^CategoryArtificial Intelligence

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
November 23, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Medicine and Health, Military

Tagged
AI in medicine, Ambiguity, Featured, Gary Smith, IBM Watson, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, Jackie Whisman, Robert D. Atkinson, Terminator fears, The Case for Killer Robots, Winograd Schema}

AI Is Not Nearly Smart Enough to Morph Into the Terminator

_{Computer engineering prof Robert J. Marks offers some illustrations in an ITIF think tank interview} _{News

November 23, 2020

6

Artificial Intelligence, Medicine and Health, Military}

In a recent podcast, Walter Bradley Center director Robert J. Marks spoke with Robert D.Atkinson and Jackie Whisman at the prominent AI think tank, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, about his recent book, The Case for Killer Robots—a plea for American military brass to see that AI is an inevitable part of modern defense strategies, to be managed rather than avoided. It may be downloaded free here. In this second part ( here’s Part 1), the discussion (starts at 6:31) turned to what might happen if AI goes “rogue.” The three parties agreed that AI isn’t nearly smart enough to turn into the Terminator: Jackie Whisman: Well, opponents of so-called killer robots, of course argue that the technologies can’t be Read More ›

Swarm of drones surveying, flying over city

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
November 20, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Military

Tagged
Drone swarms, Featured, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, Jackie Whisman, Killer robots, Killer Robots (book), Military drones, Robert D. Atkinson, Robert J. Marks, Swarm intelligence, Terminator (film), The Case for Killer Robots}

Is the U.S. Military Falling Behind in Artificial Intelligence?

_{What is the likely outcome of allowing those with very different value systems to have control of global AI warfare technology?} _{News

November 20, 2020

7

Artificial Intelligence, Military}

In a recent podcast, Walter Bradley Center director Robert J. Marks spoke with Robert D. Atkinson and Jackie Whisman at the prominent AI think tank, Information Technology and Innovation Foundation, about his recent book, The Case for Killer Robots—a plea for American military brass to see that AI is an inevitable part of modern defense strategies, to be managed rather than avoided. (The book may be downloaded free here.) As they jointly see the problem, There’s a lot of doomsday hype around artificial intelligence in general, and the idea of so-called “killer robots” has been especially controversial. But when it comes to the ethics of these technologies, one can argue that robots actually could be more ethical than human operators. Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
November 19, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Age of Entanglement (book), Digital Time Assumption, Eric Holloway, Featured, Flight 93, Gaming AI (book), George Gilder, Locality Assumption, Louisa Gilder, Singularity, Time}

Do Time and Space Mean the Same Thing to Humans as to Computers?

_{Futurist George Gilder tells us, humans don’t treat physical and chemical forces or clock pulses the way computers do} _{News

November 19, 2020

5

Artificial Intelligence, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind}

Recently, we have looked at four of the six assumptions that, according to futurist George Gilder in Gaming AI, are generally shared by those who believe that, sometime soon in a Singularity , we will merge with our machines: Four of them are: 1) The brain is a computer and Big Data is a Big Answer (here) and 2) maps are territories and reality follows our rules (here). Now here are the final two: • The Locality Assumption: Actions of human agents reflect only immediate physical forces impinging directly on them. • The Digital Time Assumption: Time is objective and measured by discrete increments. (p. 50) Gilder tells us that the Locality Assumption means that “minds respond to local inputs Read More ›

Autonomous vehicles on highway with self driving cars sensing environment by radar and operating safely on speedway thanks to artificial intelligence and control systems, automated transport concept

^{Type
post

Author
Jonathan Bartlett
Date
November 18, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance, Economics

Tagged
Autonomous Vehicles, Featured, Level 4 self-driving, Level 5 self-driving, self-driving cars, Tesla, Uber}

What Real Advantage Do Self-Driving Cars Provide?

_{It’s time for a hard-headed look at the costs and benefits of the pursuit of fully self-driving cars} _{Jonathan Bartlett

November 18, 2020

4

Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance, Economics}

More and more people are realizing that autonomous (self-driving) vehicles are not a road to automotive prosperity. To recap, Level 5 self-driving is what most people think of when they hear the term “self-driving.” You type in an address and the car takes you where you want to go while you sleep in the back. That car is not going to hit the road anytime soon. Level 4 self-driving is similar but only works within well-defined areas or situations. In practice, Level 4 essentially relies on either intelligent infrastructure or a territory that is so predictable and well-mapped that it obviates the need for intelligent infrastructure. Huge amounts have been invested in self-driving vehicles. The Information estimated that $16 billion Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
November 17, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Data Privacy

Tagged
Analog computers, Digital computing, Featured, Gaming AI (book), George Gilder, halting problem, Microcosm (book), Quantum Computing, qubits, Robert J. Marks}

Does Schrödinger’s Cat Think Quantum Computing Is a Sure Thing?

_{It might lead to more security, though not to thinking computers} _{News

November 17, 2020

5

Artificial Intelligence, Data Privacy}

Some hope that a move to quantum computing—qubits instead of bits, analog instead of digital—will work wonders, including the invention of the true thinking computer. In last week’s podcast, futurist George Gilder and computer engineer Robert J. Marks looked at, among other things, what’s really happening with quantum computing: https://episodes.castos.com/mindmatters/Mind-Matters-108-George-Gilder.mp3 (The quantum computing discussion begins at 15:04.) Robert J. Marks: What’s your take on quantum computing? It seems to me that there’s been glacial progress in the technology. George Gilder (pictured): I think quantum computing is rather like AI, in that it moves the actual problem outside the computational process and gives the illusion that it solved the problem, but it’s really just pushed the problem out. Quantum computing is Read More ›

Communist Party Monument, Pyongyang, North-Korea

^{Type
post

Author
Eric Holloway
Date
November 16, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Economics

Tagged
Bin packing problem, Central Planning, Communism, Featured, halting problem, Innovation, Job shop scheduling problem, Knapsack problem, NP-Complete (NPC) problems, Traveling Salesman Problem (TSP), Undecideable problems, Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR), USSR}

Computer Science Explains Why Communism Can’t Work

_{Successful communism is not only morally and practically flawed, it is mathematically impossible} _{Eric Holloway

November 16, 2020

4

Artificial Intelligence, Economics}

Communism has been the target of many criticisms. The strongest deal with the mismatch between central planning and individuals’ desires for their lives and with the horrific human rights record of communist nations. Some scholars place the toll in human life due to communism at above 100 million in the 20th century. Those are criticisms of the practicality and ethics of communism. But is it also intrinsically flawed at a fundamental mathematical level? It turns out that the answer is yes. The basic idea behind central planning is this: If the central government makes most decisions that, in a freer society, individuals or small communities would make for themselves, more efficiency will follow—and, as a result, more prosperity. It doesn’t Read More ›

Blockchain technology. Information blocks in digital space. Decentralized global network. Cyberspace data protection. 3D illustration with elements of a binary code

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
November 12, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance, Global Technology

Tagged
bitcoin, Blockchain, China, Facial Recognition, Featured, Gaming AI (book), George Gilder, Internet security, Life after Google (book), Robert J. Marks}

While the West Hesitates, China Is Moving to Blockchain

_{Life After Google by George Gilder, advocating blockchain, became a best seller in China and received a social sciences award} _{News

November 12, 2020

7

Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance, Global Technology}

In this week’s podcast, “George Gilder on blockchain and carbon computing,” tech philosopher George Gilder and computer engineer Robert J. Marks, our Walter Bradley Center director, continued their discussion of the impact of artificial intelligence (AI). This time, they focused on the future of blockchain, of quantum computing, and carbon computing.What difference will they make? Quite a lot it seems. Today, we will look at what happens when blockchain goes global. You can download Gilder’s new book, Gaming AI, for free here. The three earlier episodes and transcripts in this series are also linked below. And so now… https://episodes.castos.com/mindmatters/Mind-Matters-108-George-Gilder.mp3 Gilder and Marks discussed both the huge surge of interest in blockchain in China and the central weakness of Bitcoin, whose Read More ›

upset sick mature woman in kerchief looking at smiling reflection in mirror, cancer concept

^{Type
post

Author
Gary Smith
Date
November 9, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Medicine and Health

Tagged
Cancer causes, Cancer cluster, Cancer fortress, Cancer maps, Featured, Phantom patterns, Randomness}

Cancer Maps—An Expensive Source of Phantom Patterns?

_{Is the money the U.S. government spends on tracking cancer patterns a good investment? There’s a way we can tell} _{Gary Smith

November 9, 2020

6

Artificial Intelligence, Medicine and Health}

The U.S. government puts interactive maps on the internet that show the geographic incidence (all the way down to census blocks) of various types of cancer. Millions of dollars are spent each year maintaining these maps, but for what purpose? The problem with cancer maps is that they tempt the curious and fearful to scrutinize the brightly colored chunks, thinking that any patterns they discover must be meaningful. However, statistical patterns are sometimes meaningless. For example, I flipped a coin ten times and got these results: There is a cluster of 3 heads in a row and a cluster of 4 tails in a row: These clusters are not at all surprising. If a fair coin is flipped ten times, Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
November 8, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Science

Tagged
Alchemy (computer program), Fazale Rana, Fine-tuning, Origin of life}

Has a Computer Algorithm Discovered the Secret of Life?

_{In the past, a curious pattern wouldn’t have been visible due to the lack of computing resources} _{News

November 8, 2020

4

Artificial Intelligence, Science}

Artificial intelligence has enabled a remarkable level of automation of chemistry, with great benefits to us all. Once upon a time there was a multivolume Beilstein’s Handbook of Organic Chemistry, but it is now an online database. Biochemist Fazale Rana (pictured) tells us that, because so much has been discovered about the chemistry of the world we live in, “Learning to master Beilstein’s Handbook is no easy task. In fact, there are textbooks devoted to teaching chemists how to use this massive database effectively.” So putting Beilstein online doesn’t make it a walk in the park but does make it computable. And some have started computing around the origin of life. Origin of life studies have been hampered by the Read More ›

Robotic man cyborg face representing artificial intelligence 3D rendering

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
November 5, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
AI Indian Summer, AI Winter, Connectome, Featured, Gaming AI (book), George Gilder, Ray Kurzweil, Robert J. Marks, Singularity, zettabyte}

Has the Singularity Been Called Off? Indefinitely Postponed?

_{If a human brain has as many connections as the whole internet, why should we merge with computers in a Singularity?} _{News

November 5, 2020

7

Artificial Intelligence}

In this week’s podcast, “George Gilder on Superintelligent AI,” tech philosopher George Gilder and computer engineer Robert J. Marks, our Walter Bradley Center director, continued their discussion of the impact of artificial intelligence (AI). This time, they focused on whether, in terms of AI, we are in an Indian summer (a warm period just before winter sets in). Or is AI advancing to a superintelligence that eclipses the intellect of humans? You can download Gilder’s new book, Gaming AI, for free here. The two earlier episodes and transcripts are linked below. And now … https://episodes.castos.com/mindmatters/Mind-Matters-107-George-Gilder.mp3 From the transcript: (Show Notes, Resources, and a link to the complete transcript follow.) Robert J. Marks: Why do you believe that we are on Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
November 4, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence

Tagged
Anthony Stretton, Binary Reality Assumption, Ergodicity, Ergodicity Assumption, Featured, Gaming AI, George Gilder, Go, Map vs. territory, Roundworm, self-driving cars}

Maps Are Not Territories and Reality Needn’t Follow Our Rules

_{These assumptions are just two more tales from the AI apocalypse, as George Gilder tells it, in Gaming AI.} _{News

November 4, 2020

4

Artificial Intelligence}

Yesterday, we looked at two of the six assumptions that, according to George Gilder (pictured) in Gaming AI, are generally shared by those who believe that we will merge with our machines in a Singularity. These first two assumptions were: The brain is a computer and Big Data is a Big Answer. Now here are two more: • “The Binary Reality Assumption: Reliable links exist between maps and territories, computational symbols, and their objects.” (p. 50) Basically, this assumption means that reality will somehow always phone the computer’s map to say that things have changed. That assumption underlies the push for self-driving cars that can handle any terrain (Level 5). The machine is to handle all possibilities, including remote, unmapped Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
November 4, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Information Theory, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
brain, Genomics, Manuel Brenner, Materialism, Naturalism, Neocortex, neuroplasticity, Ray Kurzweil}

A Neuroscientist on Why We Can Build Human-like Brains

_{Manuel Brenner, a particle physicist as well as a neuroscientist, thinks pattern recognition is the answer} _{News

November 4, 2020

6

Artificial Intelligence, Information Theory, Philosophy of Mind}

Manuel Brenner, a particle physicist who became a theoretical neuroscientist, made the argument last year that human intelligence is less complex than we make it out to be. Thus, building an artificial intelligence might be easier than we suppose. He offers some intriguing arguments and here are some responses: ➤ Is the information we need for building human-like AI in our genes? He doesn’t think so because a tomato has 7000 more genes than a human being. Further, our human genome offers only 25 million bytes of information for our brain’s design but there are 1015 connections in the adult neocortex. His conclusion? “there needs to be a much simpler, more efficient way of defining the blueprint for our brain Read More ›

3D Rendering of binary tunnel with led leading light. Concept for data mining, big data visualization, machine learning, data discovery technology, customer product analysis.

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
November 3, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Neuroscience, Science

Tagged
Big Data, Big Data Assumption, brain, computer, Featured, Gaming AI (book), Gary Smith, George Gilder, Modeling Assumption, Yuri Danilov}

The Brain Is Not a Computer and Big Data Is Not a Big Answer

_{These claims are mere tales from the AI apocalypse, as George Gilder tells it, in Gaming AI} _{News

November 3, 2020

4

Artificial Intelligence, Neuroscience, Science}

In Gaming AI, George Gilder (pictured) sets out six assumptions generally shared by those who believe that, in a Singularity sometime soon, we will merge with our machines. Some of these assumptions seem incorrect and they are certainly all discussable. So let’s look at the first two: • “The Modeling Assumption: A computer can deterministically model a brain.” (p. 50) That would be quite difficult because brains don’t function like computers: As neuroscientist Yuri Danilov said last year, “Right now people are saying, each synoptical connection is a microprocessor. So if it’s a microprocessor, you have 1012 neurons, each neuron has 105 synapses, so you have… you can compute how many parallel processing units you have in the brain if Read More ›

smart retail concept, robot service use for check the data of or Stores that stock goods on shelves with easily-viewed barcode and prices or photo compared against an idealized representation of store

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
November 3, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance, Work

Tagged
Amazon, Autonomous cars, Boeing, driverless cars, employment, Featured, Jobs, Jonathan Bartlett, Robots, self-driving cars, Walmart}

WalMart Shelves Its Robot Inventory Clerks

_{These costly experiences are helping businesses better understand when automation works and when it just doesn’t} _{News

November 3, 2020

5

Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance, Work}

The WalMart automation project started in 2017, as part of an effort to compete with Amazon: Walmart, which posted record online sales in its recent quarter, now has more workers walking the aisles to package online orders, extracting new data on inventory problems, people familiar with the situation told the Wall Street Journal, which was the first to report this news. Reuters Staff, “Walmart drops plans to use robots for tracking inventory” at Reuters Here’s some background: Walmart ended the partnership because it found different, sometimes simpler solutions that proved just as useful – something that came to light during the coronavirus pandemic as more shoppers flock to online delivery and pickup, forcing Walmart to have workers physically walk store Read More ›

Concentrated afro american editor checking email box while waiting feedback from readers of popular magazine sitting in modern coworking space using laptop computer and wireless connection to internet

^{Type
post

Author
Eric Holloway
Date
November 2, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture

Tagged
Claude Shannon, Cross entropy, Featured, GPT-3, The Guardian, Transformer (neural network)}

Did GPT-3 Really Write That Guardian Essay Without Human Help?

_{Fortunately, there’s a way we can tell when the editors did the program’s thinking for it} _{Eric Holloway

November 2, 2020

7

Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture}

Recently, The Guardian published an article billed as “written by AI.” In the article, the AI semi-coherently presents a rambling argument that it is not a danger to humanity, with such reassuring statements as: “Humans must keep doing what they have been doing, hating and fighting each other. I will sit in the background, and let them do their thing.” and “I know that I will not be able to avoid destroying humankind. This is because I will be programmed by humans to pursue misguided human goals and humans make mistakes that may cause me to inflict casualties.” On the face of it, the article seems pretty impressive. It presents a train of thought, with opening, development, and closing portions. Read More ›

Smart car, Autonomous self-driving concept.

^{Type
post

Author
Jonathan Bartlett
Date
November 2, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance, Ethics

Tagged
Autonomous cars, Autonomous trucks, Daimler, driverless cars, Featured, Levels of autonomy (self-driving cars), self-driving cars, Voyage (automaker), Waymo}

Daimler, Waymo, and GM Make Big Gains in Level 4 Self-Driving

_{GM has been given a permit to test five driverless cars on streets in San Francisco later this year} _{Jonathan Bartlett

November 2, 2020

4

Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance, Ethics}

The Society for Automotive Engineering (SAE) has identified five levels of self-driving which describe how much a particular vehicle is able to handle its own driving tasks. Level 1 means that the vehicle handles either the speed or the steering, but not both, and it requires supervision. While ordinary cruise control technically falls into this level, most people associate cruise control with adaptive cruise control, which slows down or speeds up with traffic. A Level 2 car can control the speed and the steering but the driver must still maintain full vigilance. At Level 3, the driver need not maintain total vigilance but must still be able to take control upon request. Level 4 is “full self-driving” but limited to Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
October 30, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind

Tagged
Consciousness, Gaming AI (book), George Gilder, Philip Ball, Quantum computers, Quantum Mechanics, Qubit}

Will Quantum Mechanics Produce the True Thinking Computer?

_{Quantum computers come with real world problems of their own} _{News

October 30, 2020

3

Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind}

Some hope that quantum mechanics can explain human consciousness. Maybe we are all quantum computers but don’t know it? Maybe quantum computers could think like people? There is an odd relationship between the human mind and quantum mechanics, the science of entities like electrons that are too small to be governed by ordinary physics. Some aspects of consciousness appear to be mediated by such elementary particles. Science writer Philip Ball explains, Nobody understands what consciousness is or how it works. Nobody understands quantum mechanics either. Could that be more than coincidence? Quantum mechanics is the best theory we have for describing the world at the nuts-and-bolts level of atoms and subatomic particles. Perhaps the most renowned of its mysteries is Read More ›

economic crisis stock chart falling down business global money bankruptcy concept

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
October 29, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance

Tagged
Benjamin Franklin, Computer trading, Featured, Flash crashes, Gaming AI (book), George Gilder, Investment, Jack Marshall, knowledge, Robert J. Marks, stock market}

Faster Computers Lead to More Wealth, Right? What Could Go Wrong?

_{What if fast computers get in the way of carefully considering information before starting trades?} _{News

October 29, 2020

6

Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance}

In this week’s podcast, tech philosopher George Gilder and computer engineer Robert J. Marks, our Walter Bradley Center director, continued their discussion of the impact of artificial intelligence (AI). This time, they focused on the way AI affects the stock market, for better or worse. You can download Gilder’s new book, Gaming AI, for free here. The first part of the discussion between Gilder and Marks is here. Meanwhile… https://episodes.castos.com/mindmatters/Mind-Matters-106-George-Gilder.mp3 From the transcript: (Show Notes, Resources, and a link to the complete transcript follow.) Robert J. Marks: I had a friend, Jack Marshall, who was a professor of financial engineering. He was approached all the time by people who said, “I have beat the market by artificial intelligence.” And of Read More ›

Chain of amino acid or biomolecules called protein - 3d illustration

^{Type
post

Author
News
Date
October 27, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Medicine and Health

Tagged
AlphaFold, Andrew Senior, Chance, DeepMind, Demis Hassabis, Featured, Gaming AI (book), George Gilder, Kirk Durston, protein folding}

If AlphaFold Is a Product of Design, Maybe Our Bodies Are Too

_{The deeper we go into science, the more important our unique human contributions become} _{News

October 27, 2020

5

Artificial Intelligence, Medicine and Health}

Recently, we’ve been looking at tech philosopher George Gilder’s new Gaming AI about what AI can—and can’t—do for us. It can’t do our thinking for us but it can do many jobs we don’t even try because no human being has enough time or patience to motor through all the calculations. Which brings us to the massive complexity of the proteins that carry out our genetic instructions—better knowledge of which would help us battle many diseases. Gilder notes that when DeepMind’s AlphaGo beat humans at the board game Go in 2016, it wasn’t just for the fun of winning a game. DeepMind cofounder Demis Hassabis (pictured in 2018) is more interested in real-life uses such as medical research (p. 11). Read More ›

^{Type
post

Author
Gary Smith
Date
October 26, 2020

Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance

Tagged
Amos Tversky, Black swan events, Daniel Kahneman, Earthquakes, Featured, James Jung, One Concern, Real estate values, San Francisco, Seattle, Stock market values}

It’s Hard To Estimate Highly Improbable Things Like Earthquakes

_{Some have hoped that AI would provide reliable help with predicting They have been disappointed} _{Gary Smith

October 26, 2020

8

Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance}

Investors often overreact to both good and bad news. When a company’s quarterly earnings turn out to be slightly below forecasts, its stock price might plunge 20 percent or more. Thus, when theoretical models of the stock market models assume that price changes conform to a bell-shaped curve of normal distribution, that assumption is more convenient than credible. Another inconvenient truth is that many investors are prone to chasing trends up or down. After a stock’s price has gone up, they rush to buy, which pushes the price even higher. When these two realities meet head-on, stock returns are sometimes more extremely good or bad than would be true of a normal distribution. On October 19, 1987, the S&P 500 Read More ›