CategoryArtificial Intelligence
AlterEgo Does Not Read Your Mind
What it really does may surprise you but many claims made for it are deceptive
What You See That the Machine Doesn’t
You see the “skeleton” of an idea
Alpha Go as Alpha Maybe?
DeepMind's AlphaGo defeated a world-champion Go player but further gains were hard won at best
Google Glass Inventor to Speak at COSM, October 25
Babak Parviz, now an Amazon vice-president, is keenly interested in services for the swelling aged population worldwide
Ask Alexa (and an anonymous crowd answers?)
Amazon is testing a crowd sourcing approach to difficult questions. How did that work out at Wikipedia?Wikipedia is a classic example of how crowdsourcing can go wrong. The obvious problem is anonymity and the lack of accountability that goes with it.
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Has Aristo broken bounds for thinking computers?
The Grade 8 graduate improves on Watson but we must still think for ourselves at school. Here’s why
Your Software Could Have More Rights Than You
Depending on politics and court judgments, legal loopholes could lead to AI personhoodWe have already witnessed an example of such an indignity. and consequent outrage, from many feminist scholars when Sophia the robot was granted citizenship in Saudi Arabia, a country notorious for unequal treatment of women.
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Alexa Really Does Not Understand Us
In a recent test, only 35 percent of the responses to simple questions were judged adequate
Why can’t monkeys typing forever produce Shakespeare?
Before communication can begin, there must be an intention to communicatePractitioners in the field of artificial intelligence often assume that intent does not matter in defining intelligence or that intent does not exist, that it is a useful illusion. Neither of these two approaches will work. Real communication requires intent.
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Do Churches Need a Catechism for Robots?
Are the claims about spiritual robots just an intellectual cottage industry for edgy clergy?Some people have taken Pope Francis’s musings in recent years to mean pretty much whatever they want them to mean. For example, But Francis’s wide arms have arguably never stretched further than a mass in 2014 when he suggested the church would baptize Martians. “If—for example—tomorrow an expedition of Martians came … and one says, ‘But I want to be baptized!’ What would happen?” Pope Francis asked. “When the Lord shows us the way, who are we to say, ‘No, Lord, it is not prudent! No, let’s do it this way.’” Jonathan Merritt, “Is AI a Threat to Christianity?” at The Atlantic (February 3, 2017) Merritt promptly converts the hypothetical question—which depends, of course, on the assumption that Martians are Read More ›
If Computers Are Intelligent, Climbing a Tree Is Flying
That, says Edward Feser, is the take-home message from Gary Smith’s book, The AI DelusionThe book’s message is that “the real danger of artificial intelligence is that it will remain dumber than we are,” but we will think it is smarter.
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They Say the New Delivery Service Is a Robot…
But of course there is a human (many, possibly) in the loopWhy do some PR agencies think it is so important that we forget the fellow human beings who help us, using robotic devices?
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Can We “Evolve” Self-Driving Cars?
The new method may be an advance but thinking of it as "evolution" at work risks misconceptionsIn evolution, “performance” just means the continued survival of a lineage. Thus it can include hybrids between what you might want for your purposes and what you don’t want.
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Tell Kids the Robot Is “It,” Not “He”
Teaching children to understand AI and robotics is part of a good education todayWe are not truly likely to be ruled by AI overlords (as opposed to powerful people using AI. But even doubtful predictions may be self-fulfilling if enough impressionable people come to believe them. Children, for example. We adults are aware of the limitations of AI. But if we talk about AI devices as if they were people, children—who often imbue even stuffed toys with complex personalities—may be easily confused. Sue Shellenbarger, Work & Family columnist at The Wall Street Journal, warns that already, “Many children think robots are smarter than humans or imbue them with magical powers.” While she admits that the “long-term consequences” are still unclear, “an expanding body of research” suggests we need to train children to draw Read More ›
Will Government Intervention Solve High-Tech’s Problems?
At the COSM summit in October, a Wall Street Journal columnist will make the case for noAndy Kessler, Inside View columnist at The Wall Street Journal “on technology and markets and where they intersect with culture,” is a skeptic of Big Regulation. He has seen the issues from a variety of positions, having been both a software designer and an investment broker.
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Pursuit of the AI Singularity Is Modern Alchemy
Just as lead cannot just become gold, software cannot just become creative
Is Technology a Tool or a Tyrant?
A conversation between tech entrepreneurs Jack Ma and Elon Musk outlines some choicesLast week noted U.S. technologist Elon Musk and Alibaba executive Jack Ma engaged in a friendly debate at the World Artificial Intelligence Conference in Shanghai. The two agreed on a lot. AI is useful, it isn’t going anywhere, and the technology will continually improve. Where they differed is what it means for us humans. For Ma, technology is a tool for our benefit. In his thinking, our technological future will bring us to a point where the average person need only work a few hours a week. Technology will automate away most of the treacherous or dull tasks and allow us to spend more time being human, engaging in the arts, and engaging with each other. Musk’s view of technology Read More ›
If AI dumbed us down, would we even know?
Silicon Valley pros face the challenges head-on