Lifeboat Foundation: Safeguarding Humanity
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Category: robotics/AI

Over time, technology offers solutions to old problems while creating new issues in the process. The more powerful the technology, the greater its potential to do good and harm. Artificial intelligence is no exception, and as AI has advanced, worry about its risks has grown too.

Technology’s dual identity isn’t new, Ray Kurzweil said in a Q&A at Singularity University.

“Technology has actually been a double-edged sword since fire, which has kept us warm and cooked our food but also burned down our villages,” he said.

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Professor Alexi Samsonovich, a Russian AI expert has revealed that Russia is “on the verge” of creating thinking and feeling robots.

AI has been making great strides in the past few years, beating humans at our own game, as well as augmenting and even replacing human controlled systems. However, some are still not impressed with these developments and feel more should be done.

Such is the view of Professor Alexi Samsonovich, who announced that Russia “is on the verge” of a major AI milestone —robots that can feel human emotion!

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1st Robot has been arrested this year; guess Kurzweil’s request for Robots to have Constitutional Rights may have a need.

You might be forgiven if you were under the impression that the Russian government is a bit behind the times when it comes to modern technology and its never ending desire to stifle every last bit of dissent possible. Between the bouts its had with internet censorship and some strange claims about how binge-watching streaming services are a form of United States mind-control, it would be quite easy to be left with the notion that this is all for comedy. Alas, blunders and conspiracy theories aside, much of this technological blundering is mere cover for the very real iron grip the Russians place upon free speech, with all manner of examples in technology used as excuses to silence its critics.

And now it’s no longer just human beings that need fear the Russian government, it seems. Just this past week, a robot was arrested at a political rally. And, yes, I really do mean a robot, and, yes, I really do mean arrested.

A robot has been detained by police at a political rally in Moscow, with authorities attempting to handcuff the machine. The rally was for Valery Kalachev, a candidate for the Russian Parliament, who had rented the robot for his campaign.

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The nominee to lead the U.S. Strategic Command warned Congress this week that China and Russia are rapidly building space warfare capabilities and the United States is lagging behind in efforts to counter the threat.

Both Beijing and Moscow are developing anti-satellite missiles and laser guns and maneuvering killer space robots that could cripple strategic U.S. communications, navigation and intelligence satellites, the backbone of American high-technology warfare.

Air Force Gen. John E. Hyten, picked to be the next Stratcom commander, told the Senate Armed Services Committee that Chinese and Russian space weapons pose “an emerging challenge” and that the Pentagon is accelerating its efforts to counter the threat.

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Edward Snowden has warned people not to use Google’s new chat app, because it lets the company read everything that they say.

Google has finally released its new chat app after showing it off over the summer. It comes with a robot that watches everything people say and then stores it for later analysis, using that data to improve the app itself.

But that also means that chats are stored on Google’s servers indefinitely, and are able to be read by it. The company had initially indicated that the messages would only be stored temporarily, limiting the possible impact of any data breach and retaining some privacy for users.

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They are wise-cracking companions, able to communicate in more than six million languages. Others are bent on enslaving or destroying humanity, deeming themselves better, more rational caretakers of the Earth in light of our irrational behaviors.

Pilot or garbage man, soldier or slave, hero or villain—robots have played every role imaginable in popular science fiction for nearly a century.

In the 21st century, real-life robots inspired by their fictional counterparts are beginning to take starring roles in everyday life.

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Cancer is like a computer virus and can be ‘solved’ by cracking the code, according to Microsoft. The computer software company says its researchers are using artificial intelligence in a new healthcare initiative to target cancerous cells and eliminate the disease.

One of the projects within this new healthcare enterprise involves utilizing machine learning and natural language processing to help lead researchers sift through all the research data available and come up with a treatment plan for individual cancer patients.

IBM is working on something similar using a program called Watson Oncology, which analyzes patient health info against research data.

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Thou shalt not kill: Official guidelines to keep humans safe from robots are published by standards authority…

The science fiction author Isaac Asimov first proposed the ‘Three Laws of Robotics’ in a short story published in 1942 as a way of ensuring the machines would not rise up to overthrow humanity.

But with robots now starting to appear in people’s homes and artificial intelligence developing, a group of experts have drawn up a new list of rules to protect humanity from their creations.

The British Standards Institution, which develops technical and quality guidelines for goods sold in the UK and issues the famous Kitemark certificate, has drawn up a new standard for robots.

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