Future
This Is What An AI Said When Asked To Predict The Year Ahead
“What’s past is prologue.” So says the famed quote from Shakespeare’s The Tempest, alleging that we can look to what has already happened as an indication of what will happen next. This idea could be interpreted as being rather bleak; are we doomed to repeat the errors of the past until we correct them? We …
CES 2020 Wraps: AI And 5G Define The Future Of Innovation
CES® 2020 wrapped up on January 10, following a week filled with over 20,000 product debuts unveiling the future of technology. More than 4,400 exhibiting companies launched their latest tech products to some 170,000 attendees across more than 2.9 million net square feet of exhibit space. From global tech brands to pioneering startups, the innovation at …
What Science Fiction Tells Us About Our Trouble With AI
AI, as conceived of in popular culture, does not yet exist, even if autonomous and expert systems do. Smartphones might not be supercomputers, but they are called “smartphones” for good reason, in terms of how their operating systems function. Equally, we are happy to talk about a computer game’s “AI”, but gamers quickly learn to …
The Challenge of Abundance: Boredom, Meaning, and the Struggle of Mental Freedom
As technology continues to progress, the possibility of an abundant future seems more likely. Artificial intelligence is expected to drive down the cost of labor, infrastructure, and transport. Alternative energy systems are reducing the cost of a wide variety of goods. Poverty rates are falling around the world as more people are able to make …
AI: Life In The Age Of Intelligent Machines
We are said to be standing on the brink of a fourth industrial revolution – one that will see new forms of artificial intelligence (AI) underpinning almost every aspect of our lives. The new technologies will help us to tackle some of the greatest challenges that face our world. In fact AI is already very …
Artificial Intelligence Is Growing Up Fast: What’s Next For Thinking Machines?
Our lives are already enhanced by AI – or at least an AI in its infancy – with technologies using algorithms that help them to learn from our behaviour. As AI grows up and starts to think, not just to learn, we ask how human-like do we want their intelligence to be and what impact …
Now It’s Time To Prepare For The Machinocene
Human-level intelligence is familiar in biological hardware – you’re using it now. Science and technology seem to be converging, from several directions, on the possibility of similar intelligence in non-biological systems. It is difficult to predict when this might happen, but most artificial intelligence (AI) specialists estimate that it is more likely than not within …
Why Upgrading Your Brain Could Make You Less Human
Within the lifetimes of most children alive today, bioenhancement is likely to become a basic feature of human society. Personalised pharmaceuticals will enable us to modify our bodies and minds in powerful and precise ways, with far fewer side-effects than modern drugs. New brain-machine interfaces will improve our memory and cognition, extend our senses, and …
Google I/O 2019 | Michio Kaku on The Future of Humanity
Google I/O 2019 | Michio Kaku on The Future of Humanity An enlightening conversation with the famed theoretical physicist, futurist, and co-founder of String Field Theory. This fireside chat will cover a range of topics from quantum computing, how AI can improve our quality of life, to potential life on Mars and why he is …
The Rise Of Dataism: A Threat To Freedom Or A Scientific Revolution?
What would happen if we made all of our data public—everything from wearables monitoring our biometrics, all the way to smartphones monitoring our location, our social media activity, and even our internet search history? Would such insights into our lives simply provide companies and politicians with greater power to invade our privacy and manipulate us …