Robots to deliver instructions to employees based on analyses of big data and the workers’ routines

Hitachi’s double-arm robot during a demonstration at a warehouse in Chiba prefecture, Japan.—Bloomberg News

“Work efficiency improved by 8% in warehouses with the new artificial intelligence program, compared to those without them,” a Hitachi spokeswoman said. “The program can examine an extremely large amount of data to provide the most efficient instruction, which is impossible for human managers to handle.”

Hitachi last month unveiled a fast-moving two-armed robot which it says may replace humans in performing basic functions like retrieving items in warehouses.

Its new artificial intelligence can also analyze how an employee, judging from past experience, tries new approaches to work in an effort to improve efficiency, and can choose the best course of action, the company said. “The AI automatically analyzes the outcome of these new approaches, and selects processes which produce better results and applies it to the next work order,” Hitachi said in a statement.

Tests showed that artificial intelligence could accurately issue work orders for employees at a warehouse, instructing them on the most efficient route to pick up a product on a shelf and complete their duties.

Source: Wall Street Journal

The company is currently trying to hire at least 86 more employees with expertise in the branch of artificial intelligence

Some experts say the iPhone maker’s strict stance on privacy is likely to undermine its ability to compete in the rapidly progressing field.

Machine learning, which helps devices infer from experience what users are likely to want next, relies on crunching vast troves of data to provide unprompted services, such as the scores for a favorite sports team or reminders of when to leave for an appointment based on traffic.

The larger the universe of users providing data about their habits, the better predictions can be about what an individual might want. But Apple analyzes its users’ behavior under self-imposed constraints to better protect their data from outsiders.

That means Apple largely relies on analyzing the data on each user’s iPhone rather than sending it to the cloud, where it can be studied alongside information from millions of others.

“They want to make a phone that responds to you very quickly without knowledge of the rest of the world,” said Joseph Gonzalez, co-founder of Dato, a machine learning startup. “It’s harder to do that.”

Craig Federighi, senior vice president of Software Engineering, who described the release at a developers’ conference in June as “adding intelligence throughout the user experience in a way that enhances how you use your device but without compromising your privacy, things like improving the apps that you use most.”

And some machine learning experts might be enticed by the challenge of matching Google’s smarts amid privacy constraints, suggested John Duchi, an assistant professor at Stanford University.

“New flavors of problems are exciting,” he said.

If Apple succeeds without compromising privacy, its Mountain View rival may face questions about its approach to analyzing users’ data.

Source: Newsweek

It won’t take long for Messenger’s users to realize M can accomplish much more than your standard digital helper, suspects David Marcus, vice president of messaging products at Facebook. “It can perform tasks that none of the others can,” Marcus says. That’s because, in addition to using artificial intelligence to complete its tasks, M is powered by actual people.

Companies from Google to Taskrabbit are engineering products to act as superpowered personal assistants. Some, like Apple’s Siri, Google Now, or Microsoft’s Cortana, rely entirely on technology, and though they can be used by a lot of people, their range of tasks remains limited.

Others, like startups Magic and Operator or gig-economy companies like TaskRabbit, employ people to respond to text-based requests. These services can get nearly anything done—for a much smaller number of folks.

M is a hybrid. It’s a virtual assistant powered by artificial intelligence as well as a band of Facebook employees, dubbed M trainers, who will make sure that every request is answered.

We start capturing all of your intent for the things you want to do. _{David Marcus}

Facebook’s goal is to make Messenger the first stop for mobile discovery. 

Source: Wired

OPEN FOR BUSINESS:

Japan’s Henn-na Hotel (which means “weird hotel”) has a workforce almost entirely made up of robots. Hotel staff are mostly female-shaped humanoid robots that blink, speak Japanese and even know English. There is also a dinosaur-shaped robot with a bow tie that helps customers at the reception desk.

The robot workforce is not a gimmick to entertain a public with future-like amenities, but a true effort to move hotel services into the future. 

The hotel will have three robots that will act as receptionists apart from four service and porter robots, and others engaged in menial tasks such as cleaning.

“We’ll make the most efficient hotel in the world,” boasts Huis Ten Bosch president Hideo Sawada. Sawada says he hopes robots will eventually run 90 per cent of the property.

“In the future, we’re hoping to build 1,000 similar hotels around the world,” says Sawada. “I also wanted to do something about hotel prices going up.”

Another futuristic element of the hotel is that there are no room keys. When a guest registers — through an automated service — a picture is taken of their face, and when the guest wishes to enter their room, the door will unlock as soon as the system recognizes their face.

A high-tech system also senses how cold or hot a guest feels and will change the room temperature accordingly. You can also tell the room to turn the lights on or off. Some robots can even initiate simple forms of room service, like delivering snacks and beverages.

Source: Design&Trend, Indian Express

See that Nao robot waving its hand up there? It’s not starting a dance routine: it just had a light-bulb moment, so it’s trying to catch a human’s attention. Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute professor Selmer Bringsjord programmed the three robots to think that two of them were given a “dumbing pill.” In reality, that pill’s a button on top of their heads that can be pressed by the tester. When the tester asked the robots which pill they received, their processors crunched data in order to provide the right answer. Since two of them were unable to talk, only one answered out loud. “I don’t know,” the third robot replied, realizing the truth a short while later.

“Sorry, I know now,” the third Nao waved at the tester. “I was able to prove that I was not given a dumbing pill.” After all, it could speak! That means the machine was able to recognize and differentiate itself from the other two — it was self-aware at that particular point in time.

Source: Engadget

Taipei, June 21, 2015 (CNA) The initial batch of Pepper robots, developed by Japanese mobile carrier SoftBank Corp. and manufactured by Taiwan’s Foxconn Technology Group (富士康), sold out in one minute on the first day of sales in Japan.

The 1,000 units of Pepper available for purchase in June sold out in 60 seconds when online orders started at 10 a.m. on Saturday, according to a statement from SoftBank Robotics Corp., a robotics venture by SoftBank, Foxconn and Chinese e-commerce leader Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.

Orders are no longer being taken and additional sales of Pepper, which sells for 198,000 Japanese yen (US$1,624), are scheduled to be announced on SoftBank’s website in July.

In addition to Pepper’s emotion recognition functions, the robot generates emotions autonomously by processing information from its cameras, touch sensors, accelerometer and other sensors within its “endocrine-type multi-layer neural network,” SoftBank said.

Source: Focus Taiwan

From the 2015 DARPA Robotics Challenge

The Acceleration of Acceleration

You really have to stop and think about this for a moment. For the first time in history, the world’s leading experts on accelerating technology are consistently finding themselves too conservative in their predictions about the future of that technology.

This is more than a little peculiar. It tells us that the accelerating change we’re seeing in the world is itself accelerating. And this tells us something deep and wild and important about the future that’s coming for us.

Source: Steven Kotler, and co-writer Ken Goffman
The Future Is Arriving Far Faster Than Expected

“The number one request we hear from girls around the world is that they want to have a conversation with Barbie. Now, for the first time ever, Barbie can have a two-way conversation.”
[- unnamed spokeswoman for Mattel]

The Hello Barbie will be able to play interactive games and tell stories and jokes.
It will also listen to the child’s conversation and adapt to it over time – so, for instance, if a child mentions that they like to dance, the doll may refer to this in a future chat.

AI could help WHO

The 66th World Health Assembly, consisting of Ministers of Health of 194 Member States, adopted the WHO’s Comprehensive Mental Health Action Plan 2013-2020 in May 2013.

The action plan recognizes the essential role of mental health in achieving health for all people. It is based on a life-course approach, aims to achieve equity through universal health coverage and stresses the importance of prevention.

Four major objectives are set forth: more effective leadership and governance for mental health; the provision of comprehensive, integrated mental health and social care services in community-based settings; implementation of strategies for promotion and prevention; and strengthened information systems, evidence and research.

PL – I know what you’re thinking … what does this post have to do with Artificial Intelligence? Well, if we are to avoid the risks of AI, we have to direct AI to benefit humans. In this case, benefit human mental health. And human mental growth. The fact is, there aren’t nearly enough human counselors, advisers and therapists working today to meet this challenge on their own. Hence, socialized AI, designed to learn a person, knowledgeably interact with him/her, and guide them to resources tailored to their specific needs, isn’t far-fetched. Its essential to support the work of human health care workers in clinical applications. And, its essential for non-clinical and pre-clinical applications to empower humans to help themselves. [FYI: I’ve done my part. I’ve invented protocols, subroutines, algorithms and scripts that will help “socialize” artificial intelligent agents for machine to human interaction. This IP can be licensed or sold to be used by virtually any artificial intelligence developer. Any takers? Learn more here.] 

Source: WHO
http://www.who.int/mental_health/publications/action_plan/en/

Huis Ten Bosch, a theme park in typical Dutch style in terms of its architecture in Nagasaki Prefecture has unveiled plans to open the modern hotel with robot staff and other advanced technologies to significantly reduce operating costs.

The hotel will be called Henn-na Hotel, which translates as Strange Hotel. The hotel will be partially staffed by what are termed ‘actroid’ androids – remarkably human-like robots who will be able to greet, carry luggage to rooms, make cups of coffee – and even smile.

The hotel will have three robots that will act as receptionists apart from four service and porter robots, and others engaged in menial tasks such as cleaning.

“We’ll make the most efficient hotel in the world,” boasts Huis Ten Bosch president Hideo Sawada. Sawada says he hopes robots will eventually run 90 per cent of the property.

“In the future, we’re hoping to build 1,000 similar hotels around the world,” says Sawada, CNN quoted Japan’s Nikkei News as saying. Other features will help make Henn-na the most futuristic low-cost hotel in the industry, according to the company.

Guestroom doors will be accessed by facial-recognition technology. Amenities provided in rooms will be kept minimal. Guests can request items through a tablet when needed.

Instead of air-conditioning, a radiation panel will detect body heat in rooms and adjust the temperature. Solar power and other energy-saving features will be used to reduce operating costs.

Source: The Indian Express

Christian evangelists said this week that artificially intelligent (AI) computer brains should be converted from atheism to Christianity.

In an article published on Wednesday, Gizmodo’s Zoltan Istvan pointed out that the world was nearing a point where “autonomous, self-aware super intelligences” created by humans would be part of our culture.

And several pastors and theologians told Istvan that there was no reason that a computer could not be saved by Jesus.

“I don’t see Christ’s redemption limited to human beings,” Providence Presbyterian Church Associate Pastor Dr. Christopher Benek insisted. “If AI is autonomous, then we should encourage it to participate in Christ’s redemptive purposes in the world.”

Benek was already thinking ahead to a future with what Istvan called “a nation filled with robot pastors and AI spiritual gurus.”

“The Holy Spirit can work though AI; it can work through anything,” he said. “There may be churches set up to deal and promote religious AI in the future. AI can help spread the word of God. In fact, AI might help us understand God better.”

Giulio Prisco of the “virtual” Turing Church explained to Gizmodo that if humans had a soul then artificial intelligence would too.

“[I]f so, then there is no reason why thinking and feeling AIs shouldn’t be able to be saved,” Prisco wrote in an email. “Once human-like AI exist, they will be persons just like us.”

But Prisco speculated that AI might reject human religions altogether.

“It’s only fair to let AI have access to the teachings of all the world’s religions,” he noted. “Then they can choose what they want to believe.”

“But I think it’s highly unlikely that superhuman AI would choose to believe in the petty, provincial aspects of traditional religions. At the same time, I think they would be interested in enlightened spirituality and religious cosmology, or eschatology, and develop their own versions.”

Source: Alternet

Watson is designed to enhance the expertise of human beings, as noted by Dario Gil, director of symbiotic cognitive systems at IBM:

Dario Gil, photo by Jon Simon/Feature Photo Service

“Watson is explicitly designed around scaling and enhancing the expertise of human beings. It’s a cognitive system designed around us.“

What he means is that Watson isn’t an example of “artificial intelligence” in that it doesn’t make decisions on its own.

“It’s more like a tool,” Gil continues, “in the same way any machine is a tool that helps us to work better. That’s the unique thing about cognitive computing.”

Rob Merkel

Rob Merkel, the healthcare and life-sciences leader at the IBM Watson Group, says, “Imagine Watson reading through an entire patient history, all of the information, all of the notes, and then being able to help determine what’s clinically relevant for that particular patient. It doesn’t just summarize or regurgitate information that already exists. It actually provides insights.“ In a way, Merkel notes, it’s like “CliffsNotes for a physician.”

“In the last 20 years of technology’ humans have taken care of and maintained computers,” says Jeff Haynie, CEO of apps analytics platform Appcelerator. “The next 20 years are going to be about computers taking care of us.”

Source: Forbes
January 21, 2015, Parmy Olson, Forbes Staff
Article: Massive Social Experiment On You Is Under Way, And You Will Love It

Now, Even Artificial Intelligence Gurus Fret That AI Will Steal Our Jobs

[Andrew Ng, Chief Scientist at Baibu]

At two conferences this week, the Deep Learning Summit in San Francisco and the Big Talk Summit in Mountain View, the former Stanford University computer science professor [Andrew Ng] took the opportunity to sketch out AI’s challenges to society as it replaces more and more jobs.

Despite his concerns about Artificial Intelligence, Dr. Eric Horvitz (Head of Microsoft Research) says he is hopeful that artificial intelligence research will benefit humans, and perhaps even compensate for human failings.

As an example, he demonstrated a voice-based system that he designed to ask patients about their symptoms and to respond with empathy. When a mother said her child was having diarrhea, the face on the screen said, “Oh no, sorry to hear that.”

A physician told him afterward that it was wonderful that the system responded to human emotion. “That’s a great idea,” Dr. Horvitz said he was told. “I have no time for that.”

Source: NYT
Read full article by John Markoff (first published in 2009)
Scientists Worry Machines May Outsmart Man

In this in-depth video interview [Published Jan 27, 2015] with Eric Horvitz, head of Microsoft Research, he makes the company’s commitment to AI clear by saying, “Over a quarter of all attention and resources at Microsoft Research is focused on machine intelligence/AI.“

Meet Monica

Listen as Eric affectionately describes his own private virtual assistant, Monica. “She is a very brilliant, close personal assistant that knows how to work with people and knows how to make sure my life is better and I coordinate well with my colleagues.”

Cortana? Siri? Google Now?

According to Horvitz, now that we have Cortana, Siri and Google Now setting up a competitive tournament ‘for where’s the best intelligent assistant going to come from, who has the best services, [and] the most human orientated approach to complementing people out,’ that kind of competition is going to heat up the research and investment and bring it more into the spotlight, he said.

The next, if not the last, enduring competitive battlefield among major IT companies will be artificial intelligence, Horvitz said. 

Watch this enjoyable video and learn about “situated interaction” and the “symphony of many instruments.” 

“If AI is going to threaten humanity, it’s going to be through the fact that it does almost everything better than almost anyone.”

Bill Gates is another smart guy who is terrified of artificial intelligence

“I am in the camp that is concerned about super intelligence,” Gates wrote. “First, the machines will do a lot of jobs for us and not be super intelligent. That should be positive if we manage it well. A few decades after that though, the intelligence is strong enough to be a concern. I agree with Elon Musk and some others on this and don’t understand why some people are not concerned.”

Source: Mashable

Maybe there’s a role for AI in the death and dying conversation

“It’s the rare physician who prepares patients to die well, or who will even acknowledge that death is possible, much less imminent. This is a major issue in how doctors interact with their patients — and although I’ve been an ER physician for more than 25 years, it was my father’s illness that made me realize the enormity of the problem.” Brian Goldman, ER physician*
— 
In his new  book Being Mortal, Harvard professor and surgeon Atul Gawande’s ultimate message is that “death in America is not often enough discussed, and that patients suffer at the hands of well-meaning doctors because of it.”

Harvard physician, Angelo Volandes a hospital-medicine specialist at Massachusetts General Hospital “notes that while medical students and resident physicians today are being trained in end-of-life counseling, most doctors currently in practice graduated medical school before palliative care was ubiquitous, and before The Conversation” [the title of his new book about the importance of talking about death and making this a part of medical curricula.]

“Practicing doctors are a tough group to try and train. That’s what we’ve been trying to do for the past 10 years, and we’ve barely moved the needle. I have much more faith in patients bringing this conversation to doctors than waiting for doctors.”

Is The Conversation dangerous for the patient

“In one large study Dr Gawande cites, patients even ended up living just as long when they went into hospice care as did their aggressively medicalized counterparts. Of 4,493 people studied, the researchers concluded, mean survival after three years was actually 29 days longer for hospice patients than for non-hospice patients.”

Source: The Atlantic article: The Fallacy of ‘Giving Up’
James Hamblin

*Brian Goldman quote source: chatelaine.com : An ER doctor sees the health care system through a patient’s eyes

PL – Here’s an idea: Create an intelligent agent capable of starting The Conversation between patient and family. An intelligent agent socialized for human interaction that could learn the patient: his/her views, wants, desires, as it relates to the reality of the person’s health. Socialized AI would not make recommendations or direct a course of action, but rather, interact with the patient to inform/guide the patient in meaningful conversations with family and doctors. 

If doctors and nurses are focused on saving lives, and this kind of conversation is difficult for them to initiate, perhaps this is an example of what socialized AI can do to serve doctors and nurses. 

There is now a broad consensus that AI research is progressing steadily, and that its impact on society is likely to increase. The potential benefits are huge, since everything that civilization has to offer is a product of human intelligence; we cannot predict what we might achieve when this intelligence is magnified by the tools AI may provide, but the eradication of disease and poverty are not unfathomable. Because of the great potential of AI, it is important to research how to reap its benefits while avoiding potential pitfalls. 

The progress in AI research makes it timely to focus research not only on making AI more capable, but also on maximizing the societal benefit of AI …

Source: Future of Life Institute, Jan. 11, 2015
Title: Research Priorities for Robust and Beneficial Artificial Intelligence: an Open Letter
Read the full Open Letter here

P. Lawson – How timely. Elon Musk and Steven Hawkings and others have already signed this open letter.

As this article points out, the focus now should be on delivering AI that is beneficial to society and robust in the sense that human benefits are guaranteed. ‘Our AI systems must do what we want them to do.’ 

This is why we began this blog. To explore ways that maximize benefits while avoiding potentially dangerous pitfalls. See point of this blog here. 

Businesses of the future will look a lot different than the businesses of today. Most will be staffed by some combination of smart robots, smart machines and people. Technology will likely displace many human workers. In the best research published to date, authors Frey & Osborne of the University of Oxford opine that up to 66% of the U.S. workforce has a medium to high risk of being displaced by technology in the next 10-20 years. What jobs will require humans?

Read the rest of the article here …

Source: Forbes, Jan. 12, 2015
Article: The AI Revolution Will Humanize Businesses

The culture and leadership model needed to create an emotionally positive work environment are very different than the prevalent cultures and models resulting from the Industrial Revolution. Command and control leadership, Theory X leadership beliefs as defined by Douglas McGregor and cultures of fear will not enable the work environment needed in the AI Revolution. The attitudes and behaviors of arrogant, elitist, all-knowing hierarchical leaders will not optimize higher-order human thinking, creativity or emotional engagement. The AI Revolution will require many businesses to confront this reality …

… From a human resource perspective, the mission will change from managing resources to developing people. The human capabilities needed to complement technology in the AI Revolution do not come naturally to us. It is hard to think critically and innovatively. It is hard to manage our emotions and engage non-defensively in frank collaborations. All employees will need individualized, personal developmental coaching (not training) to help them become better thinkers, listeners, collaborators and learners.* In most cases, such coaching will focus on developing emotional and social intelligence, mindfulness, authenticity, humility, empathy, and the managing of one’s fears, ego and emotional defensiveness. For many of us, that is a daily journey not a one-time training intervention.

Read more of this article here
Source: Forbes, Jan. 12, 2015
Article: The AI Revolution will Humanize Businesses
by Professor Ed Hess, author of Learn or Die: Using Science to Build a Leading-Edge Learning Organization (2014)

P.L. – Oh, the irony. As the AI Revolution displaces many human workers, it will force humanistic changes upon most businesses. We’ve needed to do that for a long time. (I wrote a book about it a decade ago.) Whatever it takes to let go of machine thinking. This will be strategically necessary for humans to thrive. (*I should mention here that I have already designed a technology that provides “individualized, personal development coaching.” Tested, validated, deployed, since 2005. Just saying …)

Dozens of scientists, entrepreneurs and investors involved in the field of artificial intelligence, including Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk, have signed an open letter warning that greater focus is needed on its safety and social benefits.

The letter and an accompanying paper from the Future of Life Institute, which suggests research priorities for “robust and beneficial” artificial intelligence, come amid growing nervousness about the impact on jobs or even humanity’s long-term survival from machines whose intelligence and capabilities could exceed those of the people who created them.

“Because of the great potential of AI, it is important to research how to reap its benefits while avoiding potential pitfalls,” the FLI’s letter says. “Our AI systems must do what we want them to do.”

The FLI was founded last year by volunteers including Jaan Tallinn, a co-founder of Skype, to stimulate research into “optimistic visions of the future” and to “mitigate existential risks facing humanity,” with a focus on those arising from the development of human-level artificial intelligence…

Source: Financial Times, Jan. 12, 2015
Article: Scientists and Investors Warn on AI

Open Letter Source: Research Priorities for Robust and Beneficial Artificial Intelligence: an Open Letter

Amazon has a vast battalion of robots to help ensure your new television arrives on time this holiday season.

The ecommerce giant revealed that it now has more than 15,000 robots in action at its fulfillment centers around the country, as well as Robo-Stow, a large robotic arm. The robots move shelves of products around the vast facilities to make employees and the company more efficient.

The robots are developed by Kiva Systems, a robotics firm that Amazon acquired for $775 million in 2012.

Source: Mashable

Phil Lawson: On nearly a daily basis we read statements from “experts” in artificial intelligence predicting timeframes for when machines will think …

These predictions are typically followed by proclamations of how this will lead to the salvation or destruction of humanity.

To my knowledge, there is no common definition for “think” as it relates to machines and humans. So let’s recognize how little we know about “intellect” in this space. In fact, brain experts are only beginning “to pinpoint” what 86 billion neurons in the human brain do. Note the following from science writer Stephen S. Hall in Technologyreview.com:

“In January 2013, the European Commission invested a billion euros in the launch of its Human Brain Project, a 10-year initiative to map out all the connections in the brain. Several months later, in April 2013, the Obama administration announced an initiative called Brain Research through Advanced Innovative Neurotechnologies (BRAIN), which is expected to pour as much as $1 billion into the field, with much of the early funding earmarked for technology development.” 

Only now, in the past year or two have governments stepped up with billions to “map out all the connections in the human brain.” And yet, AI coders are busy right now trying to lay down the algorithms for deep learning without the conclusions of this research.

This begs the question, then: If the ultimate goal of the humans who are designing Artificial Intelligence is to advance the human experience, then specialists in diverse fields related to our humanity must be invited to the discussion while the cultural blueprint is being written for AI. If, however, the motivations of these creators involves compartmentalized thinking — ‘first to the market’ rationale, or purely name recognition, or a 30-pieces-of-silver scenario, then patching up and fixing up the remains of an incomplete invention, Frankensteinian-style, might very well be the scary outcome.

“At information-intensive companies, the culture and structure of the organization could change if machines start occupying positions along the knowledge-work value chain. Now is the time to begin planning for an era when the employee base might consist both of low-cost Watsons and of higher-priced workers with the judgment and technical skills to manage the new knowledge “workforce.” At the same time, business and government leaders will be jointly responsible for mitigating the destabilization caused by the displacement of knowledge workers and their reallocation to new roles. Retraining workers, redesigning education, and redefining the nature of work will all be important elements of this effort.

Source: McKinsey Quarterly: Ten IT-enabled business trends for the decade ahead 

Better check out this short simple non-technical overview of IBM’s Watson. What do you think this means to the future of humanity?

This video demonstrates Watson addressing both sides of a debate on violent video games.

According to the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), 89.3 million Americans live in federally-designated Mental Health Professional Shortage Areas, compared to 55.3 million Americans living in primary-care shortage areas and 44.6 million in dental health shortage areas. A Kaiser Family Foundation analysis found that the current mental health workforce is only able to meet about half of the nation’s demand for behavioral health services.

PL – Now let’s “connect the dots” between this topic (above) to a USC study that suggests that patients are more willing to disclose personal information to virtual humans than actual humans. HERE’s my post about it. Kudos to those creating AI applications to advance our machines. But the time has come to use AI to advance our humanity.

Source: Kaiser Health News, Michael Ollove
August 20, 2014
“Pastoral Counselors’ Help Fill Mental Health Gap In Rural States

Excerpt from the article, The Three Breakthroughs That Have Finally Unleashed AI on the World:

Around 2002 I attended a small party for Google—before its IPO, when it only focused on search. I struck up a conversation with Larry Page, Google’s brilliant cofounder, who became the company’s CEO in 2011. “Larry, I still don’t get it. There are so many search companies. Web search, for free? Where does that get you?” My unimaginative blindness is solid evidence that predicting is hard, especially about the future, but in my defense this was before Google had ramped up its ad-auction scheme to generate real income, long before YouTube or any other major acquisitions. I was not the only avid user of its search site who thought it would not last long. But Page’s reply has always stuck with me: “Oh, we’re really making an AI.”

I’ve thought a lot about that conversation over the past few years as Google has bought 14 AI and robotics companies. At first glance, you might think that Google is beefing up its AI portfolio to improve its search capabilities, since search contributes 80 percent of its revenue. But I think that’s backward. Rather than use AI to make its search better, Google is using search to make its AI better.  – Kevin Kelly 

Source: Wired

Chess grand master Garry Kasparov pioneered the concept of man-plus-machine matches, in which AI augments human chess players rather than competes against them.

In 1997, Watson’s precursor, IBM’s Deep Blue, beat the reigning chess grand master Garry Kasparov in a famous man-versus-machine match. After machines repeated their victories in a few more matches, humans largely lost interest in such contests. You might think that was the end of the story (if not the end of human history), but Kasparov realized that he could have performed better against Deep Blue if he’d had the same instant access to a massive database of all previous chess moves that Deep Blue had. If this database tool was fair for an AI, why not for a human? To pursue this idea, Kasparov pioneered the concept of man-plus-machine matches, in which AI augments human chess players rather than competes against them.

Now called freestyle chess matches, these are like mixed martial arts fights, where players use whatever combat techniques they want. You can play as your unassisted human self, or you can act as the hand for your supersmart chess computer, merely moving its board pieces, or you can play as a “centaur,” which is the human/AI cyborg that Kasparov advocated. A centaur player will listen to the moves whispered by the AI but will occasionally override them—much the way we use GPS navigation in our cars. In the championship Freestyle Battle in 2014, open to all modes of players, pure chess AI engines won 42 games, but centaurs won 53 games. Today the best chess player alive is a centaur: Intagrand, a team of humans and several different chess programs.

But here’s the even more surprising part: The advent of AI didn’t diminish the performance of purely human chess players. Quite the opposite. Cheap, supersmart chess programs inspired more people than ever to play chess, at more tournaments than ever, and the players got better than ever. There are more than twice as many grand masters now as there were when Deep Blue first beat Kasparov. The top-ranked human chess player today, Magnus Carlsen, trained with AIs and has been deemed the most computer-like of all human chess players. He also has the highest human grand master rating of all time.

If AI can help humans become better chess players, it stands to reason that it can help us become better pilots, better doctors, better judges, better teachers. Most of the commercial work completed by AI will be done by special-purpose, narrowly focused software brains that can, for example, translate any language into any other language, but do little else. Drive a car, but not converse. Or recall every pixel of every video on YouTube but not anticipate your work routines. In the next 10 years, 99 percent of the artificial intelligence that you will interact with, directly or indirectly, will be nerdily autistic, supersmart specialists.

Source: Wired

Kevin Kelly, founding executive editor of Wired

We haven’t just been redefining what we mean by AI—we’ve been redefining what it means to be human. Over the past 60 years, as mechanical processes have replicated behaviors and talents we thought were unique to humans, we’ve had to change our minds about what sets us apart. As we invent more species of AI, we will be forced to surrender more of what is supposedly unique about humans. We’ll spend the next decade—indeed, perhaps the next century—in a permanent identity crisis, constantly asking ourselves what humans are for. In the grandest irony of all, the greatest benefit of an everyday, utilitarian AI will not be increased productivity or an economics of abundance or a new way of doing science—although all those will happen. The greatest benefit of the arrival of artificial intelligence is that AIs will help define humanity. We need AIs to tell us who we are.

Source: Wired