Lifeboat Foundation

Chinese delivery firm is moving to embrace automation. Orange robots at the company’s sorting stations are able to identify the destination of a package through a code-scan, virtually eliminating sorting mistakes.

The army of robots can sort up to 200,000 packages a day, and are self-charging, meaning they are operational 24/7. The company estimates its robotic sorting system is saving around 70-percent of the costs a human-based sorting line would require.

Chinese researchers are developing an advanced artificial intelligence processor that is expected to help China launch its foray into the global chip market; a whopping 1.4 million dollars has already been earmarked for the purpose by the Chinese Academy of Sciences, according to Xinhua.

Continue reading “All Systems Go: China Spearheads New AI With Chip That Simulates Human Brain” »

For people in that area, and it may be worth while to try reaching out to them for funding for anti aging stuff.

Why is RAND opening a Bay Area office?

The San Francisco Bay Area is really at the center of technology and transformation. That’s also been a focus at RAND since our very first report, Preliminary Design of an Experimental World-Circling Spaceship, in 1946, which foretold the creation of satellites more than a decade before Sputnik.

Continue reading “Innovation in the Bay Area: Q&A with Nidhi Kalra” »

Some weird religious stories w/ transhumanism Expect the conflict between religion and transhumanism to get worse, as closed-minded conservative viewpoints get challenged by radical science and a future with no need for an afterlife: http://barbwire.com/2017/04/06/cybernetic-messiah-transhuman…elligence/ & http://www.livebytheword.blog/google-directors-push-for-comp…s-explain/ & http://ctktexas.com/pastoral-backstory-march-30th-2017/

By J. Davila Ashcroft

The recent film Ghost in the Shell is a science fiction tale about a young girl (known as Major) used as an experiment in a Transhumanist/Artificial Intelligence experiment, turning her into a weapon. At first, she complies, thinking the company behind the experiment saved her life after her family died. The truth is, however, that the company took her forcefully while she was a runaway. Major finds out that this company has done the same to others as well, and this knowledge causes her to turn on the company. Throughout the story the viewer is confronted with the existential questions behind such an experiment as Major struggles with the trauma of not feeling things like the warmth of human skin, and the sensations of touch and taste, and feels less than human, though she is told many times she is better than human. While this is obviously a science fiction story, what might comes as a surprise to some is that the subject matter of the film is not just fiction. Transhumanism and Artificial Intelligence on the level of the things explored in this film are all too real, and seem to be only a few years around the corner.

Continue reading “The Cybernetic Messiah: Transhumanism and Artificial Intelligence” »

Could costumed robots one day roam the streets of Walt Disney World?

A new patent application from Disney (DIS) suggests it’s something the company has considered.

The document says Disney is developing robots, including “humanoid robots,” that have been “adapted for soft contact and/or interaction with a human.”

Continue reading “Disney seeks patent for a ‘humanoid robot’ that can play a character” »

Libratus, an AI built by Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), racked up over $US1.7 million ($2.2 million) worth of chips against four of the top professional poker players in the world in a 20-day marathon poker tournament that ended in Philadelphia on Tuesday…

While machines have beaten humans over the last two decade in chess, checkers, and most recently in the ancient game of Go, Libratus’ victory is significant because poker is an imperfect information game — similar to the real world where not all problems are laid out.

The difficulty in figuring out human behaviour is one of the main reasons why poker was considered immune to machines.

Continue reading “Artificial intelligence beats humans in poker for first time” »

A tsunami of change is already arriving. Artificial intelligence is now capable of doing desk jobs that were previously safe from automation. The social and economic effects remain to be seen, but is AI what we think it is?

Workplaces that include artificial intelligence (AI) will soon be reality, say researchers who believe the rise of AI in all areas of life is not only inevitable, it’s set to reshape the way we think about consciousness and human identity.

From Metropolis to 2001: A Space Odyssey and The Terminator, robots and super-intelligent AIs in film have seduced and terrified our collective consciousness, having an impact on how we view artificial intelligence. But will they really crush the puny humans and take over the world?

Continue reading “Workplace diversity will soon include artificial intelligence” »

Microsoft is bringing its Cognitive Toolkit version 2.0 out of beta today and should be helping out a ton of companies who depend on tools to deploy deep learning at scale.

The Cognitive Toolkit or CNTK to some is a deep learning tool that helps companies speed up the process of image and speech recognition. Thanks to today’s update, CNTK can now be used by companies either on-premises or in the cloud combined with Azure GPUs.

Cognitive Toolkit is being used extensively by a wide variety of Microsoft products, by companies worldwide with a need to deploy deep learning at scale, and by students interested in the very latest algorithms and techniques. The latest version of the toolkit is available on GitHub via an open source license. Since releasing the beta in October 2016, more than 10 beta releases have been deployed with hundreds of new features, performance improvements and fixes.

Continue reading “Microsoft updates Deep Learning Toolkit to version 2.0 bringing lots of new features” »

If you’re an accountant, lawyer or data analyst, a robot may soon take over your job.