Mind Matters Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis

CategoryCreativity

mini-robot-work-stockpack-adobe-stock
mini robot work
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post
Author
News
Date
January 6, 2023
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Creativity
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Can a Chatbot Tell Jokes. Yes, If They Are Stale

As chatbots sort through the vast mass of online information for appropriate responses to questions, jokes were bound to come up
News
January 6, 2023
3
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Creativity

Corinne Purtill reported a year ago at Time Magazine on Jon the Robot, a chatbot that was programmed to learn to tell stand-up comedy jokes: An experiment billed as a comedy act, Jon is the brainchild of Naomi Fitter, an assistant professor in the School of Mechanical, Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering at Oregon State University. The tiny android performs when a handler (who must also hold the mic) presses a button, then tells the same jokes in the same order, like a grizzled veteran comic at a down-market Vegas casino. Corinne Purtill, “Artificial Intelligence Can Now Craft Original Jokes—And That’s No Laughing Matter” at Time 2030 (January 4, 2022) But the robot’s act is more human than it might first Read More ›

waiting-for-inspiration-stockpack-adobe-stock
Waiting for inspiration!
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post
Author
News
Date
December 20, 2022
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Creativity, Work
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Will Chatbots Put Writers out of Business?

Some writers are saying yes. Machines can now do mediocre, run of the mill writing
News
December 20, 2022
4
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Creativity, Work

As chatbots become more sophisticated, some writers predict that they will take over run-of-the-mill writing jobs that don’t need or attract much creativity. For example, copyright and plagiarism consultant Jonathan Bailey points out, “AI doesn’t have to be great, just good enough.” In 2017, five years ago, the Washington Post revealed that an AI bot named Heliograph had produced some 850 articles for the paper. However, those stories were for things such as local high school football games and financial reports. They were all short, formulaic and not worth sending a human reporter to. At the time, the stories had generated more than 500,000 clicks. In short, they were ridiculously successful, delivering information that was important and sought after, but Read More ›

digital-chatbot-robot-application-conversation-assistant-ai-artificial-intelligence-concept-stockpack-adobe-stock
Digital chatbot, robot application, conversation assistant, AI Artificial Intelligence concept.
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post
Author
Robert J. Marks
Date
December 14, 2022
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Creativity
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Did the GPT3 Chatbot Pass the Lovelace Creativity Test?

The Lovelace Test determines whether the computer can think creatively. We found out…
Robert J. Marks
December 14, 2022
4
Artificial Intelligence, Creativity

The GPT-3 chatbot is awesome AI. Under the hood, GPT3 is a transformer model that uses sequence-to-sequence deep learning that can produce original text given an input sequence. In other words, GPT-3 is trained by using how words are positionally related. The arrangement of words and phrases to create well-formed sentences in a language is called syntax. Semantics is the branch of linguistics concerned with the meanings of words. GPT-3 trains on the syntax of training data to learn and generate interesting responses to queries. This was the intent of the programmers. GPT-3 is not directly concerned with semantics. Given a tutorial on a topic from the web, for example, GPT-3 does not learn from the tutorial’s teaching, but only Read More ›

growing population
Crowd of people on the street. No recognizable faces
Type
post
Author
Peter Biles
Date
November 12, 2022
Categorized
Creativity, Economics
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Living in a Superabundant Age

Marian L. Tupy talks economics, falling birth rates, and human creativity at the COSM conference
Peter Biles
November 12, 2022
4
Creativity, Economics

On November 10th, Marian L. Tupy, a Senior Fellow at the Cato Institute, spoke at this year’s COSM technology summit on behalf of his new book Superabundance: The Story of Population Growth, Innovation, and Human Flourishing on an Infinitely Bountiful Planet. Tupy co-wrote the book with Gale L. Pooley, a Senior Fellow at the Discovery Institute and associate professor of business management at Brigham Young University-Hawaii. Their book takes a contrarian view of economics, scarcity, and the idea that an excessive human population diminishes the world’s resources. As the book’s title suggests, Tupy and Pooley take the opposite view: the world’s resources increase with population growth. During the COSM session, Tupy said, The caveman had the same natural resources at Read More ›

robotic-head-made-of-metallic-chrome-cubes-machine-face-surrounded-by-shiny-steel-boxes-liquid-metal-effect-3d-rendering-illustration-stockpack-adobe-stock
Robotic head made of metallic chrome cubes. Machine face surrounded by shiny steel boxes. Liquid metal effect. 3d rendering illustration
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post
Author
News
Date
November 3, 2022
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Creativity
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Marks: AI Looks Very Intelligent — While Following Set Rules

In an excerpt from Chapter 2 of Non-Computable You, Larry Nobles reads Robert J. Marks’s account of evolving AI “swarm intelligence” for Dweebs vs. Bullies (transcript also)
News
November 3, 2022
4
Artificial Intelligence, Creativity

In Podcast 211, Larry Nobles reads an excerpt from Chapter Two of Robert J. Marks’s Non-Computable You: What You Do That Artificial Intelligence Never Will (Discovery Institute Press, 2022). The book is now available in audiobook form as well as Kindle format and, of course, paperback. Chapter Two addresses the question, “Can AI be creative?” Pablo Picasso didn’t think so. He is reported to have said, “Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.” Nobles reads Dr. Marks’s account of how he and a colleague got a “swarm” of little programs (Dweebs) to evolve a solution to a problem that required a good deal of creativity on his and colleague Ben Thompson’s part — but not on the part Read More ›

giant-surveillance-camera-spies-a-man-no-secrets-no-privacy-concept-3d-rendering-stockpack-adobe-stock
Giant surveillance camera spies a man. No secrets, no privacy concept. 3D rendering
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post
Author
News
Date
October 26, 2022
Categorized
Censorship, China, Creativity
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Protest in China: “Don’t Want” and “Old Hen” Take On New Meaning

When former President Hu Jintao was escorted out of the Party Congress a couple of days ago, all reference to the matter disappeared from the official web
News
October 26, 2022
4
Censorship, China, Creativity

Recently, we have been following the creative protest methods used in China, in the wake of the Chinese Communist party’s five-year meeting that confirmed Xi Jinping for an unusual third term, while the former president Hu Jintao was escorted out by security. A much harder line on many things, including foreign affairs, is expected to follow. Because China is a very high-tech surveillance state, it is difficult for citizens to use usual online communication methods to discuss, register dissatisfaction with, or express worry over government decisions. The unconventional methods adopted are worth noting. Free Asia Radio reports that two young women were walking down a street in Shanghai, holding a white banner that read “Don’t want, want — Don’t want, Read More ›

ai-generated-wooden-board
AI-generated digital art of a wooden board
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post
Author
Eric Holloway
Date
October 23, 2022
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Creativity
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AI Art Is Not “AI-Generated Art.” It is Engineer-Generated Art

The computers aren’t taking over the art world. The engineers are. Just the way engineers have taken over the music world with modern electronic music
Eric Holloway
October 23, 2022
11
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Creativity

Creativity is a mysterious thing. Our world economy is powered by creativity, yet despite the best efforts of our best engineers, creativity has not been captured by a machine. Until recently. With the new school of AI things have changed. We now have GPT-3 that can digress at length about any topic you give it. Even more remarkable, we have the likes of Dall-E, Midjourney, and Stable Diffusion. These phenomenal AI algorithms have scaled the peak of human creativity. AI can now create art that has never been seen before: The new artistic AI has become so successful the image social networks have become flooded with their artwork. Some communities have even banned the AI art. But the AI art Read More ›

glowing-lightbulb-with-virtual-brain-and-orange-light-creative-new-business-idea-concept-stockpack-adobe-stock
Glowing lightbulb with virtual brain and orange light . Creative new business idea concept.
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post
Author
News
Date
October 16, 2022
Categorized
Creativity, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind
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How Can We Tell a Genius From a Really Smart Person?

Members of Mensa, a club for people with high IQ, think that the difference is exceptional creativity
News
October 16, 2022
5
Creativity, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

A few years ago, Claire Cameron, Nautilus’s Social Media & News Editor asked five present or former members of Mensa, an international high-IQ society, founded in 1946. To qualify as members, they had to score above the 98th percentile on an IQ test or another standardized one. Her conversation with Richard Hunter, a retired finance director at a drinks distributor; journalist Jack Williams; Bikram Rana, a director at a business consulting firm; LaRae Bakerink, a business consultant; and clinical hypnotist John Sheehan brings into sharp relief the difference between high intelligence and genius — a fact that the high-IQ scorers were happy to admit. Some snippets from the conversation (participants are identified by their initials): RH: You can have a Read More ›

robot-standing-holding-a-pencil-on-notebookretro-vintage-style-stockpack-adobe-stock.jpg
Robot standing holding a pencil on notebook,retro vintage style
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post
Author
News
Date
October 5, 2022
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Creativity, Law
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The Computer Is Not an Idea Machine, It’s a Powerful Pencil

Robert J. Marks talks to Pastor Greg Young of Chosen Generation about his new book, Non-Computable You
News
October 5, 2022
9
Artificial Intelligence, Creativity, Law

Recently, Walter Bradley Center director Robert J. Marks was a featured guest on Pastor Greg Young’s Chosen Generation Radio, in regard to his new book Non-Computable You: What You Do That Artificial Intelligence Never Will (Discovery Institute Press, 2022) . The nationally syndicated talk show on USA Radio networks, which can be found on stations including KTRB in San Francisco, KDIS in Little Rock, and KYAH in Delta, Utah. The topic turns to artificial intelligence and patents for inventions: Here he is with Dr. Marks, discussing artificial intelligence and patents. https://mindmatters.ai/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/09/Mind-Matters-205-Robert-J-Marks.mp3 (The discussion started out with talk of beards.) Pastor Greg Young: Well, one thing that AI doesn’t have is beards. Robert J. Marks: They don’t have beards, among a Read More ›

the-face-of-a-businessman-and-a-robot-opposite-each-other-look-into-the-eyes-modern-technologies-robot-versus-human-artificial-intelligence-neural-networks-3d-render-3d-illustration-stockpack-adobe-stock
The face of a businessman and a robot opposite each other look into the eyes. Modern technologies, robot versus human, artificial intelligence, neural networks. 3D render, 3D illustration.
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post
Author
News
Date
October 3, 2022
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Creativity, Human exceptionalism
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One Thing We Can Know About Computers: They Are Not Creative

Computer engineer Robert J. Marks explains that to David Krieger at the Power Hour
News
October 3, 2022
6
Artificial Intelligence, Creativity, Human exceptionalism

Recently, Walter Bradley Center director Robert J. Marks was a featured guest on David Krieger’s The Power Hour (KCXL in Liberty, Missouri, and KTRW in Spokane, Washington, September 22, 2022). Despite a short-lived religion based on the idea: https://mindmatters.ai/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2022/09/Mind-Matters-205-Robert-J-Marks.mp3 Robert J. Marks: In fact, there are entire religions which are based on artificial intelligence. One of the most incredible ones is a guy named Anthony Levandowski, who founded an AI church. In the AI church, here’s some examples. We are told that someday we will be able to be uploaded to a computer, and we can be reborn into an eternal life of silicon. And so that’s kind of copying from the Christian church about immortal life. That’s the way Read More ›

light in the forest
Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego,Ushuaia
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post
Author
Peter Biles
Date
September 17, 2022
Categorized
Arts & Culture, Creativity
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Amazon’s Rings of Power and Where the Conflict Really Lies

If Peter Jackson gave the LOTR cast unnecessary internal conflicts, then the Rings of Power writers have done it on steroids.
Peter Biles
September 17, 2022
5
Arts & Culture, Creativity

The third and fourth episodes of Rings of Power have aired as of September 16th. Thousands of reviews have fountained across the internet over the last couple of weeks, some from rankled fans, others from satisfied enthusiasts, and others with both good and bad things to report. The show, as we all anticipated, has not gone without its fair share of controversy and pushback, but for this review, I want to lay those conversations aside and instead focus on some pros and cons of the recent episodes from my own perspective. To begin on a positive note, I enjoyed these last couple of episodes much more than the first two. The storyline seems to be getting somewhere. Galadriel is being Read More ›

cheating-on-a-test-stockpack-adobe-stock
Cheating on a Test
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post
Author
News
Date
September 14, 2022
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Creativity, Education, Ethics
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Study: AI Fails To Catch Cheaters on an Exam

In a test of the Proctorio system, students who were told to try to cheat found a variety of ways to fool the system
News
September 14, 2022
5
Artificial Intelligence, Creativity, Education, Ethics

Is AI the answer to student cheating on tests? Not that you’d know it from a recent study of AI detection system Proctorio at the University of Twente in the Netherlands. Proctorio tracks students’ eye movements and body language while taking exams to flag “suspicious” behavior. So, as Vice tells it, 30 computer science student volunteers were told to take a first year exam that that system supervised. Six were told to cheat, five were told to act suspiciously without really cheating, and the rest were told to just write the test: The results confirmed that Proctorio is not good at catching cheaters. The system did not flag any of the cheaters as cheating. Some used virtual machines, a known Read More ›

big-ideas-illuminated-light-bulb-among-the-rest-of-the-unlit-bulbs-stockpack-adobe-stock
Big ideas. Illuminated light bulb among the rest of the unlit bulbs.
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post
Author
News
Date
September 12, 2022
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Creativity
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COSM Speaker Hopes To Put Creativity Within Every Human’s Reach

Jules Urbach, a game developer at 18, has large aspirations but he has the advantage of new software that might help
News
September 12, 2022
3
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Creativity

Jules Urbach, founder and CEO of leading cloud graphics company OTOY, wants to use AI to give every single person the agency to create. He is speaking again at COSM 2022 (November 9–11 in Seattle). Go here to get the Early Adopter rate before September 15. Urbach, who started out in computer gaming at 18, is “a pioneer in computer graphics, streaming, and 3D rendering, with more than 25 years of industry experience. His experience has inspired him to try to help many more people be more creative: Jules Urbach dreams of a world in which anyone can be a creator and anything you imagine can be effortlessly brought to life in fantastic visual detail, without any prior visual graphics Read More ›

robotic arm painting
Robotic Arm Painting with Brush Closeup 3d illustration
Type
post
Author
Robert J. Marks
Date
September 8, 2022
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Creativity
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When Should AI Art Be Protected by Copyright?

Headlines read that AI has recently won an art contest. But what is art?
Robert J. Marks
September 8, 2022
4
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Creativity

Damien Hirst cut a cow and calf each lengthwise into two halves and displayed them in four separate baths of formaldehyde in clear display tanks. The title of the creation, “Mother and Child Divided,” is a pun. The cow and calf were cut in two and were displayed physically separated. “Mother and Child Divided” in two ways. Get it? Hee hee. Is this art? Apparently so. The macabre bifurcated bovine creation won top place in the 1995 Turner Prize art competition. This simple example reveals that, like judging the palatability of raw oysters, ranking the quality of art is highly subjective. Jason Allen entered a piece entitled “Théâtre D’opéra Spatial” and took home the first-place prize at Colorado State Fair’s Read More ›

futuristic-workspace-with-sparkling-particles-floating-out-of-glowing-screen-digital-art-style-illustration-painting-stockpack-adobe-stock
futuristic workspace with sparkling particles floating out of glowing screen, digital art style, illustration painting
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post
Author
News
Date
September 6, 2022
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Creativity
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AI Wins a Prize at an Art Show. So Are Human Artists Finished?

A painting generated by a carefully crafted AI prompt won at Colorado’s State Fair digital art competition. Some artists wonder if they still have a job
News
September 6, 2022
6
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Creativity

This painting, generated by artificial intelligence, “using a carefully crafted prompt,” won first prize at the Colorado State Fair’s fine art competition for digital arts: The award, which includes a $300 cash prize, was won by Jason Allen. While other candidates for the award used software like Photoshop and Illustrator to create original digital art by hand or alter photographs, Allen used an AI called Midjourney which can generate artworks or just about any kind of synthetic image from a mere line of text. The AI-generated artwork, which Allen calls “Théâtre D’opéra Spatial,” depicts a bizarre but intriguing scene from the distant future or some other world in which human figures are in awe as they stare into a huge Read More ›

cozy-domestic-christmas-interior-with-window-bed-candles-and-fireplace-neural-network-generated-art-picture-produced-with-ai-in-2022-stockpack-adobe-stock
cozy domestic christmas interior with window, bed, candles and fireplace - neural network generated art, picture produced with ai in 2022
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post
Author
News
Date
August 15, 2022
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Creativity
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What Can AI Text-to-Image Generators Do for Artists?

Developer David Holz discusses his Midjourney generator in terms of the communities that grow up around art generated from words or phrases
News
August 15, 2022
4
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Creativity

In an interview with David Holz, founder of Midjourney, Verge senior reporter James Vincent asks about the new text-to-art AI image generators that are shaking up the illustration market: Generally, the “few dozen” current versions — which rely on combining materials from across the internet — work reasonably well but here are the drawbacks Vincent notes: They’re tricky and expensive to create, requiring access to millions of images used to train the system (it looks for patterns in the pictures and copies them) and a great deal of computational grunt (for which costs vary, but a million-dollar price tag isn’t out of the question). James Vincent, “‘An engine for the imagination’: The rise of AI image generators” at The Verge Read More ›

cropped-image-of-young-beautiful-woman-working-as-writer-typing-on-computer-laptop-with-white-blank-screen-while-sitting-at-the-wooden-working-table-with-sunlight-through-windows-as-background-stockpack-adobe-stock
Cropped image of young beautiful woman working as writer typing on computer laptop with white blank screen while sitting at the wooden working table with sunlight through windows as background.
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post
Author
News
Date
August 1, 2022
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Creativity
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Four Problems AI Writing Tools Can Create But Can’t Fix

Effective communication doesn’t come in a box or a download. It starts with personal joy and suffering
News
August 1, 2022
3
Artificial Intelligence, Creativity

Recently, we look at what AI writing tools can and can’t do. They might speed up writing your speech, term paper, or pitch by overcoming writer’s block. But they can’t replace creativity. Here are some cautions from the pros — four things that can go wrong: 1. Lack of innovation: Just when you need to sound unique, you risk sounding like one of thousands of people whose output was scarfed into the program. Blogger Bhavya J. Shah notes that an AI program will build in keywords that tend to be picked up by search engines. That said, Al writing tools use algorithms to produce their results. They can’t go beyond that window, therefore the X-Factor which makes writing stand out Read More ›

boy-standing-on-the-opened-book-and-looking-at-other-books-floating-in-the-air-digital-art-style-illustration-painting-stockpack-adobe-stock
boy standing on the opened book and looking at other books floating in the air, digital art style, illustration painting
Type
post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
July 25, 2022
Categorized
Arts & Culture, Business and Finance, Creativity
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Can a Computer Write Your novel? Well, What Do You Want To Say?

These tools are sure to become a staple in the hot and time-sensitive market for boutique formula fiction
Denyse O'Leary
July 25, 2022
5
Arts & Culture, Business and Finance, Creativity

Jennifer Lepp was behind schedule with her latest detective novel, Bring Your Beach Owl (2022), featuring a detective witch in central Florida. Through Kindle Direct, under the pen name of Leanne Leeds, Lepp independently publishes what she calls “potato chip books”, making over US$100k annually. Amazon creates “microclimates” for readers so that genre writers can tailor their work precisely to a market, as she does: “paranormal cozy mystery.” But it’s a business where deadlines matter. Readers have many other choices. As Josh Dzieza tells it at The Verge, Lepp begged developers for a beta test of Sudowrite, aimed at fiction writers. It’s one of the programs created from OpenAI’s language generator GPT-3: Authors paste what they’ve written into a soothing Read More ›

metal-wheel-concept-stockpack-adobe-stock
Metal Wheel Concept
Type
post
Author
Robert J. Marks
Date
July 20, 2022
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Creativity, Law
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Should AI Be Granted Patents on the Designs It Helps Develop?

That’s a current argument before the US Court of Appeals
Robert J. Marks
July 20, 2022
5
Artificial Intelligence, Creativity, Law

Artificial intelligence (AI) should no more be given a patent on an invention than my word processor should be granted a copyright on the article I’m writing. Yet the US Appeals Court has recently been told: [AI] should be considered the inventor on patent applications covering a beverage container based on fractal geometry and a light beacon that flashes in a new way. Blake Britten, “Artificial intelligence can be a patent ‘inventor,’ U.S. appeals court told” at Reuters (June 6, 2022) Like bulldozers, electricity, and nuclear power, AI is a tool. Make no mistake, AI is a powerful and potentially dangerous tool. But like my word processor. it ultimately does only what it is instructed to do. Here is a Read More ›

artificial-intelligence-self-aware-android-robots-patrolling-a-destroyed-city-3d-rendering-stockpack-adobe-stock.jpg
Artificial Intelligence self aware android robots patrolling a destroyed city. 3d rendering
Type
post
Author
News
Date
July 8, 2022
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Creativity
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Study: AI Will Make Human Factors More, Not Less, Critical in War

Counterintuitive? Not when we factor in the “fog of war” that makes military situations more confusing than, say, conventional business ones
News
July 8, 2022
4
Artificial Intelligence, Creativity

We sometimes hear that artificial intelligence in the military means that AI takes the risks and does the fighting while humans direct from a safe distance. It sounds reassuring but it’s not likely, say Georgia Institute of Technology cybersecurity professor Jon Lindsay and University of Toronto AI professor Avi Goldfarb: Many policy makers assume human soldiers could be replaced with automated systems, ideally making militaries less dependent on human labor and more effective on the battlefield. This is called the substitution theory of AI, but Lindsay and Goldfarb state that AI should not be seen as a substitute, but rather a complement to existing human strategy. “Machines are good at prediction, but they depend on data and judgment, and the Read More ›