Mind Matters Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis

Robert J. Marks

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Set of metal washers in the foreground

Micro Softy 15: What Happens to the Hole in a Hot Washer?

When a washer ring is heated, does the hole in the center get bigger or smaller?

The answer to last week’s Micro Softy turns on the question of what form of currency Claire gave the blind ticket seller. Did you guess it right?

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Facade of Grand Central Terminal at twilight in New York

Monday Micro Softy 14: How Did the Blind Ticket Seller Know?

This puzzle doesn’t require math skills so much as advanced common sense reasoning

About last week’s solution, given here: If you code, the second part of the puzzle could also be offered to a computer.

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stained-glass window

Monday Micro Softy 13: Garbage Trucks, String Theory…

… and Stained-Glass Windows. What connects them?

These puzzles, associated with the great mathematician Leonard Euler (1707‒1783), have a practical use, for example, in laying water pipes.

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A female engineer in the near future who operates a hologram screen

AI Generated Content May Now Be Copyrighted

AI-generated work can be copyrighted if it involves “meaningful human authorship.”

The recent ruling is an important step in the right direction although much litigation will ensue.

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group of musicians after the performance of his work

Monday Micro Softy 11: What Happened to That Other Dollar?

Shirley, Goodness, and Mercy get the discount for their cheap hotel rooms but the figures don’t really add up

To solve this Micro Softy, you need to pinpoint the flaw in the logic that hinges on the Law of Conservation of Money.

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Leather dice cup and dice on the table, rolling all sixes with 5 dice representing gambling and luck

The Monday Micro Softy 10: The Monte Hall Problem

In this case, it comes down to: How badly do you want a goat in your life?

Probability problems typically come down to analyzing the choices carefully and picking the most promising one.

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A vintage, rustic barber shop sign hangs prominently outside an establishment on a quaint street, evoking a nostalgic atmosphere from a bygone era

Monday Micro Softy 8: Who’s the Better Barber?

There are only two barbers to choose from and the choice may not be as easy as it looks. Also, here's the answer to Who's the Champ?

Micro Softy 7 is an illustration of Simpson’s Paradox, which says that averaging averages doesn’t always work.

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Baseball player hitting ball with bat in close up

Monday Micro Softy 7:  Who’s the Champ?

A single number does not always determine which player is better

And here’s the answer to why young Clay’s arithmetic didn’t make sense at first to Claude — but then Claude realized that the boy was right.

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Big ideas. Illuminated light bulb among the rest of the unlit bulbs.

Only in America

My discussion on this week’s podcast with Major General Bobby Hollingsworth (ret.) prompts a look at some of the many people that America has freed to be their best

Despite our different faiths, my Muslim colleague Mohamed El-Sharkawi was a steadfast ally and when his mosque was defaced post 9-11, Christians protected it.

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Mathematic or education concept

Monday Micro Softy 6: Bad Adding?

It looked to Claude like young Clay’s numbers didn’t add up but he seemed confident. What did he know that his father at first didn’t?

And here’s the answer to the probability question: What are the chances that Claude and Chloe’s younger child is also a boy?

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Machine learning , artificial intelligence, ai, deep learning blockchain neural network concept.

The Man Behind the First Billion-Dollar AI Business

Robert Hecht-Nielsen (1947‒2019) was a significant figure in the second wave of AI. His company specialized in fraud detection

He led a full life marked by remarkable achievements but he also had a near-death experience that transformed him spiritually.

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White pickup truck driving down dusty dirt road with fall leaves and dust behind

Micro Softy 5: The Puzzle of Claude and Chloe’s Two Kids

Also, here’s the answer to the puzzle of how, twelve years earlier, Claude escaped the trap Clifton Clowers set for him, so he could marry Chloe

Puzzle: We learn that one of Claude and Chloe’s two children is a boy. With a 50–50 ratio, what chance is there that the other child is a boy too?

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Photorealistic Church celebration in small country church with wooden pews, children holding baskets

Monday Micro Softy 4: Claude King Bests Clifton Clowers

Clowers offers Claude two slips of paper to choose from on a blind choice: marriage or death...

Claude’s sweetheart Chloe warns him that, in reality, both slips say “death.” He says never mind. So how did he escape death and marry her?

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People with TV screens on the brain, addicted to social media, manipulation and mind control, by media, teenager disconnected to reality

Australia’s Social Media Ban: The Law of Forbidden Fruit

Where minors are concerned, restrict and talk — but don’t ban

Outright banning alone does not work and will not have the outcome its Aussie supporters believe it will. Give kids reasons for limits and rules.

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Northern woodland scenery, viewed from above, with green pine forest and dark spruce trees on mountain hills.

Monday Micro Softy 3: The Wolverton Mountain Puzzle

Here’s the answer to Dead President’s Club as well — and smart STEM people often DON'T get that one right

Mind Matters News is pleased to offer a new series, “Monday Micro Softies,” from our director, Robert J. Marks, a series of puzzles that illustrate the ways of thinking needed in the computer industry today. – Eds. Here’s today’s puzzle, in honor of Claude King, followed by the solution to last Monday’s puzzle, The Dead Presidents Club. In 1962, King recorded the song Wolverton Mountain. It’s the story of Claude’s love of Clifton Clowers’ daughter — we’ll call her Chloe — who lives on the top of Wolverton Mountain. (Listen here.) It’s a catchy tune. Here’s a puzzle augmenting the song’s story: Claude starts climbing to the top of Wolverton Mountain at 6 AM. There is only one road, and Read More ›

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USA flag with firework background design for USA 4 july independence day

Monday Micro Softy 2: The Dead Presidents’ Club

The answer to Monday Micro Softy 1: The Round Trip is here too

Today’s puzzle: How would a girl who knew nothing of American history immediately know the name of at least one of three early Presidents who died on July 4?

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Manhole drain cover on streets of lower Manhattan

Microsoft: What Did You Need To Work There in the Early Days?

They asked questions that were not about the details of computer technology. The questions made you think. Hard.

For example. they would ask questions like, why are manhole covers round?

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Student child holding smartphone during control exam test at school and cheating on the exam

Chegged Out: How ChatGPT Schooled a Study Giant

AI has transformed how students approach both learning and cheating

AI is going to both create and destroy businesses. An interesting victim of AI is the academic assistance business. Academic dishonesty, the dark side of academic assistance, is a fancy term for cheating. With profit-motivated websites like Chegg.com, cheating became easier. When taking an exam, a student could take a photo of a difficult problem and send it to Chegg. In literally minutes, the student would be sent the answer over a cell phone. How do they do it? Often Chegg employs smart nerds from poor countries who, by local standards, are paid big bucks for their efforts. To use Chegg, a subscription is needed. But why include a human in the loop when AI can give you a quicker Read More ›