Lifeboat Foundation

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?” »

Amazing stuff!

Image-analyzing software has been a possibility for a while now. It’s how Google’s reverse image search works. It’s how you are able to deposit a check via ATM or even smartphone. Image creation is a newer development. Google’s Deep Dream, released last year, recreates images that are fed to it by compositing other images, shapes, and colors into a twisted version of the original. The obvious next step here is software that can create an image from a description, which WordsEye has gotten to first.

WordsEye is a new software that converts language to 3-D images. In its current beta state, WordsEye’s images are constructed from pre-existing, manipulatable 3-D models, textures, and light sources. The results are surreal, cartoon-y and a little unsettling. But don’t let this detract from such an advancement in artificial intelligence.

Continue reading “WordsEye Will Show What You Describe” »

This new material is remarkably soft, and it could revolutionize robotics and prosthetics.

Researchers from the Monash University have discovered a new sponge-like material called graphene elastomer. This revolutionary material is expected to be used for robots designed to help take care of elderly people.

The graphene-based elastomer is exteremely sensitive to pressure and vibrations. Also called G-elastomer, the material has the ability to bounce back despite the pressure given to it. It is described to be very soft and elastic compared to other substances such as rubber or foam.

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UK researchers have developed nanoscale robots that can potentially replicate the traditional factory assembly line, except on a tiny, tiny scale.

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Very interesting; the key to Netflix expansion into China is “AI”.

Netflix, Inc. NFLX CEO yesterday provided some updates regarding the company’s expansion into China and his vision of using artificial intelligence technologies for growth at the ongoing DLD Conference in Munich.

CEO Reed Hastings stated that “It may be soon that we have a license in China, or it may take a couple years, but we’re going to be very patient.” Netflix recently expanded to over 190 countries across the globe but it has not been able to enter China. It has been in talks with the Chinese government and other partners like Wasu Media Holding Co. to enter the online video market over there.

Continue reading “Netflix CEO Provides Update on China; AI to Play Bigger Role” »