Mind Matters Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis

Monthly Archive August 2019

Chatbot conversation on smartphone screen app interface with artificial intelligence technology providing virtual assistant customer support and information, person hand holding mobile phone
Type
post
Author
Jonathan Bartlett
Date
August 5, 2019
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning
Tagged
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You can build your own chatbot

New tools have made it comparatively easy
Jonathan Bartlett
August 5, 2019
7
Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning

Natural Language Interfaces (the technical term for a chatbot) are becoming more and more popular. Many dial-in phone services have switched from numeric interfaces (“Dial 1 for sales, 2 for service, etc.”) to natural language interfaces (“Please say what you are calling about”). Where they have taken off though is with chatbots. Many online help systems at least start with chatbots, which collect basic information about a problem or situation and point to existing solutions before passing the contact off to a human expert. Additionally, the rise of the Generation Text, as well as the proliferation of chat-based groupware such as Slack, means that text-based natural language interfaces are one of the best ways of interacting with young people. Is Read More ›

Leuchtende Würfel mit Paragraphen-Symbol auf Tastatur
Type
post
Author
Russ White
Date
August 5, 2019
Categorized
Data Privacy
Tagged
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The Internet’s Structure Builds In Privacy Flaws

The Domain Name resolver knows every service you visit, and every service those services rely on, as you move around the internet
Russ White
August 5, 2019
5
Data Privacy

How can you create a directory that anyone can access and yet keep what everyone is asking for private? Short of moving to a paper-based DNS system (think, a stack of New York City-size telephone directories), there isn’t a good answer within the present system.

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Cityscape 2
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
August 3, 2019
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence
Tagged
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Why did Watson think Toronto was in the U.S.A.?

How that happened tells us a lot about what AI can and can’t do, to this day
Denyse O'Leary
August 3, 2019
6
Artificial Intelligence

Strictly speaking, the answer Watson spit out was "What is Toronto?????", which does sound distinctly less than certain. But the programmers had chosen not to program in the option of saying, “I don’t know.”

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chimpanzee family
Type
post
Author
Michael Egnor
Date
August 2, 2019
Categorized
Natural Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind
Tagged
, ,

Human-Ape Similarity Shows Humans Are Exceptional

If man is an animal biologically, but so unlike an animal cognitively, the obvious implication is that some aspect of the human mind is not biological
Michael Egnor
August 2, 2019
4
Natural Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind

Ironically, if humans and apes were biologically more different, materialists could claim that the material biological differences rather than immaterial spiritual differences account for our powers of abstract thought. The biological similarity precludes such an argument.

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Modern Red Haired Man Relaxing in Office
Type
post
Author
Brendan Dixon
Date
August 2, 2019
Categorized
Machine Learning
Tagged
,

Lazy Engineers Treat AI as Magic!

When software engineers mostly use shared code, they save time but risk losing understanding
Brendan Dixon
August 2, 2019
3
Machine Learning

Building from scratch is different. Knowing when to use a tool and why and knowing the limitations of each tool separates the craftsperson from the novice.

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Hand above a red emergency button
Type
post
Author
News
Date
August 2, 2019
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Natural Intelligence
Tagged
, , , , , ,

Why an AI pioneer thinks Watson is a “fraud”

The famous Jeopardy contest in 2011 worked around the fact that Watson could not grasp the meaning of anything
News
August 2, 2019
7
Artificial Intelligence, Natural Intelligence

Gary N. Smith explains that a computer’s inability to understand what “it” means in a sentence is because it doesn’t understand what any of the words in the sentence mean.

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gud
Type
post
Author
Robert J. Marks
Date
August 1, 2019
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Education, Work
Tagged
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Random Thoughts on the Passing Scene: How to Spell Gud

Also, Google and Apple ditching college degree requirements is not really that new
Robert J. Marks
August 1, 2019
4
Artificial Intelligence, Education, Work

Twenty years or so ago, when I worked in Seattle, Microsoft was famous for the testing coding skills of their applicants and asking Mensa-like questions. Degrees were secondary.

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Girls eye with paint and earth
Girls eye with paint and earth
Type
post
Author
News
Date
August 1, 2019
Categorized
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind
Tagged
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Why Some Scientists Believe the Universe Is Conscious

They’re not mystics. But materialism is not giving good answers so they are looking around
News
August 1, 2019
8
Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

These prominent thinkers are driven to panpsychism because materialism about the mind doesn’t really work. So if panpsychism ends up seeming absurd, dualism—there really is an immaterial world—is also worth considering.

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