1. Artificial Intelligence

Category Archives: Artificial Intelligence

Artificial intelligence is marvelous unless its part of a killer robot

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In just the past few years, Robert McMillan writes in Wired magazine, dramatic advances have been made in the field of artificial intelligence. With Skypes Star-Trek-like instant translation capabilities, Googles self-driving cars and computers that can teach themselves to humiliate humans at arcade games, he says, the new developments are both exhilarating and scary.

In AI Has Arrived, and That Really Worries the Worlds Brightest Minds, he reports on the fears of experts who gathered at a closed-door conference in Puerto Rico in early January; among the industry talents were Elon Musk of SpaceX and Tesla, Skype co-founder Jaan Tallinn and Google AI expert Shane Legg. Think of that game-winning computer, Tallinn told the meeting: Though the technologist in me marveled at the achievement, the other thought I had was that I was witnessing a toy model of how an AI disaster would begin, a sudden demonstration of an unexpected intellectual capability. In other words, its a little too much like a precursor to The Terminator.

Delegates to the conference signed an open letter pledging to conduct AI research only for good. Another letter outlined research priorities that would involve studying the economic and legal effects of robots that can take away human jobs or manipulate financial markets; Musk kicked in $10 million to help pay for the research.

Its not a new fear, McMillan notes: Last year a Canadian company, Clearpath Robotics, promised not to build autonomous robots for military use. On its Web site the company posted this statement: To the people against killer robots: We support you.

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Artificial intelligence is marvelous unless its part of a killer robot

Robotbases "Personal Robot" could bring AI to your doorstep

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New York startup Robotbase is turning to Kickstarter to build a highly ambitious robot that would serve as a smart personal assistant for your home. Referred to simply as "Personal Robot," this device is set to combine image recognition, natural language comprehension and other advances in artificial intelligence into a single device that can converse with you, serve as a personal stylist, and even tell bedtime stories to your kids.

The very best that artificial intelligence has to offer today are so-called narrow AIs, complex algorithms that can compete with or even outperform humans in a highly specialized field, but whose smarts cannot translate to other arenas. When Deep Blues narrow AI beat reigning chess world champion Garry Kasparov back in 1997, some took it to mean that an artificial general intelligence, an eclectic AI that can think and adapt like a human brain, was close at hand. Eighteen years later, were still waiting.

The holy grail of a truly eclectic artificial intelligence has been elusive so far and may still be very far off. However, over the past two decades, the combination of better hardware and better software is making it possible to create much more sophisticated narrow AIs that can rival humans in more and more complex fields, from recognizing objects from a picture to driving and even (tentatively) understanding human language.

With its "Personal Robot," Robotbase is attempting to combine several advanced narrow AIs into one smart assistant. By putting together algorithms for facial, emotion and object recognition, as well as systems to understand human language and answer questions through Wolfram Alpha, it is creating a personal assistant that doubles as a photographer, storyteller, telepresence device and home automation system.

According to its creators, Personal Robot will allow you to control all your connected devices via Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, Zigbee and Wireless Z-Wave Plus. Just like with your smartphone, youll be able to get quick answers about weather, news and sport scores, as well as playing music, setting alarms, scheduling meetings and ordering food, among other things.

One of the things that sets this apart from being just a Siri for your home, however, is the emphasis on home automation. The robots sensor array includes 3D depth cameras, temperature, humidity, light and pressure sensors and even a CO2 meter. It is mounted on a wheelbase with servos, free to more about on its own, and will build a map of the house on its own so that, while youre away, it can send you updates and even stream live video feeds from any room to enhance home security.

Like the Jibo, the Personal Robot also aims to be a storyteller for your child and a smart photographer that can recognize moods and facial expressions, but adds to that the ability to walk you step by step through a new recipe in the kitchen or even serve as a personal stylist.

The robot boasts proprietary natural language processing algorithms that can "understand what you say and know what you mean." Judging from the products Kickstarter page, the vision is to create a robot that can understand the intricacies of language and facial expressions by multiple people, even from meters away, and seamlessly and proactively interject with appropriate facial expressions, a rich voice tonality, and data which is relevant to the discussion at hand. Since this is an extremely challenging task from a technical standpoint, it will be interesting to see how this highly ambitious Personal Robot delivers on its promise.

Early adopters will have the option to access the robots software development kit for Android, allowing developers to build their own apps that will be sold on a dedicated virtual store later this year.

The original crowdfunding goal of US$50,000 has already been met with three days left before the end of the campaign. You can pledge US$995 for your own Personal Robot ($1,000 off the retail price), with an extra $200 for shipping outside of the US. If everything goes according to plan, delivery of the Personal Robot will be completed by December this year.

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Robotbases "Personal Robot" could bring AI to your doorstep

The Great Cholesterol Deception–The Story Behind the Statins – Video

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The Great Cholesterol Deception--The Story Behind the Statins
Guest: Dr. Stephanie Seneff, Ph.D., Senior Research Scientist at the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory. Dr. Seneff holds multiple degrees from MIT including: Undergradua...

By: The Legal Edition

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The Great Cholesterol Deception--The Story Behind the Statins - Video

Brian Cantwell Smith and John Vervaeke discuss: Is Consciousness Representational? – Video

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Brian Cantwell Smith and John Vervaeke discuss: Is Consciousness Representational?
The Cognitive Science and Artificial Intelligence Students #39; Association and the Cognitive Science Program at the University of Toronto present the inaugural session of the Mutual Relevance...

By: CASA

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Brian Cantwell Smith and John Vervaeke discuss: Is Consciousness Representational? - Video

Bill Gates is Concerned About Super Artificial Intelligence – IGN News – Video

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Bill Gates is Concerned About Super Artificial Intelligence - IGN News
In his recent Reddit "AMA" Q A Session, Bill Gates expressed that he feels humanity needs to be more cautious with the development of artificial intelligence. Read more here: http://www.ign.com/ar...

By: IGN News

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Bill Gates is Concerned About Super Artificial Intelligence - IGN News - Video


  1. Artificial Intelligence