Robotics/AI – Lifeboat News: The Blog

Jun 12
2015

New Research Says Robots Are Unlikely to Eat Our Jobs — Steve Lohr | NY Times

“The McKinsey study analyzes and forecasts the potential impact of so-called digital talent platforms. The report looks at three types of such platforms: job-finding and employee-seeking websites (such as Monster.com and LinkedIn); marketplaces for services (Uber and Upwork, for example); and data-driven talent discovery tools (like Evolv and Knack). By 2025, McKinsey estimates, these digital talent platforms could add $2.7 trillion a year to global gross domestic product, which would be the equivalent of adding another Britain to the world economy. And the digital tools, the report states, could benefit as many as 540 million people in various ways, including better matches of their skills with jobs, higher wages and shorter stints of unemployment.” Read more

Jun 11
2015

What does Bilderberg have in common with Camp Alphaville? | FT Alphaville

Fun article below on upcoming Financial Times event. Transhumanism and AI will be a part of the discussions at the event. They’re going to have lots of weird technology there, as well as robots wandering around.

Jun 10
2015

Just as Stephen Hawking warned? Here comes ‘the world’s angriest robot’ — CNET

Technically Incorrect: A New Zealand-based company says it’s building a very, very angry robot to help companies deal with angry customers.

Jun 8
2015

‘We’re a long way from a singularity’ says ‘Ex Machina’ AI consultant — by Luke Westaway c/net

On-screen robots tend to rise up and crush their puny human masters with alarming regularity.

“I decided to log every single incidence of artificial intelligence or robots in the history of cinema,” Adam Rutherford, a British geneticist and author who served as AI consultant on the recent film “Ex Machina”, tells CNET’s Crave blog. “I think I calculated that 65 percent of them end up being a threat, and the rest of them are just servile.” Read more

Jun 6
2015

Meet the New Generation of Robots for Manufacturing — James Hagerty | Wall Street Journal

“Another big trend at work: The Renault robots are ‘collaborative,’ designed to work in proximity to people. Older types of factory robots swing their steel arms with such force that they can bludgeon anyone who strays too close. Using sonar, cameras or other technologies, collaborative robots can sense where people are and slow down or stop to avoid hurting them.” Read more

Jun 4
2015

CuriosityStream Live

DARPA ROBOTICS CHALLENGE 2015 THE ROBOTS ARE COMING

Jun 2
2015

Will Your Job Be Done By A Machine? — Quoctrung Bui | NPR

“Machines can do some surprising things. But what you really want to know is this: Will your job be around in the future?…The researchers admit that these estimates are rough and likely to be wrong. But consider this a snapshot of what some smart people think the future might look like.” Read more

Jun 1
2015

Medical Microbots Take a Fantastic Voyage Into Reality — IEEE Spectrum

Engineers explore ways to take robotics to the limits of size and function

Jun 1
2015

The debate on lethal robots is starting too late — Russell Brandom | The Verge

“Without human beings making the decision to kill, the concern is that killing will happen indiscriminately, slowly lowering the bar for the use of violent force. Once death happens by algorithm, what’s the incentive to preserve life? ‘Humans must ultimately bear moral responsibility and face the horror of war squarely, not outsource it to machines.’” Read more

May 31
2015

Will Superintelligent AI Ignore Humans Instead of Destroying Us? — Jason Koebler | Motherboard

“It’s a nice thought that humans could one day create a superintelligent artificial intelligence, and that intelligence takes a look at us, says “thanks, creator,” and blasts off into space, never to be heard from again. Or maybe the AI moves to the deserts or the Arctic or some other uninhabited place, and we live together peacefully. But it seems like such an outcome is unlikely.” Read more