This opinion piece was prompted by the recent publication of Stephen Hawking’s last writings, where he mentioned some ideas on superintelligence. Although I have the most utter respect for his work and vision, I am afraid some of it may be read in a very misleading way. I’ve been pondering whether or not I should write on the topic of the current “AI anxiety” for a while, but always concluded there would be no reason to, since I don’t have any strong opinion to convey about it. Nevertheless, there is just a number of myths I believe are easy to debunk. This is what I’ll try to do here. So off we go, let’s talk about AI, transhumanism, the evolution of intelligence, and self-reflective AI. (This piece was originally posted here.)
By Olaf Witkowski
In this post, I write about the problem of sphere packing and augmented communication in the future of the bio- and technosphere. In this post, we will explore how connecting these intelligent machines in the future, through an increasingly interconnected and extremely high-bandwidth network, can bring about new paradigms of learning. I’ll try to flesh out the reasons for the power of this new learning, and why it may make for technology with even faster learning than current levels. The secret ingredient may be found in the advent of optimal communication protocols, developed by AIs for AIs. (This piece was originally posted here.)
By Olaf Witkowski
“Towards General Artificial Intelligence” with Dr. Tomas Mikolov (Facebook) and GoodAI (February 22, 2017)
Susan Schneider discusses her proposal for a test to determine whether an AI can be truly conscious
Date: Wednesday, November 9th
Time: 6PM-8PM
Place: VBar St. Marks (132 1st Ave)
Join us for drinks and this exciting discussion topic led by Dr. Seth D. Baum (Global Catastrophic Risk Institute and Center for Research on Environmental Decisions, Columbia University).
When: This Friday, October 21, 5PM-6PM Where: Rubin Museum of Art, Art Lounge (150 West 17th Street)
Please join us in a discussion with Hod Lipson, Director of Columbia University’s Creative Machine Labs and a world-renowned expert on robotics, computer learning, self-driving cars, and 3D-printing, who will talk about where artificial intelligence is leading us, and itself, faster and faster.
Photo credit: Luis Tsukayama Cisneros
