Artificial intelligence, robotics and new disruptive technology are challenging white-collar professions that previously seemed invulnerable. For years now, some researchers have been anticipating that robots would take away jobs from humans.
About a year ago I implanted a biochip in my hand, embarking on a broad experimental journey. My aim is to understand how the connected humans of the future will live — and to get a jump on what can go wrong. I started writing down the insights I gathered and publishing them on this blog. You are reading the eighth entry in diary: about jobs that are just being conceptualized today but will be all the rage tomorrow.
Read moreAmy Ingram, the artificial intelligence personal assistant from startup X.ai, sounds remarkably like a real person. The company designed her to take on the mundane tasks of scheduling meetings and e-mailing about appointments. If a bot had access to your calendar, why couldn’t it do the work for you?
After she made her debut in 2014, users praised her “humanlike tone” and “eloquent manners.” “Actually better than a human for this task,” a beta tester tweeted. But what most people don't realize about this artificial intelligence is that it isn't totally artificial: Behind almost every e-mail is an actual human—someone like 24-year-old Willie Calvin.
Read moreJust blame mainstream media for setting unrealistic expectations. A quick scan of any major media outlet and readers are bound to run into an article about some start-up or Fortune 500 company working on autonomous driving tech.
The autonomous vehicle — which can drive itself in autopilot mode using a variety of in-vehicle technologies — is the shiny plaything of the moment. And this week it landed at the top of Gartner Inc.’s Hype Cycle of Emerging Technologies report, right next to the Internet of Things. The annual report assesses how close new technologies are to mainstream adoption.
Read moreOver 1,000 high-profile artificial intelligence experts and leading researchers have signed an open letter warning of a “military artificial intelligence arms race” and calling for a ban on “offensive autonomous weapons”.
The letter, presented at the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Buenos Aires, Argentina, was signed by Tesla’s Elon Musk, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, Google DeepMind chief executive Demis Hassabis and professor Stephen Hawking along with 1,000 AI and robotics researchers. Unlike nuclear weapons, however, AI requires no specific hard-to-create materials and will be difficult to monitor.
Read moreAbout a decade ago, spam brought email to near-ruin. The contest to save your inbox was on, with two of the world’s biggest tech companies vying for the title of top spam-killer. Microsoft boasted that its spam filters were removing all but 3 percent of the junk messages from Hotmail, the company’s online email service at the time.
Google responded by claiming that its service, Gmail, removed all but about one percent of spam messages, adding that its false positives rate was also about one percent. It was a point of pride for the two companies, particularly Microsoft, whose Hotmail service once carried such a poor reputation for spam.
Read moreApple’s early-adopting, outspoken co-founder Steve Wozniak thinks humans will be fine if robots take over the world because we’ll just become their pets.
After previously stating that a robotic future powered by artificial intelligence would be scary and very bad for people and that robots would get rid of the slow humans, Wozniak has staged a U-turn and says he now thinks robots taking over would be good for the human race. Robots are going to be smarter than us and if they’re smarter than us then they’ll realise they need us. Some of the most high-profile technology pioneers and the greatest minds of science have warned of the dangers of AI.
Read moreWhat do billionaire inventor Elon Musk, the Google Now on Tap service launched at Google I/O, and the recent “Ex Machina” premiere have in common? The idea that unites all three is artificial intelligence or, more precisely, the process of imposing limits into artificial intelligence so it truly serves humanity and does not inflict any harm.
What is artificial intelligence capable of today? For those who are not really into the topic, let me enumerate several facts which can demonstrate the progress machines have made in their ability to do very human things. With that in mind, don’t think the impact from ‘smarter’ machines will be seen only in the virtual domain.
Read moreArtificial intelligence algorithms from Mivar can replace nuclear power plant staff and even creative personnel. The Mivar Company is trying to bring a new generation of artificial intelligence to the market.
Its creators hope to start a revolution in the field of computerized thinking. However, some experts think that the company must first prove that their algorithms are better than existing ones. This is not the first Russian development in the field of artificial intelligence. In 2014, a robot mind named Eugene Goostman was able to fool scientists during a text exchange that it was human.
Read moreIt was the middle of the day, and my cell phone rang with a local number I didn't recognize. Figuring it was one of my kids calling from a friend's phone to tell me that they had forgotten their cell phone and needed a ride, I answered — and found myself rapidly descending into the uncanny valley.
"Amy" was, in fact, an outbound interactive voice response program running on a server, likely somewhere in a cloud data center. The company behind the call was the latest incarnation of a sweepstakes and magazine subscription scam operation currently known as North American Direct Services, Inc.
Read moreArtificial intelligence? Well, forget it. There is a much more interesting idea. And if works, it might be the next IT revolution that we all have been longing for since Bill Gates said 512K of RAM would be enough for everything and everybody.
While many others, including huge and famous players like Google or Numenta, are trying to develop AI in different forms, the Ukrainian guys are looking for developing what they call “a digital lifeform”. There is a new Ukrainian startup, called Digital Life Lab. It is about to bring something new to the world, and the concept is quite overwhelming. The project will be able to go through different states and moods.
Read moreAxarhöfði 14,
110 Reykjavik, Iceland