singularity

Will tomorrow's world still need designers?

Johanna Blakley, Deputy Director at the USC Norman Lear Center, will moderate one of the most provocative panel discussions at SXSW Interactive next weekend: " Will Tomorrow's World Still Need Designers?" Panelists include Alonzo Canada (Jump Associates), David Merkoski (frog design), and Helen Walters (BusinessWeek). In a blog post, Blakley has articulated some points that challenge the raison d'etre of a whole profession and will likely spark a heated debate:

"At Davos this year, four luminaries in the world of design were asked to predict what the future of design will be. The themes that arose … Read more

Facebook backer Thiel's investment strategy for singularity

SAN FRANCISCO--Peter Thiel, co-founder of PayPal and backer of Facebook, has some simple advice for investing in the singularity, or a coming age of smarter-than-human AI: invest in catastrophic insurance.

That's the strategy, however inadvertent, of investment guru Warren Buffet, whose portfolio has shifted in the last 10 to 15 years to insurance and catastrophic insurance companies, Thiel said. "Buffet used to be focused on value stocks like Dairy Queen," Thiel said here Sunday.

Thiel, president of venture group Clarium Capital Management, spoke here Sunday at the Singularity Summit, a two-day conference on the advancement of artificial … Read more

Google's director of research talks AI

SAN FRANCISCO--Google's influence on the Web can be likened to game theory, said Google Director of Research Peter Norvig.

Very simply defined, game theory applied to economics is a study of the strategic interactions among players and their influences on each other.

"We (once) thought of ourselves as observers of the Web. We made a copy of it, and we thought it was just a reflection of the Web," Norvig said Sunday while speaking here at the Singularity Summit, a two-day conference on artificial intelligence.

"Now we understand that we're co-evolving. When we make a … Read more

A call for machine morality

SAN FRANCISCO--Prediction: We are just a few years away from a catastrophic disaster brought about by an autonomous computer system making a decision--a disaster that will provoke a political response on par with 9/11.

That prediction is from Wendell Wallach, lecturer at Yale University's Interdisciplinary Center for Bioethics, who hypothesized about the challenges and opportunities we face in an age of artificially intelligent machines, such as self-driving cars or household robots. Wallach spoke here Saturday at the Singularity Summit, a two-day conference about AI and the possibility of developing smarter-than-human machines.

"I'm your friendly skeptic. I'… Read more

iRobot CTO: 'We' will be gone when AI is here

SAN FRANCISCO--At the current rate of technological change, people in 2025 should be able to spend $400 for an Apple iPod with 40 million gigabytes, more than enough room to hold every desirable movie or book.

That's the prediction of Rodney Brooks, professor of robotics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and CTO of iRobot. He cited the iPod as an example of exponential change in technology advancement--a subject of Moore's law--based on the iPod's storage leaps.

"So much for the RIAA and DRM," he joked.

Brooks gave the opening keynote here at the … Read more