Lifeboat Foundation

For several years, civil society groups have been calling for a ban on what they call “killer robots”. Scores of technologists have lent their voice to the cause. Some two dozen governments now support a ban and several others would like to see some kind of international regulation.

Yet the latest talks on “lethal autonomous weapons systems” wrapped up last month with no agreement on a ban. The Group of Governmental Experts meeting, convened in Geneva under the auspices of the United Nations Convention on Certain Conventional Weapons, did not even clearly proceed towards one. The outcome was a decision to continue discussions next year.

Those supporting a ban are not impressed. But the reasons for the failure to reach agreement on the way forward are complex.

Continue reading “Why it’s so hard to reach an international agreement on killer robots” »

Here in beautiful Basel, Switzerland we open the section Aging and Drug Discovery, actually an intersection of AI, longevity and drug discovery in the Innovation Forums of Basel Life Conference 2018. Dr Alex Zhavoronkov (InSilico Medicine) and Dr Morten Scheibye-Knudsen (University Copenhagen) welcomed us. Dr Jay Olshansky (University of Illinois at Chicago) gave the first lecture. Some examples for age face recognition were shown, emphasising the importance of wrinkles from smoking or others and suggesting that looking younger means living longer! After the wonderful lecture I immediately went to correct my make-up!

Since its acquisition of ITA Matrix Software eight years ago, Google has been quietly rolling out new tools for travelers. Its progress has been even more notable over the past months and weeks as it began unveiling tools to help predict flight delays, plan trips, and manage itineraries — among other things.

These changes have some wondering: Is Google making a run at total domination in the travel space? If it is, there’s a strong case to be made for its potential to disrupt the travel and hospitality sector with a similar approach to Amazon’s run at retail, and more recently grocery.

AI is massively transforming our world, but there’s one thing it cannot do: love. In a visionary talk, computer scientist Kai-Fu Lee details how the US and China are driving a deep learning revolution — and shares a blueprint for how humans can thrive in the age of AI by harnessing compassion and creativity. “AI is serendipity,” Lee says. “It is here to liberate us from routine jobs, and it is here to remind us what it is that makes us human.”

Check out more TED Talks: http://www.ted.com

Continue reading “How AI can save our humanity | Kai-Fu Lee” »

Maybe AI is talking to AI?

ARTIFICIAL intelligence has helped scientists find mysterious signals from deep space and experts hope it could help decipher whether the signals are a result of extra-terrestrial technology.

Many congrats to @Enrico Dini 🔝🍾🎉🎉🎉🥇Enrico reached that outcome after an eclectic professional path: a graduate of Civil Engineering at Pisa University, Enrico has spent his entire career in automation and robotics. In 2004, Enrico envisioned the endless potential of the use of additive manufacturing techniques at architectural scale as a means to affordably reach architectural beauty. Since then, Enrico has dedicated his entire professional career in the pursuit of his passion to 3D print beautiful architecture.

At the Digital Concrete 2018 Conference, several awards will be presented. Award categories include: Best Proceedings Paper, Best Presentation, and Best Poster. Each category will have an award encompassing all entries, and one for students only. The awards will be given at the conference closing on Wednesday, 12 September, before lunch.

In addition, two Pioneering Achievement Awards will be given to two pioneers in the field of digital fabrication with concrete, Prof. Behrokh Khoshnevis and Enrico Dini. Information for the two awardees is seen below.

From the perspective of critics, there are many reasons to be concerned about the rise of artificial intelligence.

Billionaire inventor Elon Musk — perhaps the world’s most vocal AI antagonist — has warned that the technology could become “an immortal dictator from which we would never escape.”

Several years before his death, Stephen Hawking, the renowned theoretical physicist, said artificial intelligence could bypass biological evolution, leaving humans unable to compete.

Continue reading “Prince Charles Says He ‘Utterly Objects’ to The Idea of People Becoming Part Human, Part Machine” »

When we think of robots manipulating objects, we tend to think of endless banks of robot arms in some high-tech assembly line, dancing their mechanical dance in perfect synchronization. They grab an object, turn it round a bit, and put it down again, before repeating the action with an identical object time and again. But what if a robot could look at any item, and decide how best to pick it up, and perform tasks with it, all by itself? That’s the aim of DON – a new neural network and robotic hand at MIT’s Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory (CSAIL).

But get ready to change your occupation.