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Stephen Hawking: 'Transcendence looks at the implications of artificial intelligence - but are we taking AI seriously enough?' - Science - News

Stephen Hawking: 'Transcendence looks at the implications of artificial intelligence - but are we taking AI seriously enough?' - Science - News
Artificial-intelligence (AI) research is now progressing rapidly. Recent landmarks such as self-driving cars, a computer winning at Jeopardy! and the digital personal assistants Siri, Google Now and Cortana are merely symptoms of an IT arms race fuelled by unprecedented investments and building on an increasingly mature theoretical foundation. Such achievements will probably pale against what the coming decades will bring. The potential benefits are huge; everything that civilisation has to offer is a product of human intelligence; we cannot predict what we might achieve when this intelligence is magnified by the tools that AI may provide, but the eradication of war, disease, and poverty would be high on anyone's list. Loading gallery In pictures: Landmarks in AI development 1 of 4 Unfortunately, it might also be the last, unless we learn how to avoid the risks. Johnny Depp plays a scientist who is shot by Luddites in 'Transcendence' (Alcon) Related:  `test 1014`test 1014

Bill Gates, Stephen Hawking Say Artificial Intelligence Represents Real Threat I worry about a lot of things — my health, my kids, and the size of my retirement account. I never worry about an impending robot apocalypse ... but maybe I should. A handful of very smart people in the science and technology worlds are worried about that very thing. First it was Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates, who got the Internet all fired up when he answered questions in a Reddit "AskMeAnything" thread. "I am in the camp that is concerned about super intelligence," Gates wrote in response to a question about the existential threat posed by artificial intelligence (AI). [Related News: Bill Gates Tells Reddit About His Mysterious 'Personal Agent' Project at Microsoft] Nobel-prize winner Stephen Hawking, who spends a lot of time thinking about the shape of the universe, is also worried. Hawking, no technophobe, is bullish on the potential benefits of AI and machine learning, and he says AI could become "the biggest event in human history."

Synapse artificielle : le memristor, chaînon manquant vers le cerveau électronique MICROPROCESSEUR. Le 3 avril 2017, une équipe française (CNRS, Thales, Universités de Bordeaux, Paris-Sud et Evry) publiait dans Nature Communications un article décrivant une synapse artificielle (élément électronique appelé memristor) qui pourrait bien révolutionner l'apprentissage machine profond (deep learning). Afin de mieux comprendre la portée de la découverte, Sciences et Avenir s'est entretenu avec Vincent Garcia, chercheur en nanosciences et co-auteur de l'étude. Sciences et Avenir : Pouvez-vous préciser ce qu'est un memristor (contraction de "memory" et "resistor") ? Vincent Garcia : C'est une résistance analogique variable qui garde en mémoire les tensions électriques qui lui ont été appliquées. Techniquement, une fine couche ferroélectrique est intercalée entre deux conducteurs, et se comporte comme un dipôle électrique. Pourquoi ce composant peut-il révolutionner l'état de l'art du deep learning ? En quoi est-ce un bond pour la micro-électronique ?

Ray Kurzweil, l'ingénieur Google qui veut faire reculer la mort Cyber En 2012, le géant californien Google a engagé comme ingénieur en chef Ray Kurzweil, cerveau en matière d’intelligence artificielle. Connu comme promoteur du transhumanisme, il est le pape de la "singularité". Sa thèse : "dès 2045 l’intelligence artificielle dépassera celle de l’humain". Son rêve : faire reculer la mort, et notamment, améliorer le cerveau humain grâce aux implants et aux ordinateurs, et même le rendre immortel en "versant" (uploader) l’intelligence humaine, le contenu d’un cerveau, dans un ordinateur. Pour le Pr Blondel (UCL), les thèses de Kurzweil n’appartiennent pas au domaine scientifique. "La base scientifique n’est pas avérée. Université de la Singularité Quoi qu’il en soit, Google parraine l’Université de la Singularité, que dirige Kurzweil et qui travaille sur les NBIC, technologies chères aux transhumanistes. "Google est un attracteur pour les scientifiques transhumanistes brillants, juge le Dr Alexandre.

Blind Sight: The Next Generation of Sensory Substitution Technology - The Crux It’s long been known that blind people are able to compensate for their loss of sight by using other senses, relying on sound and touch to help them “see” the world. Neuroimaging studies have backed this up, showing that in blind people brain regions devoted to sight become rewired to process touch and sound as visual information. Now, in the age of Google Glass, smartphones and self-driving cars, new technology offers ever more advanced ways of substituting one sensory experience for another. These exciting new devices can restore sight to the blind in ways never before thought possible. A female blind user wearing the vOICe. Seeing with the Ears One approach is to use sound as a stand-in for vision. Over a series of training sessions they learn, for example, that a short, loud synthesizer sound signifies a vertical line, while a longer burst equates to a horizontal one. The concept has tried and true analogs in the animal world, says Dr. According to Dr. Navigating with the Fingertips

Eric Horvitz Receives AAAI Feigenbaum Prize; Shares Reflections On AI Research - Inside Microsoft Research Posted by Eric Horvitz Editor's note: Eric Horvitz, managing director of Microsoft Research's Redmond Lab, shares some reflections upon receiving the AAAI Feigenbaum Prize. Horvitz is being recognized by the AAAI for "sustained and high-impact contributions to the field of artificial intelligence through the development of computational models of perception, reflection and action, and their application in time-critical decision making, and intelligent information, traffic, and healthcare systems." How do our minds work? How can our thinking, perceiving, and all of our experiences arise in networks of neurons? I have wondered about answers to these questions for as long as I can remember. We don’t have a clear understanding yet about machinery underlying the human mind. It’s an exciting time for AI research. AI research is an enthralling, collaborative endeavor, where insights often arise in a volley of theory and experimentation.

Stephen Hawking et Elon Musk réclament l’interdiction des « robots tueurs » Plus d’un millier de personnes, parmi lesquelles de nombreux chercheurs en intelligence artificielle, ont signé un appel pour faire interdire les armes autonomes. Le Monde.fr | • Mis à jour le | Par Morgane Tual C’est une nouvelle charge portée contre les dangers potentiels de l’intelligence artificielle (IA). Dans une lettre ouverte publiée lundi 27 juillet, plus d’un millier de personnalités, dont une majorité de chercheurs en IA et en robotique, ont réclamé l’interdiction des armes autonomes, capables « de sélectionner et de combattre des cibles sans intervention humaine ». Parmi les signataires, on retrouve Elon Musk, le célèbre PDG du constructeur de voitures électriques Tesla et de SpaceX, et l’astrophysicien britannique Stephen Hawking, qui avaient déjà fait part publiquement de leurs inquiétudes concernant l’IA. « Une course à l’armement » L’IA pourrait en pâtir Mais ce texte ne se veut pas une charge contre l’intelligence artificielle.

Le transhumanisme, un état contre nature : Tour d’horizon des pensées du transhumanisme (1/2) sur Theoria « Parlerons-nous un jour des hommes comme d’une espèce disparue ? »[1] Les robots prendront-ils le pas sur les humains ? Les technologies qui servent à donner aux robots des capacités mémorielles supérieures à celles des humains auront-elles pour conséquence d’assujettir l’homme ? Si l’homme incorpore des nanotechnologies, contribue-t-il à sa propre destruction ? Deviendrons-nous des humains domestiques dans une société de robots ? Dans ce tour d’horizon des pensées du transhumanisme, nous verrons que les penseurs se sont confrontés à des questions majeures, à commencer par la définition du posthumain et du transhumain. Qu’est-ce qu’un transhumain ? « Transhumain » est un terme plus compliqué qu’il n’y paraît. Le préfixe « post- » du posthumain implique une dimension temporelle qui place le posthumain après l’humain. Le posthumain est un fantasme inconscient de l’homme qui se traduit dans des formes d’anticipations artistiques. L’enfant-androïde de I. Mais pour qui l’homme se prend-il ?

The Battle For The Connected Home Is Heating Up Editor’s note: Matt Turck is a managing director of FirstMark Capital. Follow him on Twitter at @mattturck. Almost 15 years ago, a friend of mine at McKinsey spent a few nights writing a document called “The Battle for the Home”. The thesis at the time was that with broadband, the home PC was gradually going to challenge the TV as the core home digital system. Over the following few years, that battle gradually grew more complex, as the home saw the adoption of a new generation of HDTV sets, game consoles, set-top boxes and DVR options. Now, the battle has expanded to the rest of the home. The irony of this market, not always acknowledged, is that a number of large companies with big brands and existing “pipes” in our homes, have been unusually innovative. The first battle for the home was not always kind to startups. While this new generation of startups has an exciting opportunity in front of it, the path to success will also be narrow. The new household brands Not so fast

Artificial intelligence 'will not end human race' | Technology The head of Microsoft’s main research lab has dismissed fears that artificial intelligence could pose a threat to the survival of the human race. Eric Horvitz believed that humans would not “lose control of certain kinds of intelligences”, adding: “In the end we’ll be able to get incredible benefits from machine intelligence in all realms of life, from science to education to economics to daily life.” Professor Stephen Hawking last month expressed his fears about the rise of AI. He believed that technology would eventually become self-aware and supersede humanity: “The primitive forms of artificial intelligence we already have, have proved very useful. But I think the development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race.” Horvitz made his comments in an video interview after being awarded the Feigenbaum Prize by the AAAI for his contribution to artificial intelligence research. He said last year that AI was the biggest existential threat to humans.

Site francophone sur l'intelligence artificielle Le transhumanisme, un état contre nature : tour d’horizon des pensées du transhumanisme (2/2) sur Theoria Nous avons vu la semaine dernière que le transhumanisme bouleversait notre rapport à l’homme et réanimait les éternelles questions sur son orgueil. La première partie de notre réflexion sur les pensées du transhumanisme s’est articulée autour de deux rubriques : « Qu’est-ce qu’un transhumain ? » et « Mais pour qui l’homme se prend-il ? ». Les partisans d’une humanité naturelle ne considèrent pas comme des arguments valables ceux qui font du transhumanisme le résultat d’une évolution naturelle de l’espèce ou qui lui reconnaissent d’appartenir au vaste ensemble des créations humaines. Selon Isabelle Stengers, l’homme contemporain est lourd d’une « fatigue d’être soi »[1], il a ce que Günther Anders appelle le « décalage prométhéen » qui sépare l’homme de ses produits, qui le transforme en un ensemble de fragments disparates, coopérants mais désunis. Le transhumanisme est d’abord et surtout perçu comme une façon de dynamiser le vivant. Le « dividu » de Günther Anders [5] Ibidem, p. 138

Full Steam Ahead: Inside Valve's Grand Plan to Replace Game Consoles With PCs | Game|Life Clockwise from left: Anna Sweet, Eric Hope and Greg Coomer, three of the Valve employees at work on the company’s Steam Machines initiative, in the Valve offices in Bellevue, Washington. Photo: Matthew Ryan Williams/WIRED BELLEVUE, WA — Installed base. It’s what every gaming machine needs if it’s to get even a tenuous foothold in this ultra-competitive market. The difficulty of squaring this circle is the reason why the history of the gaming business is strewn with the bodies of failed platforms. Nintendo’s fall from grace might give Sony and Microsoft, the current kings of the living room, more confidence when it comes to the launches of their respective new platforms, PlayStation 4 and Xbox One, later this month. Last week, Valve announced that 65 million people were now active users of Steam, its gaming umbrella service for personal computers. Our customers love all those Steam titles, but they also like their families. Valve doesn’t need to convince anybody to give up their Xbox.

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