Lifeboat Foundation

Echoing the 1960s space race, countries are using brains over brawn to flex their national strength. But the implications could be disastrous.

This Tuesday, Microsoft announced it is partnering with OpenAI, the non-profit artificial intelligence (AI) research company founded and funded by Elon Musk and other industry luminaries. OpenAI seeks to develop AI to benefit all of humanity — a goal Microsoft isn’t foreign to, with its open-source deep learning software.

“It’s great to work with another organization that believes in the importance of democratizing access to AI,” reads OpenAI’s official blog announcement about the partnership. For their part, Microsoft sees a valuable partner in OpenAI. As one spokesperson said in an interview for TechCrunch: “Through this partnership, Microsoft and OpenAI will advance their mutual goal to democratize AI, so everyone can benefit.”

OpenAI will make Microsoft Azure its preferred cloud platform. “Azure has impressed us by building hardware configurations optimized for deep learning — they offer K80 GPUs with InfiniBand interconnects at scale,” says OpenAI. Azure is optimized for AI workloads, using its Azure Batch and Azure Machine Learning, coupled with Microsoft’s rebranded Cognitive Toolkit.

Continue reading “Microsoft Unites with Elon Musk on Breakthrough AI Project” »

Controlling artificial intelligence devices by voice will come soon said AI expert Neil Jacobstein.

Artificial intelligence is set to transform the world, the audience at a Christchurch conference on the future was told.

Artificial intelligence (AI) “allows us to expand the range of the possible, to do things we never thought we could do before,” said Neil Jacobstein who chairs the artificial intelligence and robotics track at Singularity University, a think tank based in California.

Continue reading “SingularityU: Artificial intelligence to transform every aspect of life” »

DALLAS — AT&T is experimenting with artificial intelligence (AI) and combining it with software-defined networking (SDN) and network functions virtualization (NFV) to figure out a better way to run its network.

Speaking on a panel at the 5G North America conference, Brian Daly, director of core network and government regulatory for AT&T, said that the company is looking at AI as a way to operate its network more efficiently by using it to make decisions that currently might require human interaction today. “We see AI combined with SDN and NFV as a way to provide us with efficiencies that may not exist today,” Daly said.

https://youtube.com/watch?v=J7_RDJtkBZ0

Microsoft has announced a new partnership with Elon Musk’s OpenAI nonprofit to advance and democratize artificial intelligence. Between OpenAI and Microsoft AI and Research, open-source AI breakthroughs should not take too long to surface. Pictured here are Harry Shum, Microsoft AI and Research Group executive vice president, and Sam Altman, co-chair of OpenAI. ( Microsoft Blog )

Microsoft is partnering its artificial intelligence research arm with Elon Musk’s nonprofit OpenAI, announcing the “industry’s first cloud bot-as-a-service” on Microsoft Azure.

Continue reading “Microsoft Partners With Elon Musk-Backed OpenAI To Democratize Artificial Intelligence: What Does This Mean?” »

TOKYO — Leading information technology companies are rushing to create systems that use artificial intelligence to defend against cyberattacks. The goal is to commercialize AI software to detect even ingeniously designed attacks, identify the perpetrators, and quickly mount a defense.

However, research is also taking place in the U.S. and elsewhere on ways to harness AI for cyberwarfare, and the trend suggests there will come a time when the battles in cyberspace pit AI against AI, leaving humans sidelined.

Fujitsu Laboratories, the R&D unit of Japanese IT giant Fujitsu, has begun to develop an AI system to protect corporate information systems from cyberattack. The system would learn to recognize regular patterns of network activity so deviant behavior stands out. The company aims to have a commercial product ready in two to three years that could uncover and respond to attacks even from hackers who intentionally space out their login attempts so they are difficult to discover.

Continue reading “Cybersecurity companies adopting AI, but so are hackers” »

You know that whole chaos theory idea (okay, we saw it in an Ashton Kutcher movie) about how a butterfly flapping its wings in one part of the world can trigger a hurricane in another?

Well, the 2016 equivalent is a project where scientists in Russia wear an exoskeleton to control a connected robot in Germany.

Continue reading “Wearable exoskeleton lets researchers in Russia control a robot in Germany” »

A lot has happened since we first heard about the AirMule, a prototype VTOL (Vertical Takeoff and Landing) aircraft that features internal rotor blades – these work along with the horizontal-thrust ducted fans visible at the rear. First, it made some tethered autonomous test flights. Then, it flew untethered for a short distance. Now, known as the Cormorant UAV, it’s made its first full untethered autonomous flight … although there were a couple of hiccups.

Designed by Israeli firm Tactical Robotics, the Cormorant is designed to deliver troops, civilian passengers or other cargo within tight quarters where helicopters with exposed rotor blades just can’t go. With the UAV in its name standing for Unmanned Aerial Vehicle, the idea is that it will perform these tasks either autonomously or by remote control.

Continue reading “Cormorant/AirMule UAV completes first autonomous flight” »

Take a peek into Google’s experimental artificial intelligence research.