Posted in futurism, robotics/AI
In this keynote and Q&A, Yuval Noah Harari summarizes and speculates on ‘AI and the future of humanity’.
There are a number of questions related to this discussion, including:
In what ways will AI affect how we shape culture?
What threat is posed to humanity when AI masters human intimacy?
SpaceX is already testing tech that could strengthen the ground beneath its giant Starship rocket’s orbital launch pad, a new video shows.
That pad, at SpaceX’s Starbase facility in South Texas, took a beating during the first-ever test flight of a fully stacked Starship vehicle — the most powerful rocket ever built — on April 20.
Our technological age is witnessing a breakthrough that has existential implications and risks. The innovative behemoth, ChatGPT, created by OpenAI, is ushering us inexorably into an AI economy where machines can spin human-like text, spark deep conversations and unleash unparalleled potential. However, this bold new frontier has its challenges. Security, privacy, data ownership and ethical considerations are complex issues that we must address, as they are no longer just hypothetical but a reality knocking at our door.
The G7, composed of the world’s seven most advanced economies, has recognized the urgency of addressing the impact of AI.
To understand how countries may approach AI, we need to examine a few critical aspects.
Clear regulations and guidelines for generative AI: To ensure the responsible and safe use of generative AI, it’s crucial to have a comprehensive regulatory framework that covers privacy, security and ethics. This framework will provide clear guidance for both developers and users of AI technology.
NASA on Friday announced the second spacecraft it hopes will help return astronauts to the surface of the moon later this decade. Blue Origin’s Blue Moon lander joins the SpaceX Starship as the two vehicles the space agency aims to use for its Artemis program to once again put boots on lunar regolith.
Over a half-century after NASA used a massive investment of US GDP to fund the Apollo program and build the Saturn V rocket, humanity’s next chapter in space is largely in the hands of two of the richest men in the world, SpaceX founder and chief twit Elon Musk and Amazon and Blue Origin head Jeff Bezos.
The shift in the provenance of Apollo’s mission architecture versus that of Artemis is, at the very least, a symbolic representation of a key shift in American society over the last few generations. Hot off the heels of successful collective action in Europe and elsewhere during World War II, the Americans again came together to catch up to — and then surpass — the Soviet Union in the space race.
NASA could take advantage of a rare planetary alignment in 2033 to send the first crewed mission to orbit Mars and, on the way back, Venus. The short trip—which would be the first interplanetary crew ever—could be a pathfinder mission for the first crewed landing on the red planet in 2037.
It’s “the best time to go to Mars in the next 25 years,” said Matt Duggan, mission management and operations manager at Boeing, addressing the 2023 Humans To Mars Summit on Wednesday at the National Academy of Sciences Building in Washington D.C. “That’s in terms of the amount of energy and fuel you have to spend to get to Mars—it’s a unique opportunity that comes around once every 15 years.”
A mission plan to send crew in existing spacecraft on a 570-day return trip to orbit Mars and Venus will only work every 15 years—and the next opportunity is 2033.
That is, if you’re paying attention.
So Apple has restricted the use of OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Microsoft’s Copilot, The Wall Street Journal.
It’s not just Apple, but also Samsung and Verizon in the tech world and a who’s who of banks (Bank of America, Citi, Deutsche Bank, Goldman, Wells Fargo, and JPMorgan). This is because of the possibility of confidential data escaping; in any event, ChatGPT’s privacy policy explicitly says your prompts can be used to train its models unless you opt out. The fear of leaks isn’t unfounded: in March, a bug in ChatGPT revealed data from other users.
Apple’s banned the use of OpenAI — as has Samsung, Verizon, and a who’s who of banks. Should the rest of us be concerned about how our data’s getting used?
Not perfect, but very impressive.
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Version: 11.4.1 [2023.7.5]
Aubrey: 50% chance to LEV in 12–15 years, and a variety of topics from Rey Kurzweil to A.I. to Singularity, and so on.
In this podcast, Aubrey de Grey discusses his work as President and CSO at Lev Foundation and co-founder at Sense Research Foundation in the field of longevity. He explains how the Foundation’s focus is to combine rejuvenation and damage repair interventions to have greater efficacy in postponing aging and saving lives. De Grey believes that within 12 to 15 years, they have a 50% chance of achieving longevity escape velocity, which is postponing aging and rejuvenating the body faster than time passes. De Grey acknowledges the limitations of traditional approaches like exercise and diet in postponing aging and feels that future breakthroughs will come from high-tech approaches like skin and cell therapies. He discusses the potential of AI and machine learning in drug discovery and the possibility of using it to accelerate scientific experimentation to optimize decisions about which experiments to do next. De Gray cautions that the quality of conclusions from AI depends on the quality and quantity of input data and that the path towards defeating aging would require a symbiotic partnership between humans and AI. Finally, he discusses his excitement about the possibilities of hardware and devices like Apple Watch and Levels in tracking blood sugar levels and their potential to prolong life.
Wireless power would be worth the hype if it were widespread — modern life is burdened by a tangle of power cables and an endless hunt for plugs. But despite its potential, wireless power technology is still limited by range.
But Ericsson and PowerLight Technologies have made one dramatic form of wireless power, called optical beaming, work in a proof-of-concept experiment. Their demonstration showed that laser delivery of power to a portable 5G base station could be just around the corner.
The promise of wireless power: Wireless power is straight out of a sci-fi film: electrical power transmitted from place to place through a vacuum or the air. There is no need for wires, poles, outlets, or those pesky USB cubes, which are always lost when you need them most.
As big tech companies are in a fierce race with each other to build generative AI tools, they are being cautious about giving their secrets away. In a move to prevent any of its data from ending up with competitors, Apple has restricted internal use of tools like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Microsoft-owned GitHub’s Copilot, a new report says.
According to The Wall Street Journal, Apple is worried about its confidential data ending up with developers who trained the models on user data. Notably, OpenAI launched the official ChatGPT app on iOS Thursday. Separately, Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman tweeted that the chatbot has been on the list of restricted software at Apple for months.
I believe ChatGPT has been banned/on the list of restricted software at Apple for months. Obviously the release of ChatGPT on iOS today again makes this relevant.
