Mind Matters Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis

CategoryArtificial Intelligence

voice-recognition-machine-learning-stockpack-adobe-stock
Voice recognition, Machine Learning.
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post
Author
Caitlin Cory
Date
July 28, 2021
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Media
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You Can Now Hear Our Articles When You Are Driving or Sweeping Up

Curious about that "loudspeaker" icon that has recently appeared in our articles?
Caitlin Cory
July 28, 2021
3
Artificial Intelligence, Media

You may have recently noticed a new icon that’s appeared on your screen at the beginning of our articles. If you press the little black button with the loudspeaker icon, you will find our article being read aloud for you. This exciting new application – which will make it easier for our readers to enjoy our content even while driving, doing chores, or running errands – is made possible by WebsiteVoice advances in artificial intelligence technology.  WebsiteVoice is a text-to-speech application that converts blog posts and online articles into audible material. It serves over 4,000 clients worldwide in 30 different languages. Founded by Mohamad Awad and Roz Burch, the WebsiteVoice team calls itself “a group of avid readers and podcast Read More ›

Robot Examining Financial Report With Calculator
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post
Author
Richard W. Stevens
Date
July 21, 2021
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Economics
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Should Robots Pay Taxes?

Taxing artificial intelligence is the latest proposal to expand centralized control of human life
Richard W. Stevens
July 21, 2021
13
Artificial Intelligence, Economics

In June 2021, we started considering the provocatively titled podcast transcript, “Can a Robot Be Arrested? Hold a Patent? Pay Income Taxes?”, posted on the IEEE Spectrum site. Steven Cherry interviewed Ryan Abbott, physician, lawyer, and professor, about these topics and referencing his 2019 book, The Reasonable Robot: Artificial Intelligence and the Law. We’ve discussed whether artificial intelligence (AI) systems could be charged with crimes or can hold a patent. Whether “robots should pay taxes” turns out to be the scariest question yet. Touching upon the subject only lightly in the podcast, Abbott details the problem of taxing AI in Reasonable Robot, following this thought process: Automation using AI threatens to increase human unemployment. Current U.S. tax law encourages automation through favorable treatment Read More ›

reflection-of-a-man-looking-at-a-help-wanted-sign-in-a-business-window-economy-concept-stockpack-adobe-stock
Reflection of a man looking at a help wanted sign in a business window, economy concept
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post
Author
News
Date
July 12, 2021
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance, Work
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AI vs. the Pandemic: A Hopeful View of the Future of Work

A look at what was predicted and what really happened
News
July 12, 2021
11
Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance, Work

In 2019, philosopher Jay Richards offered some thoughts on whether robots would take all our jobs, as widely predicted. In the meantime, the unforeseeable COVID-19 pandemic idled many more people than robots did or could have. But let’s take a look at how well Richards’ reflections in “Creative Freedom, Not Robots, Is The Future Of Work” have fared. Note: Dr. Richards was speaking at the launch of the Walter Bradley Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence in Dallas, Texas on August 18. https://episodes.castos.com/mindmatters/Mind-Matters-142-Jay-Richards.mp3 A partial transcript, Show Notes, and Additional Resources follow. Richards started by pointing out that vast numbers of pundits were committed to the view that AI and robots will take our jobs: Jay Richards: Let me give Read More ›

artificial-intelligence-stockpack-adobe-stock
Artificial intelligence
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post
Author
News
Date
July 10, 2021
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Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture
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What If Your AI Started To Talk Like a Human? — Sci-fi Saturday

Should you just shut it down and leave the building?
News
July 10, 2021
15
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture

“Intelligentia” (2020) by Ken Shinozaki (at DUST July 7, 2021, 11:12 min) “Lisa receives a butler A.I. to Turing test, and over the course of the procedure, she discovers the A.I. is not what it seems and her entire world disrupted.” Review: It’s a harrowing tale with a strong performance by Rain Fuller as Lisa and C. J. Baker as her boss. Lisa seems to be on the brink of a breakdown. Which the AI, “Eugene,” seems to have spotted… “Eugene” soon takes charge of the interview. And it becomes clear that “Eugene” is a conscious being. It’s fun sci-fi and well worth the watch. But a bit implausible toward the end. We are told that “Eugene” — essentially just Read More ›

seniorenpaar-mit-rollator-unterwegs-mit-tochter-stockpack-adobe-stock
Seniorenpaar mit Rollator unterwegs mit Tochter
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post
Author
Wesley J. Smith
Date
July 5, 2021
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Medicine and Health
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Computer Program Predicts When Seniors Have 6 Months to Live

Developed in Canada, the program is further evidence that medicine is growing increasingly impersonal
Wesley J. Smith
July 5, 2021
3
Artificial Intelligence, Medicine and Health

As if we needed further evidence that medicine is growing increasingly impersonal, the Canadian Medical Association Journal has published a study that claims a computer program can predict when seniors have six months to live. From the Global News story: Amid a lack of proper support for Canadians receiving home-based support towards the end of their lives, a new risk calculator is helping predict how long seniors have left to live. The Risk Evaluation for Support: Predictions for Elder-Life in the Community Tool — dubbed ‘RESPECT’ for short — can predict death within six months, and was developed using data from more than 491,000 community-dwelling adults aged at least 50 years who used home care between 2007 and 2013. Always with the acronyms to hide Read More ›

concept-of-different-emotions-drawn-on-colorfull-cubes-wooden-background-stockpack-adobe-stock
concept of Different emotions drawn on colorfull cubes, wooden background.
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post
Author
News
Date
July 2, 2021
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Peer Review, Philosophy of Mind
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Emotion Recognition Software Use Spreads While Science Is Doubted

Emotional recognition software has been coming under fire for misuse and racial bias for some time
News
July 2, 2021
4
Artificial Intelligence, Peer Review, Philosophy of Mind

An editor at AI Trends notes The global emotion detection and recognition market is projected to grow to $37.1 billion by 2026, up from an estimated $19.5 billion in 2020, according to a recent report from MarketsandMarkets. North America is home to the largest market. John P. Desmond, “Market for Emotion Recognition Projected to Grow as Some Question Science” at AI Trends (June 24, 2021) But the software has been coming under fire for misuse and racial bias for some time: “How people communicate anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness, and surprise varies substantially across cultures, situations, and even across people within a single situation,” stated the report, from a team of researchers led by Lisa Feldman Barrett, of Northeastern University, Read More ›

Robotic Hand Assisting Person For Signing Document
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post
Author
Richard W. Stevens
Date
July 1, 2021
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Law
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Can a Robot Hold a Patent?

The boring answer is no, but the question raises intriguing thoughts about AI and intellectual property law
Richard W. Stevens
July 1, 2021
10
Artificial Intelligence, Law

Since the late 1800s, people have been intrigued by robots. There’s something strange, wonderful, but sometimes scary about walking, talking, thinking machines, especially when in human form. Talking about “whether a robot can hold a patent” is bound to intrigue humanoids.  Mute the Robot Sound Bite In June 2021, we started considering the provocatively titled podcast transcript, “Can a Robot Be Arrested? Hold a Patent? Pay Income Taxes?”, posted on the IEEE Spectrum site. Steven Cherry interviewed Ryan Abbott, physician, lawyer, and professor, about these topics and referencing his 2019 book, The Reasonable Robot: Artificial Intelligence and the Law. Our previous discussion, “Can a Robot be Arrested and Prosecuted?”, addressed criminal liability for crimes committed by artificial intelligence (AI) systems. Now we consider: “Can a Read More ›

Robot prints on a typewriter
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post
Author
Gary Smith
Date
June 30, 2021
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture
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The Great American Novel Will Not be Written by a Computer

It takes more than statistical genius to understand words and create works of art
Gary Smith
June 30, 2021
5
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture

I’ve written before about how computer algorithms are like Nigel Richards, the New Zealander who has won multiple French-language Scrabble tournaments even though he does not understand the words he is spelling. Computers can similarly manipulate words in many useful ways — e.g., spellchecking, searching, alphabetizing — without any understanding of the words they are manipulating. To know what words mean, they would have to understand the world we live in. They don’t. One example is their struggles with the Winograd schema challenge — recognizing what it refers to in a sentence. Another example is the inability to answer simple questions like, “Is it safe to walk downstairs backwards if I close my eyes?” A third type of example is the brittleness of language translation programs. Yet another Read More ›

Gold chess piece on computer mainboard. Concept of IT strategy, making decision, technology background.
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post
Author
News
Date
June 28, 2021
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Artificial Intelligence, Medicine and Health
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Why AI Chess Champs Are Not Taking Over the World

Mastery of closed-world games does not mean that AI can take over and run everything
News
June 28, 2021
4
Artificial Intelligence, Medicine and Health

At one time, the AI that beat humans at chess calculated strategies by studying the outcomes of human moves. Then, it turned out, there was a faster way: In October 2017, the DeepMind team published details of a new Go-playing system, AlphaGo Zero, that studied no human games at all. Instead, it started with the game’s rules and played against itself. The first moves it made were completely random. After each game, it folded in new knowledge of what led to a win and what didn’t. At the end of these scrimmages, AlphaGo Zero went head to head with the already superhuman version of AlphaGo that had beaten Lee Sedol. It won 100 games to zero. Joshua Sokol, “Why Artificial Read More ›

they-knows-stockpack-unsplash
They Knows.
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post
Author
News
Date
June 26, 2021
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Artificial Intelligence, Military, Science
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The Pentagon’s UAP (UFO) Report Signals a Sharp Attitude Change

The brass have committed themselves to going “wherever the data takes us”
News
June 26, 2021
4
Artificial Intelligence, Military, Science

As promised, the Pentagon released its UAP (UFO) report. And what did they find? First, they … lack sufficient data to determine the nature of mysterious flying objects observed by American military pilots including whether they are advanced earthly technologies, atmospherics or of an extraterrestrial origin. Steve Gorman, “Watershed U.S. UFO report does not rule out extraterrestrial origin” at Reuters via Yahoo News (June 25, 2021) But read on: The report marked a turning point for the U.S. government after the military spent decades deflecting, debunking and discrediting observations of unidentified flying objects and “flying saucers” dating back to the 1940s. Steve Gorman, “Watershed U.S. UFO report does not rule out extraterrestrial origin” at Reuters via Yahoo News (June 25, Read More ›

robotic-man-cyborg-face-representing-artificial-intelligence-3d-rendering-stockpack-adobe-stock.jpg
Robotic man cyborg face representing artificial intelligence 3D rendering
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post
Author
News
Date
June 25, 2021
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Natural Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind
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How To Flummox an AI Neural Network

Kids can figure out the same-different distinction. So can ducklings and bees. But top AI can't.
News
June 25, 2021
3
Artificial Intelligence, Natural Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind

Science writer John Pavlus identifies a key limitation of artificial intelligence: The first episode of Sesame Street in 1969 included a segment called “One of These Things Is Not Like the Other.” Viewers were asked to consider a poster that displayed three 2s and one W, and to decide — while singing along to the game’s eponymous jingle — which symbol didn’t belong. Dozens of episodes of Sesame Street repeated the game, comparing everything from abstract patterns to plates of vegetables. Kids never had to relearn the rules. Understanding the distinction between “same” and “different” was enough. Machines have a much harder time. One of the most powerful classes of artificial intelligence systems, known as convolutional neural networks or CNNs, Read More ›

hand-of-ants-stockpack-adobe-stock
hand of ants
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post
Author
Robert J. Marks
Date
June 23, 2021
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Military
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The Most Promising Defense Against Militarized Drone Swarms

An EMP ray beam could disable an AI swarm like a can of bug spray against a swarm of ants
Robert J. Marks
June 23, 2021
5
Artificial Intelligence, Military

Want to be scared about a use of artificial intelligence in the military? Watch the leftist video Slaughterbots or the beginning of the movie Angel Has Fallen starring drone-targeted Morgan Freeman. Swarms are hard to defeat. Kicking over an ant hill and stomping on most of the agents in a swarm doesn’t derail the ants’ collective mission. Come back in a week and the anthill is rebuilt. Likewise, if all of the agents in a drone swarm aren’t taken out, the drone swarm can still accomplish its mission. As I mention in The Case for Killer Robots, autonomous swarms of drones are among the scariest applications of AI in military weapons. Russia has developed and tested military drone swarms. So has the United States military. General John Read More ›

tin robots.jpg
Vintage tin robot toys
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post
Author
News
Date
June 21, 2021
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Ethics, Philosophy of Mind
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Researchers: Humans “Exploit” Machines Without a Sense of Guilt!

Humans, we are told, are so unethical that we take advantage of "benevolent" self-driving cars
News
June 21, 2021
4
Artificial Intelligence, Ethics, Philosophy of Mind

In case no one knew this, humans are cruel, greedy, and deceptive. We even take advantage of self-driving cars. Our crimes are revealed in a recent study that scolds humans as “unwilling to cooperate and compromise with machines. They even exploit them.” When you’ve stopped laughing, you might be interested to learn of some intriguing findings from studies of human behavior around self-driving cars (autonomous vehicles) and Prisoner’s Dilemma games. One team of researchers, in a test involving 9 experiments and 2000 participants, tried to determine whether humans would behave as co-operatively with AI systems as we do with fellow humans: The study which is published in the journal iScience found that, upon first encounter, people have the same level Read More ›

ai orb
Artificial Intelligence. Digital age in the global world of the future. 3D illustration of computer mind in decentralized cyberspace
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post
Author
News
Date
June 19, 2021
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Artificial Intelligence, Creativity, Science
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ET Expert Thinks That ET Is Probably AI (Artificial Intelligence)

Given the immense interstellar distances, not being alive might be the only way ET could get here.
News
June 19, 2021
4
Artificial Intelligence, Creativity, Science

Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) astronomer Seth Shostak (pictured) confesses that these are exciting times for alien hunters like himself, what with the Pentagon’s anticipated July 25 report on unidentified aerial phenomena. Still, he doesn’t expect any big revelations: “I think it’s overwhelmingly likely that aliens are present in our galaxy. But I don’t believe they’re hanging out in our airspace. Not now, and not in historic times.” On the other hand, he goes on to say, every third star in our galaxy could host an Earth-like planet so the odds are we are not alone. Few life forms on Earth resemble humans, so why should extraterrestrials? But if we are not alone, what would ET be like? A gaseous Read More ›

accurate-facial-recognition-software-detection-technology-blur-people-with-facial-scan-showing-digital-personal-data-and-social-credit-stockpack-adobe-stock
accurate facial recognition software detection technology. blur people with facial scan showing digital personal data and social credit
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post
Author
News
Date
June 15, 2021
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Surveillance
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U.S. Ranked #8 in Countries Using Facial Recognition Technology

7 in 10 governments widely use facial recognition technology
News
June 15, 2021
4
Artificial Intelligence, Surveillance

A new report has ranked the United States #8 among 100 countries for widespread use of facial recognition technology (FRT). The report came out of Comparitech last week. A team evaluated the 100 most populated countries to compare their use of FRT. The study analyzed the use of FRT in governments, police departments, airports, schools, banks, workplaces, and on public transportation. The U.S. scored 18 on a scale of 0-40 (0 indicating an invasive use of FRT, and 40 indicating no evidence or an outright ban on the technology), pairing it with Mexico for the eighth ranking in the top 10 list. “There is…growing use of this technology within the US, but buses don’t appear to have FRT installed as Read More ›

numbers waves face
Birth of Virtual Consciousness
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post
Author
News
Date
June 12, 2021
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind
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Neuroscientist: Conscious AI Is Not an Insurmountable Problem

Neuroscientist: Conscious AI is not an insurmountable problem
News
June 12, 2021
4
Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind

Neuroscientist Ryota Kanai, founder and CEO of Tokyo-based startup Araya, aims to “understand the computational basis of consciousness and to create conscious AI.” He isn’t sure, he says, if we want AI to be conscious. But, technically, he doesn’t see it as an insurmountable problem: If we can’t figure out why AIs do what they do, why don’t we ask them? We can endow them with metacognition—an introspective ability to report their internal mental states. Such an ability is one of the main functions of consciousness. It is what neuroscientists look for when they test whether humans or animals have conscious awareness. For instance, a basic form of metacognition, confidence, scales with the clarity of conscious experience. When our brain Read More ›

ai-stockpack-adobe-stock
AI・人工知能
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post
Author
News
Date
June 12, 2021
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Ethics, Law
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Could You Be Reconstructed From Your Memories? – Sci-fi Saturday

If you were, would destroying the digitized “you” be murder?
News
June 12, 2021
14
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Ethics, Law

“The Final Moments of Karl Brant” at DUST by Neil Ellice and Matthew Wilson (June 10, 2021 at DUST, 15:46 min) “Set in the near future where experimental technology allows two detectives to bring a murder victim back to life in a digital state in order to question him about his final moments.” Review: This is an “oldie” from 2013, recently uploaded to DUST. Entrepreneur Karl Brant and academic neuroscientist Bennett Ferryman were partners in a promising new high tech venture in which Brant suddenly perishes, leaving Ferryman now the sole owner — and under interrogation down at the local cop shop: “Am I a suspect?” “Not if you give us a good reason why you shouldn’t be.” Not too Read More ›

3d-rendering-of-futuristic-blue-circuit-board-stockpack-adobe-stock
3d rendering of futuristic blue circuit board
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post
Author
News
Date
June 11, 2021
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence
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Can AI Design AI?: Responding to Google’s Latest Tech

Anything can be intelligence if we set the bar low enough
News
June 11, 2021
3
Artificial Intelligence

Could a computer design itself? Could it design a bigger and better computer? A team at Google says yes. According to a recent article at NewScientist, Google has begun using AI to design AI. “Engineers at Google have tasked an artificial intelligence with designing faster and more efficient processors – and then used its chip designs to develop the next generation of specialised computers that run the very same type of AI algorithms,” writes Matthew Sparkes. Sparkes continues by explaining Google’s chip design, and introducing the reader to Google’s Anna Goldie, a member of the team at the front of this effort that tasks computers with making better computers. “It is conceivable,” says Sparkes, “that this new AI-designed chip will be used Read More ›

internet-law-concept-stockpack-adobe-stock
Internet law concept
Type
post
Author
Richard W. Stevens
Date
June 7, 2021
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Law
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Can a Robot be Arrested and Prosecuted?

An Uber driver is held liable if he runs over someone. But what if a driverless taxi ran over someone?
Richard W. Stevens
June 7, 2021
8
Artificial Intelligence, Law

The title, “Can a Robot Be Arrested? Hold a Patent? Pay Income Taxes?”, is bound to attract clicks and attention. Posted on the IEEE Spectrum site, a podcast transcript by that name reports Steven Cherry’s interview of Ryan Abbott about artificial intelligence and the law. Abbott, a physician, lawyer, and professor, wrote the aptly titled book, The Reasonable Robot: Artificial Intelligence and the Law, published by Cambridge University Press in 2019. To the point: Can a robot be arrested? Technically, an arrest occurs when a person is forcibly but lawfully detained. Of course, one can forcibly detain a robot – we’ve seen that done in many science fiction movies. Abbott was talking specifically about how criminal law should apply to actions taken by artificial intelligence (AI) Read More ›

man-sits-in-a-spaceship-car-and-flies-to-the-planet-with-a-sunset-in-space-space-travel-by-car-concept-driver-behind-the-wheel-interplanetary-taxi-in-space-creative-idea-stockpack-adobe-stock
Man sits in a spaceship car and flies to the planet with a sunset in space. Space travel by car, concept. Driver behind the wheel. Interplanetary taxi in space, creative idea
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post
Author
Jonathan Bartlett
Date
June 7, 2021
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance
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Ford Calls Out Exaggerated Musk Claims in Epic Twitter Troll

Automakers are beginning to respond to Musk with mockery and satire
Jonathan Bartlett
June 7, 2021
3
Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance

Elon Musk has long been making strange claims about Tesla’s future plans for vehicles. At Mind Matters News, we have documented extensively his continually-changing claims about Teslas being able to be used as robotaxis. This is especially important to consumers of these products, as Tesla is charging customers $10,000 for future functionality that may never exist. We have largely ignored other claims from Musk as it is sometimes difficult to tell when Musk is being serious or when he is just joking around. This can be problematic, however, since Musk has listed his Twitter account as being a source of official company communications. Not being able to tell if a given message is an official corporate communication or just a funny Read More ›