Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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Category: robotics/AI

The reason I have been motivated to do this is simple. If we don’t get a ban in place, there will be an arms race. And the end point of this race will look much like the dystopian future painted by Hollywood movies like The Terminator.

Even before this end point, such weapons will likely fall into the hands of terrorists and rogue nations. These people will have no qualms about removing any safeguards. Or using them against us.

And it won’t simply be robots fighting robots. Conflicts today are asymmetric. It will mostly be robots against humans. So unlike what some robot experts might claim, many of those humans will be innocent civilians.

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According to her profile, “She is a comforting character that is great to those living alone. She will always do all she can just for the owner.” How thoughtful and sweet. Except she comes with a $2,600 price tag (and her US version will be sold for $3,000). So, caring for her “owner” is the least she can do, right?

The hologram bot is based on a Japanese anime character, but she isn’t going to be the only character for Gatebox. From the looks of the website, the company is going to make other characters available, presumably also from anime.

Azuma’s hologram appears inside the main tube body of Gatebox, projected at a 1280 x 720 resolution. The hardware itself weighs 5kg, has stereo speakers, a microphone, and a camera mounted on top. Azuma is built with a machine learning algorithm, that helps her recognize her “master’s” voice, learn his sleeping habits, and send him messages through Gatebox’s native chat app.

Perhaps Azuma will work for some, but she might not cut it for others — going home to a cartoonish AI hologram could take some getting used to. Anyway, Gatebox is certainly trying to disrupt the virtual assistant space. However, we still seem to be far from that holographic projection that we’re really be looking for.

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My new story for New Scientist on robot voting rights. This story came about because of my discussion with Professor Lawrence Lessig on the BBC World Service. To read my article, you may have to sign up for a free New Scientist account (it takes 1 minute). Please do it! It’s an important article. Gerrymandering in the AI and & robot age: https://www.newscientist.com/article/mg23231043-300-prepare-for-the-real-political-game-changer-robots-with-votes/ #transhumanism

If human-like AI comes to fruition then we may have grant voting rights to our silicon equals. Democracy will change forever, says Zoltan Istvan.

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The future is here… or is it?

With so many articles proliferating the media space on how humans are at the cusp of full AI (artificial intelligence), it’s no wonder that we believe that the future — which is full of robots and drones and self-driven vehicles, as well as diminishing human control over these machines — is right on our doorstep.

But are we really approaching the singularity as fast as we think we are?

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There may be a way to tap into people’s brain activity to boost their confidence, a new study suggests.

In the study, the researchers used a technique called decoded neurofeedback, which involves scanning people’s brains to monitor their brain activity, and using artificial intelligence to detect activity patterns that are linked with feelings of confidence.

Then, whenever these patterns are detected, people are given a reward — in this case, participants were given a small amount of money.

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Although this still looks like you’re part of a medical experiment; it is in fact a step forward in BMI progress as it is non-invasive & not bulky as the other BMI technology that I have seen. With the insights we’re able to collect from this model plus prove 80% accuracy in the neuro communication means next generations will be able to focus on materials to make the model more and more seamless. So, it is very promising.

A new non-invasive brain-computer interface allows people to control a robotic arm using only their minds.

(Photo : Sean Gallup/Getty Images)

A team of researchers at the University of Minnesota has developed a new non-invasive brain-computer interface that allows people to control a robotic arm using only their minds.

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Scientists at The Rockefeller University have created the most detailed three-dimensional images to date of an important step in the process by which cells make the nano-machines responsible for producing all-important protein. The results, described December 15 in Science, are prompting the researchers to re-evaluate how they envision this early phase in the construction of ribosomes.

“The structure they determined, shown above, belongs to a particle formally called the “small subunit processome.” Before this particle can fulfill its destiny to become the smaller half of a complete ribosome, the RNA within it needs to be folded, tweaked, and cut.

“Initially, we thought of the small subunit processome as a product on an assembly line, with molecular workers arriving from outside, much like the robots that would put together a car. But that analogy no longer appears apt,” says senior author Sebastian Klinge, head of the Laboratory of Protein and Nucleic Acid Chemistry.

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This is a nice boost for QC and mimics something that should prove interesting for AI and SynBio technology.

Researchers in Aalto University, Finland, and P.L. Kapitza Institute in Moscow have discovered half-quantum vortices in superfluid helium. This vortex is a topological defect, exhibited in superfluids and superconductors, which carries a fixed amount of circulating current.

‘This discovery of half-quantum vortices culminates a long search for these objects originally predicted to exist in superfluid helium in 1976,’ says Samuli Autti, Doctoral Candidate at Aalto University in Finland.

‘In the future, our discovery will provide access to the cores of half-quantum vortices, hosting isolated Majorana modes, exotic solitary particles. Understanding these modes is essential for the progress of quantum information processing, building a quantum computer,’ Autti continues.

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