<h2>Neuralink</h2>
<p>SpaceX and Tesla CEO Elon Musk hinted at what could be the announcement of a brain-machine interface that could one day hook human brains up to computers on Sunday. In response to a question asking for an update on <a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-just-launched-a-company-to-merge-your-brain-with-a-computer">Neuralink</a>, a neurotechnology startup he founded in 2016, Musk <a href="https://twitter.com/elonmusk/status/1119883893392334848">replied that new information would be &#8220;coming soon&#8221;</a>.</p>
<p>A &#8220;direct cortical interface,&#8221; according to Musk, could allow humans to reach higher levels of cognition —and give humans a better shot at competing with artificial intelligence, the <em>Wall Street Journal</em> <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/elon-musk-launches-neuralink-to-connect-brains-with-computers-1490642652">reported in 2017</a>. It&#8217;s unclear, though, whether Neuralink&#8217;s main objective is to do just that or to connect human brains to computers for consumer applications.</p>
<h2>AI Overlords</h2>
<p>Musk has repeatedly <a href="https://futurism.com/grimes-musk-rococo-basilisk">warned of evil AI overlords</a> in the past, saying that AI could become &#8220;an immortal dictator from which we could never escape&#8221; in a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdguhIzftH4">2018 documentary</a> called &#8220;Do You Trust This Computer?&#8221;</p>
<p>Most of what Neuralink is working on, including any plans for a brain computer interface, are still tightly under wraps. In one tantalizing clue, <em>Bloomberg </em>recently <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-04-11/team-linked-to-elon-musk-neuralink-outline-brain-monitor-system">reported on</a> a <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/sewing-machine-implant-brain-electrodes">still unpublished academic paper</a> by five authors who have been employed by or associated with Neuralink — though it&#8217;s unclear whether Musk&#8217;s tweet referred to their work.</p>
<h2>Sewing Machine for the Brain</h2>
<p>The paper describes a &#8220;sewing machine&#8221; for the brain in the form of a needle-like device that is inserted into a rat&#8217;s skull to implant a bendable polymer electrode in the brain that would read the brain&#8217;s electrical signals.</p>
<p>Of course, human trials are still a long time out. Neuralink has yet to comment on any possible timelines or announcements.</p>
<p><strong>READ MORE: </strong><a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/elon-musk-twitter-neuralink-brain-machine-interface-computer-ai-a8880911.html">Elon Musk says machine to connect human brain to computers is &#8216;coming soon&#8217;</a> [<em>The Independent</em>]</p>
<p><strong>More on Neuralink: </strong><em><a href="https://futurism.com/elon-musk-just-launched-a-company-to-merge-your-brain-with-a-computer">Elon Musk Just Launched A Company To Merge Your Brain With A Computer</a></em></p>


Musk has repeatedly warned of evil AI overlords in the past, saying that AI could become "an immortal dictator from which we could never escape."

Elon Musk: brain computer interface update "coming soon"

Neuralink

Elon Musk hinted at the announcement by his startup Neuralink, possibly of a brain-machine interface that could one day hook human brains up to computers.

Elon Musk: Brain-Computer Interface Update “Coming Soon”

We might soon get an update from Musk's mysterious neurotech startup.

<h2>First Impressions</h2>
<p>If you took a cab in Japan this year, you may have come face-to-face with a tablet that scanned your face in order to learn your gender, age, and other characteristics — and used that data to target you with relevant advertisements.</p>
<p>The facial recognition system made the rounds on Twitter on Saturday after Google privacy engineer Rosa Golijan <a href="https://twitter.com/rosa/status/1119736583521853441">posted a photo</a> of the tablet explaining that it was used in Japanese taxis to &#8220;estimate gender in order to deliver the most optimized content&#8221; — an intriguing preview of how pushy, personalized advertisements could one day roll out elsewhere in the world.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
<p lang="und" dir="ltr">🤨 <a href="https://t.co/uXWOUXz25S">pic.twitter.com/uXWOUXz25S</a></p>
<p>&mdash; Rosa Golijan (@rosa) <a href="https://twitter.com/rosa/status/1119736583521853441?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 20, 2019</a></p></blockquote>
<p><script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script></p>
<h2>Individual Attention</h2>
<p>Another tweet <a href="https://twitter.com/BenParker140/status/1120326113241325569">posted in response</a> to Golijan shows more details, including how the data is collected and how it&#8217;s used. A QR code in that image links to the website of Japanese e-commerce platform developer DeNA Co Ltd — specifically linking to the <a href="https://dena-taxiad.jp/trust_and_safety/en/?from=tablet">&#8220;Trust &amp; Safety&#8221; page</a> for the company&#8217;s &#8220;Premium Taxi Vision&#8221; service.</p>
<p>Premium Taxi Vision, first deployed in January, is meant to make &#8220;riding a taxi more comfortable and convenient,&#8221; according to a <a href="https://dena-taxiad.jp/news/20190125_tipup_with_kyodo_d_and_rescuenow/">DeNA webpage</a> that we translated using Google. Presumably, that comfort and convenience means saving customers from the <em>sheer</em> <em>embarrassment</em> of watching an advertisement meant for a different gender or age group.</p>
<h2>Opt Out</h2>
<p>DeNA&#8217;s website explains that video of passengers is used to generate a passenger profile — age, presented gender, number of passengers — that gets sent to the advertising agency Geniee, Inc, which then sends a relevant advertisement.</p>
<p>That means Geniee doesn&#8217;t see the footage. In Golijan&#8217;s case, it would have merely known that an adult woman was riding in the cab.</p>
<p>The actual footage, which DeNA claims is immediately deleted, and facial recognition software never leave the tablet.</p>
<p><strong>More on ubiquitous advertisements:</strong> <em><a href="https://futurism.com/pepsi-orbital-billboard-night-sky">Pepsi Plans to Project a Giant Ad in the Night Sky Using Cubesats</a></em></p>


The opt-out button is hidden, but footage never leaves the car.

Japanese taxis are using facial recognition to target ads to riders

Now Loading: Girl Ad

Japanese ecommerce firm DeNA has equipped taxis with a facial recognition system that selects ads based on passenger gender and age.

Japanese Taxis Are Using Facial Recognition to Target Ads to Riders

Cameras in the back seat guess your age and gender — and then use them to serve you with advertisements.

<h2>Death Metal</h2>
<p>In a project called &#8220;Relentless Doppelganger,&#8221; a neural network is grinding out the blast beats, super-distorted guitars, and bellowing vocals of death metal.</p>
<p>The best part of all: it&#8217;s streaming its brutal creations 24 hours a day on YouTube — an intriguing and public example of AI that&#8217;s now able to generate convincing imitations of human art.</p>
<p><iframe width="500" height="281" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/CNNmBtNcccE?feature=oembed" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<h2>Dadabots</h2>
<p>The neural network is the work of Dadabots, a research duo that experiments with creating music using artificial intelligence tools.</p>
<p>Th<strong>e</strong> death metal project, which they trained using tracks by death metal band Archspire, is the first that they&#8217;ve livestreamed instead of releasing as an album, and the change in format had everything to do with the quality of the neural network&#8217;s output.</p>
<p>In Dadabots&#8217; previous experiments, which dabbled in <a href="https://theoutline.com/post/2556/this-frostbitten-black-metal-album-was-created-by-an-artificial-intelligence?zd=1&amp;zi=6gnzy5cu" target="_blank" rel="noopener">black metal and Beatles-inspired tracks</a>, only about 5 percent of the AI-generated tracks were usable, co-creator CJ Carr told Futurism, and the programmers had to curate it.</p>
<p>&#8220;The remarkable part is the high quality-to-shit ratio,&#8221; Carr told Futurism of this new project. &#8220;Here, we livestream 100 percent of it,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Zero curation necessary.&#8221;</p>
<h2>Black Metal</h2>
<p>Part of the success of &#8220;Relentless Doppelganger,&#8221; Carr suspects, is the relentless speed of Archspire&#8217;s songs.</p>
<p>&#8220;It seems the faster the blast beats, the more stable the music,&#8221; he told Futurism. &#8220;Archspire is insanely fast.&#8221;</p>
<p><strong>READ MORE: </strong><a href="https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/xwnzm7/this-youtube-channel-streams-ai-generated-black-metal-247" target="_blank" rel="noopener">This YouTube Channel Streams AI-Generated Death Metal 24/7</a> [<em>Motherboard</em>]</p>
<p><strong>More on AI-generated music: </strong><a href="https://futurism.com/ai-generated-music-legal-clusterfuck" target="_blank" rel="noopener"><em>Expert: AI-Generated Music Is A “Total Legal Clusterf*ck”</em></a></p>


"The remarkable part is the high-quality-to-shit ratio."

Listen to brutal death metal made by a neural network

Horns Up

A neural network is grinding out the blast beats, super-distorted guitars, and bellowing vocals of death metal — and livestreaming it.

Listen to Brutal Death Metal Made by a Neural Network

This is the finest death metal that AI can dream up.

<h2><strong>Retro Rewind</strong></h2>
<p>Your favorite classic video games are getting a killer makeover. But it&#8217;s not big-name game developers making the improvements: it&#8217;s independent modders.</p>
<p>Most game updates require teams of designers and coders working for months or even years, according to a <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/18/18311287/ai-upscaling-algorithms-video-games-mods-modding-esrgan-gigapixel">fascinating new feature</a> in <em>The Verge</em>, but now many are using machine learning to expedite the process — allowing a single highly-motivated modder to refurbish a game in just a few weeks.</p>
<h2><strong>Pixel Perfect</strong></h2>
<p>One extraordinary example: In March, Reddit user <a href="https://www.reddit.com/user/BearborgOne">BearborgOne</a> used a program called <a href="https://github.com/xinntao/ESRGAN">ESRGAN</a> (which stands for Enhanced Super-Resolution Generative Adversarial Networks) to retexture the beloved GameCube classic <em>Metroid Prime</em> 2 into a <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39xrl9z2ZZs">4k masterpiece.</a></p>
<p>ESRGAN plucks the textures from the original base game, analyzes them, and fills the gaps in the low resolution graphics, effectively smoothing and sharpening the game while preserving the original design. After applying AI upscaling, blurry clouds of pixels become detailed buildings or trees — much like an art restorationist reviving the lost faces of a neglected painting.</p>
<h2><strong>Takes a Village</strong></h2>
<p>It might sound like the AI does all the work, but it&#8217;s not that simple. According to <em>The Verge</em>, some games can take hundreds of hours to tweak the algorithm and clean the final images by hand. Just one monster could take between five and 15 hours, depending on the complexity game&#8217;s animation.</p>
<p>Still, AI is a powerful tool. Daniel Trolie, a teacher and student from Norway, <a href="https://www.nexusmods.com/morrowind/mods/46221">updated</a> <em>The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind</em>, an RPG classic from 2002.</p>
<p>&#8220;It was like witchcraft,&#8221; he <a href="https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/18/18311287/ai-upscaling-algorithms-video-games-mods-modding-esrgan-gigapixel">told <em>The Verge</em></a><em>.</em> &#8220;It looked like I just downloaded a hi-res texture pack from Bethesda themselves.&#8221;</p>
<h2>DIY Attitude</h2>
<p>Communities of modders gather on the <a href="https://www.reddit.com/r/GameUpscale/">r/GameUpscale reddit</a> and <a href="https://discordapp.com/invite/jkFHzGD">Discord channel</a> to share technique and technology if you want to revive your favorite out of date classic yourself.</p>
<p>Still, it&#8217;s understandable if you&#8217;re a pixel purist. Nostalgia for old games might be fueling the movement, but there&#8217;s something wonderful about enjoying vintage graphics. Anyone who played <em>Ocarina of Time</em> on Gamecube, after all, knows that the scare of a giant spider dropping on your head wouldn&#8217;t be the same without the gangly pixelated legs.</p>
<p><strong>READ MORE: </strong><a href="https://www.theverge.com/2019/4/18/18311287/ai-upscaling-algorithms-video-games-mods-modding-esrgan-gigapixel">Artificial Intelligence is Helping Old Video Games Look Like New</a> [<em>The Verge</em>]</p>
<p><strong>More on video games: </strong><a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/schools-varsity-video-game-teams"><em>Schools in Eight States Now Have Varsity Video Game Teams.</em></a></p>


The AI works "like witchcraft" to revitalize old games.

Machine learning is giving retro games cutting-edge graphics

Game On

By using machine learning technology, video game modders are reviving classic old games by giving their graphics a major update.

Machine Learning Is Giving Retro Games Cutting-Edge Graphics

Your favorite classic video game is getting a makeover.

<h2>Diversity Crisis</h2>
<p>If you can think of a problem, there&#8217;s likely a researcher somewhere trying to develop an <a href="https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2017/02/5-global-problems-that-ai-could-help-us-solve/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">artificial intelligence to solve it</a>. But while AIs themselves have grown more diverse in recent years, the researchers creating the systems haven&#8217;t.</p>
<p>According to a new <a href="https://ainowinstitute.org/discriminatingsystems.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">report</a> out of New York University&#8217;s AI Now Institute, the AI industry is still dominated by white men — and this &#8220;diversity crisis&#8221; is partially to blame for the biased AIs we&#8217;re <a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/biased-self-driving-cars-darker-skin" target="_blank" rel="noopener">seeing</a> <a href="https://futurism.com/human-rights-discriminatory-artificial-intelligence" target="_blank" rel="noopener">crop up</a> <a href="https://futurism.com/amazons-face-rekognition-race-gender" target="_blank" rel="noopener">around the globe</a>.</p>
<p>&#8220;To date, the diversity problems of the AI industry and the issues of bias in the systems it builds have tended to be considered separately,&#8221; the researchers wrote. &#8220;But we suggest that these are two versions of the same problem: issues of discrimination in the workforce and in system building are deeply intertwined.&#8221;</p>
<h2>By the Numbers</h2>
<p>The AI Now team found that men comprise 82 percent of the authors at leading AI conferences and more than 80 percent of AI professors. The numbers don&#8217;t get better when you leave academia, either: women make up just 15 and 10 percent of Facebook and Google&#8217;s AI research staffs, respectively.</p>
<p>Black people appear to be even less represented in the AI industry — machine vision researcher Timnit Gebru told the AI Now team she was one of just six black people at a 2016 machine learning conference attended by 8,500 people.</p>
<p>That lack of gender and racial diversity isn&#8217;t just a problem for those trying to work in the AI industry, either — it&#8217;s also a problem for society as a whole.</p>
<p>&#8220;The urgency behind this issue is increasing as AI becomes increasingly integrated into society,&#8221; Stanford researcher Danaë Metaxa, who wasn&#8217;t involved with the report, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/apr/16/artificial-intelligence-lack-diversity-new-york-university-study" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told <em>The Guardian</em></a>. &#8220;Essentially, the lack of diversity in AI is concentrating an increasingly large amount of power and capital in the hands of a select subset of people.&#8221;</p>
<h2>Shifting Gears</h2>
<p>The AI Now team&#8217;s report includes several suggestions for how AI companies can improve workplace diversity. These include the creation of incentives for hiring underrepresented groups and the publication of detailed compensation reports broken down by race and gender.</p>
<p>The team also shared recommendations for addressing biased AIs themselves, such as having the systems audited by independent parties and increasing transparency as to where the AIs are used.</p>
<p>&#8220;Every day that goes by it gets more difficult to solve the problem,&#8221; Tess Posner, CEO of AI4ALL, a nonprofit focused on AI diversity, told <em>The Guardian</em>. &#8220;Right now we are in an exciting moment where we can make a difference before we see how much more complicated it can get later.&#8221;</p>
<p><strong>READ MORE:</strong> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2019/apr/16/artificial-intelligence-lack-diversity-new-york-university-study" target="_blank" rel="noopener">&#8216;Disastrous&#8217; lack of diversity in AI industry perpetuates bias, study finds</a> [<em>The Guardian</em>]</p>
<p><strong>More on AI:</strong> <em><a href="https://futurism.com/human-rights-discriminatory-artificial-intelligence" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Stop Using Discriminatory AI, Human Rights Groups Say</a></em></p>


It seems if you aren't white or male, the AI industry doesn't want you right now.

Experts: To Solve AI’s Bias Problem, Hire Fewer White Men

AI-firmative Action

The creation of biased AIs is linked to the tech industry's overwhelmingly white, male workforce, according to a new report.

The industry's "diversity crisis" is partially to blame for its racist, sexist AIs.

<h2>Speedgate</h2>
<p>Digital product agency AKQA says it has taught an artificial intelligence to invent a sport by feeding it data about 400 existing ones, <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2019/04/11/akqa-says-it-used-ai-to-invent-a-new-sport-called-speedgate/"><em>TechCrunch</em> reports</a>. The resulting never-played-before sport, called &#8220;Speedgate,&#8221; is an unusual mix of soccer and rugby — with a touch of Quidditch.</p>
<p>Speedgate is by turns familiar and bizarre. Two opposing teams of six players pass and eventually kick or throw a ball through one of three gates at either end of a field — as long as it&#8217;s not the middle one. The team is composed of three forwards and three defenders. Only one defender can be in a gate at a time. No pushing is allowed.</p>
<p><iframe src="https://player.vimeo.com/video/329197612?dnt=1&#038;app_id=122963" width="500" height="281" frameborder="0" title="This is Speedgate" allow="autoplay; fullscreen" allowfullscreen></iframe></p>
<h2>Face the Ball</h2>
<p>Other games invented by AKQA&#8217;s algorithm were even stranger. Some other failed ideas the AI came up with  include &#8220;descriptions for sports like &#8216;underwater parkour,&#8217; an exploding Frisbee game, and another in which players pass a ball back-and-forth while in hot air balloons and on a tightrope,&#8221; <a href="https://techcrunch.com/2019/04/11/akqa-says-it-used-ai-to-invent-a-new-sport-called-speedgate/"><em>TechCrunch</em> writes</a>.</p>
<p>AKQA even went as far as to organize a Speedgate live demonstration at an <a href="https://playspeedgate.org/">event in Portland</a> last week. The AI even came up with a series of logos using a generative adversarial network and some fun, motivating slogans: &#8220;Face the ball to be the ball to be above the ball.&#8221;</p>
<p><strong>READ MORE: </strong><a href="https://techcrunch.com/2019/04/11/akqa-says-it-used-ai-to-invent-a-new-sport-called-speedgate/">AKQA says it used AI to invent a new sport called Speedgate</a> [<em>TechCrunch</em>]</p>
<p><strong>More on AI:</strong> <em><a href="https://futurism.com/ethicist-future-ai-revenge">Future AI Could Take Revenge for How We Treat It Now</a></em></p>


It's like Ultimate Frisbee meets Quidditch.

An AI invented a weird sport called "Speedgate"

Speedgate

Digital products and services agency AKQA says it has taught an AI to invent a sport by feeding it data about 400 existing sports.

An AI Invented a Weird Sport Called “Speedgate”

"Face the ball to be the ball to be above the ball."

<h2>Wake Up, Neo</h2>
<p>In an interview with MIT researcher Lex Fridman, Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk reiterated his belief that we&#8217;re all living inside a simulation.</p>
<p>When Fridman <a href="https://youtu.be/dEv99vxKjVI">asked him</a> what his first question would be for the first-ever artificial general intelligence system, Musk replied: &#8220;What&#8217;s outside the simulation?&#8221;</p>
<h2>Pong of my People</h2>
<p>Musk has floated the possibility that we&#8217;re all living in a &#8220;The Matrix&#8221; style simulation for several years. During a 2016 interview at a tech conference, <a href="https://futurism.com/are-we-living-in-a-computer-simulation-elon-musk-thinks-so">Musk asserted that</a> there&#8217;s &#8220;a one in billions chance we’re in base reality.&#8221;</p>
<p>The argument: video games have evolved from a &#8220;Pong, two rectangles and a dot&#8221; he told audiences at the 2016 conference, to &#8220;photorealistic 3D simulations with millions of people playing simultaneously.&#8221; Given enough time, those games would become &#8220;indistinguishable from reality.&#8221;</p>
<h2>Next Level</h2>
<p>For Musk, human reality amounts to a computer simulation created by greater forces — the extent to which he actually prescribes to this theory is hard to tell. But he has voiced concern about all-powerful AI. He has even <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/13/elon-musk-at-sxsw-a-i-is-more-dangerous-than-nuclear-weapons.html">argued</a> that AI is &#8220;far more dangerous than nukes&#8221; at a different tech conference in 2018.</p>
<p>&#8220;The singularity for this level of the simulation is coming soon,&#8221; Musk replied to a tweet by the official Twitter account of the television show <i><a href="http://www.adultswim.com/videos/rick-and-morty/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Rick and Morty</a></i> in 2017. &#8220;I wonder what the levels above us look like.&#8221;</p>
<p><strong>READ MORE: </strong><a href="https://www.inverse.com/article/54900-elon-musk-reveals-the-one-question-he-would-ask-a-human-level-a-i">Elon Musk Reveals the One Question He Would Ask a Human-Level A.I.</a> [<em>Inverse</em>]<strong><br />
</strong></p>
<p><strong>More on the simulation hypothesis: </strong><em><a href="https://futurism.com/the-byte/mit-living-simulation-hypothesis">MIT Prof: It&#8217;s More Likely We&#8217;re Living in a Simulation Than Not</a></em></p>


"I wonder what the levels above us look like."

Elon Musk's question for super-smart AI: what’s outside the simulation?

I'm In

In an interview with MIT researchers Lex Fridman, Tesla CEO and visionary Elon Musk reiterated his belief that we're all living inside a simulation.

Elon Musk’s Question for Super-Smart AI: What’s Outside the Simulation?

Elon Musk chooses the red pill.

<h2>BookBot</h2>
<p>Scientific publisher Springer Nature just released its first book written entirely by a machine learning algorithm.</p>
<p>The title of the book, <em><a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-16800-1">Lithium-Ion Batteries: A Machine-Generated Summary of Current Research</a></em> cuts straight to the point: 247 pages of prominent research into lithium-ion batteries and AI-written summaries of the field. The book shows how AI can help scientists stay on top of the latest research — but also algorithms are now able to review vast bodies of literature and select the most important details on their own.</p>
<h2>Ghost Writer</h2>
<p>The author of the book is listed as Beta Writer, an algorithm built by scientists at Germany&#8217;s Goethe University.</p>
<p>To write the book, Beta Writer perused an endless pile of articles on lithium ion batteries published in <a href="https://futurism.com/artificial-intelligence-journal-boycot-open-access">Springer-owned academic journals</a> and pulled out the most relevant information, <a href="https://gizmodo.com/the-first-machine-generated-book-by-a-scholarly-publish-1833914900">according to <em>Gizmodo</em></a>.</p>
<h2>First Of Many</h2>
<p>Springer Nature writes that it plans to use Beta Writer to tackle other fields of research in the future, reusing the basic technology but aiming it at different kinds of science for upcoming books.</p>
<p>&#8220;Our goal is to initiate a broad discussion,&#8221; Sprinter wrote on the book&#8217;s page, &#8220;together with the research community and domain experts, about the future opportunities, challenges and limitations of this technology.&#8221;</p>
<p><strong>READ MORE:</strong> <a href="https://gizmodo.com/the-first-machine-generated-book-by-a-scholarly-publish-1833914900">The First Machine-Generated Book by a Scholarly Publisher Is a Boring Read</a> [<em>Gizmodo</em>]</p>
<p><strong>More on books:</strong> <em><a href="https://futurism.com/people-reading-publishers-gamifying-books">This Ebook Company Is Trying to Make Reading More Like Videogames</a></em></p>


The AI author, Beta Writer, could be adding more books to its resume soon.

A prominent publisher used machine learning to write a textbook

SparkNotes

The academic publisher Springer Nature just released a book summarizing lithium-ion battery research that was written by an AI algorithm.

A Prominent Publisher Used Machine Learning to Write a Textbook

Is this going to be on the test?

<h2>Superposition</h2>
<p>A team of scientists say they&#8217;ve built a quantum computer that generates a superposition of all possible futures the computer could experience.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41467-019-08951-2">The research</a>, published Tuesday in <em>Nature Communications</em>, describes how this quantum system could help futuristic artificial intelligence learn much faster than it can today — and it could mean quantum computers are finally becoming practical tools.</p>
<h2>First Step</h2>
<p>For now, the quantum computer built by Griffith University and Nanyang Technological University scientists can hold two superpositions of 16 different possibilities, according to the research. It also uses less memory than a classical computer would, suggesting it could <a href="https://futurism.com/quantum-computer-first-practical">outperform classical systems</a> at certain tasks.</p>
<p>&#8220;It is very much reminiscent of classical computers in the 1960s,&#8221; Griffith University scientist Geoff Pryde said in a <a href="https://phys.org/news/2019-04-scientists-machine-quantum-superposition-futures.html">press release</a>. &#8220;Just as few could imagine the many uses of classical computers in the 1960s, we are still very much in the dark about what quantum computers can do.&#8221;</p>
<h2>Multitasking AI</h2>
<p>Right now, artificial intelligence learns by analyzing example after example and looking for patterns. The scientists behind this research argue that their quantum superpositions could vastly improve the process.</p>
<p>&#8220;By interfering these superpositions with each other, we can completely avoid looking at each possible future individually,&#8221; Griffith researcher Farzad Ghafari said in the press release.</p>
<p><strong>READ MORE:</strong> <a href="https://phys.org/news/2019-04-scientists-machine-quantum-superposition-futures.html">Scientists build a machine to generate quantum superposition of possible futures</a> [Nanyang Technological University newsroom via<em> Phys.org</em>]</p>
<p><strong>More on quantum computers:</strong> <em><a href="https://futurism.com/scientists-building-quantum-computer-acts-like-brain">Scientists Are Building a Quantum Computer That “Acts Like a Brain”</a></em></p>


"...our techniques may enable quantum enhanced AIs to learn the effect of their actions much more efficiently."

New quantum device can "generate all possible futures"

Randomized Futures

A new quantum computer can hold a superposition of 16 separate possible futures, a feat that scientists think could lead to faster-learning AI

New Quantum Device Can “Generate All Possible Futures”

They say it could create the next generation of AI.

<h2>Call Hating</h2>
<p>Robocalls are <a href="https://futurism.com/robocalls-arms-race" target="_blank" rel="noopener">on the rise</a>, with <a href="https://firstorion.com/nearly-50-of-u-s-mobile-traffic-will-be-scam-calls-by-2019/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">nearly a third</a> of all phone calls now made by automated dialing machines programmed to play a prerecorded message if someone answers.</p>
<p>Now, experts are <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2019/04/06/tech/robocalls-scam-voice/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">predicting</a> that the annoying calls are destined for a high-tech — and highly disturbing — next level of evolution: scammers using <a href="https://futurism.com/baidu-clone-voices-seconds" target="_blank" rel="noopener">voice-mimicking AIs</a> to make their pre-recorded messages sound like your friends and family.</p>
<h2>Who&#8217;s This?</h2>
<p>In a <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2019/04/06/tech/robocalls-scam-voice/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">story</a> published on Saturday, academic Tarun Wadhwa told <em>CNN </em>that scammers could one day use the swaths of data available online to find out who a person is close to and then use that information to create robocall messages that sound like someone the target knows.</p>
<p>&#8220;It&#8217;s going to be like Photoshop — something so easy, widespread, and well known that we stop tracking how it&#8217;s being used against people personally and don&#8217;t find it surprising,&#8221; Wadhwa said, adding that he could &#8220;easily imagine situations in which these sorts of voice-mimicry technologies are used to sow confusion, extort people, and make fraud and scams far more precise.&#8221;</p>
<h2>The Hang Up</h2>
<p>According to Alex Quilici, CEO of robocall-prevention app YouMailIf, we thankfully don&#8217;t have to worry about robocallers pretending to be our grandmothers just yet.</p>
<p>&#8220;Building a fake computer voice right now is a decent amount of work,&#8221; he told <em>CNN</em>. &#8220;If I wanted to build one that sounded like you, for example, I&#8217;d need to get a ton of samples of you saying specific phonemes, and train a computer model on that.&#8221;</p>
<p><strong>READ MORE: </strong><a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2019/04/06/tech/robocalls-scam-voice/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The frightening future of robocalls: Numbers and voices you know</a> [<em>CNN</em>]</p>
<p><strong>More on robocalls:</strong> <em><a href="https://futurism.com/robocalls-arms-race" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Rise of the Robocallers: Here’s How We’ll Avoid a Future of Scammers</a></em></p>


The next level of scamming could involve voice-mimicking tech.

Prepare for Robocall Hell, where scam bots pretend to be your mom

Say What?

Experts tell CNN they envision a future in which scammers use voice-mimicking technology to make robocalls sound like someone a target knows personally.

/Artificial Intelligence