H+ Weekly - Issue #79
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Merging brains with machines. Extending life span and its impact on society. OpenAI and DeepMind release playgrounds for their AIs. Microsoft shows a new chatbot, and more!
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MORE THAN A HUMAN
The Brain Tech to Merge Humans and AI Is Already Being Developed
Peter Diamandis briefly explains what Bryan Johnson and Kernel is doing to merge human brains with artificial intelligence.
The Evolution of Brain-Computer Interfaces
Everything you need to know about brain-computer interfaces in an easy to digest infographic. Types of BCI, the history of the technology and its applications.
Kazuo Ishiguro: 'We’re coming close to the point where we can create people who are superior to others'
Imagine a two-tiered society with elite citizens, genetically engineered to be smarter, healthier and to live longer, and an underclass of biologically run-of-the-mill humans. It sounds like the plot of a dystopian novel, but the world could be sleepwalking towards this scenario, according to Kazuo Ishiguro, thanks to advancements in genetic engineering.
Is Radical Life Extension Good for Society?
On one side of the discussion, we have philosophers. On the other side, scientists trying to beat the death. The first group says death is a natural thing and it actually accelerates the progress. The latter say extending the life would bring benefits to the society and release resources we can spend better.
Will A Cryogenically-frozen Corpse Ever Come Back To Life?
Some people gamble on cryogenics in hope that it will one day bring them back to life. But would it fulfill the promise of a new life somewhere in future? Or will the changes in the brain during the process of freezing damage it beyond repair?
Open Bionics partners with NHS for a feasibility study to bring bionic hands to the UK health system
Open Bionics, the producer of advanced and cheap 3D printed prosthetics, partners with UK's National Health Service (NHS) to check if its product has a place in UK's national healthcare system. If it does, then it will save millions of pounds and deliver the prosthetics quicker.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE
Top 10 AI failures of 2016
Many entries on this list are an example of how biased training data set leads to a biased AI system, but there are also other entries, like the fatal Tesla crash or a security robot crashed into a child.
Artificial Intelligence Is Here | Prof. Jürgen Schmidhuber
Here's a short clip from a panel including Prof. Jürgen Schmidhuber. The host asked the question about unemployment and changing nature of the work caused by robots in the financial sector. Prof. Schmidhuber answered the question and then went on describing the future in which we have in our pocket a small device with computing power equal to the computing power of the mankind.
Open-sourcing DeepMind Lab
DeepMind open sourced its Lab - a virtual 3D playground where they train their AIs to operate in a 3D environment and solve problems on their own.
In OpenAI’s Universe, Computers Learn to Use Apps Like Humans Do
Meanwhile, OpenAI released Universe - a playground for AIs where they can play with other apps and programs, including games like Grand Theft Auto V.
Zo is Microsoft’s latest AI chatbot
Microsoft and chatbots, take two. Let's hope Zo will behave better than Tay.
Uber acquires Geometric Intelligence to create an AI lab
Uber joins the Big Guys Buying Smaller AI Startups club and acquires Geometric Intelligence - an AI company from New York that's researching innovative, patent-pending techniques that learn more efficiently from less data.
ROBOTICS
Why Did the Robot Do That?
As more and more robots are among us, we need to trust them more. We need to know what are they doing and why they did what they did. We need robots capable of explaining their actions. This article describes research that aims to help robots explain their behaviors in plain English and offer greater insights into their decision making.
BioRob Robot Arm Is Safe To Use Around Humans
Meet BioRob: a collaborative robot arm designed specifically to be safe around humans. Designed for automation, the robot can move components, load machines, position sensors, and more with accuracy.
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Conrad Gray (@conradthegray)
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