Mind Matters Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis

CategoryArts & Culture

3D Illustration with exotic deep space formations
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post
Author
Adam Nieri
Date
February 15, 2020
Categorized
Arts & Culture
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Star Trek: Picard—On Second Thought, Some Serious Quibbles

A Mind Matters review: Now that I’m four episodes in, I’ve gotta say, the “haters” might be onto something. Not everything but something
Adam Nieri
February 15, 2020
9
Arts & Culture

Why does Picard seem to be obsessed with Commander Data? And what happened to The Federation? Star Trek fans are quick to point out that Star Trek: Picard takes an unnecessary malevolent tone towards The Federation. Why do the Romulans look different? I’m still watching but I’d like some answers.

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the-expane-new-terra-season-4
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post
Author
Adam Nieri
Date
February 8, 2020
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Arts & Culture
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The Expanse, Season 4: The Best So Far?

A Mind Matters Perspective: Unlike critic Zac Giaimo, I preferred Season 3 but it really depends on what you are looking for
Adam Nieri
February 8, 2020
9
Arts & Culture

Season 4 is, as critic Zac Giaimo notes, integral to character building and plot development for the overall series. I gave it 9/10 in an earlier review. However, I don’t know if I completely agree with Giaimo’s Amazonian optimism. Season 3 set up urgent questions that should be answered by the end of the show, preferably beginning in Season 5.

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Citation
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post
Author
News
Date
February 6, 2020
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Machine Learning, Peer Review
Tagged
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Anti-Plagiarism Software Goof: Paper Rejected for Repeat Citations

The scholar was obliged by discipline rules to cite the flagged information repetitively
News
February 6, 2020
3
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Machine Learning, Peer Review

Not only was Jean-François Bonnefon’s paper rejected by conventional anti-plagiarism software but the rejection didn’t make any sense. Bonnefon, research director at Toulouse School of Economics, was informed of “a high level of textual overlap with previous literature” (plagiarism) when he was citing scientists’ affiliations, standard descriptions, and papers cited by other—information he was obliged to cite accurately, according to a standard format. “It would have taken two [minutes] for a human to realise the bot was acting up,” he wrote on Twitter. “But there is obviously no human in the loop here. We’re letting bots make autonomous decisions to reject scientific papers.” Reaction to the post by Dr Bonnefon, who is currently a visiting scientist at the Massachusetts Institute Read More ›

Planet surface
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post
Author
Adam Nieri
Date
January 25, 2020
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture
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Picard (2020): Episode 1 Is an AI-Themed Mystery

The mystery is related to another familiar Star Trek character
Adam Nieri
January 25, 2020
8
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture

Seeing the Star Trek universe from a different perspective—that is, not from the interior of a starship—was super refreshing and rewarding. It gives viewers a unique look at what day-to-day life is like for other people (much as The Mandalorian did for the Star Wars universe).

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Photo by Michal Mrozek
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post
Author
Brendan Dixon
Date
January 21, 2020
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Business and Finance, Work
Tagged

So Is an AI Winter Really Coming This Time?

AI did surge past milestones during the 2010s but fell well short of the hype
Brendan Dixon
January 21, 2020
4
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Business and Finance, Work

Maybe both. AI will require more from us, not less, because how we choose to use these tools will make an increasingly stark difference between benefit and ruin.

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Photo by Amanda Jones
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post
Author
Gary Smith
Date
January 20, 2020
Categorized
Arts & Culture, Mathematics
Tagged
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Bridge: Why Shuffle the Deck Seven Times?

For years, competitive bridge players complained that computer shuffling of cards produced goofy results. Statisticians sided with the computers
Gary Smith
January 20, 2020
6
Arts & Culture, Mathematics

Bridge is one of the few games where computer algorithms have not yet demolished the best human players but, despite claims to the contrary, algorithms do a much better job of random shuffling of the deck.

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Man typing on keyboard with heart symbol hologram
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post
Author
Adam Nieri
Date
January 18, 2020
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture
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Her (2013): If You Created Her, Is It Real Love?

In this retrospective Mind Matters movie review, Adam Nieri ponders the questions raised by a thoughtful AI film
Adam Nieri
January 18, 2020
11
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture

Unlike Catherine, Samantha is exactly what Theodore was looking for. No surprise there; Samantha is, literally, adjusted and updated according to Theodore’s preferences from when he initially began speaking to her. She exists only to be Theodore’s soulmate. Is that enough?

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Robotic filmmaking. Talented robots shoots television movie or motion picture. Creative filmmakers robotic crew director, assistant with spotlight and cameraman behind the scene. Automated process of creating video content. Red wall studio background.
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post
Author
Analysis
Date
January 15, 2020
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Business and Finance
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Can AI Help Hollywood Predict the Next Big Hit?

AI analysis sifts the past finely. But how well does the past predict the future?
Analysis
January 15, 2020
6
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Business and Finance

AI does pose at least one threat to filmmaking. It could intensify the very tone-deafness that studios hope it can fix: Too much reliance on ever more finely grained analysis of the patterns in past data could blind decision makers to the real risks, volatility, and opportunities in the future. That’s a recipe for losing money and inflicting “Oh, not that again!” on audiences.

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Photo by Jeremy Bishop
Type
post
Author
Adam Nieri
Date
January 11, 2020
Categorized
Arts & Culture, Business and Finance
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, , , ,

AI Goes to Hollywood

Warner Bros. hopes Cinelytic's AI will save time while making more reasonable financial estimates, thus forestalling expensive box office blunders
Adam Nieri
January 11, 2020
5
Arts & Culture, Business and Finance

Cinelytic’s AI does is what every AI does at its most basic level. It collects and sifts large amounts of data to find patterns that can be used to make predictions. AI excels at pattern recognition because that is its only purpose. Humans aren’t so linear or predictable.

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Lost-in-Space-Publicity-Still-IMDB
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post
Author
Adam Nieri
Date
January 4, 2020
Categorized
Arts & Culture
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, ,

Lost in Space, A Mind Matters TV Series Review

I was skeptical at first, based on Netflix's track record, but was pleasantly surprised
Adam Nieri
January 4, 2020
7
Arts & Culture

If I could rewind time a week and add a piece of 2019 sci-fi to my list of the year’s Best and Worst Sci-Fi TV, I would add Netflix’s Lost in Space, Season 2—which came out just after I had published. Let's fix that now.

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The-Expanse-Publicity-Still
The Expanse Still Image
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post
Author
Adam Nieri
Date
December 28, 2019
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Arts & Culture
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Sci-Fi TV: 2019’s Best and Worst

2019 featured many sci-fi television and movies that were less sci-fi than political narrative
Adam Nieri
December 28, 2019
9
Arts & Culture

In 2019, I fell out with Netflix. I felt bombarded by more and more edgy content, as though Netflix wanted me to know how “adult” it is. Rather than producing a few amazing originals, Netflix started vomiting up a ton of terrible originals.

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science-in-hd-1WBN-JKSmKI-unsplash
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post
Author
Jonathan Bartlett
Date
December 26, 2019
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Business and Finance, Global Technology, Medicine and Health
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2019 AI Hype Countdown #6: AI Will Replace Scientists!

In May of this year, The Scientist ran a series of pieces suggesting that we could automate the process of acquiring scientific knowledge
Jonathan Bartlett
December 26, 2019
6
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Business and Finance, Global Technology, Medicine and Health

In reality, without appropriate human supervision, AI is just as likely to find false or unimportant patterns as real ones. Additionally, the overuse of AI in science is actually leading to a reproducibility crisis.

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Businessman Robot Hands Law Connection HUD Network
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post
Author
Jonathan Bartlett
Date
December 26, 2019
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Ethics
Tagged

2019 AI Hype Countdown #7: “Robot rights” grabs the mike

If we could make intelligent and sentient AIs, wouldn’t that mean we would have to stop programming them?
Jonathan Bartlett
December 26, 2019
4
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Ethics

AI programs are just that—programs. Nothing in such a program could make it conscious. We may as well think that if we make sci-fi life-like enough, we should start worrying about Darth Vader really taking over the galaxy.

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filip-mishevski-c5QdMcuFlgY-unsplash
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post
Author
Jonathan Bartlett
Date
December 24, 2019
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Business and Finance
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2019 AI Hype Countdown #8: Media Started Doing Their Job!

Yes, this year, there has been a reassuring trend: Media are offering more critical assessment of off-the-wall AI hype
Jonathan Bartlett
December 24, 2019
3
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Business and Finance

One factor in the growing sobriety may be that, as AI technology transitions from dreams to reality, the future belongs to leaders who are pragmatic about its abilities and limitations.

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Usb charging port in woman's neck, cyborg woman concept.
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post
Author
Jonathan Bartlett
Date
December 23, 2019
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Philosophy of Mind
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2019 AI Hype Countdown #10: Sophia the Robot Still Gives “Interviews”

In other news, few popular media ask critical questions
Jonathan Bartlett
December 23, 2019
3
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Philosophy of Mind

As a humanoid robot, Sophia certainly represents some impressive engineering. It is sad that the engineering fronts ridiculous claims about the state of AI, using partially scripted interactions as if they were real communication.

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Near Space photography - 20km above ground / real photo
Type
post
Author
Adam Nieri
Date
December 21, 2019
Categorized
Arts & Culture
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,

The Expanse: A Mind Matters TV Series Review

The attention to detail and the realistic portrayal of space set it apart from run-of-the-mill sci-fi
Adam Nieri
December 21, 2019
7
Arts & Culture

I love the deep mystery surrounding the show’s central narrative device, the proto-molecule. It is somewhat sentient and is desperately trying to figure out what happened to the civilization that created it and was then wiped out while it lay dormant in our solar system for millions of years.

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the hypothetical planet nine in front of stars lit by the far away Sun
Type
post
Author
Adam Nieri
Date
December 14, 2019
Categorized
Arts & Culture
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Nightflyers: A Mind Matters TV Series Review

Despite its flaws, Nightflyers does not deserve all the criticism it received.
Adam Nieri
December 14, 2019
8
Arts & Culture

It’s the saga of a ship of scientists making their way through the cosmos to unlock the secrets of a mysterious entity known as Volcryn. It turns out that Volcryn is not the only mystery; the Nightflyer holds many of its own secrets.

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Archeological site of Phaistos in Crete
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post
Author
News
Date
December 12, 2019
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Arts & Culture, Machine Learning, Work
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Can AI Help Us Decipher Lost Languages?

That depends mainly on the reasons we haven’t yet deciphered ancient texts
News
December 12, 2019
7
Arts & Culture, Machine Learning, Work

AI can speed up translation of ancient documents where only a few scholars know the language. Whether it can help with mysterious unknown languages like Minoan A is another question.

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sport cyclisme velo tour de France
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post
Author
Brendan Dixon
Date
December 11, 2019
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Religion
Tagged
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I Am Giving Up Cycling

It’s just not worth it if a machine can beat me
Brendan Dixon
December 11, 2019
3
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Religion

It’s not that I cannot cycle or that I don’t like to or that I’m not good at it (for a human). But just the other day, as I pedaled along, I was passed by a motorcycle. Its speed was incredible! I appeared to be pedaling in place as the machine zoomed into the distance. In that moment, it became all too clear that my days as a meaningful human were ending. The machine was my better. Okay. That is not true. I am not going to quit cycling. And, being passed by a motorcycle—a machine we built purposely to go faster than anything our two legs can achieve—is not a meaningful measure of my prowess as a cyclist. Many Read More ›

Business colleagues review automotive design concepts wearing a virtual reality headset.
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post
Author
Robert J. Marks
Date
December 10, 2019
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture
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Abandoning Reality: Getting Lost in Oculus Quest’s VR

Amazing. And time to remember the history. I was the chair of the first serious conference dedicated to virtual reality twenty-five years ago
Robert J. Marks
December 10, 2019
4
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture

Virtual reality got its start in the US Air Force’s investigation of heads-up display for pilots. Just as you see a candy wrapper on your dashboard reflected in the windshield while you drive, pilots could have nearly a instantaneous view of instrumentation simply by focusing their eyes from far objects to near.

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