Evi trumps Siri for general knowledge
Move over Siri, Evi is the new kid in town. It’s no Watson, but Evi, created by True Knowledge, a Cambridge, U.K.-based semantic technology startup, like Siri, can answer questions posed by voice (using Nuance software) in a conversational manner or by typing. But unlike Siri (only available on iPhone 4S), Evi runs on the [...]
Categories: AI/Robotics, Computers/Infotech/UI, Internet/Telecom Tags: blog
The future of autonomous cars … and planes
If you’re driving on the Autobahn right now, I advise you keep an eye out for this guy, who is apparently praying his driverless BMW doesn’t crash into something (note: this is a highway without speed limits — not reassuring). (Videos here.) Hey, BMW: why not toss in a robot driver to carry groceries and [...]
Categories: AI/Robotics, Social/Ethical/Legal Tags: blog
random | Bots gone wild
Introducing random — a new, occasional blog category for stuff that’s way too weird for our regular weird posts. Like these wacky robot stories: Wanna take a ride on a 15-foot-long inflatable walking robot named Ant-Roach (as in anteater-cockroach)? Um, maybe not, but hey, “human safe” bots are not a bad idea, especially if you [...]
Categories: AI/Robotics, Biotech, Physics/Cosmology, random, Social/Ethical/Legal, Survival/Defense Tags: blog
Mask-bot: A talking video humanoid robot
Welcome to the creepiest uncanny-valley experience yet: a talking robot face called Mask-bot, developed by a team at the Institute for Cognitive Systems (ICS) at TU München and AIST, the National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology in Japan. What sets Mask-bot apart is that it can instantly construct and project a static video image [...]
Categories: AI/Robotics, VR/Augmented Reality/Computer Graphics Tags: blog
Kurzweil responds: Don’t underestimate the Singularity
Last week, Paul Allen and a colleague challenged the prediction that computers will soon exceed human intelligence. Now Ray Kurzweil, the leading proponent of the “Singularity,” offers a rebuttal. — Technology Review, Oct. 10, 2011. Although Paul Allen paraphrases my 2005 book, The Singularity Is Near, in the title of his essay (cowritten with his colleague Mark [...]
Categories: AI/Robotics, Cognitive Science/Neuroscience, Singularity/Futures Tags: blog
Report on the fourth conference on artificial general intelligence
The Fourth Conference on Artificial General Intelligence (AGI-11) was held on Google’s campus in Mountain View (Silicon Valley), California, in the first week of August 2011. This was the largest AGI conference yet, with more than 200 people attending, and it had a markedly different tone from the prior conferences in the series. A number [...]
Categories: AI/Robotics, Cognitive Science/Neuroscience, Singularity/Futures Tags: blog
teleXLR8 returns, featuring quantum physicist Gildert on ‘Hack the Multiverse!’
This exciting news just in from Giulio Prisco: “teleXLR8 is reopening on Sunday 21 10 a.m. PST with a talk by [experimental quantum physicist/programmer] Suzanne Gildert on Hack the Multiverse!.” The teleXLR8 online talk program is “a telepresence community for cultural acceleration,” as their blog puts it. Translation: an audiovideo seminar — think TED in [...]
Categories: AI/Robotics, Cognitive Science/Neuroscience, Computers/Infotech/UI, Entertainment/New Media, Human Enhancement, In The News, Nanotech/Materials Science, Physics/Cosmology, Quantum, Singularity/Futures, Social/Ethical/Legal, VR/Augmented Reality/Computer Graphics Tags: blog
Categories: AI/Robotics, Air, Car, Boats, Trains Tags: batman, batmobile, Bob Dullam, building of tumbler, new batmobile, The Dark Knight Rises., tumbler
Are you ready for a robot that learns on the Internet?
A humanoid robot that “learns from the Internet and from other robots” and can “think, learn, and act by itself” has been developed by the Hasegawa Lab at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, DigInfo TV reports. OK, this is freaking me out just a little. I don’t want a bot that learns on the Internet [...]
Categories: AI/Robotics, In The News Tags: blog
The Singularity is Far: A Neuroscientist’s View
David J. Linden is the author of a new book, The Compass of Pleasure: How Our Brains Make Fatty Foods, Orgasm, Exercise, Marijuana, Generosity, Vodka, Learning, and Gambling Feel So Good. He is a Professor of Neuroscience at The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine and Chief Editor of the Journal of Neurophysiology. It should [...]
