AI winter is coming?
The history of artificial intelligence (AI) has been a history of boom and bust. Periods of hype, exaggerated expectations and plentiful funding have been followed by periods known as “AI Winters”…
Voice assistants become Choice assistants?
In Homer’s epic poem, as Ulysses heads home, Circe suggests that he plug his ears. Otherwise, the Sirens’ song would lure him to steer his ship towards rocks and shipwreck. Ulysses asks his crew to plug their ears and tie him to the ship’s mast. When he passes the Sirens, he asks his crew to release him, but they refuse and the ship sails on…
Diffusion by Infusion – Has AI Spread by Piggybacking on Mobile Apps?
Social and ethical impacts of any technology presuppose its diffusion. That is why we need to understand the mechanisms underlying the spread of AI. This post summarizes a recent study of…
The Binge-Watching Problem
It is a quarter to midnight on a Tuesday and you are asking your virtual voice assistant to stream the next episode. Seems an easy task for an AI. The catch is that last week you asked…
An AI system does not always do as we intended
In a lecture in 1951 Alan Turing offered several ideas that foreshadowed much of cutting-edge AI safety discussion of the early 21st…
Political views of leaders of AI companies
It is often said that “with great power comes great responsibility.” Many leaders of corporations at the forefront of artificial intelligence recognize this. For example, the CEO of Genpact says that companies need to reduce racial and…
Was AlphaGo Asia’s “Sputnik Moment”?
Over the next decade, many governments will face a series of choices with regards to the deployment and regulation of machine learning technology. These choices are likely to be influenced by public opinion and interest in this technology.
Political views of employees of AI companies
In the debate about artificial intelligence, there is the argument that it is virtually impossible for policymakers to understand the complex nature of AI, let alone to regulate it efficiently, timely, and properly. Instead, more…
Sage Against the Machine – Conditions for AI vs. Human Expertise
A young farmer sees a cow walking slowly in the pen, ears drooping. It does not move when she approaches her. There seems to be something wrong, but it is beyond her to figure out whether…
On the alleged safety of autonomous vehicles
An autonomous vehicle is a vehicle that can autonomously execute a high-level transportation task – for example, “get me from A to B” – after human instructions. Autonomous vehicles have been touted for a while as “the next big thing”…