DARPA Grand Challenge 2005 (Wikipedia)

Significant artificial intelligence – “AI” – is just around the corner. 2011 has been a particularly good year for it: IBM computer Watson beat the two top Jeopardy! quiz show contestants in February. But some of the other milestones of AI have been particularly memorable.

The first major AI event many remember was when IBM’s Deep Blue computer beat chess master Gary Kasparov in a series of games. This was only in 1997. It was preceded by a number of attempts to beat a chess master – which failed.

Then in 2005, Stanford University produced a robot which drove alone along a desert trail for 131 miles. This was the DARPA challenge. Similarly, the previous couple of years saw attempts which failed.

Human ingenuity is such that we keep trying until we get there. And so with AI.

It’s been said that it’s about time that we started to focus the debate on how to deal with the emerging technology before it’s too late to influence it.

The Singularity Institute Is A Leader In Approaching AI

The Singularity Institute – whose leading light is brilliant inventor and thinker Ray Kurzweil – is pushing forward a programme of “Friendly AI”. They quote PayPal co-founder Peter Thiel who says:

“I’m interested in facilitating a forum in which there can be… substantive research on how to bring about a world in which AI will be friendly to humans rather than hostile… [The Singularity Institute represents] a combination of very talented people with the right problem space [they're] going after… [They've] done a phenomenal job… on a shoestring budget. From my perspective, the key question is always: What’s the amount of leverage you get as an investor? Where can a small amount make a big difference? This is a very leveraged kind of philanthropy.”

Donate To “Friendly AI” – And Double Your Effect

Thanks to benefactors, every pound you donate to the Singularity Institute for AI will be used to study and think through the important matters of how to keep AI safe and friendly.

They say: “…the Singularity Institute has been thinking about how to create safe and ethical artificial intelligence since long before the Singularity landed on the front cover of TIME magazine.”

We need to be thinking about this important matter now – and I have donated. I hope you will too – you can do so here:

http://singinst.org/2011summerchallenge

Related articles on Artificial Intelligence

• SIAI $125,000 Summer Singularity Challenge Launched (acceleratingfuture.com)
• Artificial Intelligence 7/29/2011 (empressoftheglobaluniverse.wordpress.com)
• 2001: A.I. Artificial Intelligence (moviehart.wordpress.com)

We Need To Think Through Artificial Intelligence Now is a post from: Living To 150

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Image via Wikipedia

Ray Kurzweil has produced a fascinating essay reviewing every prediction he has made over the past 25 years.

Ray Kurzweil is the brilliant inventor and futurist who invented the scanner, the electric piano, and dictation software.

His predictions make good reading, as do his assessments of where we are now. I have printed out the 100+ page document and look forward to reading it on a train journey.

A brilliant man – and a fascinating glimpse of the future.

You can get the essay here.

The singularity is a point around 2045 when computers will acquire full-blown artificial intelligence and technology will infuse itself with biology. So says Ray!

Related articles o Ray Kurzweil

• Thoughts on the Future from Ray Kurzweil (bigthink.com)
• Ray Kurzweil’s Slippery Futurism (tech.slashdot.org)
• Time Presents “10 Questions for Ray Kurzweil” – Hello, Mainstream (video) (singularityhub.com)

Ray Kurzweil’s Predictions is a post from: Living To 150

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Ray Kurzweil says that scientific advances are happening faster and faster. He points out that whereas evolutionary changes used to be very slow, it is in their nature to accelerate. Ten years ago hardly anyone used search engines! Ten months ago hardly anyone used Twitter!

These accelerating changes will make for more dramatic changes in the next few decades than most of us can imagine. With Kurzweil’s help, we can get a flavour of what these changes will mean for us.

As always, this interview with Ray Kurzweil is fascinating.

Leave a comment with what you think!

Ray Kurzweil – Why The Future Is Coming Much Faster is a post from: Living To 150

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A documentary is out of Ray Kurzweil, genius inventor and futurist. Kurzweil invented the scanner, the first electronic piano and dictation software, among many other things. Many of his predictions of the future have been proven correct.

He now predicts that machine intelligence will equal human intelligence around 2045. This has been called the singularity. To keep understanding the advances in technology, he further predicts that humans will choose to enhance their own minds using machine intelligence.

He is a fascinating speaker, though some will find his ideas challenging. Here is the trailer for the film.

Ray Kurweil: Transcendent Man – A Documentary is a post from: Living To 150

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