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Category: robotics/AI – Page 2,740

AI Robot Learns Words In Real Time & Tells Human Creators It Will Keep Them In A “People Zoo”

Scary conversation with an AI

These days, robots are being developed with some absolutely amazing technology. Indeed, robotics technology has become so impressive that the notion of the whole Terminator scenario (robots taking control of the human race) becoming our reality is starting to seem a lot less far-fetched. Not only are they beginning to look incredibly realistic, they are starting to develop the capacity to think for themselves as well.

A prime example of these new and improved robots is an android that was created by roboticist David Hanson; this android closely resembles the late, great science fiction writer, Philip K. Dick, the author of many popular films including: Bladerunner, Totall Recall, Minority Report, and Paycheck.

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Virtual Incision Robot Hopes to Lower Cost of Robotic Surgery (VIDEO)

This is a link to the video. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hptgw_-59YY

Virtual-Incision

Thanks to MassDevice, we learned of a new company that’s developed a small surgical robot for performing laparoscopic procedures that may lower the cost and offer robotic capability to clinics that don’t have millions of dollars in discretionary funds. Virtual Incision Corporation is a spin-off out of the University of Nebraska and the company just raised $11.2M in equity financing to sponsor a feasibility study of its robotic technology.

The system was designed to fit almost completely into the abdominal cavity via a single incision, with only the handle and cables staying on top. It’s intended for surgeries that are often performed in an open fashion that can benefit from robotic laparoscopy, such as colon resections.

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Should humans be able to marry robots?

Oh great, now republicans can start bitching about same sex robotic marriage! lol! At least it’ll give them something to do after they are booted out of office.

I always try to look on the bright side. wink

(credit: AMC)

The Supreme Court’s recent 5–4 decision in Obergefell v. Hodges legalizing same-sex marriage raises the interesting question: what’s next on the “slippery slope”? Robot-human marriages? Robot-robot marriages?

Why yes, predicts on Slate.

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AI and Effective Altruism

MIRI is a research nonprofit specializing in a poorly-explored set of problems in theoretical computer science. GiveDirectly is a cash transfer service that gives money to poor households in East Africa. What kind of conference would bring together representatives from such disparate organizations — alongside policy analysts, philanthropists, philosophers, and many more?

Effective Altruism Global, which is beginning its Oxford session in a few hours, is that kind of conference. Effective altruism (EA) is a diverse community of do-gooders with a common interest in bringing the tools of science to bear on the world’s biggest problems. EA organizations like GiveDirectly, the Centre for Effective Altruism, and the charity evaluator GiveWell have made a big splash by calling for new standards of transparency and humanitarian impact in the nonprofit sector.

What is MIRI’s connection to effective altruism? In what sense is safety research in artificial intelligence “altruism,” and why do we assign a high probability to this being a critically important area of computer science in the coming decades? I’ll give quick answers to each of those questions below.

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David Hanson: We are close to building the first sentient robot

Hanson would be unimpressed by my use of the word “it” to describe his robots, though. His latest creations, Han and Sophia, are “he” and “she” respectively. And Hanson believes that the latter model will become the “first sentient robot, the first one to achieve human-like consciousness.”

This is because Sophia is smaller in size – all of her mechanisms fit inside a smaller chassis. This is beneficial for two reasons: she costs less to make in terms of materials and it takes her less energy to make facial expressions and move around.

“Because of this, she can make more of a difference in the world,” Hanson explains. He adds:

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Electrical circuit made of gel can repair itself

(Phys.org)—Scientists have fabricated a flexible electrical circuit that, when cut into two pieces, can repair itself and fully restore its original conductivity. The circuit is made of a new gel that possesses a combination of properties that are not typically seen together: high conductivity, flexibility, and room-temperature self-healing. The gel could potentially offer self-healing for a variety of applications, including flexible electronics, soft robotics, artificial skins, biomimetic prostheses, and energy storage devices.

The researchers, led by Guihua Yu, an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Austin, have published a paper on the new self-healing in a recent issue of Nano Letters.

The new gel’s properties arise from its hybrid composition of two gels: a supramolecular gel, or ‘supergel’, is injected into a conductive polymer hydrogel matrix. As the researchers explain, this “guest-to-host” strategy allows the chemical and physical features of each component to be combined.

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