Another Life: All Fun, Games Till an AI Falls in Love
Then it descends into a convoluted drift of uncertain storytellingAnd the victim is not primarily the viewer, who has other options. The victim is the art itself.
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The Brain: Junkyard, Watch, or Antenna?
A warped genius reviews the options, as he seeks ultimate power - a taleAfter many dead ends, Flim realized that all forms of human power are ultimately controlled by the human mind. Thus, if he could harness the power of the mind, he would finally be able to create anything his heart could desire.
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Has AI Been Racist?
AI is, left to itself, inherently unthinking, which can result in insensitivity and biasJust any available data swatched into systems may embody prejudices that only become evident in use.
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Are Robot Pastors the Answer to Religion’s Decline?
Many Christians say no. Some Buddhists say yes. What is expected of the pastor?Perhaps it comes down to what we believe is the ultimate reality and what we expect from that ultimate reality.
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The Three Laws of Robotics Have Failed the Robots
Almost no one out there thinks that Isaac Asimov's Three Laws could work for truly intelligent AIProlific science and science fiction writer Isaac Asimov (1920–1992) developed the Three Laws of Robotics, in the hope of guarding against potentially dangerous artificial intelligence. Jonathan Bartlett, Brendan Dixon, and Eric Holloway discuss what went wrong.
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“Friendly” Artificial Intelligence Would Kill Us
Is that a shocking idea? Let’s follow the logicWe don’t want to invent a stupid god who accidentally turns the universe into grey goo or paperclips, But any god we create in our image will be just as incompetent and evil as we are, if not more so. A dilemma!
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Can computers simply evolve greater intelligence?
Maybe it sounds attractive but nature doesn't seem to work quite that wayWhen the researchers did not develop the right environment for their digital organisms, nothing evolved. As Bill Dembski predicts, they could move design around but they could not eliminate it.
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Can Free Will Really Be a Scientific Idea?
Yes, if we look at it from the perspective of information theoryIt is possible to empirically distinguish an entity with free will from an entity that runs according to chance and necessity alone, while staying entirely within the methodology of modern science.
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Why the Brain Is Not at All like a Computer
Seeing the brain as a computer is an easy misconception rather than an informative image, says neuroscientist Yuri DanilovAs soon as you assume that each neuron is a microprocessor, says Danilov, you assume that there is a programmer. There is no programmer in the brain; there are no algorithms in the brain. However, it is “extremely painful” for many people to let go of the idea.
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Do We Need To Learn from AI How To Think Better?
No, and a moment’s thought shows why notAI can become our “collaborators” only in the sense that a shovel can collaborate with me to dig a hole: It amplifies my powers to do things which are otherwise difficult.
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AlterEgo Does Not Read Your Mind
What it really does may surprise you but many claims made for it are deceptiveAlterEgo may prove invaluable for applications like helping the severely handicapped by using muscle movements that are usually unnoticed. But despite headlines and publicity claiming otherwise, it provides no technical stride forward in the field of AI-brain interface.
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What You See That the Machine Doesn’t
You see the “skeleton” of an ideaHumans can intuit the underlying forms that govern shapes, in part by guessing the intentions of other humans. Machine vision does not intuit things, which may be one reason for its odd misidentifications.
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Alpha Go as Alpha Maybe?
DeepMind's AlphaGo defeated a world-champion Go player but further gains were hard won at bestThe question scientists must ask, especially about an unexpected finding, is, if no one can reproduce your results, did you discover something new or did you just get lucky? With AI that’s not easy, due to dependence on randomness.
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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 worldwideJoining Parviz on the panel will be Matt Scholz, CEO of Oisin Technologies (researching treatments for age-related diseases), George Gilder, philosopher of technology, and Lindy Fishburne, executive director of Breakout Labs, which funds innovative science ventures.
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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 whyAristo combines questions and answers on a multiple-choice test to decide on the best answer without understanding any of the information.
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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 adequateActually, I am impressed that voice assistants work as well as they do, given the number of AI problems that were solved. But consider how much more complex the problems facing a self-driving car are.
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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 ›