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Interesting; especially how AI is leveraged for enhancing games which does make perfect sense from a pattern recognition and improvement standpoint.

As Central Florida’s video game community enters the virtual reality era, specialists and artists who can create fantasy worlds will be in higher demand here.

Video games often try to transport players to a virtual world, whether it’s a land of wooden zombies or a virtual representation of the Amway Center.

But professionals here say the illusion fails if the game’s artificial intelligence doesn’t realistically react to game situations.

Continue reading “Realistic artificial intelligence can make games – or break them” | >

In a computational reconstruction of brain tissue in the hippocampus, Salk and UT-Austin scientists found the unusual occurrence of two synapses from the axon of one neuron (translucent black strip) forming onto two spines on the same dendrite of a second neuron (yellow). Separate terminals from one neuron’s axon are shown in synaptic contact with two spines (arrows) on the same dendrite of a second neuron in the hippocampus. The spine head volumes, synaptic contact areas (red), neck diameters (gray) and number of presynaptic vesicles (white spheres) of these two synapses are almost identical. (credit: Salk Institute)

Salk researchers and collaborators have achieved critical insight into the size of neural connections, putting the memory capacity of the brain far higher than common estimates. The new work also answers a longstanding question as to how the brain is so energy efficient, and could help engineers build computers that are incredibly powerful but also conserve energy.

“This is a real bombshell in the field of neuroscience,” says Terry Sejnowski, Salk professor and co-senior author of the paper, which was published in eLife. “We discovered the key to unlocking the design principle for how hippocampal neurons function with low energy but high computation power. Our new measurements of the brain’s memory capacity increase conservative estimates by a factor of 10 to at least a petabyte (1 quadrillion or 1015 bytes), in the same ballpark as the World Wide Web.”

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Yuste v. Hawkins — battle of the brains.

Renowned neuroscientist Rafael Yuste on Wednesday dismissed the latest doomsday predictions of Stephen Hawking, saying the British astrophysicist “doesn’t know what he’s talking about.”

In a recent lecture in London, Hawking indicated that advances in science and technology will lead to “new ways things can go wrong,” especially in the field of artificial intelligence.

Yuste, a Columbia University neuroscience professor, was less pessimistic. “We don’t have enough knowledge to be able to say such things,” he told Radio Cooperativa in Santiago, Chile.

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A robot wedding.

Five couples sealed the deal at a robot factory in Shenyang, Liaoning Province of China, in one of the most unique wedding venues in recent news.

On Wednesday, robots of all forms serviced the entire wedding for the couples and guests alike. Some robots were merely appendages, holding candles out along the aisle. Others had a more humanoid form with bright, pixilated smiles. These robots served wine and greeted guests at the door. A few special ones even served as ring-bearers or flower girls.

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More VR Theme Parks and attractions opening this year. We have the Void opening this summer in Pleasant Grove, UT; a new VR roller coaster in UK’s Alton Towers that opens in April; there is real opportunity for entrepreneurs in the VR space to launch their own portable VR amusement/ entertainment centers for corporate events, parties, etc.

Virtual reality and theme parks may not seem like an obvious match, but these planned attractions may change your mind. Starting this spring we’ll start to see rides that take advantage of VR to offer new and exciting experiences.

Two British theme parks announced VR-powered attractions this month. Alton Towers will turn one of its roller coasters into an outer space adventure using Samsung’s Gear VR, while Thorpe Park is prepping a terrifying new interactive experience powered by the HTC Vive.

Continue reading “VR-powered theme park rides will blow you mind later this year” | >

I must admit; I got a little laughter from reading the beginning of this article. However, there is a potential longer term concern around jobs and an even larger concern around data (including IP) when it comes to AI. So, I truly hope folks are strategically planning, designing, and implementing appropriate safeguards around their AI architecture and systems; especially if we look at hacking, etc.

Bill Gates, Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking have all done their part in warning the world of the true power of artificial intelligence. All three men were actually awarded the 2015 Luddite Award, which is given by the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation.

Because of their honest assessment on the power of new technology, these three men have been called alarmists who spread horror. There were 10 total nominees to the prices, and all three received them after getting more 3,680 votes.

Luddite is a word from 19th century England, and it is used to describe someone who is opposed to advances in technology. This is hardly an appropriate denomination for any of these men. Bill Gates is almost single-handedly responsible for putting PC computers in homes, Elon Musk has made a revolution with electric vehicles. Volumes can be written on the impact Stephen Hawking has had on the world.

Continue reading “Bill Gates and Elon Musk Will Save the World from AI?” | >