How Far Have We Come With Giving Robots Feelings?
Pretty far, in our own imaginationAt times, we may think a more powerful illusion is a good enough substitute for reality.
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Should AI-Written News Stories Have Bylines? Whose?
Like it or not, AI is here to stay. So, how do we make the best use of it in writing?Automation can help some aspects of writing. But media outlets get tech “google”-eyes and too often fail to ask the hard questions about what they are automating, how, and why.
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The Greatest Threat We Face From AI—and What We Can Do
Here’s a list of things that have really happened with artificial intelligence (AI), in order of increasing severity.When we get to the end of the list, we will see that it is like beads connected by a string—revealing the most dangerous threat.
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Google vs. IBM?: Quantum Supremacy Isn’t the Big Fix Anyway
If human thought is a halting oracle, then even quantum computing will not allow us to replicate human intelligenceGoogle’s quantum supremacy claim is certainly fascinating and controversial, but even if true, it ultimately only amounts to an incremental and even inconsequential improvement in the state of AI and ML, due to the still-unmet need for a halting oracle.
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How Algorithms Can Seem Racist
Machines don’t think. They work with piles of “data” from many sources. What could go wrong? Good thing someone asked…Some of the recent conflicts around algorithms and ethnicity are flubs that social media entrepreneurs will regret. Others may endanger life.
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Investor, AI Isn’t Your Big Fix
In investing and elsewhere, an AI label is often more effective for marketing than for performanceOne company sought to leverage Watson, the AI Jeopardy champ, as a stock picker. But lightning-fast search and response don’t have much to do with predicting whether a stock goes up or down…
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How Do We Know What Superintelligent AI Will Do?
If superintelligent systems existed, logic demonstrates that they would be unpredictableA lower intelligence can’t accurately predict all decisions of a higher intelligence, a concept known as Vinge’s Principle.
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What If Technology Causes Some People to Live Forever?
What would it mean for them and for the rest of us?The authors also warn, “We can be pretty certain, for instance, that rejuvenation would widen the gap between the rich and poor, and would eventually force us to make decisive calls about resource use, whether to limit the rate of growth of the population, and so forth.”
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Jay Richards: Kurzweil’s Age of Spiritual Machines Is Fiction, like SkyNet
Kurzweil’s vision of computers taking over is “arresting,” Richards admits, but “your mind is running away from you if you think about technology in that way.”In a recent podcast of ID the Future at the COSM conference in Seattle, Catholic University business studies prof Jay Richards looks at Ray Kurzweil’s “sunny” version of strong AI (computers are smarter than us and will take over but don’t worry), as per his book, The Age of Spiritual Machines (1999) vs. the pessimistic version (“Skynet” wakes up). In a discussion with Andrew McDiarmid, Richards argues the opposite view, namely that human beings possess something beyond the purely material, something even the most powerful computers will never possess. Podcast here. Excerpts: Jay Richards: (08:45) If you are a materialist who thinks we are purely the result of these blind, material processes, you have something to worry about [with computers Read More ›
Alan Turing’s original “computer” was actually a human being…
But will human beings now be thought of as computers?We should reflect on how unthinking use of technology can shape us, despite our commitments.
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Elon Musk Walks Back Full Self-Driving Claims
His Q3 earnings call with investors was a stark contrast to earlier claims about a robotaxi fleetOf course, Musk blames other people for “misconstruing” his claims. This certainly isn’t the first time he has palmed off responsibility for his own mistakes onto others.
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Self-Driving Cars: Florida Lawmakers Speed Through Caution Signs
Legislation seems fuzzy about who accepts responsibility when things go wrong with autonomous vehiclesI believe that most autonomous vehicle manufacturers will exercise an abundance of caution. But if laws are fuzzy, reckless manufacturers may escape blame and innocent riders, drivers, and pedestrians will pay for the resultant mayhem.
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Robot-Proofing Your Career, Peter Thiel’s Way
Jay Richards and Larry L. Linenschmidt continue their discussion of what has changed—and what won't change—when AI disrupts the workplaceWe treat the assembly line as if it has always been here, says business prof Jay Richards, but it only dates back to Henry Ford, a century ago. It’s disappearing but work isn’t disappearing. It’s just changing a lot.
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Is Ray Kurzweil’s Singularity Now Nearer — or Impossible?
In response to Kurzweil’s talk at the COSM Technology Summit, panelists noted that AI achievements are revolutionary in size but limited by their nature in scopeGeorge Montañez, Assistant Professor of Computer Science at Harvey Mudd College, took issue with Kurzweil’s claim that AlphaGoZero needed no instructions to beat humans at the game of Go: “For a system like this to work, a human must define the incentive structure, also encoding the assumptions.” The sheer power of a computing system does not cause it to do anything at all.
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Why AI Art Is Not Art
Author and anesthesiologist Ronald W. Dworkin reaches back to Tolstoy to explainThe fad may already be peaking. The business case for AI art is not especially compelling because there is already a huge consumer art industry catering to every taste in decor. Producing more merely decorative novelty art faster does not create more customers for it.
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Consciousness Is Two Hard Problems, Not One
Psychology prof Gregg Henriques argues, consciousness “plays by a different set of rules than the language game of science”The James Madison U prof argues, “I believe the differences between the language games or domains of science/behavior and of soul/spirit and morality/ethics are crucial for us to keep in mind as we hunt for a more consilient scientific humanistic philosophy that can guide humanity in the 21st century.”
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Computer prof: Computers will never be conscious
Subhash Kak counters the AI boosters with cogent explanationsDr. Kak points out, “More than 80 years ago, pioneering British computer scientist Alan Turing showed that there was no way ever to prove that any particular computer program could stop on its own – and yet that ability is central to consciousness.”
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The AI Revolution Has Come for Stock Art
But we'll still need photographers and modelsThe new tools allow for a level of customization not previously available. They also allow for a level of anonymization.
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Smart Cities?: Proceed With Caution!
Zaheer Allam provides a balanced view of the future impact of AI on societyIn some Smart City master plans, our privacy will be seriously compromised.
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If Big Tech Were Spinning Its Wheels, Would We Know?
Not necessarily, says an economics prof who worries about the slowing pace of innovation but not of hypeThe slowing Funk refers to is in fundamental innovations like transistors and lasers. The apparent progress often turns out to be in patent applications for a bewildering array of comparatively insignificant mobile phone apps.
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