11/28/2016
11/24/2016
Dubai never fails to impress: Robocops on Duty in 2017!
It seems that Dubai Police department will not only be known for its mass of high end sports cars.
It’s no longer about the fastest cop cars - Dubai police in Lambos, Ferraris and Camaros. It’s now about android police force! Robocop will now be on duty across Dubai. It is clear that Dubai is seeking successful national development to be a major player in the global economy of the 21st century. Besides their greatly advanced telecommunications system which made UAE an integral player in the international community, Dubai will now have a super advanced police department.
Thanks to artificial intelligence,robot polices are expected to be on duty by 2020. Robot cops will have some police officers’ responsibilities and will also be interacting with people. You can imagine people in Dubai calling 901 through Al Ameen Service in order to report their personal issues but this time they won’t be communicating with Dubai Police officers, but instead with robots. Robots will be answering telephones and/or replying to emails.By 2017, robot officers will start receiving people’s requests and complaints.
In coordination with Google and IBM’s Watson, Dubai police will be using AI technology to launch its robot officers which will spot people, greet them and interact with them.
Well, there might be a new plan you might consider adding on your “TO DO LIST” for 2017. Go salute and shake the hand of Robocop next to Burj Khalifa, GPR, or CityWalk.
11/21/2016
AI Interview with Bill McDermott (CEO of SAP)
On Monday, 21. November 2016 we had the opportunity to meet Bill McDermott, the CEO of SAP during a Fireside Chat in Madrid. After his interesting speech we couldn't hesitate to ask him about his thoughts concerning Artificial Intelligence:
"The idea of machine learning or artificial intelligence is
quite substantial. On one hand there is a super computer that is better than
humans. That’s one aspect. But then there are also other aspects for example we
all want to eliminate bias from the workforce, we want a fair level playing
field, we all want to have women with equal opportunity, we all want people no
matter where they come from or what their background is and to have an equal chance
and doing well in the modern economy. So removing gender and bias from the
workplace to me was an important thing.
SAP for example is pioneering machine
learning and intelligent applications as a form of artificial intelligence in
the business software. For example: Today there is a person looking for a job
and then there is a profile of a job somewhere and people are scouring rèsumès and
profiles and trying to match. We decided that A: that’s pretty unproductive but
B: humans have a natural bias no matter who they are that’s just natural
experiences and biases. So now we have machines to do that and they learn what
the profile is. They look at the candidates and match that and that’s music
artificial intelligence and machine learning to remove bias from the workplace.
And there are couple of more examples of applications utilizing
machine learning and artificial intelligence. I think the internet of things is
an massive opportunity with the sensorization and everything being completely
connected for example Trenitalia in Naples, Italy. I was there recently and
they have the entire rail system being preventively maintained on sensors
connecting to the internet of things to preventatively maintain other assets.
Others have those real
time methods connected to the consumers so they can conduct retail and
eCommerce while they are moving and transporting from one place to another.
These things are just getting started and it’s going to truly be a fascinating
world."
11/18/2016
Ghost in the Shell // Ghost is the Shell
While it is not rare for A.I. to cause existential anxiety amongst the wanderers, would human characteristics cause similar anxiety in A.I.?
In one of the episodes of Ghost in the Shell, the Tachikoma (autonomous AI mini-tanks) do not want their memories erased because it would mean they would ‘forget’ Batou – the human (cyborg) who cares for them as if they were more than machines. These are the same tanks that are technically incapable of experiencing ‘death’ or being ‘dead’ as a state. The robots experience existential uncertainty for what seems to be the first time. This is what is most admirable about anime, anything can happen. The background of Ghost in the Shell is essentially this - in 2029, almost everyone in Japan is connected to the cloud via cybernetic android bodies, including detective Major Kusanagi. In the 1995 film, she is tasked with finding a hacker named the Puppet Master, she learns that the hacker was originally a computer program that gained sentience. Over time, the Puppet Master learned about the nature of his existence, and his inability to reproduce or have a normal life. Technology has advanced to the point that false memories can be hacked and robots can build other robots. Major Kusanagi is a "ghost"— a human mind uploaded to and accessible through the cloud using her artificial body. She has superhuman strength and invisibility. She can also speak telepathically, access information, and even drive cars using her mind's access to the cloud.
Futurist and Google researcher Ray Kurzweil predicted that we'll be able to communicate telepathically using the cloud by 2030, just a year after the events of "Ghost in the Shell" take place. DARPA Robotics Challenge Finals brought out the reality of the moment that robots today still can't walk on two legs without collapsing midstep. The exponential increase in the dexterous nature of robots to be backflipping off high-rise buildings in just 15 years is still debatable the. On the other hand, MIT is currently building superstrong robots that can punch through walls but these robots aren't autonomous — they're controlled by a human wearing an exoskeleton. In the movie, a garbageman is convinced he’s helping a criminal in exchange for regaining custody of his daughter. But he later learns that his memories have been faked — he never had a wife or a daughter. Could hackers implant false memories? “Imagine when the internet is in your brain, if the NSA can see into your brain, if hackers can hack into your brain,” Shimon Whiteson, an A.I. researcher at the University of Amsterdam, said.
In the GitS episode, ‘The Laughing Man’, the namesake is an expert hacker who publicly assaulted head of Serano Genomics (a micro-machine company) for withholding a cyberbrain illness cure. He hacked the eye implants of all the spectators, replacing his face with a stylised logo, and this led to a series of copycat crimes all under the name of ‘The Laughing Man’ using this logo. The problem is addressed by references to J.D. Salinger’s ‘Catcher in the Rye’, especially Holden Caulfield’s constant criticism of phonies. The people constantly connected to the net are subject to total media saturation, and in a cybernetic context where the net may be accessed anywhere from within one’s own mind, this could result in a fusing of the real and digital worlds. Heim (1995) argues that through the development of ‘virtual reality’ “Life’s body is becoming indistinguishable from its computer prosthesis.” The difficulty of escaping this media saturation is shown during the last episode of series one (‘Stand Alone Complex’, 2006), as the Major runs her hand over the words “Fuck You” on the wall of the library where she meets the ‘original Laughing Man’ who stays there to be away from the world. This is a reference again to ‘Catcher in the Rye’, where Holden states:
“You can’t ever find a place that’s nice and peaceful, because there isn’t any. You may think there is, but once you get there, when you’re not looking, somebody’ll sneak up and write ‘Fuck you’ right under your nose.” (Salinger, 1951)
Human displacement in future society blurs the boundary between the physical identity and virtual representation. When human minds are uploaded to artificial bodies, hyperreality gains massive importance. Hyperreality is an inability of consciousness to distinguish reality from a simulation of reality, especially in technologically advanced postmodern societies. Thus in the future, the primary source of pessimism and anxiety in A.I. could be rooted in our current human brains.
A live action film of Ghost in the Shell comes out next year - see the preview on Youtube
11/10/2016
Could an A.I.?
What is truly astounding about mankind is its capacity to turn equal parts witless and curious shower thoughts into reality. The following questions kept a significant many interested for a long time to arrive at an answer. Their hard-work coupled with academia has led to some very exciting prospects in A.I. The backbone, of course, is Deep Learning. The lesson remains - the more data, the better judgement.
1) Could an A.I. judge a book by its cover?
The answer is yes.
A deep neural network, which has four layers of up to 512 neurons each, was able to correctly identify what genre a book belongs to just by analyzing its cover. Brian Kenji Iwana and Seiichi Uchida of Kyushu University in Japan conducted an experiment to check if artificial intelligence can engage in the proverbial book judging. The A.I. algorithm listed three possible genres for each book. The results showed “the experiment had an accuracy of 21.9% for Top 1, 32.1% for Top 2, and 40.2% for Top 3 in 20-class classification.”
2) Could and A.I. read your lips?
The answer is yes.
A new AI lip reader, LipNet, has been built by a team of scientists from Oxford to process whole sentences at a time, allowing the AI to teach itself what letter corresponds to each slight mouth movement. When compared against human lip readers who scored an accuracy of 52.3 percent, LipNet was 1.78 times more accurate than them in translating the same sentences. When made perfect, LipNet could be used as a tool for the hearing-impaired.
3) Could an A.I. help save lives?
The answer is yes.
The answer is yes.
A team of MIT researchers led by Alán Aspuru-Guzik developed A.I. that can help search for new drug compounds without using lengthy simulations, thanks to its training on 250,000 drug-like molecules. According to the study, continuous representations allow us to automatically generate novel chemical structures by performing simple operations in the latent space, such as decoding random vectors, perturbing known chemical structures, or interpolating between molecules. “It explores more intuitively, using chemical knowledge it learned, like a chemist would,” says Aspuru-Guzik. This A.I. is disruptive in a good way and can definitely help save lives if applied optimally.
4) Could an A.I. tackle climate change?
Needless to say, yes, courtesy of Barry Porter and his team of data science experts from Lancaster University.
Data processing and maintenance requires huge data centers with large teams of software developers, and they consume a ton of energy and financial resources. Porter and his team have developed an artificially intelligent computer software system, called REx, that can rapidly self-assemble itself into the most efficient form without human input. According to Porter, his team’s technology could be beneficial on a number of levels. It could reduce or even eliminate altogether the need for humans to understand and process complex systems as REx could take over the task. It would also have a huge impact of the energy needs of data-processing centers, which they report currently account for around 3 percent of power used globally.
11/03/2016
Matrioshka Brain - A New Hope
The Fermi paradox is defined as the apparent contradiction between the lack of evidence and high probability estimates of the existence of extraterrestrial civilizations. The Kardashev Scale groups intelligent civilizations into three broad categories by the amount of energy they use-
1. A Type I Civilization has the ability to use all of the energy on their planet. (Human beings are currently at 0.73 on a scale up to 1)
2. A Type II Civilization can harness all of the energy of their host star
3. A Type III Civilization can control the energy of its whole galaxy
Given that our planet is only 4.5 billion years old in a universe that is pushing 14 billion years, it’s safe to say most aliens are type III. This leads to the hypothesis that interstellar travel in its advanced stage must have facilitated a machinery to connect or colonize the galaxies. Are we next on the itinerary of these type III civilizations? Or has the time come and gone? One theory formed to explain the paradox is that of filters. Filters are essentially barriers that do not allow ecosystems to sustain life. On one hand it could be that we have already passed the ultimate filter, that earlier the external environment factors were far more belligerent than they are now. It could also mean that we are the first to pass this filter, since we haven’t interacted with any other life form. On the other hand, it might as well be the case that we are yet to face the final filter otherwise known as the Apocalypse or more generally a cataclysmic event. Experts say that a lot of these technologically advanced civilizations self-destructed due to resource mismanagement. Some even say that they were wiped out by a type III civilization.
We are at the brink of utmost proficiency in machine intelligence. Consider the fact we’re exploring the solar system with robotic probes and rovers and hope to send humans in the future. Herein lies another paradox- let it be called the A.I. paradox for simplicity’s sake- the same A.I. could save us or destroy us. There exists the notion of unfriendly artificial intelligence- A.I.s that use their superior intelligence to grow themselves and maximize their own utility at the expense of humans, and friendly artificial intelligence which impacts humanity positively. What is the scope of A.I. saving humanity from obsolescence? The most ardent answer adopts a bold approach in fact and fiction, and ignores the simplistic and solipsistic views held for eons.
There are speculations of type III civilizations having formed a Matrioshka brain. Simply put, it is a kind of theoretical megastructure that channels solar energy into unparalleled supercomputing ability. It is an example of a class B stellar engine, making use of almost the entire energy output of its host star. It is similar in principle, but much larger in size and computational capacity, than a so-called Jupiter brain, which is only planetary in scale. The use, one can wonder, of such an engine is far beyond imagination. One idea suggested by Charles Stross, in his novel Accelerando, would be to use it to run perfect simulations or "uploads" of human minds into virtual reality spaces supported by the Matrioshka brain. Stross even went so far as to suggest that a sufficiently godlike species utilizing enough raw processing power could launch attacks upon, and manipulate, the structure of the universe itself.
Our deepest fears are reflected in the emotional conception of oblivion. But once our motivations surpass that, modern science lays out a whole new paradigm of technology. The singularity, David Kelley, co-founder of Wired Magazine, says, is the point at which “all the change in the last million years will be superseded by the change in the next five minutes.” Singularity exponentially accelerates changes. Machine intelligence is simply a passing phase in evolution, the next phase being superintelligence. Aliens who are a trillion times smarter than human beings would probably not notice the human race at all. The E.T. probably observes human beings like human beings observe wild animals in a zoo. Or probably human beings are alone. Either scenario leads to the need of extensive A.I. improvement and research so that we can solve these cosmic mysteries.
Wild is defined as something that lacks sound reasoning or probability. Does the notion of an A.I. Paradox seem wild anymore?
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