Artificial Friend or Virtual Foe

AI is a neutral technology, it is intrinsically good and bad at the same time (or none of the two, if you like), but we need to be sure to frame correctly its applications and uses. In a seminal paper, Floridi et al. (2018) highlight twenty different action points for a Good AI Society. Their analysis has a strong focus on Europe and concerns policy and ethical issues, but for the sake of using AI for good, I believe a few of those points are really cornerstones.

Read More

Making The Internet Of Things [IoT] More Intelligent With Artificial Intelligence [AI]

According IoT Analytics, there are over 17 Billion connected devices in the world as of 2018, with over 7 Billion of these “internet of things” (IoT) devices. The Internet of Things is the collection of those various sensors, devices, and other technologies that aren’t meant to directly interact with consumers, like phones or computers. Rather, IoT devices help provide information, control, and analytics to connect a world of hardware devices to each other and the greater internet. With the advent of cheap sensors and low cost connectivity, IoT devices are proliferating.

Read More

Can We Build Artificial Intelligence [AI] Without Losing Control Over It

Scared of superintelligent AI? You should be, says neuroscientist and philosopher Sam Harris — and not just in some theoretical way. We’re going to build superhuman machines, says Harris, but we haven’t yet grappled with the problems associated with creating something that may treat us the way we treat ants.

Read More

What’s New In Gartner’s Hype Cycle For Artificial Intelligence [AI], 2019

These and many other new insights are from Gartner Hype Cycle For AI, 2019 published earlier this year and summarized in the recent Gartner blog post, Top Trends on the Gartner Hype Cycle for Artificial Intelligence, 2019. Gartner’s definition of Hype Cycles includes five phases of a technology’s lifecycle and is explained here. Gartner’s latest Hype Cycle for AI reflects the growing popularity of AutoML, intelligent applications, AI platform as a service or AI cloud services as enterprises ramp up their adoption of AI. The Gartner Hype Cycle for AI, 2019.

Read More

Can Artificial Intelligence [AI] Save Our Oceans? Let’s Start With The Data

Scientists have noted that even if we were to halt all of our fossil fuel activity today, we are still on track to lose 90% of the ocean’s corals by 2050. Coral is the ocean’s life system and without it, we will soon also have an ocean without life.

In spite of the terrible news, there are some glimmers of light and hope spots that we can point to, especially in the areas of AI for the benefit of the ocean. This will be the first in a series of articles that puts a spotlight on the top innovators and innovations that are using the power of technology, and specifically AI to restore and regenerate our precious oceans.

Read More

How Artificial Intelligence [AI] Can Save Our Humanity

AI is massively transforming our world, but there’s one thing it cannot do: love. In a visionary talk, computer scientist Kai-Fu Lee details how the US and China are driving a deep learning revolution — and shares a blueprint for how humans can thrive in the age of AI by harnessing compassion and creativity. “AI is serendipity,” Lee says. “It is here to liberate us from routine jobs, and it is here to remind us what it is that makes us human.”

Read More

How Artificial Intelligence [AI] Can Enhance Our Memory, Work And Social Lives

How smart can our machines make us? Tom Gruber, co-creator of Siri, wants to make “humanistic AI” that augments and collaborates with us instead of competing with (or replacing) us. He shares his vision for a future where AI helps us achieve superhuman performance in perception, creativity and cognitive function – from turbocharging our design skills to helping us remember everything we’ve ever read and the name of everyone we’ve ever met. “We are in the middle of a renaissance in AI,” Gruber says. “Every time a machine gets smarter, we get smarter.”

Read More

How Artificial Intelligence Is Preventing Cognitive Overload, Compassion Fatigue And Job Burnout

Organizations are beginning to grasp the severity of burnout and the impact it has on your life and health in the long term. Work can be stressful, and due to many factors including a combination of hours, tasks, measurement and intensity, some jobs result in mental, physical and emotional exhaustion. If stress accumulates to a breaking point, you reach overload, fatigue and ultimately burnout.

Read More

What Artificial Intelligence Is – And Isn’t

Educator and entrepreneur Sebastian Thrun wants us to use AI to free humanity of repetitive work and unleash our creativity. In an inspiring, informative conversation with TED Curator Chris Anderson, Thrun discusses the progress of deep learning, why we shouldn’t fear runaway AI and how society will be better off if dull, tedious work is done with the help of machines. “Only one percent of interesting things have been invented yet,” Thrun says. “I believe all of us are insanely creative … [AI] will empower us to turn creativity into action.”

Read More

What Is Artificial Intelligence?

Artificial intelligence as a concept has been around for as long as humans have been telling stories. Singing swords, enchanted items, the various stuff of magic is a way of ascribing intelligence and free agency to inanimate objects. Hephaestus, the Greek god of the forge, supposedly created bronze handmaidens to help him when he was crafting the weapons of the gods. Talos, the Bronze automata that Hephaestus created to protect the isle of Crete featured as one of the more gripping stories in the tales of Jason and the Argonauts, where Jason and his men were only able to defeat him by taking off the oil cap on his ankle (the original Achilles heel) and letting the oil drain out.

Read More