Google has reached a milestone in its DeepMind artificial intelligence (A.I.) project with the successful development of technology that can mimic the sound of human voice.
Dubbed as WaveNet, the breakthrough was described as a deep neural network that can generate raw audio wave forms to generate speech. It can reportedly beat existing Text-to-Speech systems.
Continue reading… “Google DeepMind AI Learns How To Talk Like Humans”
Would you have sex with a robot? An impromptu poll of colleagues and friends drew answers ranging from “yes, but only if it was a fully sentient, consenting robot” to “yes, but only if it wasn’t a sentient robot” to “yes, if I could program it and specify exactly what I wanted…no unexpected exploratory penetration, please”. (We’ve paraphrased that last one a little.)
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Recent breakthroughs in artificial intelligence and machine learning are enabling computers to understand the world and respond intelligently to it. Google is already embracing these technologies for Android, but they’re poised to have bigger implications, touching everything from drones to medical diagnosis.
Continue reading… “Venture capitalist Marc Andreessen – How AI will change the world”
Google CEO Sundar Pichai thinks we are now living in an “artificial intelligence-first world.” He’s probably right. Artificial intelligence is all the rage in Silicon Valley these days, as technology companies race to build the first killer app that utilizes machine learning and image recognition. Today, Google announced an AI-powered assistant built into its new Pixel phones. But there’s a pivotal downside to the company’s latest creation: Because of the very nature of artificial intelligence, our data is less secure than ever before, and technology companies are now collecting even more personal information about each one of us.
Robots haven’t reached human intelligence yet, but Google’s researchers are showing how they’re closing the gap using downloadable intelligence.
Imagine if you could get better at some skill not just by learning and practicing it, but by accessing the brains of others to tap directly into their experiences?
Continue reading… “Google’s next big step for AI: Getting robots to teach each other new skills”
Interactive designer Alexia Léchot has built a delta robot with a ‘personality’ that interacts with humans through iPads. Deltu uses three moving arms, a couple Unity3d applications, and Arduino to play simple mimicking games.
Continue reading… “Deltu: A gaming robot with personality”
When writing the screenplay for 1968’s 2001, Arthur C. Clarke and Stanley Kubrick were confident that something resembling the sentient, humanlike HAL 9000 computer would be possible by the film’s namesake year. That’s because the leading AI experts of the time were equally confident.
Continue reading… “Robots Are Developing Feelings. Will They Become “People”?”
A jump in the fluency of Google’s language software will help efforts to make chatbots less lame.
Google’s latest advance in machine learning could make the world a little smaller.
Continue reading… “Google’s New Translator Works Almost as Well as Humans”
People want it—but don’t understand it.
If you had to pick a tech industry buzzword for 2016, “machine learning” would be a good choice. Every other company, it seems, is packing the phrase into their pitches, and it’s having an effect.
Continue reading… “Machine Learning: What Companies Get Wrong”
We already know that artificial intelligence systems can work in law firms and beat the world champion at a game of Go. Now it turns out that AI can write some pretty good pop songs, too.
Continue reading… “The first pop song ever written by AI is actually pretty good”
SONY CSL Research Laboratory
SONY CSL Research Laboratory has produced an AI-written song that sounds amazingly like the Beatles.
Continue reading… “Listen To A Song Written By AI and Inspired By The Beatles”
Can robot carts compete with Amazon?
A shopping cart is mostly empty space. At the end of a shopping run, when the cart is brimming with groceries and goods, it becomes fully useful, but it isn’t until that point, and once it’s full, it doesn’t help the person trying to buy two cartfulls of stuff on their own. Walmart, the physical retail giant, doesn’t want people to worry about the inadequacies of carts while shopping. So they filed a patent for a self-driving robot cart.
Continue reading… “Walmart Patents Robot Carts”
By delving into the futuring techniques of Futurist Thomas Frey, you’ll embark on an enlightening journey.
Learn More about this exciting program.