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Category: computing

(Photo credit: AP Photo/Jack Plunkett, File)

Astro Teller is tired of the paranoia surrounding artificial intelligence and robotics. The famous computer scientist’s sensitivity around the topic may be understandable considering he bears the brunt of some of that skepticism as the head of X, the Alphabet (and formerly Google) moonshot factory working on many of the company’s futuristic AI and robotics projects.

This past weekend, Teller, whose official title is “captain of moonshots,” took to the stage at the inaugural Silicon Valley Comic Con hoping to dispel some of these misconceptions around AI. His physician wife, Danielle Teller, presented alongside him on some of the fear mongering associated with genetic engineering in humans. After their presentation, the Tellers sat down with FORBES to go deeper on the issue to explain what they hoped to accomplish with their talk.

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A novel written by artificial intelligence was a finalist in Japan’s Hoshi Shinichi Literary Award. The award is named after Hoshi Shinichi, a Japanese science fiction author whose books include The Whimsical Robot and Greetings from Outer Space. The unique contest accepts submissions from humans and machines, and judges for the prize, now in its third year, weren’t told which novels were written by humans and which were penned by human-AI teams. This year was the first time the committee received submissions written by AI programs.

The AI novel is called The Day A Computer Writes A Novel, or Konpyuta ga shosetsu wo kaku hi in Japanese. It was co-written by Hishoshi Matsubara, a professor of computer science, along with his team at Future University Hakodate in Japan. According to the LA Times, their AI wrote four books, of which one made it past the first round of the prize. It was one of 1450 submissions, 11 of which were written with the help of AI programs.

According to reports, 80% of the novel had human involvement, as Matsubara and his team did the research for the novel, decided on the plot and developed the characters. The novel’s text was written entirely by the AI. The Professor’s team entered words and phrases from a sample novel into a computer in order for the AI to construct a new novel similar to it, Slate reports.

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Researchers from Griffith University and the University of Queensland have overcome one of the key challenges to quantum computing by simplifying a complex quantum logic operation. They demonstrated this by experimentally realising a challenging circuit—the quantum Fredkin gate—for the first time.

“The allure of quantum computers is the unparalleled processing power that they provide compared to current technology,” said Dr Raj Patel from Griffith’s Centre for Quantum Dynamics.

“Much like our everyday computer, the brains of a quantum computer consist of chains of logic gates, although quantum logic gates harness quantum phenomena.”

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Researchers from Griffith University and the University of Queensland have overcome one of the key challenges to quantum computing by simplifying a complex quantum logic operation. They demonstrated this by experimentally realising a challenging circuit — the quantum Fredkin gate — for the first time.

“The allure of quantum computers is the unparalleled processing power that they provide compared to current technology,” said Dr Raj Patel from Griffith’s Centre for Quantum Dynamics.

“Much like our everyday computer, the brains of a quantum computer consist of chains of logic gates, although quantum logic gates harness quantum phenomena.”

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I had thought my job was safe from automation—a computer couldn’t possibly replicate the complex creativity of human language in writing or piece together a coherent story. I may have been wrong. Authors beware, because an AI-written novel just made it past the first round of screening for a national literary prize in Japan.

The novel this program co-authored is titled, The Day A Computer Writes A Novel. It was entered into a writing contest for the Hoshi Shinichi Literary Award. The contest has been open to non-human applicants in years prior, however, this was the first year the award committee received submissions from an AI. Out of the 1,450 submissions, 11 were at least partially written by a program.

Here’s a except from the novel to give you an idea as to what human contestants were up against:

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A crucial hurdle in the development of ultra-powerful quantum computers has been overcome through the development of the world’s first programmable system that can be scaled.

Researchers at the University of Maryland College Park built a quantum computer module that can be linked to other modules to perform simultaneous quantum algorithms.

“Quantum computers can solve certain problems more efficiently than any possible conventional computer,” states a paper published this week that details the researchers’ findings. “Small quantum algorithms have been demonstrated in multiple quantum computing platforms, many specifically tailored to hardware to implement a particular algorithm or execute a limited number of computational paths.

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Neurons still remain the most powerful piece of computation machinery on the face of the planet. More to the point, nobody throws up their hands in despair when a screwdriver removes a flathead screw better than their fingernail can, and yet the parallel is an apt one. The circuitry of the human brain has not been honed by evolution to be especially good at playing the game of Go, any more than evolution has fine-tuned our fingernails for removing screws.

Which is not to say there is no room for surprise in today’s world of rapidly advancing technological achievement. What is more impressive, however, is when computers exhibit greater skill than humans at tasks evolution has been perfecting for millions of years like exercising a sense of smell. And yet such advancements are taking place right beneath our noses, metaphorically speaking.

Recently a UK startup called Koniku released details on a drone that uses neurons embedded in a computer architecture to achieve the sense of smell exhibited by a bee. With only 64 neurons, the chip achieves a sense of smell capable of detecting explosives over one kilometer away. The accompanying video bears testimony to this amazing achievement, as the drone in question hones in on its target with almost bee like movement. In fact, the only thing missing is an incessant buzzing noise.

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