Training AI to read animal facial expressions, NIH funding takes a big hit, and why we shouldn’t put cameras in robot pants

Science Magazine Podcast

Science Podcast

News Commentary, News, Science

4.2 • 791 Ratings

🗓️ 13 February 2025

⏱️ 39 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

First up this week, International News Editor David Malakoff joins the podcast to discuss the big change in NIH’s funding policy for overhead or indirect costs, the outrage from the biomedical community over the cuts, and the lawsuits filed in response. Next, what can machines understand about pets and livestock that humans can’t? Christa Lesté-Lasserre, a freelance science journalist based in Paris, joins host Sarah Crespi to discuss training artificial intelligence on animal facial expressions. Today, this approach can be used to find farm animals in distress; one day it may help veterinarians and pet owners better connect with their animal friends. Finally, Keya Ghonasgi, a postdoctoral fellow at the Georgia Institute of Technology, talks about a recent Science Robotics paper on the case against machine vision for the control of wearable robotics. It turns out the costs of adding video cameras to exoskeletons—such as loss of privacy—may outweigh the benefits of having robotic helpers on our arms and legs. This week’s episode was produced with help from Podigy. About the Science Podcast Authors: Sarah Crespi; Christa Lesté-Lasserre; David Malakoff Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	This week's episode is brought to you in part by Science Careers.
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0:12.5	Use our individual development plan tool, access topic-specific article collections,
0:17.6	or search for an exciting new job.
0:20.6	Science Careers, produced by Science and
0:23.0	AAAS, is a free website full of resources to help get the most out of your career. Visit
0:28.8	science careers.org today to get started. This is a science podcast for February 14th, 2025.
0:41.3	I'm Sarah Crespi.
0:43.3	First up this week, we have international news editor David Malikoff.
0:47.3	He joins us to discuss a possible big change in NIH's funding policy.
0:52.3	We talk about the outrage from the biomedical community
0:54.7	over the potential cuts and the lawsuits filed in response.
0:58.7	Next, freelance journalist Kristae Lassair
1:02.0	talks about training artificial intelligence
1:04.3	on animal facial expressions.
1:07.0	These days, this approach can be used
1:08.9	to find a farm animal in distress. One day, it could help veterinarians and pet owners better connect with their animal friends.
1:16.6	Finally, we have researcher Kea Ghanoski.
1:19.6	She's here to chat about the case against machine vision for the control of wearable robotics.
1:25.6	It turns out that adding cameras to exoskeletons to things that we wear may cost too much,
1:31.3	like in loss of privacy, and that could outweigh the benefits of having robotic helpers on our arms and legs.
	...

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