AI can now tell your boss what skills you lack and how to get them
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Every job is a combination of different competencies but most training courses only focus on a few, now AI can tell you all the competencies you lack and how to get them. Here’s the conundrum with corporate online learning, there are so many classes available from...
IBM finds a way to watermark AI’s to protect them from theft and sabotage
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Creating complex neural networks and AI’s takes a lot of expertise, money and resources so being able to watermark them will help protect them from theft. What if machine learning models, much like photographs, movies, music, and manuscripts, could be watermarked nearly imperceptibly to denote...
Scientists have 3D printed the world’s first physical neural network
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Being able to print advanced and complex AI’s mean we can produce them cheaply and position them at the edge of networks where computer power might be limited. Recently a team of researchers in the US revolutionised artificial intelligence when they made the world’s first...
Canada ends its three year Universal Basic Income trial two years early
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Governments fear the fall out from the mass automation of jobs by AI will be extreme so they’re investigating new welfare systems to limit the damage, but solutions are illusive. 4,000 people in Ontario, Canada just lost their Universal Basic Income (UBI) cash and...
OpenAI’s robot hand handles objects with human-like dexterity
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Robots struggle with tasks that involve dexterity, but that problem could soon be solved. Artificial Intelligence (AI) advances are increasingly making headlines as we witness breakthrough after breakthrough, whether it’s in the creation of self-driving cars, or in the creation of the world’s first...
Scientists created a DNA Neural Network and the world’s first “test tube AI”
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF AI neural networks made out of DNA will let us create “AI’s in a test tube” that will usher in the next AI revolution and exponentially increase the number of AI use cases. Recently we’ve seen significant advances in the development of living biological...
Google has created a test to measure AI’s ability to reason
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As advanced as today’s AI’s are they still can’t reason, and that’s what’s going to hold them, and us, back from realising the milestone that is Artificial General Intelligence. Artificial Intelligence (AI) has become pretty good at completing specific tasks over the past couple...
AI has learnt how to predict how smart you are from brain scans
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Being able to gauge a smart a person is just from a brain scan could provide scientists with new insights into the brain. Scientists in the US have announced they’ve developed an Artificial Intelligence (AI) system that can tell how smart a person is...
A controversial AI can allegedly reveal your personality from just a photo
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF A system that can tell a persons personality from a photo can be used to help approve loans, provide better healthcare, and create smarter surveillance solutions. In the past I’ve heard of Artificial Intelligent (AI) platforms that can, controversially, judge a persons character from...
Jeff bezos announces target to build the world’s first Moon base in 2023
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF At some point in the future humanity will become an interplanetary species, and several billionaires want it to be sooner rather than later. Blue Origin, the space company run by Jeff Bezos, who wants to one day use the service to deliver goods to...
MIT researchers have taught their AI to see through solid walls
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF There are times when seeing through walls is useful, for example in hostage negotiations, search and rescue, and to see when mum and dad are about to bust in on your gameplay. Recently we’ve seen camera developments from both China and MIT that help...
Baidu starts mass production of it’s fully autonomous bus
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The faster autonomous vehicles hit the roads the faster the transportation industry’s going to flip, and it’s clear that there are companies that want it to happen sooner rather than later. Chinese tech and internet giant Baidu has begun volume production of China’s first...
Scientists put a worms mind into a Lego robot to control it, and it worked
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The convergence of biological intelligence with robotics will be an area of increasing interest in the future. It’s not something you do every day, put a worms brain into a Lego robot… but then again you’re probably not a scientist. This is the promise...
Soul Machines reveal the secrets behind BabyX, their life like artificial baby
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Over time we will all be interacting more and more with AI, as a result companies are trying to “humanise” it. BabyX, the virtual, artificially intelligent creation of Mark Sagar and his company, Soul Machines, who also bought us Ava, a life-like digital avatar that’s...
Stopping the DIY bio-terrorists, US military embraces AI and Ginkgo Bioworks
WHY THIS MATTERS As the cost of powerful DIY gene editing kits continue to fall bioterrorism is going to be on the rise, so we need a way to defend against it. Recently I gave a talk on the “Future of Cybersecurity” in the Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) sector...
Futurist Keynote, Warrington: The Future of Industrial Controls Nuclear Security, Cyber Senate
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Industrial Control Systems (ICS) that enable the safe and efficient operation of our CNI assets are becoming increasingly smart and connected, making them more vulnerable to attack, and new technologies bring new challenges. Firstly, thanks to James for inviting me to be the keynote...
IBM’s AI wins debates in San Francisco against champion debating team
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF The art of debating often helps humans learn new things and see topics from new perspectives, so an AI that can debate with humans on a vast range of topics could be incredibly useful. Checkmate is a simple concept. It’s a final, decisive move...
Researchers have read the mind of a “black box” AI using cell biology
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As we continue to endeavour to read the mind of today’s so called black box AI’s there may be more than one way to do it, and while turning to biology is unconventional, it works. The deep neural networks that power today’s Artificial Intelligence...
An AI just wrote, directed and produced its own appalling film, but it’s the future
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF Today AI’s that are involved in film production are, for the most part, really awful, but over time they’ll improve and one day they’ll go head to head with the best human directors. Benjamin is a genius who may have created a film that’s...
200 Quadrillion calculations per second, Summit, world’s most powerful AI supercomputer goes live
WHY THIS MATTERS IN BRIEF As supercomputers become increasingly powerful they will increasingly help us realise new breakthroughs in everything from drug discovery and energy generation, through to materials and space travel, and everything in between. It’s the most powerful computing platform on Earth, for now at least –...
