H+ Weekly - Issue #31
ISSUE #31
Zuck wants to have his own Jarvis, a beauty contest judged by AI, drones, robots and can CRISPR brings us dragons.
Artificial Intelligence
Mark Zuckerberg's 2016 Resolution: Build An AI To Run His House
Zuck wants to build his own Jarvis.
The First International Beauty Contest Judged By Robots
You can add another thing robots are now doing, which we thought only humans can do. There is a beauty contest, in which you upload your photo and sophisticated facial recognition algorithm judges you.
The A.I. Anxiety
A nice, but a rather long article by Washington Post about AI and transhumanism, showing how different people see the same problem as a thread or as a best thing to happen to humanity.
John Searle: "Consciousness in Artificial Intelligence"
John Searle is the Slusser Professor of Philosophy at the University of California, Berkeley. His Talk at Google is focused on the philosophy of mind and the potential for consciousness in artificial intelligence.
Robotics
Chinese drone maker unveils human-carrying drone
Chinese drone maker Ehang Inc. unveiled what it calls the world's first drone capable of carrying a human passenger. It looks like a drone but it's bigger. And you can sit inside of it.
Human-Like Robot 'Nadine' Who Has a 'Personality, Mood and Emotions' Unveiled in Singapore
Scientists from Singapore have unveiled "Nadine," a socially intelligent, human-looking robot complete with "her own personality, mood and emotions". But she haven't left the uncanny valley.
These Robots Come to the Rescue after a Disaster
When disaster strikes, who's first on the scene? More and more, it’s a robot. In her lab, Robin Murphy builds robots that fly, tunnel, swim and crawl through disaster scenes, helping firefighters and rescue workers save more lives safely — and help communities return to normal up to three years faster.
Robots learn by watching how-to videos
Thanks to Cornell researchers, future robots might learn new skills just like humans do from online tutorial videos.
DARPA Wants To Turn Small Ships Into Drone Aircraft Carriers
DARPA wants to expand the aircraft carrier revolution by developing a small drone that can take off and land even on small ships, which have a potential to change how future navy would work.
Biotechnology
Synthetic Life: Could We? Should We?
A panel hosted by Royal Institute which ask British biotechnology experts the questions about synthetic life, how far could we go and how far should we go.
Could scientists create dragons using CRISPR gene editing?
Finally! Someone asked this very important question! The answer - no. Sort of.
Virtual Worlds
You can now buy consumer version of Oculus Rift
Oculus Rift announced this week that the long-awaited consumer version their VR headset is now available for pre-order. They also revealed the price tag - $599.
Teslasuit: VR suit with haptic feedback
Do you remember these cyberpunk VR suits to make you feel like you are indeed inside the virtual world? Well, guys from Tesla Studios promised to make this haptic feedback suit real.
Other
Walter Voit: "Extreme-3D Printing: A materials focused approach"
Walter Voit from Adaptive 3D Technologies talks at Google about, how he calls it, extreme 3D printing. By extreme, he means printing really tough things for industrial applications.
What Is The Singularity?
What is the singularity? Will the computers rise up, should we be afraid? Greg Foot from Brit Lab explains.
How Artificial Immune Systems May Be the Future of Cybersecurity
Last year was not good from cybersecurity point of view. A series of big data leaks and hacked services forced security researchers to look for inspiration in biology, thus creating artificial immune systems. It sounds so cyberpunkish.
Happy birthday Roy Batty!
Roy Batty, the white-haired replicant from the Blade Runner, was born today, 8th January 2016. Happy birthday, the one who have seen things we people wouldn't believe.
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