Make Mad Money Investing in A.I.

Cramer of Mad Money sees big data future

"Owning space in big data the place to be"  

Well, if we can't earn money working in an A.I future, there may be other ways to make a buck. No, I am not talking about crafting jewelry or pet sitting for tech billionaires or some local software entrepreneur. 

I am talking about turning big profits in the stock market by clamping down on a little A.I.investng. The beauty of it, according to Jim Cramer of Mad Money, is that it will be immune from boom and bust cycles:

Jim Cramer on big data and A.I. investing

"It's not boom-bust. It really is a secular, long-term transformation, which makes owning anything in the big data space ... in any way, shape or form [is] the place to be. Not for now. Not for next quarter. But for years to come."

The companies that can best harness big data are the ones who stand to make huge profits. Right now Cramer says that Netflix, Amazon, and Spotify are doing it better than anyone by being able to predict what's coming next in the marketplace. Article  

To keep up with these companies, competitors are going have follow suit or be left behind permanently. The race for A.I. is only beginning and there will be many ambitious players who plan on getting to the top. It might be time to believe in the stock market again. 

Applied Materials positioned to do well in A.I. economy 

In the trillion dollar market space of A.I., the US's Applied Materials sure to win.Applied Materials, a producer of semiconductors, is well aware of this next stage and its CEO Gary Dickerson, recently talked about his companies favorable vantage point.

"The materials that create the power and performance [for chips] come from Applied Materials. So in that war for AI architecture leadership, Applied will win no matter who ends up winning," the CEO said. Article

IBM's Watson Medical Mastermid

Watson's artificial intelligence advises doctors worldwide 

Watson is helping relieve China's overburdened hospitals 

A program only a year old is helping doctors from around the world diagnose patients and come up with treatment plans. When doctors are stumped or in need of more options, they can turn to the algorithms of IBM's Watson for advice.

It has proven particularly helpful in China where there are only 1.5 doctors for ever 1,000 people compared to 2.5 for the US and Britain. It helps overburdened Chinese doctors process patients more quickly. Chinese Oncologists have used Watson to develop better treatment plans for cancer patients. Article.

Watson in use in US cancer treatment since 2015

Since 2015 US and Canadian cancer institutes have used Watson in assisting with specialized cancer treatments. 

The Cleveland Clinic, Fred & Pamela Buffett Cancer Center in Omaha and Yale Cancer Center began implementing Watson to help doctors and patients as early as 2015. The centers pay a subscription fee, which IBM did not disclose.

The other collaborating centers are Ann & Robert H. Lurie Children's Hospital of Chicago; BC Cancer Agency in British Columbia; City of Hope, in Duarte, California; Duke Cancer Institute in North Carolina; McDonnell Genome Institute at Washington University in St. Louis; New York Genome Center, Sanford Health in South Dakota; University of Kansas Cancer Center; University of Southern California Center for Applied Molecular Medicine, and University of Washington Medical Center. Source

More Politicians Want Robot Tax

Britain's Jeremy Corbin Calls for Robot Tax

Tech companies wealth needs to be shared, he says

Labour leader Jeremy Corbin's address at the Labour party conference to highlight examining policies to offset future job displacement by automation in Britain. As jobs are lost to robots and A.I. and companies reap the benefits of fewer labor costs and higher production, Corbin is suggesting a 'Robot Tax.'

Like a lot of politicians bringing up the issue, Corbin believes the extra profits tech companies receive through automation could be used to assist workers displaced by technology. And those same monies could be used for training workers for new roles. 

The issue, nearly by the day, is becoming a hot-button one. A strong counter-argument suggests Corbin and his pro-tax policies would do more harm than good. Taxing would just hinder A.I. development and prevent the economic pie from expanding, upsetting its true potential. It would also throw up yet another hurdle for small entrepreneurs in market competition with tech giants like Google, Facebook, and Microsoft.       

Retraining society for new roles too optimistic, according to a new Oxford study

   

But it may be in vain anyway. A new Oxford study, previously mentioned by Impact A.I., came to the conclusion that, retraining for new roles, while a nice thought, will accomplish little. As A.I. becomes more advanced and takes over more complex tasks, human labor will be squeezed into more specific type tasks until the end results are zero, the study says. 

Production will become a companies capitalization in which it will own. Currently, companies don't own people. In an optimistic model, being championed by most in tech leadership, human labor and A.I. will compliment one another. In Susskind's model this can't work, or at least, it will be of little benefit to workers.       

That's because of the squeezing out of human labor by automation. And secondly, an increased role in production by AI will eventually cut off the flow of capital to labor, as a traditional model of capitalization transforms into an advanced model. A model that sends more and more capital toward ownership, according to the study. See next section.  

From Daniel Susskind's, A Model of Technological Unemployment:

That the consequences of this ‘task encroachment’ are so pessimistic for labor – a remorseless displacement of labor, a continual fall in absolute wages, and technological unemployment – suggests the traditional literature may have already created a false sense of optimism about the prospects for labor. Note again, however, that for the owners of capital this conclusion is far from pessimistic. All the returns to technological progress flow to them.24 From an equity standpoint, it follows that who owns and controls capital in this model becomes an increasingly important question over time.

Optimist argues that A.I. will create new demands for goods that only humans can produce 

Once again Susskind's study is not so sure. According to Susskind: 

 A new alternative is a demand-side version of the race – where consumers demand different goods and services that in turn require new types of tasks to produce them. This claim is often made informally – for instance, in making a case for optimism, Mokyr et al. (2015) argues “the future will surely bring new products that are currently barely imagined”, Autor and Dorn (2013) discusses “new products and services that raise national income”, and Autor (2014) appeals to the unforeseen rise of “health care, finance, informational technology, consumer electronics, hospitality, leisure, and entertainment” to explain why those displaced from farming in the 20th century would not lack for work in the 21st. Only a model like the one in this paper, with a variety of goods, is capable of exploring this demand-side version. Acemoglu and Restrepo (2017), with a unique final good, cannot. Optimism will only follow, though, if the new goods and services that have to be produced require tasks in which labor, and not advanced capital, has the comparative advantage.

PDF, A Model of Technological Unemployment study

Artificial Intelligence's Only Hurdle?: Better Microchips

Quantum computing needed for complex AI 

Tech community struggling to solve the problem

In order to process the vast amounts of data, Silicon Valley is talking about in its next wave of future products, a critical problem must be addressed: that of a better microchip. Conventional chips in use to today don't have the capacity to do the job, experts say.

So, before there are driverless cars dominating the highway, humanoid personal assistants, or interactive tutors self-calibrated to meet the needs of individual users, there needs to be a breakthrough in computing power.

That breakthrough will likely come with
quantum computing, experts agree, but when is the question? And by whom? China is working feverishly on the problem, as well as DARPA in the US. Article

In the trillion dollar market space of A.I., the US's Applied Materials sure to win

Applied Materials, a producer of semiconductors, is well aware of this next stage and its CEO Gary Dickerson, recently talked about his companies favorable vantage point.

"The materials that create the power and performance [for chips] come from Applied Materials. So in that war for AI architecture leadership, Applied will win no matter who ends up winning," the CEO said. Article

New Oxford Study Debunks A.I. Optimism

World's top economist's new study pessimistic about A.I. economy

Oxford economics professor Daniel Susskind published paper: labor nets 'zero'

If you've been paying attention to statements about artificial intelligence and automation lately by tech leaders, you know that most are on the side of being optimistic about it. The most recent comments have come from Bill Gates, who recently said that A.I. is on the "verge of making our lives more productive and creative." Article

Study titled: A Model of Technological Unemployment

But a new economic model published in the paper, A Model of Technological Unemployment, says otherwise. Oxford economics professor Daniel Susskind has developed a new economic theory based on advanced mathematics that reaches a not so rosy conclusion about future employment.

"Task encroachment" to squeeze human labor out 

Called 'task encroachment,' the study says that technology will perform more work, squeezing human labor into more specific tasks until there are no more tasks left. And on the way to zero, those tasks will have less and less value.

Capital will flow away from labor

Instead of complimenting labor like A.I. optimists suggest, Susskind's study says that as more and more economic production is carried out by technology, capital will instead flow toward the top and away from labor.

Traditional economic technology models underestimate 

The study also says that previous economic models have consistently underestimated technologies abilities to take over work. The study notes that past models predicted self-driving cars, restaurant order taking, and photographic identification could not be readily automated. The originators of these inaccurate models are also aligned with an optimistic view of A.I. that Susskind's study disagrees with.   

PDF file: A Model of Technological Unemployment

"Humanized" Robots the Answer to our Fears?

Hanson Robotics goal is to make their humanoid robots as "humanized" as possible

Robots that connect with people may not want to harm us

Hanson Robotics Sophia on the Jimmy Kimmel show

Hanson Robotics seems to have the answer to fears about what kinds of things robots will do once they are smarter than us. And that is? Make them super nice and like us. 

The fact that emphasis is being put on programming and building neural networks into robots that infuse them with altruism as a preventative measure is worrying just on its face. But rest assured, David Hanson believes in what he is doing.

David Hanson, CEO, and founder of Hong Kong based Hanson Robotics:

“If we can make machines understand and have a relationship with us, then if they do become intelligent, they will ... work with us to create a better future,” said Hanson during a panel discussion on Wednesday.

Feeling better? I am not so sure either. Making robots that are compassionate and want to be our friends sounds nice, but is it a path that is free from peril? 

Abstract capabilities like emotions with the composite facial expressions like Hanson Robotics is producing in its robots is cool and exciting. And maybe it will all work out like he says with robots that make our lives better. But is being charmed and experiencing warm and fuzzies with inanimate objects a future that we really want? I'm sure the robots will try to convince us otherwise. Article

A.I. to Create Trillionaires

AI breakthroughs will create world's first trillionaires 

Tech leaders agree that market capitalization in AI has unlimited potential

If you didn't get a chance to invest or buy stock in computers, search engines, or social media platforms, you might want to stash away your cash and put it in artificial intelligence in the next few years.

While technology has created billionaires like Mark Zuckerberg, 68 billion, and Bill Gates, 85 billion, the coming AI revolution leaders will make their predecessor's bank accounts look puny by comparison.  

Whoever is the first to create the algorithms that can process the large amounts of data in finance, healthcare, and energy, with the ability to teach itself the intricacies in those industries, will reap rewards the likes of which have never been seen, according to Jim Breyer and Mark Cuban.

Mark Cuban and Jim Breyer bully on artificial intelligence 

"I expect Facebook and Apple and Amazon, Baidu, Tencent, to continue to do extraordinarily well, but there is room for a new generation of company that is applying AI and self-learning algorithms in healthcare and finance and energy that will generate billions of market cap."

Breyer is not alone in his prediction that AI-powered companies will create tremendous amounts of value. The billionaire tech investor Mark Cuban says AI entrepreneurs will create a new level of wealth.

"I am telling you, the world's first trillionaires are going to come from somebody who masters AI and all its derivatives and applies it in ways we never thought of," Cuban said in March at SXSW. Article

Autonomous Robot Run Farms

Robot farm successfully plants and harvests field alone

English research team first in the world to complete farming cycle with robots

Driverless combine and tractor farm field of barely and did so more efficiently than humans. The pilot project used smaller farm equipment than typically seen to drill channels for seed at more precise levels and apply herbicides and fungicides more specifically, making that part of farming more efficient than human methods.

Smaller automated farm equipment more precise

The smaller equipment also allows for less damage to the field and the ability for more precise cuts during harvesting. Large combines in use on farms now, like in the US, cut as wide as possible to harvest the fields faster, saving time for the farmer.

But in the future with automated equipment, the robots can work the fields more precisely using several much smaller machines rather than a few large ones. Farmers would not have to be directly involved in working the fields, leaving them to accomplish other things.

Farming has always taken the lead in the use of technology 

Historically, farms have been the first to embrace new technology compared to other sectors and before mainstream culture. They used heavy machinery with gas engines in farming before the industrial revolution got started, embraced new chemical applications much sooner than was seen in commercial household use, and have been flying drones for years, not to mention the use of airplanes for more than half a century.  Article

Robotics and AI in Spinal Surgery

Europe approves robotic AI surgical platform

Israeli firm Mazor Robotics introduces the Mazor X revolutionizes spinal surgery

• Systems uses 3D imaging
• Computer vision segmentation algorithms   
• Robotic arm to position surgical tools and guide the surgeon

                                                        

                                                           More from the article

Robots Can Be Tiny Too

British lab creates world's first chemical robot 

Microscopic robot can move molecules 

Step toward microscopic assembly line 

Scientists in Britain have created the world's first molecular size robot that is capable of building new molecules programmed by chemical instructions. It can perform basic functions using a tiny robotic arm a millionth of a millimeter in size - a billion, billion piled up would equal a grain of salt. The unseen mini-bot could be used for such things as medical innovations, molecular manufacturing, and microscopic assembly lines, producing all sorts of things.

Chemistry composition is the key

The miniature robots are made of a select group of chemical compounds totaling 150 hydrogen, carbon, and oxygen atoms. Chemical signals are delivered via a solution with programmed instructions that put the micro machines through a series of steps that achieve simple tasks.

Its main function is to grab molecules with its arm and move them into place forming new tiny structures. Making new drugs would be one of the missions for scientists with this method and the molecular manufacturing would allow new discovers to occur more efficiently, using fewer materials, supplanting previous methods.

David Leigh of the University of Manchester explains:

“All matter is made up of atoms and these are the basic building blocks that form molecules. Our robot is literally a molecular robot constructed of atoms, just like you can build a very simple robot out of Lego bricks,” said David Leigh, a scientist at the University of Manchester, who was involved in the research.

“It is similar to the way robots are used on a car assembly line. Those robots pick up a panel and position it so that it can be riveted in the correct way to build the bodywork of a car,” explains Leigh. “So, just like the robot in the factory, our molecular version can be programmed to position and rivet components in different ways to build different products, just on a much smaller scale at a molecular level.” Article

Robot Dentist Debuts in China

Chinese robot performs oral surgery 

Adjusts to patient movement during procedure

The first successful automated dental implant was performed in China recently. The one-hour procedure accomplished the operation within a margin of error of 0.2-0.3 mm, falling within the stated standard deviation. 

Less pain for patients

Yomi dental robot system approved for use in US

Robots in dentistry will take some of the pain and discomfort away from patients, as the dentist's hands won't be necessary to manipulate instruments that sometimes need to reach into tight spaces of the mouths of patients. 

A shortage of qualified dentist in China coupled with increased demand for 'new teeth' from mainland Chinese citizens has accelerated the use of the dental technology. Article

US approves dental robots

In the US the FDA recently approved the use of a robot dental system called Yomi.  

Doomsday AI Google Disagrees

Google joins Zuckerberg as AI optimist

Head of Google AI calls apocalyptic AI talk irresponsible and inaccurate

John Giannandrea, Google's head of AI, said recently that painting artificial intelligence as a negative force that will doom humanity is a 'leap' into the unknown that only harms progress.


Like Mark Zuckerberg of Facebook, he sees the benefits of AI far outweighing concerns people have over an apocalyptic scenario in which AI takes over. He points out that progress in AI is slower than what people imagine and because it takes a series of tiny steps to advance the technology, A.I. will always be able to be tightly controlled or at least influenced, by humans.

Ethical concerns Google have about AI focused on eliminating bias

There are real ethical concerns Giannandrea believes, but he says there are many companies and other entities working on the problem, including Google, who is funding several efforts to study the issue.

Unfortunately, he mentions that the main ethical concern he and Google view in AI is the potential for bias in data and neural network outputs. In other words, if objective data delivers an answer that is not politically correct, it must indicate some human bias found its way into the AI program - and is not a reflection of reality, per se. Article

 

                            John Giannandrea of Google discusses future of AI in this video

Silicon Valley: Basic Income Trials Begin

Silicon Valley investor group handing out cash

Y Combinator experiments with UBI

Silicon Valley's Y Combinator to begin cash handout trials to thousands of Americans. The social experiment is designed to gather information on how a basic income affects people, their communities, and society in general.

Two states and 3,000 people will be selected, consisting of two groups. One group will receive a $1,000 monthly payment. And the other $50 a week. The groups will be compared to each other to see how each behaves with the different amounts of free money. Article  

Musk and Zuckerberg advocate for UBI

Tech leaders Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg have advocated for a universal basic income for quite some time for Americans. The massive transformation coming from automation and artificial intelligence have been the impetus for the discussion.

Both have slightly different perspectives on UBI's positives. Zuckerberg sees it as a way to eliminate poverty by offering individuals the financial support they need to grow and develop with less worry; much like Zuckerberg experienced during his own upper-class upbringing.

He also sees it as a lifestyle tool that average people can utilize to educate themselves and pursue their passions with it potentially leading to entrepreneurial success.

Musk, on the other hand, takes a less idealistic view. He see's UBI as simply something that we need to enact in response to a future dominated by automation and AI. For Musk, it will be a necessity as jobs are lost to automation and new opportunities fail to materialize.

AI Leader: Silicon Valley Must be Broken Up

Scientist who helped pioneer machine learning in AI says big tech too powerful

Yoshua Bengio, a professor at the University of Montreal and IBM consultant, is part of a team that is calling on the US Government to break up Google, Microsoft, Apple, and Facebook.

His team, significant because all consult the above companies artificial intelligence programs, say these companies are already too powerful. By dominating in AI, their power will reach unprecedented levels.

Yoshua Bengio, artificial intelligence pioneer:

"AI is a technology that naturally lends itself to a winner take all," Bengio said. "The country and company that dominates the technology will gain more power with time. More data and a larger customer base gives you an advantage that is hard to dislodge. Scientists want to go to the best places. The company with the best research labs will attract the best talent. It becomes a concentration of wealth and power." Article

Italians Create AI that Detects Alzheimer's

Artificial Intelligence program successful at detecting Alzheimer's

AI can determine signs of Alzheimer's 10 years before symptoms show up

AI learn's by viewing brain scans

An Italian team, at the University of Bari, recently created an algorithm program that can reveal signs of Alzheimer's in the diseases beginning stages. It will help doctors get a jump start on treatment for the incurable disease, slowing down its onset.

The AI system was shown numerous scans from Alzheimer's patients and those of healthy patients. Using computer scans that seek out the microscopic structural changes in the brain that indicate Alzheimer's, the AI received the information it needed to separate a good scan from a bad.

After testing, these were the results:

After training was done, they tested the algorithm by having it process brain scans from 148 subjects. Out of the total number, 48 were scans of people with the disease, while 48 were scans of people who suffered from mild cognitive impairment and eventually developed full-blown Alzheimer's.

The AI was able to diagnose Alzheimer's 86 percent of the time. Article

Japan to Combat Population Decline with Robots

Japan will lose 50% of its population in the next 50 years

Its' solution? Humanoid robots.

Japan plans on remaining Japan far into the future. With a low birth rate and a declining population, Japan could lose 50% of its population in the next 50 years. Japan aging population explodes while birth rates drop. 

To keep its economy going and social services from collapsing, it will need an influx of workers. But instead of importing foreigners from far off lands, Japan will turn to its technical prowess and fascination with robots to attempt to fill the massive void. 

As a world leader in robot development, combined with its shortage of labor, Japan is and will be the perfect robot laboratory.  

Super Strong Bio Robots Now Possible

Breakthrough makes robot muscle possible, similar to human muscle

Columbia University's Creative Machines Lab makes a breakthrough in developing muscle tissue that can be molded into bio shapes and assume the functionality of real human-like muscles. The goal is to enable human-like robots to be built with the strength and flexibility of humans. 

But the strength will be massive compared to us, as the muscle's strength was measured to be15 times more powerful than that of a human being. The muscle is capable of lifting 1,000 times its weight. 

From Hod Lipson of Creative Machines:

Professor Hod Lipson, from the Creative Machines laboratory at Columbia University in New York, said: "We've been making great strides toward making robot minds, but robot bodies are still primitive.b

"This is a big piece of the puzzle and, like biology, the new actuator can be shaped and reshaped a thousand ways. We've overcome one of the final barriers to making lifelike robots."

The muscle is made from 3D printing and is synthetic and rubber-like, allowing it to "actuate" or expand and contract just like a real muscle.

Creative Machines partly funded by Israeli Defense Ministry

"It can push, pull, bend, twist, and lift weight. It's the closest artificial material equivalent we have to a natural muscle."

The long-term aim is to accelerate the artificial muscle's response time and link it to an artificially intelligent (AI) control system, said the researchers, who were part-funded by the Israeli defense ministry. Article

Nigel the Robot Wants to Get Know You

Artificial intelligence system called Nigel here to help 

Two heads are better than one, the old saying goes, and how many times have we longed for help in making decisions, both big and small? When we can't find that special someone that really understands us, we can feel like we are just flapping in the wind.

Enter Nigel. An artificial intelligence system that is here to help. Kimera Systems has created what it calls a robot but is really just an AI network, named Nigel. It is specifically designed to learn a person's thinking and behavior patterns. From that understanding, it can offer advice tailored to each user.  

                                             Mounir Shita Scientist and developer of Nigel

Speaking to BBC Mounir Shita, founder of Kimera Systems, said: “Nigel tries to figure you out; your goals and what reality looks like to you and is consistently assimilating paths to the future to reach your goals. It’s constantly trying to push you in the right direction.”

It will do so by using algorithms that learn as it goes and adapts to new information. Most AI neural systems work by ingesting information and processing it to achieve a specific goal determined by the programmer. 

Nigel uses newly designed system algorithms that seek to connect to data in a non-linear way, more like a tree branch or spider web. With more information, it gains a deeper knowledge of a person and can create a richer profile

From that foundation, it can come up with suggestions and advice to some of lifes most pressing problems customized to each user. 

Though not ready to tell you who to marry or where to spend your next vacation yet, the system is laying the groundwork to get there.

Shita said: “Our goal is by this time next year, have Nigel read and write at a grade school level. Then hopefully it will gain enough knowledge to be able to assist you in political discussions and elections.” Article

  

Robot Subs Lurk in the Waves, Hearts of Our Enemies

Crewless automated submarines next on US Navy agenda

The Ocean Aero S10 robot sub on the surface, sail extended. 

                                         

                                     

The US Navy is ready for unmanned automated robot subs to make a splash, help smash our enemies - if need be. A contract to build a brand new fleet of robot submarines for the Navy is waving like a sail in front of Lockheed Martin and Boeing, as we speak.

Both have enlisted the help, or rather, have bought up small tech start-ups to assist them in landing the massive contract. Boeing has developed a 51-foot sub called the Echo Voyager and purchased a company called Liquid Robotics, a maker of small unmanned subs to compete.

Lockheed Martin has invested in San Diego based Ocean Aero, a specialist in unmanned underwater vehicles to try and close the deal. Article  

Industrial Robots Get Into the Groove

Musician programs industrial robots to make sweet music 

                 

                                    New music video from Nigel Stanford "Automatica"

Stanford took only a month to program the industrial-like robot arms to play instruments ranging from guitar to piano for the song and video. It's an amazing display of precision and timing. The robots come from German company Kuka Robotics and the music and programming come from the mind of Stanford, a New Zealand musician with a love of science. Article

The Worlds Military's Race for More A.I.

Demand for artificial intelligence skyrocketing among worlds military powers

                            Video from Defense One reveals  A.I.'s role in worlds military 

 

           Top military's use of artificial intelligence

Russia: Lethal ground robots, unmanned tanks, swarm drones, and missile guidance systems.

 Great Britain: Live feedback for shipboard gunners.

Israel: Predictive analytics on likely missile launch strikes along the Gaza strip.

France: Survallience robot called Serano.  

Canada: Sensor system to monitor its northern coast with underwater applications called CAUSE.

China: Implements dual applications that serve civilian and military needs to fight terrorism, monitor the population, forecast labor strikes, run drone swarms, and pioneer quantum computing. 

US: AI on F35s to help process targeting data, help pilots take off and land on carriers and use of robots to move gear for ground troops and for use in US drone strikes. 

                   

                           China biggest military concern for US in AI 

• Of largest concern for the US military is China. US intelligence has shown on numerous occasions China implementing new weapons tech copied directly from US military innovations.
• Pentagon is nervous that its own AI technology is not keeping pace with that of Silicon Valley. Even more unsettling for them is that Silicon Valley may fall behind China's AI program in the near future. 
• That fear is not unsubstantiated. A.I. works more precisely, the more data it has. It gets that data mainly from consumer online interactions. China has surpassed the US in users of technology to the point of nearly doubling it.
• China is investing heavily in A.I. with less concern for social services for its people. 
• The US is also losing ground to China in the competition for tech experts, as Microsoft and Google lose out on tech talent to China's fast-rising commercial tech industry.
• The Trump administration has been focusing on calling China out on its unethical business practices to help alleviate pressure on US companies and the Pentagon. 
• Look for more pressure from the US on China in the future and also pay attention to the war between nations for tech talent. 

The Seedy Side of Robots: Sex Bots

Sex robot maker goes public receives backlash

A British sex doll maker recently went public appearing on a live British talk show accompanied by one of his creations. His sex robot called "Samantha" sat upright on the couch next to him in the bizarre interview. Article

The creator, Arran Squire, did his best to present the industry to the public in a positive light, trying to explain that sex robots can be beneficial to married couples and can be viewed as just another family member.

He says his children are aware of the doll and often interact with it, asking where "Samantha" is when she is gone. But the back lash against Squire and his sex bots by the British public has been strong. He has been labeled a pervert and is being criticized for attempting to normalize what appears to be a personal sex fetish.

His sex dolls appear lifelike, even though it is obvious they are synthetic dolls. Artificial intelligence allows "Samantha" to respond to voice commands. More advanced neural networks will allow sex dolls to carry on conversations.

Here is "Harmony" from one of America's sexbot creators

      

Russian Robot Has Swag

Super social Promobot is a robot busy body

It remembers everyone it meets, never waits to be invited, often escapes from its lab, and has even been arrested for political activism. Article

Meet Promobot, Russia's ultimate Android ambassador. Recently, in Perm, Russia's Silicon Valley, Promobot pressed flesh with President Putin after recognizing him, having met him once before.

Promobot escapes often, one time he left the lab to play Pokemon go and another time, he scurried out of the building and made it out onto the streets to support his favorite political candidate. Onlookers accused him of being a spy and he was promptly arrested.

Russian scientists, so far, have no plans to alter Promobot and look forward to what he is going to get into next.  

                                            Promobot being arrested

Facial Recognition A.I. Detects Political Views

Artifical Intelligence knows who you will vote for

Researchers, whose study uncovered artificial intelligence's ability to detect sexual orientation, say it can detect a host of other personal traits as well, including whether if someone is a liberal or conservative. Article

Author of the studies, Michal Kosinski, Standford professor:

Using photos, AI will be able to identify people’s political views, whether they have high IQs, whether they are predisposed to criminal behavior, whether they have specific personality traits and many other private, personal details that could carry huge social consequences, he said.

“The face is an observable proxy for a wide range of factors, like your life history, your development factors, whether you’re healthy,” he said.

                           
                         Michal Kosinski professor of organizational behavior at Standford

Kosinski, an assistant professor of organizational behavior, began his facial recognition quest by studying links between face structure and political preferences. AI was effective at predicting political ideology based on looks, his studies found. 

The study also found that conservative politicians are more attractive than liberals. Even so, AI would be less effective at identifying people in the middle of the political spectrum.  

In the future, artificial intelligence facial recognition will be able to make inferences about things like IQ, criminal tendencies, and personality type.     

LGBT Objects to A.I. Gaydar

LGBT sees problems with A.I's ability to categorize sexual orientation      

Not known for being the most rational bunch, LGBT groups do come across as sensible in their criticism of the use of artificial intelligence and software algorithms to determine sexual orientation - well almost. Article

Their primary concern seems to be the dating drama it could cause on gay dating sites rather than the more salient question of individual privacy.

In their press release, LGBT representatives say:   

"This research isn't science or news, but it's a description of beauty standards on dating sites that ignores huge segments of the LGBTQ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer/questioning) community, including people of colour, transgender people, older individuals, and other LGBTQ people who don't want to post photos on dating sites," said Jim Halloran, chief digital officer of Glaad, a media-monitoring body.

"These reckless findings could serve as a weapon to harm both heterosexuals who are inaccurately outed, as well as gay and lesbian people who are in situations where coming out is dangerous."

Not so fast LGBTers, it is science. And it's bizarre that in the press release they complain that the photo imaging technology establishes some sort of beauty standards that leave out certain people on gay dating sites. Ok, so an invalid technology is also discriminatory? Got it.

But through some small miracle, the LGBT press release actually gets something right. What if non-gay people are characterized as gay by A.I. and that false information is widely disseminated, it asks? And also, what about gay people who either don't want their sexual orientation to be an important part of their public profile or feel that that information could be harmful in a variety of ways? 

And there is a myriad of other issues related to it. Is there a credible reason why IDing sexual orientation through photo imaging technology is really necessary? What will A.I. do with that data in the future? 

Jaw size determines who is gay for both men and women    

In one test, when the algorithm was presented with two photos where one picture was definitely of a gay man and the other heterosexual, it was able to determine which was which 81% of the time.

With women, the figure was 71%.

"Gay faces tended to be gender atypical," the researchers said. "Gay men had narrower jaws and longer noses, while lesbians had larger jaws."

Researchers respond to the criticism:

The two researchers involved - Prof Michael Kosinski and Yilun Wang - have since responded in turn, accusing their critics of "premature judgement".

"Our findings could be wrong... however, scientific findings can only be debunked by scientific data and replication, not by well-meaning lawyers and communication officers lacking scientific training," they wrote.

"However, if our results are correct, Glaad and HRC representatives' knee-jerk dismissal of the scientific findings puts at risk the very people for whom their organisations strive to advocate."

A.I. Can Tell if Someone is Gay

A.I. "Gaydar" detects sexual orientation with 91% accuracy

AI has the ability to detect gayness with advanced facial imaging. It distinguished between gay and straight men with higher accuracy rate than for the women. Artificial intelligence outperformed human perceptions by a significant margin and does so by analyzing the facial structures of human images.

A certain danger exists here. What if artificial intelligence makes sexual orientation a part of someone's profile without consent, especially if that person doesn't necessarily want that information widely known. And what else do our facial structures say about us?

It may be possible that this the first step into a "Minority Report" future. In the Tom Cruise film, the technology could determine if a crime was about to be committed and by whom. The Cruise character had the authority to arrest people before any criminal act occurred.

Technological facial recognition is being developed as a security tool, but along the way, it will pick up more information about a person than is needed for identification. Is that necessary?

Soul Machines Making Human Like Avatars

Human like avatars are coming

Mark Sagar of Soul Machines makes computer avatars that are nearly human like. His company is well funded and hard at work developing a way for people to interact in the virtual world by constructing life like representations of humans that appear on computer screens.

Many companies in the airline, healthcare, and finance industries are showing interest in utilizing his technology in customer service roles. Customers would encounter these avatars on the companies websites and be able to interact with them almost as if they were dealing with another human being.    

It would be a huge step up from chatbox's as Sagar's company seeks to build systems that are nearly identical to humans. Using Hollywood film level CGI, computer software, and AI deep learning, Sagar has several high functioning avatars such as BabyX:  

BabyX, the virtual creation of Mark Sagar and his researchers, looks impossibly real. The child, a 3D digital rendering based on images of Sagar’s daughter at 18 months, has rosy cheeks, warm eyes, a full head of blond hair, and a soft, sweet voice. When I visited the computer scientist’s lab last year, BabyX was stuck inside a computer but could still see me sitting in front of the screen with her “father.” To get her attention, we’d call out, “Hi, baby. Look at me, baby,” and wave our hands. When her gaze locked onto our faces, we’d hold up a book filled with words (such as “apple” or “ball”) and pictures (sheep, clocks), then ask BabyX to read the words and identify the objects. When she got an answer right, we praised her, and she smiled with confidence. When she got one wrong, chiding her would turn her teary and sullen.

Sagar has achieved his life like creations with software human modeling, complete with a simulation of a completely functioning virtual human brain, right down to the dopamine and serotonin responses:

With a click of his mouse, Sagar stripped away BabyX’s skin, leaving a floating pair of eyes—bloody veins and all—attached to a finely detailed brain with a brain stem running down the back. This version of BabyX could still see out into the world and interact with us. When we showed her words, the part of the brain that deals with language glowed purple. When we praised her, the pleasure center lit up yellow. “Researchers have built lots of computational models of cognition and pieces of this, but no one has stuck them together,” he said. “This is what we’re trying to do: wire them together and put them in an animated body. We are trying to make a central nervous system for human computing.”

Sagar and his assistants want to take the technology a step further and see it being implemented in many applications, for example, they imagine it being utilized in self-driving cars as a virtual helper. They also see customers being able to customize their avatars and have interactions with celebrities and well, anyone, really:

As the technology matures, Cross expects it to travel further from the PC screen. Automakers are already thinking about the characters fielding questions and answers from riders on screens in their self-driving cars. Similarly, Amazon, Apple, and Google parent Alphabet will likely want faces to go with their voice-activated virtual assistants. “We’re also exploring the idea of creating a digital celebrity,” Cross says. “What if you could take one of the top recording artists or sports people and build a digital version that fans could interact with in a very emotionally intelligent way?”

It should be noted that Sagar, while he is passionately pushing his technology, doesn't allow his own children to use the internet and spends long hours in the wilderness to get away from technology. And according to the article, he can come off a little creepy in his passion about the capabilities of Soul Machines:

Like Cross, Sagar often appears oblivious that his pitch might sound creepy. In August, when I pay a visit to Soul Machines to see Sagar’s latest creations, he’s wearing a T-shirt that depicts two fetuses sharing a womb, arranged head-to-toe in a kind of yin-yang pose. One of the fetuses is human; the other has a distinctly artificial brain filled with circuitry. He wanted to make this design the company logo. The investors who gave him $7.5 million last November said no.
Sagar comes off like a visionary academic, at times almost possessed. Ask a basic question, and you’re likely to get an impassioned 30-minute response that weaves in AI, art, psychology, and Plato. It’s hard to imagine this man holding court with a car insurer, trying to sell a suit-wearing executive on a virtual avatar, without things getting weird.

Others are not sure Sagar's is taking a responsible approach: 

Other researchers caution that Sagar could be misleading people about the state of the technology through his cute, intricate faces. “Westerners tend to want to anthropomorphize these things, and we can get very enchanted by them,” says Ken Goldberg, a professor of industrial engineering and operations research at University of California at Berkeley. “If you make it look human and act human, you almost have a double responsibility to be clear about its limitations.” He applauds Sagar for doing this type of research but doesn’t want people to get false hope about the near-term benefits of such technology. Sagar has a tendency to talk as though BabyX can already do all the things he’s dreaming.

Is Sagar, with all his ability and vision, perhaps too naive for his and our own good?:

Sagar remains sanguine about the lessons AI can learn from us and vice versa. “We’re searching for the basis of things like cooperation, which is the most powerful force in human nature,” he says. As he sees it, an intelligent robot that he’s taught cooperation will be easier for humans to work with and relate to and less likely to enslave us or harvest our bodies for energy. “If we are really going to take advantage of AI, we’re going to need to learn to cooperate with the machines,” he says. “The future is a movie. We can make it dystopian or utopian.” Let’s all pray for a heartwarming comedy.