Lifeboat Foundation

Researchers borrowed equations from calculus to redesign the core machinery of deep learning so it can model continuous processes like changes in health.

Toxic algae is overtaking Lake Atitlán. Now AI may help the lake recover.

But many experts, even those mindful of such risks, have a more positive outlook, especially in health-care and possibly in education.

Most experts canvassed by Pew say artificial intelligence will leave most of us better off by 2030. But there are fears about jobs and mayhem.

The first-ever surface mission to the far side of the moon is underway.

China’s robotic Chang’e 4 spacecraft streaked away from Earth today (Dec. 7), launching atop a Long March 3B rocket from the Xichang Satellite Launch Center at about 1:23 p.m. EST (1823 GMT; 2:23 a.m. on Dec. 8 local China time).

If all goes according to plan, Chang’e 4 will make history’s first landing on the lunar far side sometime in early January. The mission, which consists of a stationary lander and a rover, will perform a variety of science work and plant a flag for humanity in a region that remains largely unexplored to date. [China’s Chang’e 4 Moon Far Side Mission in Pictures].

Continue reading “China Launches 1st Mission to Land on the Far Side of the Moon” »

The view of the world through any primate’s eyes is funnelled from the retina into the visual cortex, the various layers of which do the initial processing of incoming information. At first, it’s little more than pixels of dark or bright colours, but within 100 milliseconds the information zaps through a network of brain areas for further processing to generate a consciously recognized, 3D landscape with numerous objects moving around in it.

Doris Tsao mastered facial recognition in the brain. Now she’s looking to determine the neural code for everything we see. Doris Tsao mastered facial recognition in the brain. Now she’s looking to determine the neural code for everything we see.

After building AlphaGo to beat the world’s best Go players, Google DeepMind built AlphaZero to take on the world’s best machine players.

Facial recognition technology is being tested by businesses and governments for everything from policing to employee timesheets. Even more granular results are on their way, promise the companies behind the technology: Automatic emotion recognition could soon help robots understand humans better, or detect road rage in car drivers.

But experts are warning that the facial-recognition algorithms that attempt to interpret facial expressions could be based on uncertain science. The claims are a part of AI Now Institute’s annual report, a nonprofit that studies the impact of AI on society. The report also includes recommendations for the regulation of AI and greater transparency in the industry.

“The problem is now AI is being applied in a lot of social contexts. Anthropology, psychology, and philosophy are all incredibly relevant, but this is not the training of people who come from a technical [computer science] background.” says Kate Crawford, co-founder of AI Now, distinguished research professor at NYU and principal researcher at Microsoft Research. “Essentially the narrowing of AI has produced a kind of guileless acceptance of particular strands of psychological literature that have been shown to be suspect.”

Continue reading “Amazon And Microsoft Claim AI Can Read Human Emotions. Experts Say the Science Is Shaky” »

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