NEWSROOM
Lloyds begins mass office conversion in social housing drive
UK bank Lloyds has announced plans to convert disused office space into social housing, beginning with a site in Pudsey, Yorkshire. As part of the agreement, the site will be handed over to a local housing organisation – with 80 of the homes being rented at half the usual price. Lloyds, the UK’s largest mortgage provider, has already taken steps towards supporting affordable housing through its Citra Living arm, which will offer rentals at 80% of market value, and a dedicated summit with industry stakeholders held this week. This comes as the new Labour government announced ambitious plans to build 1.5mn new homes over five years.
Brain-controlled bionic leg brings huge benefits for amputees
Researchers from MIT have developed a bionic leg that offers users control of the limb using their thoughts alone. The device reads activity in the leg muscles to control an electronic ankle, allowing amputees to walk more quickly and navigate obstacles better. The study is being led by Professor Hugh Herr – himself an amputee – who expressed hope that users will be able to go “hiking or dancing” in an interview with The Guardian. Initial studies have found marked improvement to walking gait, with a 41% speed increase compared to traditional prosthetics. The device’s success is thanks to a procedure known as agonist-antagonist myoneural interface (AMI), which preserves the muscle connections needed for increased control. The team hopes the technology will be available commercially in the next five years.
Congo seeks $80bn to restart world’s biggest power project
Five development banks are working to finance the Grand Inga hydropower complex in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The project, which has been stalled for decades, would become the world’s biggest power project if built to its full capacity of 40GW. To date, the project has been marred by corruption and delays, and the complex’s two dams have just 1.8GW of capacity, installed more than 40 years ago. The banks, including the Development Bank of Southern Africa and the New Development Bank, are working with the Congolese and South African governments to drive progress on Grand Inga and will seek private finance for the project, which has an estimated price tag of over $80bn.
US National Guard to trial AI mapping in wildfire rescues
The US National Guard will use new AI technology to direct first responders during this summer’s wildfire season. AI will be used to match aerial photos of wildfires and other natural disasters to specific mapping data, so rescuers reach people faster. To date, this process has been done manually, and can take many hours to complete. The new technology is part of a project called Bellwether, developed by Google’s parent company, Alphabet, and described as ‘The first prediction engine for the Earth and everything on it’. Bellwether is part of Alphabet’s ‘moonshot’ development company, X (no relation to the former Twitter), which it describes as a group of entrepreneurs and investors creating ‘radical new technologies to solve some of the world’s hardest problems’.
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