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Irina Rish is a world-renowned professor of computer science and operations research at the Université de Montréal and a core member of the prestigious Mila organisation. She is a Canada CIFAR AI Chair and the Canadian Excellence Research Chair in Autonomous AI. Irina holds an MSc and PhD in AI from the University of California, Irvine as well as an MSc in Applied Mathematics from the Moscow Gubkin Institute. Her research focuses on machine learning, neural data analysis, and neuroscience-inspired AI. In particular, she is exploring continual lifelong learning, optimization algorithms for deep neural networks, sparse modelling and probabilistic inference, dialog generation, biologically plausible reinforcement learning, and dynamical systems approaches to brain imaging analysis. Prof. Rish holds 64 patents, has published over 80 research papers, several book chapters, three edited books, and a monograph on Sparse Modelling. She has served as a Senior Area Chair for NeurIPS and ICML. Irina’s research is focussed on taking us closer to the holy grail of Artificial General Intelligence. She continues to push the boundaries of machine learning, continually striving to make advancements in neuroscience-inspired AI.

In a conversation about artificial intelligence (AI), Irina and Tim discussed the idea of transhumanism and the potential for AI to improve human flourishing. Irina suggested that instead of looking at AI as something to be controlled and regulated, people should view it as a tool to augment human capabilities. She argued that attempting to create an AI that is smarter than humans is not the best approach, and that a hybrid of human and AI intelligence is much more beneficial. As an example, she mentioned how technology can be used as an extension of the human mind, to track mental states and improve self-understanding. Ultimately, Irina concluded that transhumanism is about having a symbiotic relationship with technology, which can have a positive effect on both parties.

Tim then discussed the contrasting types of intelligence and how this could lead to something interesting emerging from the combination. He brought up the Trolley Problem and how difficult moral quandaries could be programmed into an AI. Irina then referenced The Garden of Forking Paths, a story which explores the idea of how different paths in life can be taken and how decisions from the past can have an effect on the present.

To better understand AI and intelligence, Irina suggested looking at it from multiple perspectives and understanding the importance of complex systems science in programming and understanding dynamical systems. She discussed the work of Michael Levin, who is looking into reprogramming biological computers with chemical interventions, and Tim mentioned Alex Mordvinsev, who is looking into the self-healing and repair of these systems. Ultimately, Irina argued that the key to understanding AI and intelligence is to recognize the complexity of the systems and to create hybrid models of human and AI intelligence.

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While “protein” often evokes pictures of chicken breasts, these molecules are more similar to an intricate Lego puzzle. Building a protein starts with a string of amino acids—think a myriad of Christmas lights on a string— which then fold into 3D structures (like rumpling them up for storage).

DeepMind and Baker both made waves when they each developed algorithms to predict the structure of any protein based on their amino acid sequence. It was no simple endeavor; the predictions were mapped at the atomic level.

Designing new proteins raises the complexity to another level. This year Baker’s lab took a stab at it, with one effort using good old screening techniques and another relying on deep learning hallucinations. Both algorithms are extremely powerful for demystifying natural proteins and generating new ones, but they were hard to scale up.

Timetable.
0:00 — AI in our society.
0:46 — Defining Algocracy.
1:00 — Current AI algorithms.
2:20 — Future of AI decision-making.
5:59 — AI governance scenarios.
7:43 — Poll on our opinions of AI
8:35 — What actually worries experts.
10:02 — What now?

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Written Sources:
Civil society calls on the EU to prohibit predictive and profiling AI systems in law enforcement and criminal justice.
https://www.statewatch.org/news/2022/march/civil-society-cal…l-justice/

Toward a Theory of Justice for Artificial Intelligence, Gabriel.
https://direct.mit.edu/daed/article/151/2/218/110610/Toward-…Artificial.

EUROPEAN TECH INSIGHTS 2021 PART II, IE Center For The Governance Of Change.
https://www.ie.edu/cgc/research/european-tech-insights/?subm…wnload-cgc.

Noble, Safiya Umoja (20 February 2018). Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism. New York: NYU Press. ISBN 978–1479837243.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is a rapidly growing technology with the potential to revolutionize many industries, and luxury real estate is no exception. With its ability to analyze large amounts of data, identify patterns and trends, and even communicate with clients, AI can be a valuable tool for increasing sales in the luxury real estate market.

One of the key benefits of AI in the luxury real estate market is its ability to provide personalized recommendations to clients. By analyzing a client’s search history, preferences, and budget, AI algorithms can suggest properties that are the most likely to appeal to them. This can save time for both the client and the real estate agent, as it reduces the need to sift through countless listings to find the right property.

Another benefit of AI in the luxury real estate market is its ability to enhance the overall customer experience. For example, some real estate firms are using chatbots that can answer questions and provide information about properties to potential buyers. These chatbots can work around the clock, providing assistance to clients whenever they need it. This not only helps to streamline the process of finding a property, but it can also help to build trust and establish a more personal connection with clients.

Nobel Prize-winning physicist Frank Wilczek explores the secrets of the cosmos. Read previous columns here.

This year marks the 10th anniversary of the discovery of the Higgs particle. Now we can see it in perspective.

To understand its significance, imagine an ocean planet where intelligent fish evolve and start to make theories of how things move. They do experiments and deduce equations but it is a messy hodgepodge, because the fish, taking their ever-present environment for granted, think of their ocean as “empty space.” After decades of work, though, some realize that by postulating that “empty space” is a medium—ocean—that has mass and motion of its own, you can account for everything using simple, elegant laws (namely, Newton’s laws). Next, the fish start to wonder what their hypothetical ocean is made of. They boil some ocean, do some sophisticated spectroscopy, and ultimately identify water molecules. Imagined beauty guided them to concrete truth.

A new smart skin developed at Stanford University might foretell a day when people type on invisible keyboards, identify objects by touch alone, or allow users to communicate by hand gestures with apps in immersive environments.

In a just-publish paper in the journal Nature Electronics the researchers describe a new type of stretchable biocompatible material that gets sprayed on the back of the , like suntan spray. Integrated in the mesh is a tiny electrical network that senses as the skin stretches and bends and, using AI, the researchers can interpret myriad daily tasks from hand motions and gestures. The researchers say it could have applications and implications in fields as far-ranging as gaming, sports, telemedicine, and robotics.

So far, several promising methods, such as measuring muscle electrical activities using wrist bands or wearable gloves, have been actively explored to enable various hand tasks and gesturing. However, these devices are bulky as multiple sensory components are needed to pinpoint movements at every single joint. Moreover, a large amount of data needs to be collected for each user and task in order to train the algorithm. These challenges make it difficult to adopt such devices as daily-use electronics.

By analyzing the data from ESA’s Gaia satellite, astronomers from the Shanghai Astronomical Observatory (SHAO) in China have detected 101 new open clusters in the Milky Way galaxy. The discovery was presented in a paper published December 21 on the arXiv pre-print repository.

Open clusters (OCs), formed from the same giant molecular cloud, are groups of stars loosely gravitationally bound to each other. So far, more than 1,000 of them have been discovered in the Milky Way, and scientists are still looking for more, hoping to find a variety of these stellar groupings. Studying them in detail could be crucial for improving our understanding of the formation and evolution of our galaxy.

Now, a team of led by SHAO’s Qin Songmei reports the finding of 101 new OCs in the solar neighborhood. The discovery is a result of utilizing clustering algorithms pyUPMASK and HDSBSCAN on the data from Gaia’s Data Release 3 (DR3).

Anatomical decision-making by cellular collectives: Bioelectrical pattern memories, regeneration, and synthetic living organisms.

A key question for basic biology and regenerative medicine concerns the way in which evolution exploits physics toward adaptive form and function. While genomes specify the molecular hardware of cells, what algorithms enable cellular collectives to reliably build specific, complex, target morphologies? Our lab studies the way in which all cells, not just neurons, communicate as electrical networks that enable scaling of single-cell properties into collective intelligences that solve problems in anatomical feature space. By learning to read, interpret, and write bioelectrical information in vivo, we have identified some novel controls of growth and form that enable incredible plasticity and robustness in anatomical homeostasis. In this talk, I will describe the fundamental knowledge gaps with respect to anatomical plasticity and pattern control beyond emergence, and discuss our efforts to understand large-scale morphological control circuits. I will show examples in embryogenesis, regeneration, cancer, and synthetic living machines. I will also discuss the implications of this work for not only regenerative medicine, but also for fundamental understanding of the origin of bodyplans and the relationship between genomes and functional anatomy.

Researchers have finally succeeded in building a long-sought nanoparticle structure, opening the door to new materials with special properties.

Alex Travesset does not have a sparkling research lab stocked with the most cutting-edge instruments for probing new nanomaterials and measuring their unique properties.

Instead of using traditional laboratory instruments, Alex Travesset, a professor of physics and astronomy at Iowa State University and an affiliate of the U.S. Department of Energy’s Ames National Laboratory, relies on computer models, equations, and figures to understand the behavior of new nanomaterials.