Boris Sofman, Co-Founder & CEO, ANKI : Consumer Robotics: Story and Lessons – Video


Boris Sofman, Co-Founder CEO, ANKI : Consumer Robotics: Story and Lessons
Anki is a robotics and artificial intelligence company founded by 3 RI PhD students with the goal of bringing these technologies into mass-market consumer pr...

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Boris Sofman, Co-Founder & CEO, ANKI : Consumer Robotics: Story and Lessons - Video

AI Developers to power new generation of context driven artificial intelligence

Spurred by recent advances in machine learning and artificial intelligence, context-aware intelligent assistants represent the new frontier of content search and discovery. Companies leverage unstructured datathings like photographs, videos, chat logs, documentsto make better, more informed business decisions to automate processes. Now leveraging humanlike capabilities inside automated workflows to augment whats possible in business and humanity.

When IBM opened up its Watson cognitive computing platform to developers last November, it launched an effort to enable anybody with programming skills and an idea to take the technology and use it as a foundation for building apps that can both understand natural language and learn new things to expand its knowledge base.

Watson represents a breakthrough in the field of artificial intelligence, and IBMs opening up the platform indicates just how far AI has come.

Microsoft is trying to make AI more human

Imagine if a machine could help you refine or augment the way you approach and think about new situations and solve challenges? Microsoft is looking at more advanced artificial intelligence for deployment on not only its own platforms, but also in the real world too.

Eric Horvitz, managing director of Microsofts research unit, recently said in an interview that Microsoft is working on an AI platform which, as part of the solution, involves allowing computers to look beyond questions posed. The software giant is working on improvements involving the AI capturing the context within speech to better understand questions. There are some critical signals in context. These include location, time of day, day of week, user patterns of behavior, current modalityare you driving, are you walking, are you sitting, are you in your office etc.

The deep learning techniques are finding their way into more and more Microsoft technologies, including Windows Phone, security, Xbox and other products. Microsoft is hoping that its upcoming digital assistant, currently known as Cortana will carry out all of the aforementioned tasks. For example, Cortana could be employed to help a user find a hotel, a specific type of restaurant (like Italian or Chinese), even a parking spot. To carry out these tasks, Cortana uses Microsofts unique Satori technology, which the firm currently uses with its Bing search engine.

In Xbox, the Kinect was also trained with machine learning. The fact that it can see you in the room even though its poor lighting and you can wave your arms and it can track youthats all done with a piece of software that was trained with machine learning. In addition, Microsoft is using machine learning in security. The company arms its malware analysts with machine learning-driven technology, both to give the analysts superpowers to make them much more effective at searching through lots of data, and also by autonomously helping to find malware authors.

Cognitive computing is the new frontier for developers

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AI Developers to power new generation of context driven artificial intelligence

'Transcendence' ponders as it propels

Shortly before he began shooting his new artificial-intelligence thriller "Transcendence" last year, filmmaker Wally Pfister flew Jose Carmena and Michel Maharbiz, a pair of UC Berkeley scientists, to his office in Los Angeles. Professional consultants are common on Hollywood movies, but they're not usually this advanced Carmena studies neuroscience and Maharbiz is a nanotechnology specialist and even fewer go deep into the weeds with directors.

For 10 hours, the men pored over the script with the intensity of lab researchers on the verge of a major discovery. They discussed the density of brain signals, the limits of nanotechnology and the vexing problem of defining consciousness scientifically.

"We went through line by line, hitting on a technical topic and just going through it with Wally and his team," said Maharbiz, whose journal articles come with titles such as "Can We Build Synthetic, Multicellular Systems By Controlling Developmental Signaling in Space and Time?" "I've almost never seen people want to understand it at that level," he added.

Science-fiction movies have looked at the possibility and peril of artificial intelligence since HAL sought to destroy Dave Bowman in "2001: A Space Odyssey" back in 1968. Sarah Connor would of course later try to beat back the malicious plans of Skynet in the Terminator" franchise, and Hugo Weaving's coolly robotic Agent Smith proved a slippery foe for Neo and friends in "The Matrix."

PHOTOS: Screenwriters stranger than fiction

But few in this subgenre have examined the theme with the level of scientific rigor or, for that matter, the emotionally inflected story line of "Transcendence." Thanks to the emerging intelligence of digital creations, Pfister and screenwriter Jack Paglen are able to indulge in a science fiction that, while fantastical, is both plausible and plausibly human.

Written by first-timer Paglen and marking the directorial debut of Pfister, the Oscar-winning cinematographer and longtime Christopher Nolan collaborator, "Transcendence" concerns an artificial-intelligence researcher named Evelyn Caster (Rebecca Hall) who uploads the consciousness of her husband and professional partner Will (Johnny Depp) just before he dies from a gunshot wound inflicted by an anti-technology radical. She is hardly engaging in disinterested science: Will is the love of her life, and the possibility that a digital replica can keep him with her is too powerful to resist, no matter the consequences.

In the ensuing weeks, the entity voiced and embodied by Will not only gains consciousness but evolves past the point of mere human abilities, engaging in superhuman activity in the interest of bettering society (he says). In the process, the digital Will provoke fear maybe justified, maybe not on the part of the couple's close friend, the fellow researcher Max (Paul Bettany), as well as a swelling cadre of government authorities fearful of a force they can't control.

With its action set pieces and propulsive plot, the $100-million-budget "Transcendence" is an unmistakably Hollywood confection. Yet with its slowed-down moments hashing out questions of digital consciousness and human evolution, it also puts complex philosophical issues at the fore. The film essentially offers the man-vs.-machine tension of "The Matrix" only this time there's a decent chance we should be rooting for the machine.

This is not 'point the laser and zap the guy to death.' These are real human beings faced with something large," Depp said. "It's something the audience is really meant to ponder.

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'Transcendence' ponders as it propels

Marissa Mayer wants Yahoo to be big in mobile. Meet Aviate

Yahoo's Mark Daiss, co-founder of artificial intelligence service Aviate Yahoo

When Marissa Mayer stepped on stage during the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January to deliver her first keynote at the high-profile gadget extravaganza, she made sure it was a star-studded affair. There was a faux newscast by Saturday Night Live's Weekend Update team, poking fun at the "CEO of Yoo-hoo," a trio of songs crooned by musician John Legend, and a parade led by Yahoo's biggest talent grabs, news anchor Katie Couric and former New York Times reviewer David Pogue.

But amid the hoopla -- and before she delivered a slew of announcements during her hour-long talk -- Mayer gave the first headline to a little-known artificial intelligence startup. "We're incredibly excited to kick things off today by announcing that we have acquired Aviate," Mayer said.

Aviate's technology takes advantage of Android's open platform to take over your smartphone's home screen and showcase information and apps when they might be the most useful to you. If you check Yahoo's Finance app every morning, for example, Aviate takes note and rearranges your home screen to put that app -- and similar apps -- front and center. Like Google's artificial intelligence service Google Now, Aviate takes cues from personal information and data, as well as your location or the time of day, to surface information and highlight apps at the moment they're relevant.

"Think about how much your phone understands you," Mayer told the crowd at CES. "Imagine what happens when that context becomes part of the search experience."

While Yahoo, a lumbering early Internet pioneer, is in the midst of an attempted turnaround under Mayer, it is still an almost $5 billion-a-year company in annual sales with a lot of resources. Investing in the platform can only add to the net positive for consumers interested in artificial intelligence, as other tech giants like Apple, Google and even Twitter do the same.

Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer at CES Screenshot by Richard Nieva/CNET

But Yahoo arguably needs this kind of technology more than those other companies. The race to dominate platforms, from smartphones to smart glasses, is in full swing and Yahoo is behind. While some companies are already on the lookout for the next big platform -- Facebook recently paid $2 billion for the virtual reality goggle maker Oculus -- Yahoo has had difficulty making a dent on the current platforms of choice, smartphones and tablets. That's a problem given that Yahoo's core business, display advertising, is in decline as its hold on consumers seems to be slipping. In February, Yahoo fell to No. 2 behind Google as the most-trafficked desktop Web site in the U.S. for the first time in seven months.

Since Mayer joined Yahoo as CEO in 2012, the company has overhauled many of its mobile properties, from its weather to email apps. But it still doesn't have a pervasive mobile experience, leaving Mayer on an earnings call with investors in January to describe Yahoo's mobile advertising revenue as "not material." By contrast, Facebook, which has also had woes transitioning from desktop to mobile, now makes 53 percent of its advertising revenue on mobile.

That pervasiveness is key. Then, Yahoo will have a mechanism to push its own content to users, including its Finance, Sports and Shopping properties. "If Marissa wants to tie all these apps into one cohesive experience, Aviate becomes critical," said Sameet Sinha, a senior analyst at research firm B. Riley and Co. (which owns a tiny holding in Yahoo).

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Marissa Mayer wants Yahoo to be big in mobile. Meet Aviate

JavaScript Tutorial for Beginners 24 3 Artificial Intelligence Introduction – Video


JavaScript Tutorial for Beginners 24 3 Artificial Intelligence Introduction
JavaScript, Tutorial, Video, How To, Learn JavaScript, derekbanas, thenewboston, bucky, roberts, tutorial, tutorials, beginners, code, trick, tricks, error, ...

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JavaScript Tutorial for Beginners 24 3 Artificial Intelligence Introduction - Video

To be played via Artificial Intelligence Original Piano Composition by Sean Whytock – Video


To be played via Artificial Intelligence Original Piano Composition by Sean Whytock
"To be played via Artificial Intelligence", an original piano composition by Sean Whytock. I composed this piece with quite a surreal and apocalyptic concept...

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To be played via Artificial Intelligence Original Piano Composition by Sean Whytock - Video

A New Transcendence Featurette Explores the Promise of A.I.

Source: Warner Bros. Pictures April 8, 2014

Warner Bros. has brought online a new featurette connected to Wally Pfister's directorial debut, Transcendence, which explores the real-world promise of artificial intelligence. Check it out in the player below!

In the film, Dr. Will Caster (Johnny Depp) is the foremost researcher in the field of Artificial Intelligence, working to create a sentient machine that combines the collective intelligence of everything ever known with the full range of human emotions. His highly controversial experiments have made him famous, but they have also made him the prime target of anti-technology extremists who will do whatever it takes to stop him.

However, in their attempt to destroy Will, they inadvertently become the catalyst for him to succeedto be a participant in his own transcendence. For his wife Evelyn (Rebecca Hall) and best friend Max Waters (Paul Bettany), both fellow researchers, the question is not if they canbut if they should.

Their worst fears are realized as Will's thirst for knowledge evolves into a seemingly omnipresent quest for power, to what end is unknown. The only thing that is becoming terrifyingly clear is there may be no way to stop him.

Transcendence, also starring Kate Mara, Morgan Freeman, Cole Hauser and Cillian Murphy, opens in theaters and IMAX on April 18, 2014.

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A New Transcendence Featurette Explores the Promise of A.I.

Transcendence Official Movie Clip – R.I.F.T. (2014) Johnny Depp HD – Video


Transcendence Official Movie Clip - R.I.F.T. (2014) Johnny Depp HD
http://www.joblo.com - "Transcendence" Official Movie Clip - R.I.F.T. (2014) Johnny Depp HD Dr. Will Caster is the foremost researcher in the field of Artificial Intelligence, working to create...

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Transcendence Official Movie Clip - R.I.F.T. (2014) Johnny Depp HD - Video

Artificial Intelligence Startup Vicarious Grabs Funding From Bezos, Benioff And Jerry Yang

No billionaire left behind.

AfterMark Zuckerberg, Peter Thiel and other Silicon Valley notables plunked down capitalin a $40 million growth round for San Francisco-based artificial intelligence startup Vicarious, a few more billionaires showed up.

Amazon CEOJeff Bezos, Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang, Skype co-founderJanus Friis and Salesforce CEOMarc Benioff all showed up to give Vicariousan additional shot ofcapital in its Series B round.

The company isnt disclosing how much extra fundingtheyre getting from these four, but its definitely not angel-sized, co-founder D. Scott Phoenix tells us. (I also cant really think of a time when this many CEOs and founders of this stature got together to personally fund a company.)

Vicariousis working on the next generation of artificial intelligence technology.Phoenix said that the AI field is stillcenteredaroundconvolutional neural network technology thatwas developed back in the1980s.

But by more closely mimicking how the brain works, Phoenix and his neuroscientist co-founderDileep George say that theyve been able to make breakthroughs in performance and speed. Last fall, they showed off a way to solve Captcha queries.

Theyre hoping that Vicarious technology will eventually lead to the worlds first intelligent machines.

The company is still incredibly small at this point, with more than $56 million raised for a headcount of 10 employees (which sounds crazy). But Phoenix said theyre planning to ramp up headcount dramatically.

Vicariouss other investors include Joe Lonsdales Formation 8; Vinod Khosla; Ashton Kutcher; Aydin Senkuts Felicis Ventures; Garry Tan and Alexis Ohanians Initialized Capital; Bryan Johnston of Braintree; Box.com CEO Aaron Levie; Sam Altman; Open Field Capital; Zarco Investment Group; and Metaplanet Holdings.

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Artificial Intelligence Startup Vicarious Grabs Funding From Bezos, Benioff And Jerry Yang

Major tech execs fling cash at heretical AI company Vicarious

High performance access to file storage

Credible artificial intelligence startup Vicarious has taken in more money as accomplished billionaires fling cash towards what could be a hugely significant technology.

The additional funding was disclosed by the company on Monday in an article in TechCrunch and subsequent interview with El Reg. Some of the Valley's best known tech execs are flinging cash at the company, including Amazon's Bezos, Yahoo!'s Yang, Skype's Friis, and Salesforce's Benioff.

This further funding, the amount of which was not disclosed, follows a $40m round from Mark Zuckerberg, Peter Thiel, Elon Musk, and others last month.

Vicarious is led by D. Scott Phoenix and Dileep George.

The company is notable not only for its credibility Dileep was previously the chief technology officer of Numenta, an AI startup led by Palm Pioneer Jeff Hawkins but for its approach: unlike big companies such as Google and Facebook which have bet heavily on "Deep Learning" systems based on refined 1980s technology, Vicarious has taken its inspiration directly from the mammalian brain.

Like Hawkins's Numenta, this sets the company apart from many other firms in the valley, and means its approach has far more promise for creating intelligent machines.

"What is doing all the work in those [Deep Learning] models hasn't changed since the 1980s, and the only reason it's useful now is our computers are fast enough to throw a lot of data at it," explained Vicarious cofounder D. Scott Phoenix to El Reg. "Essentially it's just interpolating with training data. That's not at all how the brain works the brain extrapolates from data. Vicarious's research is about going back to that fundamental model which was originally inspired by the brain."

The company is working on systems for static and dynamic image recognition. "We want to build a digital brain that can understand high-level concepts," Phoenix said. "To get there we believe you need to write software that understands the visual world."

Like Hawkins's Numenta, Vicarious has a "near-term" research objective of figuring out how the neocortex's sensory and motor components work together.

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Major tech execs fling cash at heretical AI company Vicarious

UNSW scientists using AI to create elastic cloud

UNSW's Srikumar Venugopal

Researchers at the University of New South Wales (UNSW) are using artificial intelligence to build a computer network they claim can regulate its own consumption of public cloud services.

A research team has built a software controller that it says could potentially be used by every virtual server instance in the cloud to monitor the performance of server applications.

The controller uses a simplified version of reinforcement learning an artificial intelligence method that is more commonly associated with robotics than IT.

Under the proposal model, if an application performance becomes critical due to a sudden increase in demand the controller will communicate with others on the network and automatically determine how and where to source extra capacity to cope with the load.

The controllers figure out which one has high load and which one has much less load and how to balance that out, said Srikumar Venugopal, a lecturer at UNSWs School of Computer Science and Engineering and leader of the research team.

Venugopal, who completed a PhD in grid computing, said most applications are not built for elasticity, a feature of cloud computing that allows administrators to add and remove resources.

This is why external scaling tools exist such as Amazons Elastic Load Balancer that enables IT staff to manually provision the right amount of resources at the right time, he said.

Administrators set rules to manage when to spin-up new virtual servers or shut them down, using historical data and their own experience to set the rules.

However, the team is hoping that its research will lead to a commercially-available product that makes these decisions automatically.

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UNSW scientists using AI to create elastic cloud

TechSense with Scott Spiro: Artificial Intelligence With Window’s Cortana – Video


TechSense with Scott Spiro: Artificial Intelligence With Window #39;s Cortana
Scott Spiro discusses the arrival of Cortana AI on the Window #39;s 8.1 phone. Does Cortana mark the arrival of artificial intelligence to smartphones?

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TechSense with Scott Spiro: Artificial Intelligence With Window's Cortana - Video