Category Archives: Artificial Intelligence

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Sorry, Terminator conspiracists: AI-equipped drones can now think for themselves | VentureBeat | Business | by Andrew Thomson, VentureRadar

Until recently, drone technology relied heavily on human controllers and acted as carriers for cameras and instruments which would then be monitored manually. But, in news that will strike fear into the heart of any Terminator movie conspiracists, experts are now merging drones with artificial intelligence (AI) systems with incredible results.

My firm recently carried out two technology scouting projects that had us assessing many of the players in this field. We found that drones fitted with AI technology are being used to disrupt a number of industries and undertaking a range of tasks with minimal human input.

Source: Sorry, Terminator conspiracists: AI-equipped drones can now think for themselves | VentureBeat | Business | by Andrew Thomson, VentureRadar

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Unanimous A.I. treats humans like bees to make decisions

Unanimous A.I.’s UNU platform works by assembling a group of people online, all logged into an interface where they can interact to answer a series of questions together. A researcher asks a question and a selection of potential answers are laid out in a circle onscreen.

Participants must then drag a ‘puck’ in the center of the circle towards their preferred answer. The twist is that everyone is dragging the same puck, so that a consensus on the ideal result is quickly reached.

Source: Unanimous A.I. treats humans like bees to make decisions

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Robots: Destroying jobs, our economy, and possibly the world | Ars Technica

Vardi raised the concerning possibility that an over-reliance on automation and AI could have the same effect on our economy as the Roman dependence on slaves. “Can our economic system deal with labor participation rates below 25 percent? Below 50 percent?” he asked. The solution in ancient Rome, he pointed out, was bread and circuses or life as a legionary.

Source: Robots: Destroying jobs, our economy, and possibly the world | Ars Technica

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Why sarcasm baffles AIs

A new paper from researchers in India and Australia highlights one of the strangest and ironically most humorous facets of the problems in machine learning – humour.

Automatic Sarcasm Detection: A Survey [PDF] outlines ten years of research efforts from groups interested in detecting sarcasm in online sources. The problem is not an abstract one, nor does it centre around the need for computers to entertain or amuse humans, but rather the need to recognise that sarcasm in online comments, tweets and other internet material should not be interpreted as sincere opinion.

The need applies both in order for AIs to accurately assess archive material or interpret existing datasets, and in the field of sentiment analysis, where a neural network or other model of AI seeks to interpret data based on publicly posted web material.

Source: Why sarcasm baffles AIs

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Robots in Health Care Could Lead to a Doctorless Hospital – Singularity HUB

Hospitals will be very different places in 20 years. Beds will be able to move autonomously transporting patients from the emergency room to the operating theatre, via X-ray if needed.

Triage will be done with the assistance of an AI device. Many decisions on treatment will be made with the assistance of, or by, intelligent machines.

Your medical information, including medications, will be read from a chip under your skin or in your phone. No more waiting for medical records or chasing information when an unconscious patient presents to the emergency room.

Robots will be able to dispense medication safely and rehabilitation will be robotically assisted. Only our imaginations can limit how health care will be delivered.

Source: Robots in Health Care Could Lead to a Doctorless Hospital – Singularity HUB

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Senior citizens may accept robot helpers, but fear robot masters | Penn State University

The participants in the study indicated they saw robots as useful in three aspects of their lives: physical, informational and interactional. They felt most comfortable with robots as helpers and butlers, according to Sundar. Older adults also seemed more likely to accept robots that provide them information and entertainment, according to the researchers.Seniors, however, may be less likely to use robots that are designed to be more autonomous. An autonomous robot can make its own decisions and may not need to wait for a senior’s commands to engage in a task.”It is clear senior citizens want robots to play passive and non-confrontational roles,” said Sundar. “Seniors do not mind having robots as companions, but they worry about the potential loss of control over social order to robots.”

Source: Senior citizens may accept robot helpers, but fear robot masters | Penn State University

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Energy-friendly chip can perform powerful artificial-intelligence tasks | MIT News

A few years back, I remember reading a prediction that, within a decade, we’d have the equivalent of IBM’s Watson A.I. on our smartphones.  This could put us one step closer to that reality.

At the International Solid State Circuits Conference in San Francisco this week, MIT researchers presented a new chip designed specifically to implement neural networks. It is 10 times as efficient as a mobile GPU, so it could enable mobile devices to run powerful artificial-intelligence algorithms locally, rather than uploading data to the Internet for processing.

Source: Energy-friendly chip can perform powerful artificial-intelligence tasks | MIT News

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Google AI algorithm masters ancient game of Go : Nature News & Comment

Rather than follow the trend of the past 30 years of trying to crack games using computing power, DeepMind has reverted to mimicking human-like knowledge, albeit by training, rather than by being programmed, he says. The feat also shows the power of deep learning, which is going from success to success, says Coulom. “Deep learning is killing every problem in AI.”

Source: Google AI algorithm masters ancient game of Go : Nature News & Comment

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Artificial Intelligence: Gods, egos and Ex Machina | Science | The Guardian

Ex Machina is still one of the best commentaries I’ve seen on AI in recent years. Not because it’s an accurate depiction of future technologies – it clearly isn’t. Its value lies in what it reveals about the state of AI and philosophy in the 2010s, a decade in which we’ve become a little bit obsessed with the idea that through artificial intelligence we can create, or even become, a god.

Source: Artificial Intelligence: Gods, egos and Ex Machina | Science | The Guardian

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Marvin Minsky, Pioneer in Artificial Intelligence, Dies at 88 – The New York Times

Well before the advent of the microprocessor and the supercomputer, Professor Minsky, a revered computer science educator at M.I.T., laid the foundation for the field of artificial intelligence by demonstrating the possibilities of imparting common-sense reasoning to computers.

“Marvin was one of the very few people in computing whose visions and perspectives liberated the computer from being a glorified adding machine to start to realize its destiny as one of the most powerful amplifiers for human endeavors in history,” said Alan Kay, a computer scientist and a friend and colleague of Professor Minsky’s.

Source: Marvin Minsky, Pioneer in Artificial Intelligence, Dies at 88 – The New York Times