previously recorded in the 1960s.

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Warning of a “catastrophic moral failure,” WHO’s Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, “the recent emergence of rapidly-spreading variants makes the rapid and equitable rollout of vaccines all the more important.”

But he added that this distribution could easily become “another brick in the wall for inequality between the world’s haves and have-nots.”

“As the first vaccines begin to be deployed, the promise of equitable access is at serious risk,” he said, speaking at a session of the WHO’s executive board.

While more 39 million doses of several different vaccines have now been administered in at least 49 higher-income countries, he said, just 25 doses had been given in one lowest-income country.

“I need to be blunt, the world is on the brink of a catastrophic moral failure and the price of this failure will be paid with lives and livelihoods in the world’s poorest countries.”

Beginning his speech, Tedros had emphasized that the development and approval of safe coronavirus vaccines less than a year after the virus’ emergence in China, in late 2019, was a “stunning achievement and a much-needed source of hope.”

However, he added that “it’s not right that younger, healthier adults in rich countries are vaccinated before health workers and older people in poorer countries.”

“There will be enough vaccine for everybody, but right now we must work together as one global family to prioritize (those) most at risk of serious diseases and death in all countries.”

Without naming names, Tedros said some countries and companies speak the language of equitable access but continue to prioritize bilateral deals, bypassing COVAX, which is driving up prices and attempting to jump to the front of the line. “This is wrong,” he said.

COVAX is a global scheme co-led by an international vaccine alliance called Gavi, the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations and also the WHO. It was established to ensure equitable vaccine access for every country in the world. It aims to deliver 2 billion doses of safe, effective vaccines that have passed regulatory approval and/or WHO prequalification by the end of 2021.

The WHO called on wealthier countries that had pre-ordered millions of doses of coronavirus vaccines, such as the U.S., U.K. and Europe, to share a portion of those vaccines with COVAX, so it can then redistribute these to poorer countries.

Wealthier nations have been accused of “hoarding” more vaccines than they need, although the supply of vaccines is still in its early days as mass inoculation drives — which began in the West in December — are mainly still in their first distribution stage.

Tedros called on countries with bilateral deals with vaccine makers, and on controls for supply, to be “transparent with COVAX on volumes, pricing and delivery dates,” and to share their own doses with COVAX once they have vaccinated their own health workers and older populations.

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“The world will still question how reliable and steady would be the United States during the Biden era, for example, regarding the Paris Agreement and the Iran nuclear agreement,” Obama said in an interview with the Washington Post on Monday.

Pointing out that Biden intends to join the Paris Climate Agreement and the Iran nuclear deal, soon after taking office, Obama added that “the return of trust to the United States will not be rebuilt overnight.”

“In any case, there is some damage and it will take some time for us to get out of it,” he said, adding that he hopes President-elect Joe Biden’s cabinet and those elected would be able to do so, but that could not happen immediately.

In May 2018, Trump unilaterally pulled his country out of the nuclear deal, officially known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), and unleashed the “toughest ever” sanctions against Iran.

Observers say Trump’s motivation for exiting the JCPOA was prompted by his hatred of any achievement by his predecessor Obama.

Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif has said Iran has suffered billions of dollars in damages because Trump did not like Obama.

“Billions upon billions of dollars of damage they have inflicted upon Iran just because somebody didn’t like the previous president of the United States,” Zarif told Fareed Zakaria at a virtual event sponsored by the Council on Foreign Relations in September.

“It’s not my business that this president or the next president like their predecessor or don’t like their predecessor. It is the United States that has to act responsibly in the international community, which unfortunately it hasn’t,” he added.

Zarif further pointed to the damage caused by the U.S. sanctions on Iran, saying Iran is currently not able to buy vaccines for influenza because the United States does not allow us to transfer the money.

Colin S. Cavell, a full professor of political science at Bluefield State College in West Virginia, has also told the Tehran Times that Trump pulled the U.S. out of the nuclear deal “to negate an international agreement negotiated by his African American predecessor, Barack Obama.”

Speculations about a possible thaw in Iran-U.S. relations have gained momentum after Biden was named the winner of the November presidential election. Biden himself had said that he would rejoin the JCPOA if he won the election.

“I will offer Tehran a credible path back to diplomacy. If Iran returns to strict compliance with the nuclear deal, the United States would rejoin the agreement as a starting point for follow-on negotiations. With our allies, we will work to strengthen and extend the nuclear deal’s provisions, while also addressing other issues of concern,” Biden said in a September op-ed for CNN.

E3 foreign ministers meet on JCPOA 

Meanwhile, foreign ministers from the three European parties to the deal, namely France, the UK and Germany, have met to discuss a joint approach with the incoming Biden administration on reviving the nuclear pact.

The three countries, whose ministers met in Berlin on Monday, are hopeful about the revival of the JCPOA and the return of Tehran to the deal under the Biden administration.

The foreign ministers Heiko Maas of Germany, Jean-Yves Le Drian of France and Dominic Raab of the UK met to discuss “what a further approach involving all signatories to the JCPOA, and perhaps also with a new U.S. administration, could look like”, the Guardian quoted German officials as saying.

Foreign Minister Zarif suggested last week that Iran might need guarantees before letting the U.S. rejoin the old JCPOA.

The former EU chief negotiator Federica Mogherini advised the U.S. not to try to negotiate an updated JCPOA too quickly.

“I don’t see the possibility of moving on to new elements unless and until JCPOA is fully implemented by both sides. I think this is the starting point and I think we would be mistaken and under a very serious illusion if we were thinking of doing this the other way around,” she said at a European Leadership Network event.

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Imagine being out for a jog, headphones on, and wanting to turn up the volume without breaking your stride. Or receiving a “new message” alert on your phone while driving and wanting to activate the text-to-speech function without taking your eye off the road.

These are scenarios where touchless control would come in handy.

“Today we interact with computers and devices not just at our desks but in a variety of different contexts – while on a run, on the subway, or in a car,” explains Dr Sean Follmer, an expert in human computer interaction at Stanford University.

“With mobile computing devices like smartwatches or even, in the future, augmented reality glasses, we no longer have large surfaces on which to place keyboards or mice, so we need to create new input devices and technologies that can allow us to interact while we are on the go.”

One of these technologies is radar.

Most of us might associate radar with air traffic control and military defence – firing radio waves at an aircraft and measuring the time they take to bounce back can reveal location and speed.

Google’s Project Soli has adapted the concept and effectively miniaturised it.

Mini-radars fitted into a range of devices, such as smartphones, kettles, radios, or car dashboards, could enable users to activate and control them using gestures alone.

The tech is so precise it can differentiate between the subtlest hand gestures, such as thumb and index finger rubbing or pinching.

Now St Andrews Computer Human Interaction research group (SACHI) has honed the tech further using machine learning to make it suitable for object recognition.

Prof Aaron Quigley, SACHI chair, says: “A major issue we had to solve is that the energy that comes back from the objects we want to track is a remarkably complex signal.

“We need to train our system to recognise the objects from these thousands of overlapping signals and we solve this using advanced AI [artificial intelligence] algorithms.”

The mini-radar tech could be applied to objects and materials, says lead researcher Hui Shyong Yeo, opening up the potential for assistive technology for blind and disabled people.

Recycling centres might be able to sense and process different types of materials automatically, he adds, or home security systems could detect if objects have been stolen.

Sound is also being trialled as a means of touchless gesture control.

Bristol-based Ultrahaptics uses ultrasound signals – sound waves at frequencies above the range of human hearing – to create the feeling of touch in mid-air.

This so-called haptics technology makes it feel like you’re pressing a button or turning a dial when it’s just your fingers experiencing highly targeted sound vibrations.

One of the biggest challenges so far has been accessing enough computer power to keep up with the technological developments, says co-founder Dr Tom Carter.

“Our first prototype took 20 minutes to complete one computation on the most expensive PC we could buy – this meant that if you moved your hand you had to wait 20 minutes for the haptics to update,” he says.

“Not exactly interactive!

“[The time delay now is] 10 microseconds on a very small, cheap processer like those you find in your mobile phone.”.

But why do we really need touchless controls?

One of the areas where he sees the tech taking off is inside vehicles.

“Touch screens increase driver distraction,” says Dr Carter. “You cannot feel the controls so you have to take your eyes off the road and look.

“With our technology, users can perform gestures in the air and receive tactile feedback to let them know that the system has recognised what they have requested.”

While Ultrahaptics uses sound to create physical sensations on the skin, sound can also be used in a similar way to radar – to detect gestures.

Elliptic Labs says its software can turn existing speakers and microphones into ultrasound sensors that then enable users to select a music playlist or take a selfie, say, using a simple mid-air hand gesture.

“Our virtual smart sensor platform simply utilises the microphone and speaker already on a device to gather its ultrasound data,” says chief executive Laila Danielsen.

Ultrasound signals can have a range of up to 5m (16ft) and can be generated with relatively little power, says Ms Danielsen. She thinks that within a few years every device with a speaker and a microphone will use ultrasound for at least one gesture.

“The most basic gesture a user can do is simply enter or leave a room,” she says. “We expect appliances such as lights to turn on or off depending on a person’s presence.”

“Voice works well for entering text or making discrete – such as on/off – selections. However, for spatial or continuous control it can be complicated. Smoothly changing the volume could be done more easily with a virtual slider or knob.”

Voice control isn’t optimal if you’re in the middle of a conversation, say, or in a meeting or a library.

Dr Follmer anticipates that gestural interaction will continue to grow, particularly in the field of augmented and virtual reality where a physical mouse or keyboard is less useful.

Touchless control would also be useful in hospitals to help prevent the spread of germs, he concludes.

The QWERTY keyboard – whether real or virtual – will always have a role to play, but touchless is undoubtedly on its way.

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The question of inequality was raised several times by the UN in January: speaking at the World Economic Forum Annual Meeting in Davos, UN chief António Guterres pointed out that, while technological progress and globalization have led to “fantastic improvements” in many areas, they have also increased inequality and marginalized millions.

And, in her annual letter, Lise Kingo, CEO of the UN Global Compact, which supports private sector efforts to do business responsibly, noted that, in 2018, we saw “a small group of individuals are getting exponentially richer as billions are left behind in poverty.”

Inequality is not only rising, it is also an “entrenched imbalance,” according to Richard Kozul-Wright, a globalization expert and Director with the Trade and Development agency UNCTAD.

In an interview with UN News, which you can listen to here, Mr. Kozul-Wright said that notionally high employment rates in many economies mask the fact that wages and working conditions are not improving, and that whilst wages have been stagnant for a decade, dividends on shareholdings have been recovering, benefiting financial asset holders. His remarks came in the wake of the January launch of the 2019 World Economic Situation and Prospects (WESP) report which showed uneven growth (both between and within countries) that is often failing to reach where it is most needed.

Will AI take away our jobs, or transform them?

The beginning of 2019 saw a focus on the role of technology on the world of work, and the impact it is having on inequality. The International Labour Organization (ILO) launched a landmark report in January: the Global Commission on the Future of Work. This study concluded that technological innovations provide “countless opportunities” for workers, but warned that, if these technologies are not deployed as part of a human-centred agenda based on investing in people, work institutions and decent, sustainable employment, we run the risk of “sleepwalking into a world that widens existing inequalities and uncertainties.”

One of the key technological innovations mentioned in the report, one that garners significant media attention, is artificial intelligence (AI). A report from the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO), published at the tail-end of January, noted a “quantum leap” in AI-related patents, suggesting that AI could soon “revolutionize all areas of daily life beyond the tech world.”

AI inspires as much fear as excitement, evoking  a dystopian world in which more and more work is carried out by machines, with society split between a tiny super-rich elite and the rest, an unemployable mass of people with no prospect of finding work.

Kriti Sharma doesn’t see things that way. She has been recognized by the UN as a Young Leader For Sustainable Development Goals, in recognition of her work to ensure that AI helps to create a better, fairer world, through her AI For Good organization, and her role in the Sage Future Makers Lab, which was set up to equip young people around the world with hands-on learning for entering a career in Artificial Intelligence.

Speaking to UN News, Ms. Sharma acknowledged that people who live in countries which are on the wrong side of the digital divide (with less access to data) will be at a disadvantage, and pointed to studies that show a gender divide is looming, with women twice as likely to lose their jobs to automation, because of the kind of work they are involved in: “We need to make sure that we give people enough opportunities to reskill themselves, otherwise we end up creating more inequality that we had before.”

However, she believes that one of the biggest risks is failing to embrace this technology, and not equipping people with the skills to use it to solve global problems. Ms. Sharma laid out three ways to help ensure that AI brings about a fairer world.

First of all, it is important that a diverse group of people from many backgrounds are creating this technology, people who “understand society, policy-makers.” The second point is to ensure that AI is being used to solve the “right problems,” such as accelerating the Sustainable Development Goals, by diverting energy, research and funding into this area. And, lastly, international standards must be agreed upon, to make sure that the technology we create is used in a way that is safe and ethical for the world.

No progress without international cooperation

So, what is the way out of the “entrenched imbalance” of inequality? For the UN, a greater emphasis on international cooperation is an important part of the solution. The 2019 World Economic Situation and Prospects report concludes that, at a global level, a “cooperative and long-term strategy for global policy” is the way towards progress in reducing income inequality, and warns that a “withdrawal from multilateralism will pose further setbacks for those already being left behind.”

As the Secretary-General told the audience in Davos, a coordinated and global response is the only way to fight inequality, because “we need to work together. There is no way we can do isolated responses to the problems we face, they are all interlinked.”

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