Daily Archives: April 28, 2017

As Robots Rise, How Artificial Intelligence Will Impact Jobs – Forbes

Posted: April 28, 2017 at 3:08 pm


Forbes
As Robots Rise, How Artificial Intelligence Will Impact Jobs
Forbes
In the summer of 2015, I was attending a rally in South Carolina when I heard a conservative leader tell the most heartwrenching tale. It was the story of an old coffee shop in his tiny hometown, one of those little suburban beauties where a petite old ...

See the rest here:

As Robots Rise, How Artificial Intelligence Will Impact Jobs - Forbes

Posted in Artificial Intelligence | Comments Off on As Robots Rise, How Artificial Intelligence Will Impact Jobs – Forbes

The Time For Advertisers To Embrace Artificial Intelligence Is Now – Forbes

Posted: at 3:08 pm


Forbes
The Time For Advertisers To Embrace Artificial Intelligence Is Now
Forbes
Depending on your point of view, working in the marketing industry these days is either exciting or frightening. Technology innovation is happening so fast that it's almost impossible to keep up with, and for every new opportunity created, an entire ...

Excerpt from:

The Time For Advertisers To Embrace Artificial Intelligence Is Now - Forbes

Posted in Artificial Intelligence | Comments Off on The Time For Advertisers To Embrace Artificial Intelligence Is Now – Forbes

How Artificial Intelligence will change the world: a live event – Science Weekly podcast – The Guardian

Posted: at 3:08 pm

Subscribe & Review on iTunes, Soundcloud, Audioboom, Mixcloud & Acast, and join the discussion on Facebook and Twitter

On Monday 20 April, a crowd gathered in Kings Place to hear a discussion on the future of Artificial Intelligence - or AI - as part of our Brainwaves Series, supported by SEAT. How do we define human intelligence? How close are we to reaching it with machines? And what happens when these machines start taking our jobs?

To discuss all this and more, Ian Sample was joined on stage was Anil Seth, professor of cognitive science and computational neuroscience from the University of Sussex, Maja Pantic, professor of affective and behavioural computing at Imperial College London, Anders Sandberg, senior research fellow at Oxford Universitys Future of Humanity Institute, and Alan Winfield, professor of robot ethics at UWE, Bristol.

See more here:

How Artificial Intelligence will change the world: a live event - Science Weekly podcast - The Guardian

Posted in Artificial Intelligence | Comments Off on How Artificial Intelligence will change the world: a live event – Science Weekly podcast – The Guardian

Artificial intelligence to take over half of all jobs in next decade China’s top techie – RT

Posted: at 3:08 pm

Published time: 28 Apr, 2017 11:48

Robots and artificial intelligence (AI) will replace humans in 50 percent of all jobs in just ten years, says Kai-Fu Lee, founder of venture capital firm Sinovation Ventures and a reputable Chinese technologist.

AI is the singular thing that will be larger than all of human tech revolutions added together, including electricity, the industrial revolution, the internet, mobile internet - because AI is pervasive, the technologist said at the Global Mobile Internet Conference in Beijing as quoted by CNBC.

According to Lee, AI represents the decision engine that would replace people. The tech expert stressed that its capabilities far exceed those of humanity.

The corporations, which Sinovation Ventures has invested in, can accomplish feats such as recognizing three million faces simultaneously or dispersing loans in eight seconds.

These are things that are superhuman, and we think this will be in every industry, will probably replace 50 percent of human jobs, create an huge amount of wealth for mankind and wipe out poverty, Lee said.

The technologist does not see machines taking the place of humans in the world as they grow more intelligent.

Touching one's heart with your heart is something that machines, I believe, will never be good at, he said.

Lee stressed that service jobs should be considered first-class employment.

According to the expert, traditional institutions like banks, insurance firms, and hospitals are moving too slow, while all of this change is happening.

Because AI is about taking data into insight and decision, so I anticipate the internet sector, entrepreneurial sector, to continue to grow and in many cases displace and even wipe out traditional companies in China, said Lee.

View original post here:

Artificial intelligence to take over half of all jobs in next decade China's top techie - RT

Posted in Artificial Intelligence | Comments Off on Artificial intelligence to take over half of all jobs in next decade China’s top techie – RT

Infosys launches Artificial Intelligence platform Nia for businesses – Economic Times

Posted: at 3:08 pm

SAN FRANCISCO: Building on the success of its first-generation AI platform, Infosys Mana and its Robotic Process Automation (RPA) solution, AssistEdge, Infosys on Thursday launched 'Infosys Nia', the next-generation Artificial Intelligence (AI) Platform for businesses.

Infosys Nia converges the big data/analytics, machine learning, knowledge management and cognitive automation capabilities of Mana; end-to-end RPA capabilities of AssistEdge; advanced, high-performance and scalable machine learning capabilities of Skytree; and optical character recognition (OCR), natural language processing (NLP) capabilities and infrastructure management services.

"Nia takes our purposeful approach to AI, one in which technology serves to amplify people and empowers them to work in new ways, to new heights," Vishal Sikka, Chief Executive Officer at Infosys, said in a statement.

"When we bring this together with our unmatched ability to educate and train in AI techniques and emerging technologies, we now have the platform, the services and the skills, to deliver new unprecedented value to our clients," he added.

Infosys Nia, tackles business problems such as forecasting revenues, forecasting what products need to be built, understanding customer behaviour, understanding the content of contracts and legal documents, understanding compliance, and fraud.

The platform can improve the order-to-cash process by creating a real-time risk profile to customise the collection strategy, expedite resolution of disputes, predict anomalies, prevent disputes, and enable better visibility and forecasting of cash flow to reduce days sales outstanding (DSO).

It can also predict variability in manufacturing and material cost, while also reducing product development cycle times.

Infosys Nia is available to order immediately.

Go here to read the rest:

Infosys launches Artificial Intelligence platform Nia for businesses - Economic Times

Posted in Artificial Intelligence | Comments Off on Infosys launches Artificial Intelligence platform Nia for businesses – Economic Times

Psychic trying to prove his immortality stabs himself to death | Metro … – Metro

Posted: at 3:05 pm

The sword is supposed to break during the act (Picture: Mercury)

A psychic medium has died after accidentally stabbing himself in the heart while trying to prove his immortality, it has been reported.

Theprit Palee, 25, had been performing the traditional spirit dance in front of spectators in Chiang Mai, northern Thailand, yesterday afternoon when the accident occurred.

The folk ritual is believed to honour the ghosts of ancestors and in previous shows the blade of the sword broke when it was pressed against his chest.

But on this occasion the act went wrong and the weapon failed to snap causing the 25-year-old to stab himself in the chest.

The story was published bySanook.and English-language website Coconuts, which both reported that the medium was pronounced dead in hospital.

To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video

According to a resident calledNoom Udorn, Mr Paleehad provided readings for several years to local people.

This is a tradition that happens every year. The sword normally breaks but this time it went inside him, he said.

The medium has been respected for many years. People love him. He is one of peoples favourites.

Deputy Police Inspector Chaiwat Phan said officersarrived at the San Kamphaeng district of the province at 3pm on April 24 and found the medium bleeding.

He said: We were informed that a man armed with a knife had stabbed himself. We are coordinating with the hospital while an autopsy is performed.

There were people at the scene helping Mr Palee but he died later in hospital. He had a stab wound to the chest.

MORE: Man kills his child on Facebook live before taking his own life

MORE: Man dies after he is denied lung transplant for testing positive for weed

Read this article:

Psychic trying to prove his immortality stabs himself to death | Metro ... - Metro

Posted in Immortality | Comments Off on Psychic trying to prove his immortality stabs himself to death | Metro … – Metro

Psychic Stabs Himself To Prove His Immortality And Then Dies – Crave Online

Posted: at 3:05 pm

Photo: LiveLeak

A psychic in Thailand named Theprit Palee was in the middle of performing a traditional spirit dance in front of onlookers when he decided to stab himself in order to show that he is immortal. And lets just say that things did not go well.

The 25-year-old was performing the ritual that isbelieved to honor the ghosts of ancestors and this show involved Palee pressing the blade of a sword against his chest where it was supposed to break like it has broken in previous shows. Well something went wrong and the weapon failed to break, which of course led Palee to stab himself in the chest.

And unfortunately for Palee, he didnt make it as he was pronounced dead at the hospital.

Take a look at Palee performing this ritual thanks to theLiveLeak video below.

According to a resident, this psychic had provided readings to local people for several years.

This is a tradition that happens every year. The sword normally breaks but this time it went inside him, the resident said. The medium has been respected for many years. People love him. He is one of peoples favorites.

It is pretty sad that this guy died so young because of a freak accident. But if theres a lesson to be learned here it is to please dont point swords at your chest, kids. In fact, dont even pick up a sword. You are not onGame of Thrones.

h/t Metro

See more here:

Psychic Stabs Himself To Prove His Immortality And Then Dies - Crave Online

Posted in Immortality | Comments Off on Psychic Stabs Himself To Prove His Immortality And Then Dies – Crave Online

Immortality found in cyberspace – Otago Daily Times

Posted: at 3:05 pm

I first realised my brother was missing when I logged into Facebook one evening to see his bashful face grinning at me from a MISSING notice. Rather absurdly, I wondered why they hadnt picked a better photo of John instead of this blurry, orange-toned selfie. I continued scrolling through Facebook while frantically calling my family. Funny, innocuous videos of cats being alarmed by cucumbers were interspersed with worried messages from friends. Then came the awful, awful Skype call from my parents, when I realised that my brothers digital life was really the only thing I had left of him. His body had been found.

Not much thought is given to ones online legacy after death. Yet according to statistician Hachem Sadikki, by the year 2098, the number of dead people on Facebook will outnumber living members. Our profiles might not have the same crumbling grandeur of Dunedins Southern Cemetery, but our old statuses and selfies will preserve us indefinitely. Sometimes, I imagine my brother floating through cyberspace like an unmoored astronaut.

With 1.86 billion users worldwide, Facebook is an integral part of our lives and our deaths too. While it was not the first social media platform to establish a policy for deceased users, it certainly addressed the issue in a unique way. In the early days of our favourite electronic bulletin board, family members took control of a deceased users account, often posting eerie messages from beyond the grave. There is nothing more surreal than seeing that little green active dot hovering beside a dead friends name in a chat log.

Now however, Facebook ensures ones digital legacy can live on in the form of a memorialised timeline where friends can visit the page, view prior status updates or photographs and leave posts of remembrance. I often find myself scrolling through my brothers Facebook page, digging up silly photos of him pulling faces at the camera, or laughing at his old statuses. Its the other posts though the ones full of sadness and love from his grieving friends that really get to me.

Twitter, LinkedIn and Instagram have similar policies, but with other social media platforms, the deceased accounts remain dormant until they are deleted due to inactivity. I think theres a certain sadness to this quiet erasure of ones digital footprint. Some alternatives, however, are far stranger. Take for instance the online service Dead Social. Founded by James Norris after he watched a video of comedian Bob Monkhouse posthumously starring in an advert for prostate cancer, Dead Social allows people to schedule posts after they have died. I have to admit, if I am ever diagnosed with terminal cancer, Ill probably use this service to plague my friends and loved ones with awful jokes and puns long after Ive shuffled off this mortal coil.

It gets weirder though. In my favourite episode of the British science fiction anthology series Black Mirror, a young womans boyfriend is tragically killed in a car accident. As she grieves, the woman discovers a technology that allows her to communicate with an artificial intelligence imitating her deceased lover. In this case, truth certainly lives up to fiction. Eternime is an online service that uses artificial intelligence to collect your thoughts, stories and memories to create an avatar that mimics your looks and manner of conversation. As you chat with the avatar for the remainder of your life, theyre able to learn more about you and your personality. Naturally with more information, the avatar becomes more adept at mimicking you, eventually becoming your digital alter ego after death.

The internet is truly redefining the grief process. Online memorial sites provide a much more interactive experience than viewing a concrete headstone in a cemetery. Moreover, they can be accessed from anywhere in the world, connecting loved ones with the click of a mouse. And in missing people cases, memorialised social media accounts offer the bereaved an opportunity to visit a memorial.

I often find myself obsessively trawling the internet, trying to piece together every fragment of Johns online life. Finding his YouTube channel was a bittersweet moment. I never knew he could play the guitar so beautifully, though his singing left a lot to be desired. And as for his Instagram account? Who knew a simple photo of muddy feet could affect me so much? The photographs, jerky videos, Facebook messages, likes and dislikes all amounted to a precious scrapbook of memories. I cant visit Johns grave every day, but I can fondly remember him through the pixels on my computer screen.

Lets face it death is inevitable. But in cyberspace, you may live forever.

Jean Balchin is an English student at the University of Otago.

Read the original:

Immortality found in cyberspace - Otago Daily Times

Posted in Immortality | Comments Off on Immortality found in cyberspace – Otago Daily Times

Out of his mind surgeon plans human head transplant, revival of frozen brain – Ars Technica

Posted: at 3:05 pm

Italian neurosurgeon Sergio Canavero will undertake the first human head transplant later this year in China, the doctor told German magazineOoomin an article published Thursday. And, following that effort, he will revive a cryogenically frozen brain and transplant it into a donor body within the next three years.

The plans, completely disconnected from reality and the state of modern medicine, are at least in line with his previous outlandish goals and dubious animal research.

Canavero made headlines in the past few years by claiming that transplanting the whole head of a human onto a donor body is currently possible. A Russian man, suffering from a spinal muscular atrophy malady called Werdnig-Hoffmann Disease, even publicly volunteered for the procedure.

As proof that the transplant could work, Canavero published gruesome experiments in 2016, said to have repaired the severely injured spinal cords of mice, rats, and a dog. The experiments came complete with cringe-worthy video of recovering animals struggling to drag their limp bodies around. Yet, the study lacked controls, detailed methods, and data on the injuries and recoveries. Canavero claimed to perform a head transplant on a monkey but did not publish the experiment.

Mouse limping after experimental spinal cord repair.

Sergio Canavero giving a TEDX talk.

Sergio Canavero with his Chinese partner, Dr. Xiaoping Ren, who will lead the operation team onsite during an attempted head transplant procedure.

Experts decidedly consider his research on spinal cord repair, let alone whole head transplants, unconvincing. A medical ethicist dubbed Canavero out of his mind for sweeping past the currently insurmountable challenges of such feats. These include intricately repairing and reattaching thousands of delicate nerves and restoring function. Right now, doctors cant even convince the immune system to accept far simpler transplants consistently. Theres also the completely unknown effects of such a transplant on the powerful human psyche.

Canavero is carrying on, undeterred it seems. In his Ooom interview, he not only glided through the idea of successfully transplanting a head, he made an even more absurd claim: that he would revive a cryogenically frozen brain and transplant it into a donor body. Canavero said he would obtain a preserved brain from Alcor Life Extension Foundation, a cryonics company located in Scottsdale, Arizona, according to Gizmodo.

There is currently no way to revive and molecularly repair a frozen human brain. And such transplants havent even been attempted in animals. Thus, the surgical procedure is decades if not centuries away.

As Gizmodo also reports, Alcor said that Canavera hadnt even contacted the company. It distanced itself from the doctor, as did other cryonics leaders, and noted that his efforts are not realistic or even a shared goal.

In a statement, the company said:

The Alcor Life Extension has had no contact with Dr. Canavero. It is not yet possible to revive human brains cryopreserved with present methods. Revival of todays cryonics patients will require future repair by highly advanced future technology, such as molecular nanotechnology. Technology that is advanced enough to repair a cryopreserved brain would by its nature also be able to regrow new tissues, organs, and a healthy body for the revived person. Therefore Alcor does not expect body donations or transplants to ever be necessary for revival of cryonics patients. Until advanced tissue regeneration technology is developed, we wish Dr. Canavero well in his development of body transplant surgery for living patients today who might benefit.

See original here:

Out of his mind surgeon plans human head transplant, revival of frozen brain - Ars Technica

Posted in Cryonics | Comments Off on Out of his mind surgeon plans human head transplant, revival of frozen brain – Ars Technica

Acupuncture for Your Cat? What to Know About Alternative Medicine for Pets – Health.com

Posted: at 3:04 pm

Americans love alternative medicine: Between30 and 40 percent of U.S. adults seek complementarytreatments each year. But should we consider them for our animals,too? While these treatments may bring relief, "it has really been aproblem to try to prove in scientific studies that they aretherapeutically beneficial," says Alicia Karas, DVM, an assistantprofessor at the Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine atTufts University, who is also a veterinary acupuncturist and ananesthesia and pain-medicine specialist. Heres what theexperts say about the following options.

"There are very few side effects from acupuncture, so it can be used in conjunction with a number of different therapies," says Christine Swanson, DVM, of BluePearl Specialty & Emergency Pet Hospital in Grand Rapids, Michigan, who is board-certified in veterinary oncology and trained in veterinary acupuncture and integrative medicine. Swanson has found acupuncture to be effective for chronic conditions such as arthritis, back pain, and neurological conditions.

While research is promising, its hard to measure the success of treatment, because patients cant describe how theyre feeling. Theres also a "caregiver placebo effect," in which owners (and even vets) may perceive a treatment to be helping when its actually not. "Thats why its important for veterinarians to do a thorough examination to determine the effectiveness of the treatment, says Swanson. Both Swanson and Karas emphasize that acupuncture, like other alternative therapies, can supplement but shouldnt replace conventional diagnostic and treatment methods, such as X-rays, medication, and surgery.

Like chiropractors who treat humans, veterinary practitioners face skepticism from the mainstream medical community, since their evidence of success is overwhelmingly anecdotaland many neurologists dont recommend spinal manipulative therapy. Supporters argue that chiropractors can produce results when conventional diagnosis and treatment come up short. "Chiropractors can really help with older dogs," says Karas. "They dont just manipulate the spine; they handle the digits and the hips and do tail and jaw traction." If you want to give this treatment a try, look for a practitioner whos certified by the American Veterinary Chiropractic Association.

RELATED: What's Your Pet Trying to Tell You? Here's How to Read Their Body Language

Massageor the use of fingers, hands, and machines to manipulate soft tissuescan address pain from injuries and surgery, provide relief from inflammatory conditions such as arthritis, and help rehabilitate animals like dogs and horses that have been sidelined from sports. As with other therapies, be sure to check first with your pets primary care doctor. If your veterinarian seems to not be open to it, you can say, Well, Id like to see somebody who is,"says Karas. Bottom line, she adds: Hope should always go hand in hand with realism. "Although benefits can occur, dont expect miracles."

Read the original post:

Acupuncture for Your Cat? What to Know About Alternative Medicine for Pets - Health.com

Posted in Alternative Medicine | Comments Off on Acupuncture for Your Cat? What to Know About Alternative Medicine for Pets – Health.com