Free Republic

Google is creating AI-powered robots that navigate without human intervention—a prerequisite to being useful in the real world. ====================================================================== Within 10 minutes of its birth, a baby fawn is able to stand. Within seven hours, it is able to walk. Between those two milestones, it engages in a highly adorable, highly frenetic flailing of limbs to figure it all out. That’s the idea behind AI-powered robotics. While autonomous robots, like self-driving cars, are already a familiar concept, autonomously learning robots are still just an aspiration. Existing reinforcement-learning algorithms that allow robots to learn movements through trial and error still rely...

Ask Internet entrepreneur and Silicon Valley venture capitalist Reid Hoffman how he decides which companies to invest in, and he’ll tell you he has a simple litmus test to determine whether to give the idea a closer look. “I want to invest in companies that play to one or more of the seven deadly sins,” Hoffman said. For those a bit rusty, those sins would be: lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride. Hoffman, best known as co-founder of LinkedIn, says the business-professional networking-platform most embodies the deadly sin of greed. “In the end, LinkedIn is helping someone earn...

Since its invention by a Hungarian architect in 1974, the Rubik’s Cube has furrowed the brows of many who have tried to solve it. DeepCubeA, a deep reinforcement learning algorithm, can find the solution in a fraction of a second, without any specific domain knowledge or in-game coaching from humans. This is no simple task considering the cube has completion paths numbering in the billions but only one goal state—each of six sides displaying a solid color—which apparently can’t be found through random moves. For the new study, researchers demonstrated that DeepCubeA solved 100 percent of all test configurations, finding...

…[A] team of scientists working with a Harvard graduate student is for the first time applying deep learning — a powerful new version of the machine learning form of AI — to forecast sudden disruptions that can halt fusion reactions and damage the doughnut-shaped tokamaks that house the reactions. Unlike traditional software, which carries out prescribed instructions, deep learning learns from its mistakes. Accomplishing this seeming magic are neural networks, layers of interconnected nodes — mathematical algorithms — that are “parameterized,” or weighted by the program to shape the desired output. For any given input the nodes seek to produce...

In the current study, the research team used a statistical/machine learning technique, called random forests, that has the ability to "learn" how to classify individuals based on examples. Such AI programs build "decision" rules and mathematical models that enable decision-making with increasing accuracy as the amount of training data grows. The researchers first recorded standard, hours-long diagnostic interviews, called Clinician-Administered PTSD Scale, or CAPS, of 53 Iraq and Afghanistan veterans with military-service-related PTSD, as well as those of 78 veterans without the disease. The recordings were then fed into voice software from SRI International—the institute that also invented Siri—to yield...

Artificial intelligence (AI) may be poised to wipe out cervical cancer, after a study showed computer algorithms can detect pre-cancerous lesions far better than trained experts or conventional screening tests. . . . . . The AI technique, called automated visual evaluation, found precancerous cells with 91 per cent accuracy, according to a report published in the Journal of the National Cancer Institute. In comparison, a human expert review found 69 per cent of pre-cancers, while conventional laboratory tests such as Pap smears found 71 per cent. Among women aged 25 to 49, who face the highest risk of cervical...

When I watched this video, I had to do a second take. I thought I had misunderstood this man’s words, but I was not mistaken. I am still amazed at what he said to the audience in trying to explain the sinister facets of artificial intelligence. As Elon Musk had said at an earlier time, “we are summoning the demon.” This, too, is amazing to me, as Musk helped to create A.I. I don’t know if any of you have noticed, but Elon has been on the downside of luck recently. He has had accident after accident with his inventions....

Dark intentions: should we fear AI with purpose? Artificial intelligences have goals and act to achieve them. That doesn’t mean they’ll take over the world any time soon, writes Australia’s leading AI researcher, Toby Walsh. Share Tweet Will robots ever develop minds of their own? Only if we tell them to. GERARD JULIEN/AFP/Getty Images It’s hard to ignore dystopian pronouncements about how Artificial Intelligence (AI) is going to take over our lives, especially when they come from luminaries in tech. Entrepreneur Elon Musk, for instance, says “” And IT maven Erik Brnyojolfsson, at MIT, has quoted Vladimir Putin’s claim that...

Multi-billionaire tech titan and star of CNBC's "Shark Tank" Mark Cuban says that most people are underestimating the potential of artificial intelligence to change the world we live and work in. He's especially intimidated by the pace at which new technology advances: "It scares the s--- out of me," says Cuban, speaking to Ozy Fest conference attendees in New York City. "However much change you saw over the last 10 years with the iPhone, over the last 20 years with the Internet, over the last 30 years with PC's, etc., that is nothing. Nothing!" Cuban says.

Researchers at Facebook realized their bots were chattering in a new language. Then they stopped it. Bob: “I can can I I everything else.” Alice: “Balls have zero to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to me to.” To you and I, that passage looks like nonsense. But what if I told you this nonsense was the discussion of what might be the most sophisticated negotiation software on the planet? Negotiation software that had learned, and evolved, to get the best deal possible with more speed and efficiency–and perhaps, hidden nuance–than you or...

“See you in the Supreme Court!” President Donald Trump tweeted last week, responding to lower court holds on his national security policies. But is taking cases all the way to the highest court in the land a good idea? Artificial intelligence may soon have the answer. A new study shows that computers can do a better job than legal scholars at predicting Supreme Court decisions, even with less information. Several other studies have guessed at justices’ behavior with algorithms. A 2011 project, for example, used the votes of any eight justices from 1953 to 2004 to predict the vote of...

Iran is an artificial country which includes a large number of ethnic groups: Persians, Azars, Kurds, Turkmen, Baloch, Arabs and more.... Southwestern Iran, the Khuzistan region, is home to the Arab minority group, but that is where most of the oil and gas resources are to be found underground, right under the feet of that Arab minority. They are Shiites, exactly like the majority Persians, but are treated with disdain by the government. In the past, the region was called Arabistan to allude to the ethnic group living there, but after the 1925 Persian Conquest, the Persians changed its name...

The Swedish government is taking an extremely bizarre commitment to fighting climate change by spending large sums of taxpayer money to develop 'meat' made from mealworms and crickets. Vinnova, the Swedish government agency that distributes money for research and development, is spending some 2.7 billion kronor ($261 million) to replace conventional meat with 'climate-friendly' insect 'meat' and other strange alternatives. Yum… Breitbart News reports: Green activists and the United Nations are behind such political initiatives as 'Meat Free Mondays' — a gateway to full vegetarianism — which are based on the premise that meat consumption is driving man-made climate change....

Are Robots are Coming of Age? “New robot shows off human-like qualities” says the headline. The media think it’s the greatest thing since sliced bread. My dearest is excited too: finally, she will no longer have to remind me of my chores, that the (yet to be acquired super-duper) robot with its well-programmed memory and a mind of its own will perform without being asked—and even without any snarky comments on the side. And here comes the latest news: “Artificial intelligence, human brain to merge in the 2030s, says futurist Kurzweil.” I’m not sure how that’s supposed to work but...

An Ohio woman's lawsuit alleging a Downers Grove sperm bank error that led to the birth of her biracial daughter has been thrown out of court. A DuPage County judge Thursday dismissed the lawsuit against Midwest Sperm Bank, saying the woman's wrongful birth claim and breach of warranty were not viable claims under state law. The suit, originally filed last November in Cook County, was refiled in DuPage County in March. Judge Ronald Sutter then gave attorneys for Jennifer Cramblett of Uniontown, Ohio, 14 days to refile the lawsuit as a negligence claim. Thomas Intili, a Dayton, Ohio attorney representing...

The only way to get gravity is with mass. The more mass, the more gravity you get. Without mass, you can’t have gravity. ... The force of gravity that we feel is actually just an acceleration towards the center of the Earth at 9.8 meters per second squared, or 1G. If you were in a spacecraft and it was accelerating away from Earth at a rate of 1G, it would feel exactly the same if you were standing on the ground. ... Want to fly to Jupiter? It would only take about 80 hours of acceleration, and then 80 hours...

The ZuckerBorg has assimilated yet more humans from academia and industry into its Facebook Artificial-Intelligence Research Team (FART). Facebook claims their work will focus on several aspects of machine learning, with applications to image, speech and natural language understanding. The free global ad platform announced that it had "bolstered" the team eam with some of the world's leading researchers from Microsoft and academia. Among those assimilated is the award-winning Leon Bottou, whose long-term goal "is to understand how to build human-level intelligence". Also on board are Laurens van de Maaten and Anitha Kannan, who will continue their research into deep...

Choosing diet drinks and artificial sweeteners instead of high-calorie treats may increase your craving for sugar, a study has found. It is because sugar substitutes tickle the taste buds, but can’t fool the brain. The pleasure we get from sweet treats is the result of a chemical called dopamine, which is released in the brain when sugar is consumed and is linked to a feeling of reward. Artificial sweeteners and other low-calorie options do not cause the same reaction, leaving dieters with their craving—and making them far more likely to binge on sugar later on. …

Researchers at the University of Waterloo, Canada, have built the world’s most sophisticated artificial brain to date. Known as ‘Spaun’, (short for Semantic Pointer Architecture Unified Network), the model is able to simulate complex brain behaviour and is capable of thinking remembering, seeing and interacting with its environment using a mechanical arm. Although Spaun currently exists in the simulated world inside a computer, it is one of the most advanced models ever created by scientists to understand how the human brain functions. Unlike previous brain models, such as the 'million processor computer', which feature large networks of neurons with generally...

ScienceDaily (May 9, 2012) — A detailed description of development of the first practical artificial leaf -- a milestone in the drive for sustainable energy that mimics the process, photosynthesis, that green plants use to convert water and sunlight into energy -- appears in the ACS journal Accounts of Chemical Research. The article notes that unlike earlier devices, which used costly ingredients, the new device is made from inexpensive materials and employs low-cost engineering and manufacturing processes.Daniel G. Nocera points out that the artificial leaf responds to the vision of a famous Italian chemist who, in 1912, predicted that scientists...