Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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Category: robotics/AI – Page 2,400

This DeepMind AI Spontaneously Developed Digital Navigation ‘Neurons’ Like Ours

When Google DeepMind researchers trained a neural network to tackle a virtual maze, it spontaneously developed digital equivalents to the specialized neurons called grid cells that mammals use to navigate. Not only did the resulting AI system have superhuman navigation capabilities, the research could provide insight into how our brains work.

Grid cells were the subject of the 2014 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine, alongside other navigation-related neurons. These cells are arranged in a lattice of hexagons, and the brain effectively overlays this pattern onto its environment. Whenever the animal crosses a point in space represented by one of the corners these hexagons, a neuron fires, allowing the animal to track its movement.

Mammalian brains actually have multiple arrays of these cells. These arrays create overlapping grids of different sizes and orientations that together act like an in-built GPS. The system even works in the dark and independently of the animal’s speed or direction.

Inside Google, A Debate Rages: Should It Sell Artificial Intelligence to the Military?

Pichai’s challenge is to find a way of reconciling Google’s dovish roots with its future. Having spent more than a decade developing the industry’s most formidable arsenal of AI research and abilities, Google is keen to wed those advances to its fast-growing cloud-computing business. Rivals are rushing to cut deals with the government, which spends billions of dollars a year on all things cloud. No government entity spends more on such technology than the military. Medin and Alphabet director Schmidt, who both sit on the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Board, have pushed Google to work with the government on counter-terrorism, cybersecurity, telecommunications and more.

To win in the business of cloud computing, the company tiptoes into the business of war. Some staff fear it’s a first step toward autonomous killing machines.

Yamaha Launches AI-Infused RX-A 80 Receiver Series

Yamaha today announced the ninth generation of its enthusiast-focused Aventage Series of AV receivers.

Ranging in price from $600 to $2,200, the new RX-A 80 Series comprises six models slated for roll-out between May and July, three of which employ artificial intelligence to achieve a “clearer, more engaging listening experience.”

Yamaha says its new Surround: AI technology analyzes audio characteristics such as dialogue, sound effects, and channel balance in real-time, compares the data to a reference database of movie scenes, and makes adjustments to enhance the sound field. Potential enhancements include making dialogue more intelligible in scenes with a lot of background noise. The feature is offered on the three top models, all due out in July: the 7.2-channel RX-A1080 ($1,300), 9.2-channel RX-A2080 ($1,700), and 9.2-channel RX-A3080 ($2,200).

Biological and Artificial Intelligence

We all feel overwhelmed by the speed at which new computing technologies are being thrown at us, but we haven’t seen anything yet. With the upcoming breakthroughs in Artificial Intelligence technology, today’s computers will look like prehistoric tools, within just a few years. Systems are likely to follow suit, bringing us closer to strong AI, a moment when machines will be as smart as any human being. The question many fear is what will happen if and when machines become much brighter than us? In “What’s on their mind?” system consultant Serge Van Themsche describes through an engaging discussion with his driverless car, the main AI issues any concerned citizen should know about. This conversation resorts to hard and soft disciplines to better explain AIn this book you will get to understand: — What are biological and artificial knowledge, intelligence, and self-consciousness? — Which new neuroscience evidence shows how our brain programs data coming from our senses? — How can simple formulas, such as 2 power of i −1, explain how our neurons connect? — Can emotions be computable? — Can machines already create knowledge without any human interference? — Why must the computer industry mimic as closely as possible the brain functionalities to develop intelligent androids? — Why will AI be based on a discrete world rather than a digital one? — Will humans become super beings? This book will enable every reader, with or without a scientific or philosophical background, to grasp the similarities and differences between brains and computers. By doing so, he or she will not only figure out the likely paths AI will follow but also how humans will use these new technologies to transform themselves into super beings. Even though not all readers might be looking forward to Transhumanism, the movement that apprehends these modifications, they can get prepared for this future co-existence with smart robots. In the meantime, they will at least, gain a clear understanding of how their own mind works and why they become knowledgeable, intelligent, and self-aware.

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