Lifeboat Foundation

Finally, folks are getting the real picture around re-tooling and retraining folks for new jobs in an oncoming AI future. In my posts; I have highlighted the need for governments and businesses to retrain people as well as ensure that their is some level of funding established to assist displaced workers, and especially as we see the maturity of Quantum in the AI space this will definitely be a must.

“If every tool, when ordered, or even of its own accord, could do the work that befits it… then there would be no need either of apprentices for the master workers or of slaves for the lords.” – Aristotle.

Humans have such a love/hate relationship with technology that it’s almost comical. All of our own creation, once we’ve perfected amazing innovations, we often turn on them–when convenient. As the PC became common and marketed toward the masses in the 80s, a new world of automation, both good and bad, was predicted. As mad scientists tucked away in secret, underground labs began creating evil robots in a slew of sci-fi movies that we consumed greedily, along with becoming affectionate toward machines like C-3P0 and R2-D2 just birthed in what would be a continuing pop subculture with a momentum of its own, our imaginations ran wild. Fearmongers cited that automation would make many jobs obsolete; robots would begin doing what was left as an economic apocalypse ensued for the human race.

Continue reading “World Economic Forum Report: Existing Workforce Must Prepare, Re-Skill & Up-Skill for Impending Fourth Industrial Revolution” »

Healthcare has a new set of hospital cleaners through Maidbot.

Maidbot, an Ithaca-based startup run by Cornell students that combines hospitality and robotics, has gained attention in several competitions around the country, most recently competing against 14 other college startups in the RECESS Pitch Competition earlier this month. “With this new automated system we were really excited to revolutionize and transform the hospitality industry.” —Micah Green ’18.

Additionally, Maidbot was announced as one of 32 semi-finalists in the Student Startup Madness competition — a collegiate startup tournament at SXSW — earlier this month. If Maidbot is to win in the semi-final round, the startup will be able to pitch to investors in Austin, Texas, in March. Inspired by the television show The Jetsons, Maidbot is a robot created to assist hotel room attendants with housekeeping tasks. Micah Green ’18, a co-founder of the company, had previously worked as a room attendant at a hotel.

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Interesting

(JNS.org) Shefa Yamim, an Israeli exploration and mining company, announced that it has discovered rare minerals near Israel’s port city of Haifa.

A report prepared by geologist William Griffin of Australia’s Macquarie University examined the mineral samples of corundum stones sent to him by Shefa Yamim, which found the stones in several sites in the Kishon River. The corundum stones contain a variety of rare minerals, including Moissanite and tistarite.

Continue reading “Israeli mining company discovers rare minerals near Haifa” »

Mining in space — could there be gold on those planets and stars? Some investors believe there are or at least something as good as gold.

Investment firms, which typically have viewed space as far too risky, are suddenly courting the industry.

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With a growing number of Earth-like exoplanets discovered in recent years, it is becoming increasingly frustrating that we can’t visit them. After all, our knowledge of the planets in our own solar system would be pretty limited if it weren’t for the space probes we’d sent to explore them.

The problem is that even the nearest stars are a very long way away, and enormous engineering efforts will be required to reach them on timescales that are relevant to us. But with research in areas such as nuclear fusion and nanotechnology advancing rapidly, we may not be as far away from constructing small, fast interstellar space probes as we think.

There’s a lot at stake. If we ever found evidence suggesting that life might exist on a planet orbiting a nearby star, we would most likely need to go there to get definitive proof and learn more about its underlying biochemistry and evolutionary history. This would require transporting sophisticated scientific instruments across interstellar space.

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At this rate of making machines to behave and interact like humans; we may end up with a world with some really messed up robots.

A new database will gauge progress in artificial intelligence, as computers try to grasp what’s going on in scenes shown in photographs.

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“Musk hopes to discuss the Mars plans in September at an international space meeting.”

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On a mire humerous note:
AI and particularly robots; can easily pick up on people’s patterns/ styles to the point where they can write your speeches and possibly develop your PowerPoint presentations. Procrastinators will no longer have to stress about pulling their slides together, interns will have more availability to work on projects, and politicians will sound like a pro with this robot.

BTW — the robot in this articile was so good at mimicking the politician; that the robot (just the politician) in the speech kept thanking everyone in the chamber after it yielded time back to the speaker. Maybe our politicians will start sending their robots to vote for them in the future.

Computer researchers have created programs that can do the job quite nicely, explains Brian Fung.

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Man’s best friend could eventually be a robot — could it happen?

Scientists at Lincoln Centre for Autonomous Systems Research, University of Lincoln, UK, have developed robots that can be companions for people.

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