Lifeboat Foundation

A robot wedding.

Five couples sealed the deal at a robot factory in Shenyang, Liaoning Province of China, in one of the most unique wedding venues in recent news.

On Wednesday, robots of all forms serviced the entire wedding for the couples and guests alike. Some robots were merely appendages, holding candles out along the aisle. Others had a more humanoid form with bright, pixilated smiles. These robots served wine and greeted guests at the door. A few special ones even served as ring-bearers or flower girls.

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I must admit; I got a little laughter from reading the beginning of this article. However, there is a potential longer term concern around jobs and an even larger concern around data (including IP) when it comes to AI. So, I truly hope folks are strategically planning, designing, and implementing appropriate safeguards around their AI architecture and systems; especially if we look at hacking, etc.

Bill Gates, Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking have all done their part in warning the world of the true power of artificial intelligence. All three men were actually awarded the 2015 Luddite Award, which is given by the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation.

Because of their honest assessment on the power of new technology, these three men have been called alarmists who spread horror. There were 10 total nominees to the prices, and all three received them after getting more 3,680 votes.

Continue reading “Bill Gates and Elon Musk Will Save the World from AI?” »

Personally, today’s AI is not at the level we need it. Therefore, this article by Collin Wood does hold some merit of fact. However, this is going to be changing in the next 3 to 4 years. And, believing that AI is not going to be sophisticated or at a level that can out perform people with information is truly a mistake especially when technologies such as Quantum are added to the mix and Quantum AI is matured and evolved over the next 5 years. So, at least we’re good for the year 2016 to early 2018. However, after we progress forward in 2018, I advise folks to have a back up plan for employment.

In fact, many in government and the private sector are already using the next rung in humanity’s digital progression.

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When AI and particularly a Quantum AI society takes hold; we may see another huge shift in the balance of economic power again. For the past 20+ years, we have seen the trade and economic power shift to emerging markets across Asia. What type of a shift may we see when AI and particularly Robots on Quantum are in place? Could we see a complete reversal of markets and growth shift away from Asia back to Europe and the US/ Canada? Or, even no shift at all, etc.? Key questions that we need to be ready to address especially as more sophisticated AI is introduced over the next 3 to 5 years.

DAVOS: Invoking the famous Star Wars series, top industrialist Anand Mahindra today said technology is like the Force and everything depends on how we use it, as business leaders from across the world began debating here the challenges and benefits from the Fourth Industrial Revolution.

Speaking here at the first official session of the World Economic Forum’s five-day annual meet, which started last night, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella also said the world cannot afford another digital divide and the key question was how to ensure that the fourth industrial revolution leads to digital dividends.

Continue reading “World Economic Forum 2016: Technology is like Force, depends how you use it, says Anand Mahindra” »

And, no! Even Football is no longer sacred from the AI invasion. Can you imagine see the Football coach and managers as robots making better game plays and books for their teams. Actually, if we could replace the refs. with robots that may be a good thing.

The application of artificial intelligence to play-calling is already upon us. Last spring, two students at North Carolina State built a model to predict whether an NFL team would pass or run, information that would hugely benefit defensive coordinators.

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Amazon’s plans to create a fleet of automated drones to deliver packages straight to customers’ doorsteps are widely known. But now the company is addressing concerns about noise pollution, collisions and even people who might try and shoot drones down.

In an interview with Yahoo News, Amazon Vice President of Global Affairs Paul Misener explained that the company is trying to implement a high-tech delivery system to get small packages to customers in 30 minutes or less – a far shorter period than a driver navigating a system of roads would require.

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I see this competition now between the US vs Russia/China in robotics as a good thing. For one it will make the silly campaigns against robots go away, as this will now become a matter of national security to advance robotics. And, secondly, it will force the government to put up a huge amount of money into robotics research even if they didnt really want to; the old guys think robots are silly. What that means for us in the general public is that we will get robot caregivers much sooner than we thought thanks to all this defense spending on robotics.

U.S. officials have ordered an investigation into whether China might be gaining an unfair competitive advantage in the robotics race.

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The excitement keeps growing on Quantum. Now, the “MAGIC” will happen.

Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. will work with Nvidia Corp. on cloud computing and artificial intelligence, and plans to enlist about 1,000 developers to work on its big-data platform during the next three years.

The arm of China’s biggest e-commerce operator, known as AliCloud, will boost investment in data analysis and machine learning, it said in a statement Wednesday. AliCloud is staking $1 billion on the belief that demand for processing and storage from governments and companies will boost growth during the next decade as its tries to compete with Amazon.com Inc. in computing services.

Continue reading “Alibaba Teams With Nvidia in $1 Billion Bet on Cloud Computing” »

Interesting perspective of the world and globalization.

It is my belief that we are heading toward a blend of Islandization and Commonization. World transformation is powered first and foremost by the mega-driver of technology, which in turn is central to both of these worlds. The most significant change in the past seven years of world history is that we have entered into a period of sustained technological progress. I fully expect in coming years further breakthroughs in areas including alternative energy, biotechnology and artificial intelligence that dramatically change our economies and our societies.

Unfortunately, I am less sure that technological change will be positive. The exploitation by violent extremists of social media is a case in point of the double-edge that new technologies can bring. This is an extremely disruptive and dislocating time for individuals, organizations and governments alike. The net gain of technology will almost certainly be positive, but there will be winners and losers, and losers will not necessarily go quietly. Nor will the winners necessarily perceive objective gain as actual gain. And some new technologies, such as the gene-editing powers of CRISPR, point to a highly uncertain future.

Continue reading “Globalization is dead: what now?” »