AI Software Already Showing Racial Bias

Professor's tests reveal racial bias in software

Professors program tests software find bias which raises concerns about a future inescapable from racial bias, which seems counter intuitive. Software in the future will play a significant role in decision making in areas of commerce, marketing, job hiring, health care and court cases. Pretty much everything.

How it decides matters could have huge implications on society politically. So, do software algorithms simply reflect reality or are they susceptible to biases because of being designed by humans?  

The study by the professors found that bias occurred against blacks when software determined individuals most likely to commit crimes in the future. On a much lighter note, Amazon software in determining shipping rates, have charged more affluent customers more based on geography.

   

Where Does the US Fall in Digital Readiness Rankings?

New Study ranks all the world's nations in digital competitiveness

The IMD released its findings in the global rankings of nation's digital competitiveness for 2017. The study examined each country's abilities in three areas: knowledge, technology, and future readiness. Most of the nations at the top of the list were European with several Asian countries along with the US. See the entire list of all nations in this study: IMD study nations digital competitiveness ranking

It's Curtains for Hollywood Actors in AI Future

New Role for AI in Hollywood

Could we see Marlon Brando and Heath Ledger in a new film release?

Ever dream of that perfect actor from the past or an all star list of performers from Hollywood's golden era playing in a modern movie? In an AI future, it could become reality. And movie goers wouldn't know otherwise.

In the future, AI will be able to copy the mannerisms of famous long ago actors in their most prominent performances and regenerate new ones for the big screen. Imagine a young Humphrey Bogart starring in a love story with Scarlett Johansson.

New movies starring actors like Marlon Brando and Heath Ledger would be possible. Directors and producers could pluck the ideal actor or actress for certain roles for AI to recreate. And the performances would be dynamic as well with AI formulating performances based on its best predictions of how actors would respond to stimuli.

AI would be involved in other areas of movie production as well, reducing the cost of film making significantly. More in this article: AI to transform Hollywood

Robots to Takeover Construction Jobs

Exoskeletons for human heavy lifting to grow  

Say 1001010001 to back breaking physical labor in the future as the exoskeleton industry is set to dramatically increase in the next few years. Ekso Bionics will debut its Ekso Vest in September, and begin to usher in an era of robotic human aid products for the construction industry.

It will be one of many companies developing exoskeleton products in an industry set to grow from 97 million to 1.9 billion in the next 10 years.

Bricklaying Robots

Bricklaying robots will begin to play a larger role in construction as well. Fastbrick Robotics of Australia is releasing the Hadrian X this year and it has the potential to revolutionize the construction industry. It will have the ability to transport and lay bricks, putting up homes and buildings in record time and with minimal human labor.

Jobs in the construction industry are predicted to decline with the advent of robotics. It is believed that for every robot introduced into the construction workforce, 5.6 jobs will be lost.


Here is more: The Future of Construction

AI Composes Entire Pop Album

First album ever composed by AI 

Think people are the only ones capable of making crappy music? Well, AI can, too. An entire pop album, called I AM AI, was recently composed by a human designed AI neural network.
The results are impressive in that it shows for the first time, with the aid of humans, AI can create real music with all the necessary components of song structure. The overall results, however, are less than stellar.

If this is the future of music, I'd rather grab a mid-century receiver and turn table, and blast out some Ink Spots and do the Memphis shuffle.

Here is the article: World's First Album by AI

Check out the video for the AI album's first release.

Can we get AI to be forgettable?

How to make AI forget may be useful for humans since we usually don't like things that lack vulnerabilities. For AI, programming it to be forgetful may provide it with another tool to close the gap with humans in the area of social interaction. Plus, when AI makes shitty music, it can forget about it and move past its previous embarrassment.

Nazi Scientist in the UK Create Robot Skin that Heals Itself

Warrior Robots Spell the End of Humanity

Battles between Antifa and White Nationalist, as recently seen in Charlottesville, could use soldier robots in the future. Nazi scientists in the UK have developed a synthetic skin that will provide human like protection to the frames of robots. The roboskin also has the ability to heal itself following any kind of puncture or slice and can even withstand the teeth of Rabbis.

The healing process can occur in a manner of seconds, giving future robots the ability to continue to kick ass when wounded in battle. Robots will literally have to eviscerate each other to achieve victory, ushering in a new generation of weapons and robots sure to bring massive death and destruction.

Democrats Want Killer Robots to Go After Whites

Democrats are all for setting loose an army of indestructible robots to kill evil white nationalists, citing white inventions like corn hole as being inherently racist due to the fact that descendants of white Confederate soldiers love to play it.

Whites simply enjoying themselves with family and friends playing a game created with basic materials anybody could find was deemed as an exercise in white privilege, many Democrats believe.

"Minorities in this country, when you look at the H1B Indian software engineers who make an average of 90,000 dollars a year in this country, and Asians, who hold more Ph.D.'s per capita than any other group in the US, don't have similar games they can be proud of," a prominent Democrat said.

"We need to take a look at what we can do as whites and make sure minorities can be more represented. Playing corn hole and coming up with any new games might be alienating to other groups, preventing true diversity."

It's hard to believe, but neither Asians nor Indians have invented a game for themselves in over 4,000 years, while whites have invented nearly 300 games in just the last 50.

But here is the story about the robot skin: Scientist Develop Robot Skin That Regenerates

In other news, Elon Musk suggests Governments get their heads out of their asses and start looking at ways to regulate AI before its too late.

Musk: Regulate Now To Prevent AI Takeover of Humanity

AI Creeping Into Gaming Beating Pros

Top Stories in AI:

Elon Musk asks Governments to regulate AI

Silicon Valley faces criticism for firing engineer

AI bot made by Elon Musk's company beats pro gamers in Dota 2

Musk makes a bot that can beat the world's best gamers. His engineers injected a little machine learning in a gaming bot and instructed it to learn how to play and win at Dota 2. It made quick work of the world's best players. It's all in this video below:       

AI Career Primer

Think of going into AI as a career? This video is a good primer discussing and illustrating what AI is, areas of opportunity, and fields of study that will best enable you to break into the emerging industry. It suggests, of course, going into computer science and math for an undergraduate degree but also points out that getting a Masters and Phd may be necessary for success in the field. 

Also, this video explains the basics of neural networks pretty well.     

Should We Be Considering a Universal Basic Income For the Future?

For the 99.9% of the rest of us, who are not software geniuses, it may be time to start talking about a Universal Basic Income. The Silicon Valley vanguard is already going there. It's a new idea that may be hard for some to swallow. Our Puritan work ethic culture may not abide and the socialist types may not like the 'no strings attached' payout but considering the changes we are facing, the time has come at least for a discussion. 

It is surprising and perhaps a little unnerving that people like Mark Zuckerberg and Elon Musk are not hesitant in bringing it up.  

Here is a recent article discussing UBI:

Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg encouraging a UBI    

Study On The Future Of Work

A new study by PricewaterhouseCoopers breaks our future into four possible work, life, and societal frameworks based on the advent of increased AI and automation. One is an innovation rules' "Red World", the next is corporate is king "Blue World", another is companies caring "Green World", and the last, humans come first "Yellow World."

Regardless of how our future world is designed, big changes are headed our way. Human talent will be at an extreme premium in this AI future, making updating skills paramount. Creativity, empathy, and adaptability that can augment technical skills will be in high demand in the new work force, the study says.

It also says job competition will be fierce and warns that those who don't adjust could be left behind. Because of this, a wider gap between 'the haves' and 'the have nots' could grow, creating societal turmoil.

Performance enhancing drugs could be on their way in the future, the study says. And people may find it necessary because much of the competition may come directly from A.I and robots. The study says over 70% look forward to the challenge of trying to outdo A.I.