rigorousintuition.ca

I wonder if he even understands how close his chosen metaphor is to the insanely terrifying (potential) reality of the situation. The article in question doesn't make that clear.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/inn ... tional_pop

- Jerky

I was drawn by the word 'demon' in the title as I've been recently looking at what the latest crop of fundamentalist Christians have to say about this sort of thing. I notice that the piece, apart from the word 'demon', is lacking spiritual references, and I assume his speech is too ('demon' seems an odd choice of word).

Rather than see stuff like artifical intelligence as an inadvertently out-of-control technology released by naive scientists, they see it as part of transhumanism which, in their eyes, is one of the ways in which the agents of the Antichrist will turn mankind away from God, by making them become God. ie not inadvertent.

Taking a step back from questioning validity of these beliefs, it's interesting (to me anyway) how they have placed these things in an much older framework, whereas the only framework that seems to be used at present is that of the 'religion' of progress, and that's not really a framework as it is largely self-referential.

Jerky » Fri Oct 24, 2014 11:56 pm wrote:I wonder if he even understands how close his chosen metaphor is to the insanely terrifying (potential) reality of the situation. The article in question doesn't make that clear.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/inn ... tional_pop

- Jerky

The entire event is here.

Best interview so far. It's amazing what you get with real live smart people asking questions.

seemslikeadream » Mon Oct 27, 2014 10:10 am wrote:

ComputerWorld Goes Partisan

Hate to break it down to you this way, but did you see what ComputerWorld headlined about Tesla boss Elon Musk’s comments about artificial intelligence being dangerous? “Is Elon Musk obsessed or POSSESSED with Artificial Intelligence?”

A simple thought question always works to sort out the wheat from the electric chair, so here goes:

“Imagine that everything in the world was done by artificial intelligence and their human interfaces – the robots.

Now, where are the jobs?”

[...}

Seriously? You enjoy working for a living?

In the ideal AI world, the robots would do everything people didn't want to, including working for corporations, and the people would be the stockholders. You could sit back and collect your dividends or you could do whatever the hell you liked--write a play, collect Japanese netsuke, hike in the woods, etc. Robots are machines, just like the ones that replaced hammers. Their only point is to remove the drudgery from life. In that sense they are no better and no worse than nail guns. As for Musk, I haven't analysed his intentions, but it wouldn't surprise me if his problem with AI is that it would prevent him from becomming emperor of the solar system.

Your "ideal AI world" would necessitate an "ideal human race" in order to create "ideal AI" -- your point is still excellent.

Jobs suck.

As for Musk, it should really be remembered that dude is an engineer, not some MBA. His intentions are "Build Cool Shit."

Musk seems to be making his comment from being an investor in Deep Mind and in Vicarious.

5 Details About Vicarious, The A.I Company Zuckerberg and Musk Invested In

It was announced today that Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg have clubbed together to invest $40 Million in the secretive artificial intelligence company, Vicarious. That's two of the biggest names in technology investing in a mysterious organization that is doing some extraordinary things in the field of computing. A move like this is certain to raise the eyebrows of curious minds everywhere, not because they are crying conspiracy, but because wherever Elon Musk is, cool things tend to follow. So what exactly is Vicarious, and what are they trying to achieve?



1. They're Developing A Machine That Can Learn
The overriding goal behind everything Vicarious does is to create a new level of artificial intelligence, specifically an A.I that can learn and interpret things just like a human. Here's the blurb from their official website:

"Vicarious is developing machine learning software based on the computational principles of the human brain. Our first technology is a visual perception system that interprets the contents of photographs and videos in a manner similar to humans. Powering this technology is a new computational paradigm we call the 'Recursive Cortical Network'.
Yes, that basically means they are trying to reconstruct the neocortex of the human brain....and put it in a computer. In humans and other mammals, the neocortex is the part of the brain that deals with higher level functions such as reasoning, conscious thought and sensory perceptions like spatial awareness. They might be a couple of decades away, but the work Vicarious is doing could one day produce the sort of technology that science fiction writers could only dream of.

2. Their technology beat CAPTCHA.
As an internet user, you've probably squinted more than once at a CAPTCHA box as you try and replicate the blurry digits held within it, all so you can prove you are a human being and successfully purchase tickets for that gig you so want to go to. CAPTCHA stands for Complete Automated Public Turing Test to tell computers and Humans Apart. As its name suggests, it was created as part of a reverse Turing test that could successfully tell humans and computers apart. It worked based on the theory that a computer could not visually interpret and reproduce the text displayed in the white box. But in October 2013, technology developed by Vicarious successfully beat Captcha so reliably many theorized that it rendered the test ineffective. But not everybody was buying it...


3. Their Breakthrough Was Unconvincing
The October announcement was made with great fanfare, but many commentators were disappointed by the lack of evidence. John Bohannon was one such commentator.
"Vicarious has credibility, given the scientists working there, but its current offering of proof is little more than a press release," Bohannon wrote in Wired. "The company has released no software code and no technical explanation, and as Vicarious co-founder Dileep George said in an email 'There are no current plans to write up a paper, but things could change in the future.'"

Bohannon went on to do a live test of the Vicarious program and found that it was not the complete piece of work the organization had initially suggested, however it was still able to beat the CAPTCHA system in a number of situations.

4. Facebook's Involvement Goes Beyond Personal Matters
With today's announcement came a statement from a Facebook spokesperson. It said that Zuckerberg's investment in the project was purely personal. Indeed, this personal link to Vicarious does exist and it comes in the form of Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz who helped get Vicarious off the ground in their initial round of fundraising. But while that might be a nice cover story for Zuckerberg, the social media behemoth he created has more than a couple of reasons to be interested in an organization like Vicarious, which would suggest that this is not a strictly personal investment.


This Facebook investment in Vicarious represents the latest installment in a growing technology arms race between internet giants like Facebook and Google. Both Facebook and Google have been making significant movements towards diversification in the sector in recent months. For example, in January of this year, it was revealed that Google planned to acquire the A.I developer, Deep Mind. The Deep Mind acquisition followed a series of Google acquisitions in the tech industry including the brilliant robotics company, Boston Dynamics, and a $3 billion acquisition of the smart thermostat firm, Nest Labs. These are just two examples of the search engine giant's diversification, but a quick web search will show that there are many, many more.

Facebook have been slightly slower off the mark, but Zuckerberg and co. recently started a venture to set up a new Artificial Intelligence Lab in New York City. The lab will be headed up by A.I expert Yann Lecun, whose expertise lie very much within the scope of the work being done at California-based Vicarious. Lecun is one of the leaders in Computational Neuroscience and has made some groundbreaking strides in the the area of character recognition.


5. Ashton Kutcher Also Invested
It wasn't just tech legends Musk and Zuckerberg getting in on the Vicarious action. Ashton Kutcher aka Kelso, also invested. While you might be inclined to say that this is a slightly odd move for the actor, it's not as weird as you think. For a start, Kutcher has a healthy amount of money in the bank, but more importantly, when it comes to computing Kutcher knows his stuff. Kutcher's VC company, A-Grade investments has invested in a number of tech organizations including AirBnB and Spotify, and the actor has often spoken of his love for technology and design.
- See more at: http://outerplaces.com/universe/technology/item/3571-5-details-about-vicarious-the-ai-company-purchased-by-zuckerberg-and-musk#sthash.qkwAUNph.dpuf

http://www.standard.co.uk/business/business-news/google-snaps-up-london-artificial-intelligence-firm-in-400m-deal-9087075.html
Google snaps up London artificial intelligence firm in £400m deal

Gideon Spanier
Published: 27 January 2014

Google today stunned the technology industry by paying almost £400 million for a secretive London start-up that specialises in artificial intelligence for computers.

The deal for Deep Mind Technologies is set to make a fortune for its founder Demis Hassabis, a 37-year-old former chess and video games prodigy.

Deep Mind had well-connected backers including US Tesla car mogul Elon Musk, early Facebook investor Peter Thiel and the family of London app creator Nick d’Aloisio, who will also all get windfalls.

Industry insiders said Hassabis had quietly wooed “some of the best neuro-scientists and artificial engineers in London and Europe” to Deep Mind since founding it in 2010.

He previously led a study at University College London in 2009 that scanned human brains and found “just by looking at neural activity we were able to say what someone was thinking”. His focus has been on combining medical knowledge and technology to help machines to learn and improve performance just like the human brain.

“I want to create an inter-disciplinary lab that basically has computer scientists and neuroscientists working together,” Hassabis said in a rare interview at the time of the launch.

His company, which was based in Russell Square before moving to Fenchurch Street, has a reputation for secrecy. It is said to employ 50 people including co-founders Shane Legg, a 40-year-old New Zealander, and Mustafa Seleyman, a 29-year-old Briton.

Last year Thiel’s funds and a trust linked to Musk each bought over 500,000 shares, worth around £5 million. Venture capital firm Horizon Ventures was another big backer, and d’Aloisio’s mother Diana is a small investor.

Hassabis was a chess master at 12, took his A-levels at 15 and got a Double First in computer science at Cambridge. He made his first fortune as a teenager co-creating video game Theme Park and went on to help found two games firms.

Google co-founder Larry Page is reported to have led the move to buy Deep Mind as the company explores smart technology including self-driving cars and space travel.

It is understood Google has paid almost £400 million - higher than initial reports in the US suggested.

Those close to Google said Deep Mind's technology can be used for improving search with "assist and suggest" responses to queries. "When I ask, 'Do I need an umbrella in London tomorrow?', Google should know you want the weather forecast."

Assange: Google Is Not What It Seems

I came away from that Assange piece on Google speculating that the AI which is no doubt being researched/constructed/taught is created from within the *Google* ecosystem, then it's 'conscious' values will be within well-meaning democratic liberalism, but it's 'subconscious' values will be associated with the preservation and enhancement of the American Empire, as a kind of override program.
Now THAT is a scary prospect.

So is Musk saying "Somebody stop me, before I destroy humanity!" ......?

It seems he would have a pretty clear view where this is going, well, he and DARPA, and maybe he's trying to warn us that the genie's out of the bottle and even he can't put it back in.

He's been warning about this for a while. This isn't the first time.

seemslikeadream » Mon Oct 27, 2014 10:26 pm wrote:There's Something About Tesla

The problem is that there are so few Teslas on the road that anything that happens to one can be seen as synchronistic, since the probability of it happening is so low.