CategorySocial Factors
AI as an Emergent Religion
Science philosopher Mike Keas’s new book discusses how AI and ET are merging, to create a religion of futurist magicMany Singulatarians hold that their soon-to-be-realized technology will be indistinguishable by the rest of us from magic. Are they serious? Well, in 2005, Kurzweil said that the magical Harry Potter stories “are not unreasonable visions of our world as it will exist only a few decades from now.” when, due to AI, “the entire universe will become saturated with our intelligence.” Keas warns that this type of thing encourages people “to expect the experiential equivalent of occult phenomena.”
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STEM EDUCATION 2. Not Everyone Is Lucky Enough to be a Nerd
How do you identify extroverted nerds? When you are talking to them, they look at YOUR shoes
The Numbers Don’t Speak for Themselves
The patterns uncovered by machine learning may reflect a larger reality or just a bias in gathering dataBecause Machine Learning is opaque—even experts cannot clearly explain how a system arrived at a conclusion—we treat it as magic. Therefore, we should mistrust the systems until proven innocent (and correct).
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Remember the Luddites!
The Luddites became famous for breaking machinery during the Industrial Revolution. Were they entirely wrong?
Facebook’s Secret Censorship Rules Expose a Key Problem
Most moderators are not skilled and have only a few seconds to decide on a post
Research Showing That Fake News Easily Fools Us Collapses
A recent paper claiming that low-quality news (“fake news”) spreads as quickly on social media as accurate news has been retracted by its authors.
It’s 2019: Begin the AI Hype Cycle Again!
Media seemingly can’t help portraying today’s high-tech world as a remake of I, Robot (2004), starring you and me.
Can an Algorithm Be Racist?
No, the machine has no opinion. It processes vast tracts of data. And, as a result, the troubling hidden roots of some data are exposed
How Can Information Theory Help the Economy Grow?
New information is the true source of new wealth; everyone wins when we learn how to produce it more efficiently
4: Making AI Look More Human Makes It More Human-like!
AI help, not hype, with Robert J. Marks: Technicians can do a lot these days with automated lip-syncs and smiles but what’s behind them?
5: AI Can Fight Hate Speech!
AI can carry out its programmers’ biases and that’s all
9: Will That Army Robot Squid Ever Be “Self-Aware”?
AI help, not hype: What would it take for a robot to be self-aware?
Google Search: Its Secret of Success Revealed
The secret is not the Big Data pile. No, Google found a way to harness YOUR wants and needsGoogle is one of the most widely misunderstood success stories of our time. Many of us equate Google with “Big Data,” that is, amassing huge quantities of data and then finding useful statistical patterns. But is that how it succeeded? In Life after Google: The Fall of Big Data and the Rise of the Blockchain Economy, George Gilder criticizes Google primarily on two fronts: First, it is a “walled garden,” a great platform, but inherently isolated and closed. That is a point worth exploring, but not the focus here. The second point, the one I want to touch on, is that Big Data’s day has come and gone. Because Google is a Big Data company, its brightest days are behind it. Read More ›
Study Shows Eating Raisins Causes Plantar Warts
Sure. Because, if you torture a Big Data enough, it will confess to anything
No, Twitter Is Not the New Awful
It’s the Old Awful back for more. It’s the Town Without Pity we all tried to get away from
Consumers Were Not Buying Robots as Friends This Year
The market for drudgery busters remains strong. For dogs and pals, not so much
Can Big Data Help Make Your Book a Best Seller?
It’s more likely to help you picture your odds more clearly and clarify your goals
Science Confronts Credibility Issues?
Not to worry, prestigious researchers blame them on social media trolls and bots