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Trump to meet tech firms including Apple, Facebook and Google

New article on immigration and AI in The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2016/dec/14/donald-tr…automation #future


All of this could be under threat if we are to take some of the comments the Trump campaign made in the run-up to the election at face value. The outspoken candidate claimed that Mark Zuckerberg’s push for specialist H1B visas (the main visa used to hire foreign talent to tech companies) was a threat to jobs for American women and minorities. Meanwhile, Trump’s chief strategist Steve Bannon suggested that Asians have too much power in Silicon Valley.

About a dozen members of Silicon Valley’s elite – including Apple CEO Tim Cook, Alphabet CEO Larry Page, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg – will meet with Trump in New York. The meeting is likely to provide an opportunity for them to highlight their concerns and priorities with the incoming administration.

Trump was critical of Silicon Valley business practices during his campaign – from wanting Apple to stop making phones in China to saying Amazon founder Jeff Bezos bought the Washington Post to exert political power and avoid paying taxes.

“If you look at the history of Silicon Valley, it’s clear that drawing on immigrants has been a big part of the vitality, creativity and success of that entrepreneurial melange,” said Marjory Blumenthal, senior policy analyst at Rand Corporation.

IEEE publishes draft report on ‘ethically aligned’ AI design

IEEE’s new standards for ethically aligned AI — it’s a start focuses a lot on building ethics/ Morales into AI and not promote the building of autonomous AI Weapons, etc. However, without government & laws on the books this set of standards are a feel good document at best. When it gets into morals, values, not breaking laws, etc. this is when the standard really must come from social and cultural order/ practices, government, and most importantly laws to ensure the standards have the buy in and impact you need. My suggestion to IEEE, please work with gov, tech, legal sys. on this one.


More than 100 experts in artificial intelligence and ethics are attempting to advance public discussion surrounding the ethical considerations of AI.

Why Machines Should Go To The University of Google, School of Artificial Intelligence

Now that’s an idea; education for systems. I can see the online university advertisements now showing an autonomous car beeping and flashing its lights over the enjoyment of graduating.


What if I told you to tie your shoes, but you had no laces? Or to cook dinner, but you had no pots or pans.

There are certain tools we need to succeed, which we often don’t have access to or are held back by a gatekeeper.

Dozens of AI / Machine Learning startups experience this same problem because they don’t have enough data to properly train their AI algorithm. Startups that aim to eliminate the error involved in judging cancerous tumors. Startups that aim to improve personalized medicine and create a healthier future.

Gov’t to require cars be able to talk to each other

WASHINGTON (AP) — All new cars and light trucks would be able to talk wirelessly with each other, with traffic lights and with other roadway infrastructure under a rule the Transportation Department proposed Tuesday. Officials say the technology holds the potential to dramatically reduce traffic deaths and transform driving.

Vehicle-to-vehicle communications, or V2V, enables cars to transmit their locations, speed, direction and other information ten times per second. That lets cars detect, for example, when another vehicle is about to run a red light, is braking hard, changing lanes or coming around a blind turn in time for a driver or automated safety systems to prevent a crash.

The technology has the potential to prevent or mitigate the severity of up to 80 percent of collisions that don’t involve alcohol or drugs, officials said.

Reviewing Space developments in 2016 and the next big future in space

This is one of the Nextbigfuture article series reviewing developments in 2016 and looking ahead to developments over the next few years. Here we look at 2016 in space. Later articles will look at medicine, life extension, energy and other areas. Previously we reviewed computers and artificial intelligence

The biggest developments in space in 2016.

SpaceX had several successful launches and landed several rocket stages but had an accident which has grounded SpaceX. They hope to launching again in January 2017.