Category Archives: Artificial Intelligence

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Mapping the Brain to Build Better Machines | Quanta Magazine

An ambitious new program, funded by the federal government’s intelligence arm, aims to bring artificial intelligence more in line with our own mental powers. Three teams composed of neuroscientists and computer scientists will attempt to figure out how the brain performs these feats of visual identification, then make machines that do the same. “Today’s machine learning fails where humans excel,” said Jacob Vogelstein, who heads the program at the Intelligence Advanced Research Projects Activity (IARPA). “W

Source: Mapping the Brain to Build Better Machines | Quanta Magazine

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Robotics makes baby steps toward solving Japan’s child care shortage | The Japan Times

“Unlike human day care staff, the Or-B don’t suffer from mental or physical fatigue. They’ll never tire of repeating the same stories and performing the same daily tasks,” Hara said.

“Furthermore, as they can access a vast library of “Anpanman” and “Teletubbies” episodes, they can quickly defuse any temper tantrum and crying jag that might occur.”

In terms of teaching and nurturing, Or-B units have certain advantages.

“Or-B’s voice can be female, male or gender neutral,” said Yoshikazu Musaki, a specialist in early childhood education. Furthermore its learning capabilities, coupled with the latest in artificial intelligence, will allow it to customize its care to each child, Musaki added.

Source: Robotics makes baby steps toward solving Japan’s child care shortage | The Japan Times

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AlphaGo’s victory means the world is about to change

“AI methods are progressing much faster than expected, (which) makes the question of the long-term outcome more urgent,” said AI expert Stuart Russell of the University of California’s Berkeley Electrical Engineering & Computer Sciences department.

“In order to ensure that increasingly powerful AI systems remain completely under human control… there is a lot of work to do,” he continued.That means that the long held fantasy of a true form of general artificial intelligence is going to be upon humanity sooner than we thought.

Source: AlphaGo’s victory means the world is about to change

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We all think robots are going to steal other people’s jobs

A majority of Americans – 65 percent – now believe that robots will “definitely” or “probably” take over much of the work we humans do within 50 years – but less than 20 percent see this transformation happening to their current job.

Despite the fact that this is already happening, many more people are worried about being pushed out because of someone else undercutting them, according to a Pew survey of 2,000 people, rather than their role simply being automated out of existence.

Source: We all think robots are going to steal other people’s jobs

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Why You Want Your Drone to Have Emotions – IEEE Spectrum

Researchers from Stanford University, led by Dr. Jessica Cauchard, have established an “emotional model space” for drones, which consists of a set of eight emotional states (personalities) that have defining characteristics that can be easily recognized by human users, and that can be accurately represented through simple actions that the drone can perform. These personalities include: brave, dopey, sleepy, grumpy, happy, sad, scared, and shy. For example, a drone with a brave personality moves quickly and smoothly, and if you ask it to go backwards, it’ll instead turn around and go forwards. A dopey drone flies a little wobbly. A grumpy drone may require you to repeat commands, while a sad drone flies low to the ground.

Source: Why You Want Your Drone to Have Emotions – IEEE Spectrum

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Deep learning helps robots perfect skills | KurzweilAI

Deep learning enables the robot to perceive its immediate environment, including the location and movement of its limbs. Reinforcement learning means improving  at a task by trial and error. A robot with these two skills could refine its performance based on real-time feedback.

Applications for such a skilled robot might range from helping humans with tedious housekeeping chores to assisting in highly detailed surgery. In fact, Abbeel says, “Robots might even be able to teach other robots.” Or humans?

Source: Deep learning helps robots perfect skills | KurzweilAI

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The supremely intelligent rat-cyborg | PLOS Neuroscience Community

These findings from Yu and colleagues suggest that optimal intelligence may not reside exclusively in man or machine, but in the integration of the two. By harnessing the speed and logic of artificial computing systems, we may be able to augment the already remarkable cognitive abilities of biological neural systems, including the human brain. The prospect of computer-assisted human intelligence raises obvious concerns over the safety and ethics of their application. Are there conditions under which a human “cyborg” could put humans at risk? Is altering human behavior with a machine tantamount to “playing god” and a dangerous overreach of our powers?

Source: The supremely intelligent rat-cyborg | PLOS Neuroscience Community

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DOD officials say autonomous killing machines deserve a look | Ars Technica

[ … ] military officials are looking hard at the possibility of developing robotic systems that are capable of acting on their own if remote control is cut off and decisions must be made on when to deploy a weapon—whether it’s an armed drone dropping a bomb or launching a missile or a ground robot firing weapons. “These are hard questions, and a lot of people outside of us tech guys are thinking about it, talking about it, engaging in what we can and can’t do,” she said. “That’s important. We need to understand and know that it doesn’t necessarily need to happen, but we also have to put the options on the table because we are the worst-case scenario guys.”

Source: DOD officials say autonomous killing machines deserve a look | Ars Technica

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Basic income may be needed to combat robot-induced unemployment, leading AI expert says | News | Lifestyle | The Independent

Dr Moshe Vardi, a computer science professor at Rice University in Texas, believes that a basic income may be needed in the future as advances in automation and AI put human workers out of jobs.

In an interview with The Huffington Post, Dr Vardi said: “Our current economic system requires people to either have wealth or to work to make a living, with the assumption that the economy creates jobs for all those who need them.”

“If this assumption breaks down – and progress in automation is likely to break it down, I believe – then we need to rethink the very basic structure of our economic system.”

Source: Basic income may be needed to combat robot-induced unemployment, leading AI expert says | News | Lifestyle | The Independent