“AI is a dream we shouldn’t be having”
From Noel Sharkey, via Computer Weekly:
It is my contention that AI, and particularly robotics, exploits natural human zoomorphism. We want robots to appear like humans or animals, and this is assisted by cultural myths about AI and a willing suspension of disbelief. The old automata makers, going back as far as Hero of Alexandria, who made the first programmable robot in AD 60, saw their work as part of natural magic - the use of trick and illusion to make us believe their machines were alive. Modern robotics preserves this tradition with machines that can recognise emotion and manipulate silicone faces to show empathy. There are AI language programs that search databases to find conversationally appropriate sentences. If AI workers would accept the trickster role and be honest about it, we might progress a lot quicker.
“Project Indect”: An A.I. to police all of Europe
The European Union is spending tens of millions of euros on an artificial intelligence system known as “Project Indect,” which would draw from multiple data sources, namely public surveillance cameras, in order to detect “threats” and recognize “abnormal behavior” across the whole continent.
MICHAEL S. MALONE: Exit Brain, Enter Computer
Already... computers are exhibiting characteristics far beyond anything in human imagination. The first 'petaflog' – i.e., a quadrillion operations per second – supercomputers were delivered earlier this year, and now designers are working on 'exaflop' – that's a quintillion, or 1,000,000,000,000,000,000 operations per second – computers.
Artificial Intelligence Helps Diagnose Cardiac Infections
Endocarditis — an infection involving the valves and sometimes chambers of the heart — can be a problem in patients with implanted medical devices. It is serious and can be deadly. The mortality rate can be as high as one in five, even with aggressive treatment and removal of the device. With additional complications, the mortality could be over 60 percent. Diagnosis usually requires transesophageal echocardiography, an invasive procedure that also has risks. It involves use of an endoscope and insertion of a probe down the esophagus.
The software program is called an “artificial neural network” (ANN) because it mimics the brain’s cognitive function and reacts differently to situations depending on its accumulated knowledge. That knowledge or training is provided by researchers, similar to how a person would “train” a computer to play chess, by introducing it to as many situations as possible. In this case, the ANN underwent three separate “trainings” to learn how to evaluate the symptoms it would be considering.
The Rise of Sex Robots and Pleasure Machines
HOLLYWOOD was right, robots are going to take over the world. But we might as well lie back and think of the invasion because it's going to be pleasurable, says a leading robot scientist.
POPSCI.COM: DARPA-funded nanotech drug automatically regulates morphine dose to injured soliders on the battlefield
The drug relies upon nanotech particles that carry both morphine and its antagonist, known as Naloxone. That creates a self-regulating feedback system where Naxolone only activates to suppress morphine when blood oxygen levels drop too low. The antagonist then goes inactive when oxygen blood levels return to normal, and allows more morphine to become available.
Fermi Paradox Points to Fewer Than 10 Extraterrestrial Civilizations (or maybe 1,000… pick your multiplier)
They say that if each probe has a life span of 50 million years, and if evidence of their solar-system visits lasts about a million years, there can be no more than about 1,000 advanced civilizations out there now. If, instead, these probes can leave longer-lasting evidence of a visit--evidence that remains for 100 million years--then there can be no more than about 10 civilizations out there.
Full artlcle here.
Artificial Intelligence Used To Diagnose Metastatic Cancer
Now a team of researchers at the University of Chicago has designed a computer program that uses artificial intelligence to analyze the features of ultrasound images in order to help doctors predict earlier whether a woman's cancer has metastasized.
Article here.
Software That Cares
“I was impressed how powerful a response (by viewers of demos . . . and of users themselves) is evoked by the caring shown by the system.”
NY Times article here.
The Singularity as Rapture
A small, but growing group of computer scientists, are treating advances in A.I. as a life-altering religious experience. “Something new has taken place in the past five to eight years,” Dr. Horvitz said. “Technologists are replacing religion, and their ideas are resonating in some ways with the same idea of the Rapture.”
Artificial Intelligence Summit: Confronts Rise of Ultra-Smart Machines