Machine learning (ML) algorithms can already recognize patterns far better than the humans they’re working for. This allows them to generate predictions and make decisions in a variety of high-stakes situations. For example, electricians use IBM Watson’s predictive capabilities to anticipate clients’ needs; Uber’s self-driving system determines what route will get passengers to their destination […]
When it comes to artificial intelligence, debates often arise about what constitutes “safe” and “unsafe” actions. As Ramana Kumar, an AGI safety researcher at DeepMind, notes, the terms are subjective and “can only be defined with respect to the values of the AI system’s users and beneficiaries.” Fortunately, such questions can mostly be sidestepped when […]
Today’s AI systems may seem like intellectual powerhouses that are able to defeat their human counterparts at a wide variety of tasks. However, the intellectual capacity of today’s most advanced AI agents is, in truth, narrow and limited. Take, for example, AlphaGo. Although it may be the world champion of the board game Go, this […]
On February 1, a little more than 30 years after it went into effect, the United States announced that it is suspending the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. Less than 24 hours later, Russia announced that it was also suspending the treaty. It stands (or stood) as one of the last major nuclear arms control […]
Over the last few decades, the unprecedented pace of technological progress has allowed us to upgrade and modernize much of our infrastructure and solve many long-standing logistical problems. For example, Babylon Health’s AI-driven smartphone app is helping assess and prioritize 1.2 million patients in North London, electronic transfers allow us to instantly send money nearly […]
At the end of last week, amidst the flurry of holiday shopping, the White House quietly released Volume II of the Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA4). The comprehensive report, which was compiled by the United States Global Change Research Program (USGCRP), is the culmination of decades of environmental research conducted by scientists from 13 different […]
Click here to see this page in other languages: Russian Last week, U.S. President Donald Trump confirmed that the United States will be pulling out of the landmark Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty (INF). The INF treaty, which went into effect in 1987, banned ground-launched nuclear missiles that have a range of 500 km to 5,500 km […]
Our AI systems work remarkably well in closed worlds. That’s because these environments contain a set number of variables, making the worlds perfectly known and perfectly predictable. In these micro environments, machines only encounter objects that are familiar to them. As a result, they always know how they should act and respond. Unfortunately, these same […]
Click here to see this page in other languages: Russian Finance, education, medicine, programming, the arts — artificial intelligence is set to disrupt nearly every sector of our society. Governments and policy experts have started to realize that, in order to prepare for this future, in order to minimize the risks and ensure that AI […]
From Uber’s advanced computer vision system to Netflix’s innovative recommendation algorithm, machine learning technologies are nearly omnipresent in our society. They filter our emails, personalize our newsfeeds, update our GPS systems, and drive our personal assistants. However, despite the fact that such technologies are leading a revolution in artificial intelligence, some would contend that these […]
Cars drive themselves down our streets. Planes fly themselves through our skies. Medical technologies diagnose illnesses, recommend treatment plans, and save lives. Artificially intelligent systems are already among us, and they have been for some time now. However, the world has yet to see an artificial superintelligence (ASI) — a synthetic system that has cognitive […]
