There have been big advancements in artificial intelligence over the last couple of years, but it is time to start thinking what these advancements mean for mankind. Sure, it is great that these AI technologies are getting better, faster and smarter, but how smart is too smart? A group of researchers from the University of … continue reading
Bill Gates participated in his third Ask Me Anything on Reddit yesterday, and the Microsoft cofounder and philanthropist took the informal Q&A to another level. Kicking off the AMA with the GIF above, Gates called Microsoft’s newly debuted HoloLens technology “pretty amazing” and expressed his misgivings over the future of artificial intelligence, throwing support behind … continue reading
The Apache Software Foundation has announced that Apache Falcon has graduated from the Apache Incubator to a Top-Level Project. Falcon is a data processing and management solution for Apache Hadoop with a focus on data motion, data discovery, coordination of data pipelines, and life-cycle management. “Apache Falcon solves a very important and critical problem in … continue reading
You could be forgiven for thinking that this past week yielded the discovery of some new type of AI, but watching Elon Musk donate US$10 million to the Future of Life Program would lead one to believe that. Musk donated these funds specifically to push for research designed to keep artificial intelligence friendly. The Future … continue reading
IBM has announced that a team of students from the University of Texas at Austin has won first place in the company’s Watson University Competition. The competition was held as part of IBM’s cognitive computing academic initiative to strengthen students’ skills and prepare them for in-demand jobs. “The opportunities to apply Watson are endless,” said … continue reading
In its latest programming language rankings, RedMonk announced Apple’s Swift language has risen 46 spots from No. 68 to No. 22 in the rankings from Q3 to Q4. “The growth that Swift experienced is essentially unprecedented in the history of these rankings,” the rankings report stated. “When we see dramatic growth from a language, it … continue reading
Members of the Future of Life Institute, a “research and outreach organization working to mitigate existential risks facing humanity,” has signed an open letter pledging to protect humankind from the dangers of artificial intelligence. The signatories, including Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk, consist of programmers, scientists, and artificial intelligence researchers from universities and tech giants … continue reading
A group of researchers from the University of Alberta have created an unbeatable poker program that they say marks a milestone in artificial intelligence and game theory. “AI researchers have a long, long history of using games as a test bed for our artificial intelligence research,” said Michael Johanson, Ph.D. student in the department of … continue reading
Girls Who Code wants to close the gender gap in the technology industry. The non-profit organization just announced an expansion to its Summer Immersion Program to help educate girls in computer science skills. Previously, the organization provided 19 programs reaching 375 girls, but with the expansion, the organization will be providing 60 programs reaching 1,200 … continue reading
A team of computer scientists from the University of Bristol in the U.K. is working on new technology that uses ultrasound to develop a virtual 3D haptic shape that can be seen and touched. The research could change how 3D shapes are used and could help advance virtual reality innovation. “Touchable holograms, immersive virtual reality … continue reading
Stephen Hawking has a shiny new communications system courtesy of Intel and British language technology company SwiftKey, and he’s sharing the tech with the world. (He also may have hinted that artificial intelligence will bring about the apocalypse.) Hawking’s new ACAT (Assistive Context Aware Toolkit) replaces the 20 year-old system he was using (and finding … continue reading
A few months ago, I pondered the growing gap between the way we solve problems in our day-to-day programming and the way problems are being solved by new techniques involving Big Data and statistical machine-learning techniques. The ImageNet Large Scale Visual Recognition Challenge has seen a leap in performance with the widespread adoption of convolutional … continue reading
