Artificial intelligence will surpass human intelligence after 2020, predicts Vernor Vinge, a world-renowned pioneer in AI, who has warned about the risks and opportunities that an electronic super-intelligence would offer to mankind. “It seems plausible that with technology we can, in the fairly near future,” says scifi legend Vernor Vinge, “create (or become) creatures who [...]
A robot that can open doors and find electrical outlets to recharge itself. Computer viruses that no one can stop. Predator drones, which, though still controlled remotely by humans, come close to a machine that can kill autonomously. Impressed and alarmed by advances in artificial intelligence, a group of computer scientists is debating whether there [...]
It’s summertime and the Terminator is back. A sci-fi movie thrill ride, “Terminator Salvation” comes complete with a malevolent artificial intelligence dubbed Skynet, a military R.&D. project that gained self-awareness and concluded that humans were an irritant — perhaps a bit like athlete’s foot — to be dispatched forthwith. The notion that a self-aware computing [...]
Starting this summer, some of the world’s leading thinkers in exponentially growing technologies will be gathering annually at NASA Ames Research Center, in the heart of Silicon Valley, for 10 weeks of discussions on how to change the future. And you could join them. The gatherings will be part of what is known as Singularity [...]
We stand on the threshold of the most profound and transformative event in the history of humanity, the “Singularity.” What is the Singularity? From my perspective, the Singularity is a future period during which the pace of technological change will be so fast and far-reaching that human existence on this planet will be irreversibly altered. [...]
Intel’s chief technology officer, Justin Rattner, had his eye firmly fixed on the future at the Intel Developer Forum in San Francisco. In his closing keynote speech Rattner said that Ray Kurzweil’s concept of ‘the Singularity’, a point when human and artificial intelligence merges to create something bigger than itself, could be just 40 years [...]
One day, a machine will outsmart its maker. In one of William Gibson’s early mind-bending stories, the protagonist suddenly needs to fly a jump jet. In the cockpit, he finds his employer has thoughtfully stashed a biochip containing all the necessary piloting skills for him to plug into his own nervous system. While your correspondent [...]
Stanford University computer science professor John McCarthy coined the phrase in 1956 to mean “the science and engineering of making intelligent machines,” In the early years of the artificial intelligence movement, enthusiasm ran high and artificial intelligence pioneers made some bold predictions. In 1965, artificial intelligence innovator Herbert Simon said that “machines will be capable, [...]
Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a topic that always seems to drop on and off the radar of public interest in synch with Hollywood portrayals and celebrity prognostications. Indeed, the most recent spat of attention has followed a much-publicized $10,000 wager made by futurist and inventor Ray Kurzweil against corporate trailblazer Mitchell Kapor. The bet, solemnized [...]
