Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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Category: robotics/AI

True points and many that I have been sharing on Quantum around its own potential to change everything that we know about technology (devices, internet & networking in general, wireless and satellites, AI, advancements in biotech, security, big data, and singularity itself). The author also highlights many of the same concerns that I have shared around hackers on Quantum breaking through the older digitized platforms and networks; therefore, many companies and governments are exposed as well as consumers who have not adopted Quantum.

Although the author speculates we’re less than 10 yrs for Quantum to be seen in the everyday usage; I believe we’re within 7 yrs.

Within four years quantum computers will have the beating of conventional computers and that will produce a dramatic change in both the technology landscape and in business, according to Professor Jeremy O’Brien from Bristol University.

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Hmmm; we’re definitely not at the end of the golden age of innovation. In fact, once Quantum technology has evolved to the point where it is available to the broader public; we will see a new explosion of new innovation occur as a result.

This is the first of two excerpts from “The Rise and Fall of American Growth: The U.S. Standard of Living Since the Civil War,” published this month by Princeton University Press. The second will explain the implications of all this for the next quarter century.

Can future innovations match the great inventions of the past? Will artificial intelligence, robots, 3D printing and other offspring of the digital revolution do for economic growth what the second industrial revolution did between 1920 and 1970? The techno-optimist school of economics says yes. I disagree.

The rise in the U.S. standard of living from 1870 to 1970 was a special century — and won’t likely be repeated. Growth over the next quarter century will resemble the slow pace of 2004–2015, not the faster growth rate of 1994–2004, much less the rapid rate achieved between 1920 and 1970.

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Interesting & a perplexing viewpoint by this author on “Singularity” and AI in general. First, I believe folks have varying views on the word “Singularity.” This author believes it is when machines become smarter than humans. In my case; I see Singularity is when humans and machines become connected to all things; not necessarily when a machine becomes smarter than myself. Also, the author definitely is not open to exploring all the possibilities around AI; thank goodness all innovators do not have this same mindset.

Human-like robots are popping up everywhere. From the factory floor to product packaging and delivery. From restaurants to the battlefield. From patient care to camel racing. And countless other places. The driverless cars we talked about in this column only a few years ago can be seen on the road today. Our electronic devices are not only talking to us, they’re beginning to understand what we need without even having to ask.

All of this has led to rampant speculation about when the so-called “singularity” is going to happen. When machines become “smarter” than humans. Sorry to disappoint, but the ultimate brain isn’t a future generation of IBM’s Watson or some super-distributed artificial intelligence network like the fictional Skynet portrayed in the Terminator movies.

The next leap in intelligence may actually be viewed as a step backward. That’s because it’s been around for as long as humans have inhabited the earth. Maybe even longer. It’s a network more massive than Skynet, with trillions of nodes and innumerable connections. And it’s not something “out there.” This recently discovered superbrain exists inside each and every one of us. Introducing … the human microbiome.

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This AI race is not really just about which company is better at Go.

“There has been, and there is, a lot of progress in state-of-the-art artificial intelligence,” Bostrom says. “[Google’s] underlying technology is very much continuous with what has been under development for the last several years.”

But if you look at this another way, it’s exactly why Google’s triumph is so exciting—and perhaps a little frightening. Even Bostrom says it’s a good excuse to stop and take a look at how far this technology has come and where it’s going. Researchers once thought AI would struggle to crack Go for at least another decade. Now, it’s headed to places that once seemed unreachable. Or, at least, there are many people—with much power and money at their disposal—who are intent on reaching those places.

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Interesting article. As I have mentioned before; there will be new positions created.

NEWS ANALYSIS: The day is coming when some people have so many virtual assistants they will need a virtual manager to direct their “virtual staff.” But how many virtual assistants are too many?

The availability and use of digital virtual assistants—software-based artificial intelligence services that do things for you—is about to explode.

Today, we think of the all-purpose assistants like Google Now, Apple’s Siri, Microsoft’s Cortana, Facebook’s M and Amazon’s Alexa. To some degree, we feel compelled to choose which we’ll use.

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First, this study is very biased and flawed. Secondly, have the tech companies considered all of the resistance that we’re all going to face with the provider and payer communities plus their lobbyists when we try to promote medical AI, nanobots, etc.

I have seen some resistance mounted by some providers, some pharma, etc. against CRISPR. And, I believe this type of resistance is only going to hurt patients as well as many cancer survivors with a genetic predisposition to cancer, and other genetic mutations.

A study of mobile health apps’ impact on health care costs represents a limited but crucial step for assessing digital medicine.

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Nice! Robo-advice will be accessed by investors worth $2.2 trillion by 2020, equivalent to 12% of the global retail funds.

If you’re a finance professional, the question you probably get asked most by your friends and acquaintances is “what investments they should make”? That’s the basic question that everyone with money will ask. They may ask the “financial advisor” at their bank, they may turn to Google for advice, they may ask their “friends who work in finance”, or they may listen to recommendations of people they trust. However, individuals with a high net worth will typically seek out a wealth management firm with a brand they trust. But which firm?

Try to Google “top wealth management firms” and the first 5 search results will be a comparison of the top 100 wealth management firms. That’s a very competitive space. How do you differentiate yourself from your 99 competitors who are essentially trying to so the same thing you are? One way is through the use of technology, and as a result we see the rise of “robo advisors”. Here’s the definition of a “robo-advisor” from Investopedia:

A robo-advisor is an online wealth management service that provides automated, algorithm-based portfolio management advice without the use of human financial planners. Robo-advisors use the same software as traditional advisors, but usually only offer portfolio management and do not get involved in more personal aspects of wealth management, such as taxes and retirement or estate planning.

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Good luck with that.

GRAUBUNDEN, SWITZERLAND – The world must act quickly to avert a future in which autonomous robots with artificial intelligence roam the battlefields killing humans, scientists and arms experts warned at an elite gathering in the Swiss Alps.

Rules must be agreed to prevent the development of such weapons, they said at a January 19–23 meeting of billionaires, scientists and political leaders in the snow-covered ski resort of Davos.

Angela Kane, the German UN High Representative for Disarmament Affairs from 2012–2015, said the world had been slow to take pre-emptive measures to protect humanity from the lethal technology.

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