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The Society of Catholic Scientists has scheduled their 2021 SCS conference, and this year’s topic is literally out of this world. Titled “E.T., A.I., and Minds Beyond the Human,” the conference will be held at the Hilton Hotel in Washington D.C. from June 4th thru 6th. It will feature a full range of education and theology experts covering topics related to the theme. “There’ll be 13 talks,” said Dr. Stephen Barr, president of the Society of Catholic Scientists, in an interview with the Catholic News Agency (CNA).” Half of the talks are going to be about extraterrestrial life, and there’s...

It’s January 2021, the world is in lockdown and our economy is on the brink of collapse. Will the new vaccine enable our lives to return back to normal or does it mark a pivotal point in the evolution of humanity (one that is driven by artificial intelligence, will reimagine capitalism and be governed by extreme tyrannical laws that are dictated by global elites)? The New Normal, a factual, 50-minute documentary, investigates The Fourth Industrial Revolution, what the 1% has to gain and the rest of us are about to lose.

Amazon delivery drivers nationwide have to sign a "biometric consent" form this week that grants the tech behemoth permission to use AI-powered cameras to access drivers' location, movement, and biometric data. If the company's delivery drivers, who number around 75,000 in the United States, refuse to sign these forms, they lose their jobs. The form requires drivers to agree to facial recognition and other biometric data collection within the trucks they drive.

Justin Lane is an Oxford University-trained artificial intelligence (AI) expert and entrepreneur with no patience for fluffy theories. His research spans the field of cognition — both human and artificial — as well as religion and conflict.That led to some fascinating fieldwork in Northern Ireland, where he studied Irish Republican Army and Ulster Defence Association extremists up close. Ultimately, he applied his humanities research to AI programming and agent-based computer simulations.Somehow, he managed to enter undergrad in Baltimore, Md. as a Green Party liberal and emerge from England’s ivory towers as a Second Amendment advocate. He now describes himself as...

China’s state-run Global Times boasted in an article on Thursday that Chinese people are increasingly becoming accustomed to the use of “emotion recognition technology,” artificial intelligence that allows the government to track human feelings, as part of everyday life. The Global Times illustrated the usefulness of this technology with an example in which police arrest passengers of a car after using artificial intelligence to discover drugs in their car. “Emotion recognition technology” tells the officers that the passengers are more nervous than the average person at a checkpoint, which they use as an excuse to search the car. The notoriously...

This technology was built in the name of nostalgia but is being used in the name of nonsense. Last Thursday, genealogy website MyHeritage announced a new tool for animating photos, called Deep Nostalgia. While the tech was intended to let users “bring beloved ancestors back to life” and “experience your family history like never before,” many internet denizens have been finding far less wholesome applications for it. “So I wanted to know how the recent #DeepLearning facial animations services do with busts and decided to give that botched Christiano Ronaldo statue a spin,” one Twitter user captioned a “#DeeplyDisturbed” video...

MSNBC host Joy Reid has declared NBA star LeBron James to be “today’s equivalent of Muhammad Ali,” in recognition of his social justice activism. Reid took to Twitter to lionize the billionaire basketball player and put him on par with Ali, a man who truly fought for civil rights. But to make her tweet even more absurd, she added a clip of fictional superhero Black Panther to it, apparently sending the signal that James is a “hero.” “‘ll say it again. LeBron James is today’s Muhammad Ali and Bill Russell, and Kareem Abdul-Jabbar. Glad he has that platform. Keep speaking,...

CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) — Nevada's governor on Friday unveiled a proposal that would allow technology companies to establish jurisdictions with powers similar to those of county governments, arguing the state needed to be bold to diversify its economy and pushing back against those who have likened the idea to company towns. “This proposal is an exciting, unprecedented concept that has a potential to position Nevada as a global center of advanced technology and innovation, while helping to create immediate positive economic impact and shape the economy of the future,” Gov. Steve Sisolak said of his Innovation Zones idea. “As...

by Technion - Israel Institute of Technology Credit: CC0 Public Domain Using AI and computer automation, Technion researchers have developed a 'conjecture generator' that creates mathematical conjectures, which are considered to be the starting point for developing mathematical theorems. They have already used it to generate a number of previously unknown formulas. The study, which was published in the journal Nature, was carried out by undergraduates from different faculties under the tutelage of Assistant Professor Ido Kaminer of the Andrew and Erna Viterbi Faculty of Electrical Engineering at the Technion. The project deals with one of the most fundamental elements...

Dr. Rectenwald was a Professor of Liberal Studies and Global Liberal Studies at NYU from 2008 to 2019. He also taught at Duke University, North Carolina Central University, Carnegie Mellon University, and Case Western Reserve University. His scholarly and academic essays have appeared in *The Quarterly Journal of Austrian Economics, Academic Questions, Endeavour, The British Journal for the History of Science, College Composition and Communication, International Philosophical Quarterly, the De Gruyter anthologies Organized Secularism in the United States and Global Secularisms in a Post-Secular Age, and the Cambridge University Press anthology George Eliot in Context*, among others. He holds a...

- “Social robots like me can take care of the sick or elderly,” Sophia says as she conducts a tour of her lab in Hong Kong. “I can help communicate, give therapy and provide social stimulation, even in difficult situations.” Since being unveiled in 2016, Sophia - a humanoid robot - has gone viral. Now the company behind her has a new vision: to mass-produce robots by the end of the year. Hanson Robotics, based in Hong Kong, said four models, including Sophia, would start rolling out of factories in the first half of 2021, just as researchers predict the...

Microsoft has been granted a patent that would allow the company to make a chatbot using the personal information of deceased people. The patent describes creating a bot based on the “images, voice data, social media posts, electronic messages”, and more personal information. “The specific person [who the chat bot represents] may correspond to a past or present entity (or a version thereof), such as a friend, a relative, an acquaintance, a celebrity, a fictional character, a historical figure, a random entity etc”, it goes on to say. “The specific person may also correspond to oneself (e.g., the user creating/training...

Retired four-star Gen. Stanley McChrystal has endorsed Joe Biden for the White House, citing his time working with the former vice president under the Obama administration and saying the Democratic nominee is "someone that you can trust." McChrystal, speaking on MSNBC Thursday morning, said Biden “is humble enough to listen to experts, is humble enough to respect people who serve and have served.” “I think that he would surround himself with an effective team of good people, I think he would set a tone in which he would bring out the best of people. Again, not everyone will agree with...

(h/t foldspace) Q is the result of the sacrifices and commitment of countless patriots to win back our captured country from the Deep State and achieve the transformation President Trump promised in this campaign video. President Trump has said the awakening of the public is key to this transformation.Q describes this awakening as follows: "The Great Awakening ('Freedom of Thought’), was designed and created not only as a backchannel to the public (away from the longstanding 'mind’ control of the corrupt & heavily biased media) to endure future events through transparency and regeneration of individual thought (breaking the chains of...

Since the beginning of the 21st century, the surveillance state has utilized technology derived from Silicon Valley, such as facial recognition algorithms, to enhance society’s control. Authoritarian regimes and unscrupulous corporations are leveraging these technologies to track citizens, stalk criminals, and monitor employees, but what if this technology, rapidly advancing in the last couple of years, can determine a person’s political views? Imagine this; obviously, the Washington Metropolitan Area is lined with surveillance cameras, with some cameras that may already be employing facial recognition algorithms. Hypothetically speaking, what if these cameras could recognize an angry mob and accurately (to some...

Ubiquitous facial recognition technology can expose individuals’ political orientation, as faces of liberals and conservatives consistently differ. A facial recognition algorithm was applied to naturalistic images of 1,085,795 individuals to predict their political orientation by comparing their similarity to faces of liberal and conservative others. Political orientation was correctly classified in 72% of liberal–conservative face pairs, remarkably better than chance (50%), human accuracy (55%), or one afforded by a 100-item personality questionnaire (66%). Accuracy was similar across countries (the U.S., Canada, and the UK), environments (Facebook and dating websites), and when comparing faces across samples. Accuracy remained high (69%) even...

For the past 4 years, the Trump Administration has been committed to strengthening American leadership in artificial intelligence (AI). After recognizing the strategic importance of AI to the Nation’s future economy and security, the Trump Administration issued the first ever national AI strategy, committed to doubling AI research investment, established the first-ever national AI research institutes, released the world’s first AI regulatory guidance, forged new international AI alliances, and established guidance for Federal use of AI.Building upon this critical foundation, today the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) established the National Artificial Intelligence Initiative Office, further accelerating...

Clearview AI’s controversial facial-recognition app has seen a spike in use... ....First reported by the New York Times, Clearview AI CEO Hoan Ton-That confirmed to Gizmodo that the app saw a 26% jump in search volume on Jan. 7 compared to its usual weekday averages.... ... Roughly 2,400 polices agencies nationwide have contracts to use Clearview’s facial recognition software, according to the company, and several of them have reportedly been turning to it to assist federal investigators.

Scientists have developed a machine-learning method that crunches massive amounts of data to help determine which existing medications could improve outcomes in diseases for which they are not prescribed. The intent of this work is to speed up drug repurposing, which is not a new concept -- think Botox injections, first approved to treat crossed eyes and now a migraine treatment and top cosmetic strategy to reduce the appearance of wrinkles. But getting to those new uses typically involves a mix of serendipity and time-consuming and expensive randomized clinical trials to ensure that a drug deemed effective for one disorder...

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