Skip to main content current edition: International edition The Guardian - Back to home Become a supporter Subscribe Find a job Jobs Sign in Search Show More Close with google sign in become a supporter subscribe search find a job dating more from the guardian: change edition: edition International edition The Guardian - Back to home browse all sections close Facebook Facebook strategist rejects PM's claim over extremist material Counter-terrorism expert says that, contrary to Theresa May’s assertion, technology companies are treating the problem of terrorist content seriously Artificial intelligence programs are being created to identify extremist material online. extremist material online. -- 37 GMT This article is 3 months old Facebook’s senior counter-terrorism strategist has dismissed Theresa May’s demand that the company should go “further and faster” to remove material created by terrorists and their supporters, describing the claim that it does not do enough as unhelpful. Artificial intelligence programs are being created to identify such material, and hundreds of people are employed to search for content that should be removed, said Brian Fishman, who manages the company’s global counter-terrorism policy. In response to a question about May’s assertions that big internet companies provide a safe space for terrorism, Fishman said: “Facebook’s policy on this is really clear. -- We’re trying to enable computers to do what they’re good at: look at lots of material very quickly, give us a high-level overview. We’ve also recently started to use artificial intelligence,” Fishman said. However, the use of human assessors remains critical as computers cannot comprehend the nuanced context of some material, such as some online messages intended to counter terrorist propaganda. Skip to main content current edition: International edition The Guardian - Back to home Become a supporter Subscribe Find a job Jobs Sign in Search Show More Close with google Paid content Paid content is paid for and controlled by an advertiser and produced by the Guardian Labs team Learn more about Guardian Labs content Guardian Labs Seizing opportunities with Aldermore The tech startups using AI to disrupt the recruitment industry Paid for by Aldermore A new generation of tech startups are using artificial intelligence to give employers the edge in the recruitment stakes Machine learning and AI are transforming industries as diverse as transportation and recruitment. transportation and recruitment. Photograph: Colin Anderson/Getty Images/Blend Images Seizing opportunities with Aldermore The tech startups using AI to disrupt the recruitment industry Paid for by Aldermore A new generation of tech startups are using artificial intelligence to give employers the edge in the recruitment stakes Alison Coleman Hiring the best talent and creating a diverse workforce is a top priority for businesses – and is arguably one of their biggest challenges. But help is now at hand from a new generation of tech startups using artificial intelligence (AI) to give employers the edge in the recruitment stakes. Nicholas Shekerdemian is CEO and co-founder of Headstart, which uses AI to transform the graduate recruitment process. 34 BST First published on Tue 19 Sep ‘17 11. 18 BST This article is 3 months old Four million jobs in the British private sector could be replaced by robots in the next decade, according to business leaders asked about the future of automation and artificial intelligence. The potential impact amounts to 15% of the current workforce in the sector and emerged in a poll conducted by YouGov for the Royal Society of Arts, whose chief executive, Matthew Taylor, has been advising Downing Street on the future of modern work. -- Four years ago, academics at the University of Oxford predicted 35% of jobs could be rendered obsolete by new technology, while the Bank of England predicted in 2015 that up to 15m jobs in Britain were at risk from robots “hollowing out” the workforce. The RSA is also more optimistic about the potential of robots and artificial intelligence than US tech billionaire Elon Musk, who has said AI was “the scariest problem” and “our biggest existential threat” because, he predicts, they will be able to do everything better than humans. Research by the University of Oxford and Deloitte last year predicted more than 850,000 public sector jobs could be lost by 2030 through automation. Asda operates a fully automated distribution warehouse in west London; white-collar tasks are being automated by PwC, the accountancy firm, and Linklaters, the law firm, which have been developing software robots that use artificial intelligence to learn to do research tasks usually undertaken by junior accountants and lawyers. The RSA warns that artificial intelligence and robotics will “undoubtedly cause the loss of some jobs, whether it is autonomous vehicles pushing taxi drivers out of business or picking and packing robots usurping warehouse workers”. But it argues that new technologies could phase out mundane jobs, raise productivity levels and so deliver higher wages and “allow workers to concentrate on more human-centric roles that are beyond the reach of machines”. -- Topics Loading comments… Trouble loading? more on this story Robots could destabilise world through war and unemployment, says UN United Nations opens new centre in Netherlands to monitor artificial intelligence and second-guess threats Published: 27 Sep 2017 Robots could destabilise world through war and unemployment, says UN Robots have already taken over our work, but they’re made of flesh and bone Brett Frischmann and Evan Selinger The triumph of ‘digital Taylorism’ means that many jobs in the modern economy have been sapped of their humanity, write professors Brett Frischmann and Evan Selinger Published: 25 Sep 2017 Robots have already taken over our work, but they’re made of flesh and bone Deutsche Bank boss says 'big number' of staff will lose jobs to automation John Cryan told conference in Frankfurt that accountants could be replaced by machines, while also saying that Frankfurt is ideally placed to benefit from Brexit Published: 6 Sep 2017 Deutsche Bank boss says 'big number' of staff will lose jobs to automation Robots and AI can bring down pension age, says TUC General secretary Frances O’Grady calls for debate about who benefits from new prosperity and how workers get a fair share Published: 4 Sep 2017 Robots and AI can bring down pension age, says TUC + The future of funerals? Robot priest launched to undercut human-led rites Published: 23 Aug 2017 The future of funerals? Skip to main content current edition: International edition The Guardian - Back to home Become a supporter Subscribe Find a job Jobs Sign in Search Show More Close with google Artificial intelligence (AI) The Observer Max Tegmark: ‘Machines taking control doesn’t have to be a bad thing’ The artificial intelligence expert’s new book, Life 3. 0, urges us to act now to decide our future, rather than risk it being decided for us Max Tegmark in his lab at MIT. Tegmark in his lab at MIT. Photograph: The Washington Post/Getty Images Artificial intelligence (AI) The Observer Max Tegmark: ‘Machines taking control doesn’t have to be a bad thing’ The artificial intelligence expert’s new book, Life 3. 0, urges us to act now to decide our future, rather than risk it being decided for us Andrew Anthony Sat 16 Sep ‘17 19. -- Once we understood how muscles worked we built much better muscles in the form of machines, and maybe when we understand how our brains work we’ll build much better brains and become utterly obsolete. ” Tegmark’s melancholy insight was not some idle hypothesis, but instead an intellectual challenge to himself at the dawn of the age of artificial intelligence. What will become of humanity, he was moved to ask, if we manage to create an intelligence that outstrips our own? -- Tegmark also set about writing a book, which he has just published, entitled Life 3. 0: Being Human in an Age of Artificial Intelligence. Having previously written about such abstruse and highly theoretical concepts as the multiverse, Tegmark is not a man daunted by the prospect of informed but imaginative speculation. -- And world governments should include this as a major part of computer science research. ” Preventing the rise of a superintelligence by abandoning research in artificial intelligence is not, he believes, a credible approach. “Every single way that 2017 is better than the stone age is because of technology. Skip to main content current edition: International edition The Guardian - Back to home Become a supporter Subscribe Find a job Jobs Sign in Search Show More Close with google sign in become a supporter subscribe search find a job dating more from the guardian: change edition: edition International edition The Guardian - Back to home browse all sections close Artificial intelligence (AI) Opinion Who wants to live in an artificially intelligent future? Michele Hanson Michele Hanson An AI world sounds like hell – making humans redundant only serves the interests of an already rich, powerful and creepy tech industry Google’s proposed London headquarters proposed London headquarters. Photograph: HayesDavidson Artificial intelligence (AI) Opinion Who wants to live in an artificially intelligent future? Michele Hanson Michele Hanson An AI world sounds like hell – making humans redundant only serves the interests of an already rich, powerful and creepy tech industry Contact author @michelerhanson Mon 14 Aug ‘17 14. -- It is creepy. Just like the mass manipulation, using “massive swarms of political bots” made possible by artificial intelligence, to make us think and vote this way or that; or the spooky, smiling techies planning utopias that could turn to chaos, disruption and tragedy; or the racist robots that reflect our nastiness – shop-assistant robots, doctor robots, truck-driving robots, sex robots, anything-you-can-do-they-can-do-better robots. What is the point of making humans redundant? The data they rely on – arrest records, postcodes, social affiliations, income – can reflect, and further ingrain, human prejudice. The promise of machine learning and other programs that work with big data (often under the umbrella term “artificial intelligence” or AI) was that the more information we feed these sophisticated computer algorithms, the better they perform. Last year, according to global management consultant McKinsey, tech companies spent somewhere between $20bn and $30bn on AI, mostly in research and development. -- The program was never given a definition of a human face or a cat; it had observed and “learned” two of our favourite subjects. Tay, Microsoft’s artificial intelligence chatbot. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Tay, Microsoft’s artificial intelligence chatbot. Photograph: Microsoft This sort of approach has allowed computers to perform tasks – such as language translation, recognising faces or recommending films in your Netflix queue – that just a decade ago would have been considered too complex to automate. Published: 6 Aug 2017 AI and music: will we be slaves to the algorithm? Jürgen Schmidhuber on the robot future​: ‘They will pay as much attention to us as we do to ants' The German computer scientist says artificial intelligence will surpass humans’ in 2050, enabling robots to have fun, fall in love – and colonise the galaxy Published: 18 Apr 2017 Jürgen Schmidhuber on the robot future​: ‘They will pay as much attention to us as we do to ants' Podcast Can a neural network compose music you want to hear? – Tech podcast The AI composers that are helping people make their own personal soundtracks Published: 14 Apr 2017 Can a neural network compose music you want to hear? -- Published: 15 May 2017 From chatbots to self-driving cars: what worries people about machine learning? + Actors, teachers, therapists – think your job is safe from artificial intelligence? Think again Published: 9 Feb 2017 Actors, teachers, therapists – think your job is safe from artificial intelligence? Think again + How bots ruined everything: from Drake to diets Published: 30 Oct 2016 How bots ruined everything: from Drake to diets most viewed back to top All rights reserved. Skip to main content current edition: International edition The Guardian - Back to home Become a supporter Subscribe Find a job Jobs Sign in Search Show More Close with google Artificial intelligence (AI) Killer robots? Musk and Zuckerberg escalate row over dangers of AI Musk described the Facebook CEO’s knowledge of the field as ‘limited’ after Zuckerberg publicly dismissed AI doomsday warnings as ‘irresponsible’ Elon Musk. The Tesla and SpaceX CEO believes artificial intelligence poses a “fundamental risk to the existence of civilization”. intelligence poses a “fundamental risk to the existence of civilization”. Photograph: Ringo HW Chiu/AP Artificial intelligence (AI) Killer robots? Musk and Zuckerberg escalate row over dangers of AI Musk described the Facebook CEO’s knowledge of the field as ‘limited’ after Zuckerberg publicly dismissed AI doomsday warnings as ‘irresponsible’ Olivia Solon in San Francisco @oliviasolon email Tue 25 Jul ‘17 18. 29 BST Last modified on Wed 26 Jul ‘17 02. 21 BST This article is 5 months old Tech billionaires Elon Musk and Mark Zuckerberg have entered into a public squabble about artificial intelligence in which Musk described the Facebook CEO’s knowledge of the field as “limited”. Elon Musk: regulate AI to combat 'existential threat' before it's too late Read more The groundwork for the world’s nerdiest fight was laid by Musk, the Tesla and SpaceX CEO, earlier this month, when he pushed again for the proactive regulation of artificial intelligence because he believes it poses a “fundamental risk to the existence of civilization”. Musk told a gathering of US governors this month that the potential dangers are not so imaginary, and that they should move to regulate AI. “I keep sounding the alarm bell, but until people see robots going down the street killing people, they don’t know how to react, because it seems so ethereal,” he said. Musk, who has been issuing warnings like these for years now, is concerned that humans will become second-class citizens in a future dominated by artificial intelligence – or that we’ll face a Terminator-style robot uprising. Enter Zuckerberg, who on Sunday denounced these types of warnings as “pretty irresponsible”. Skip to main content current edition: International edition The Guardian - Back to home Become a supporter Subscribe Find a job Jobs Sign in Search Show More Close with google sign in become a supporter subscribe search find a job dating more from the guardian: change edition: edition International edition The Guardian - Back to home browse all sections close Guardian sustainable business Fourth industrial revolution Cybersecurity: is the office coffee machine watching you? Artificial intelligence and machine learning can identify threats to an organisation – but at what cost to privacy and whistleblowers? There is bound to be a person somewhere right now working on machine learning models to deter crime. -- ’ Photograph: Alamy Guardian sustainable business Fourth industrial revolution Cybersecurity: is the office coffee machine watching you? Artificial intelligence and machine learning can identify threats to an organisation – but at what cost to privacy and whistleblowers? Max Opray Fri 28 Apr ‘17 03. -- Or maybe you’re plotting to leak sensitive information on the company that just sacked you? Either way, you best think twice before making your next move because an all-seeing artificial intelligence might just be analysing every email you send, every file you upload, every room you scan into – even your coffee routine. The latest wave of cyber-defence technology employs machine learning to monitor use of the ever-expanding number of smart household objects connected to the Internet of Things – shutting down hackers before they’ve broken into corporate databases or whistleblowers before they’ve forwarded on information to the media. Skip to main content current edition: International edition The Guardian - Back to home Become a supporter Subscribe Find a job Jobs Sign in Search Show More Close with google sign in become a supporter subscribe search find a job dating more from the guardian: change edition: edition International edition The Guardian - Back to home browse all sections close Artificial intelligence (AI) Alibaba founder Jack Ma: AI will cause people ‘more pain than happiness’ The billionaire said key social conflict will be the rise of artificial intelligence and longer life expectancy, which will lead to aging workforce fighting for fewer jobs Jack Ma issued the warning to encourage businesses to adapt or face problems in the future. problems in the future. Photograph: VCG via Getty Images Artificial intelligence (AI) Alibaba founder Jack Ma: AI will cause people ‘more pain than happiness’ The billionaire said key social conflict will be the rise of artificial intelligence and longer life expectancy, which will lead to aging workforce fighting for fewer jobs Olivia Solon in San Francisco @oliviasolon email Mon 24 Apr ‘17 21. 00 BST Last modified on Mon 24 Apr ‘17 22. 48 BST This article is 9 months old Artificial intelligence and other technologies will cause people “more pain than happiness” over the next three decades, according to Jack Ma, the billionaire chairman and founder of Alibaba. “Social conflicts in the next three decades will have an impact on all sorts of industries and walks of life,” said Ma, speaking at an entrepreneurship conference in China about the job disruptions that would be created by automation and the internet. A key social conflict will be the rise of artificial intelligence and longer life expectancy, which will lead to an aging workforce fighting for fewer jobs. AI is getting brainier: when will the machines leave us in the dust? -- Robots can make calculations more quickly and rationally than humans, Ma added, and won’t be swayed by emotions, for example by getting angry at competitors. Leaders who don’t understand that cloud computing and artificial intelligence are essential for business should identify young people in their companies to explain it to them, he said. His comments echo a number of studies suggesting that automation will eliminate jobs, including a Forrester study that suggested 6% of all jobs in the US would be eliminated by 2021. Skip to main content current edition: International edition The Guardian - Back to home Become a supporter Subscribe Find a job Jobs Sign in Search Show More Close with google sign in become a supporter subscribe search find a job dating more from the guardian: change edition: edition International edition The Guardian - Back to home browse all sections close Artificial intelligence (AI) Artificial intelligence survey finds UK public broadly optimistic Support for ‘machine learning’ depended on what it would be used for, with mass unemployment among main fears Ipsos Mori found a two-thirds of the UK public believe the benefits of machine learning outweighed the risks or were balanced. of machine learning outweighed the risks or were balanced. Photograph: Nic Delves-Broughton/PA Artificial intelligence (AI) Artificial intelligence survey finds UK public broadly optimistic Support for ‘machine learning’ depended on what it would be used for, with mass unemployment among main fears Ian Sample Science editor @iansample Tue 25 Apr ‘17 00. 01 BST Last modified on Tue 25 Apr ‘17 00. 02 BST This article is 9 months old Apart from fears of mass unemployment, accidents with machinery, restrictions on freedom, increased economic inequality and a devalued human experience, the public are broadly optimistic about the arrival of artificial intelligence, according to one of the first surveys of British opinions about the technology. Research by the polling firm Ipsos Mori found nearly a third of people believe the risks of “machine learning” outweigh the benefits, while 36% believe the risks and benefits are balanced. -- Told of a computer system that might try to rein in people who overspend, one participant in Oxford said: “I feel like I’d want to buy the shoes just to spite it. ” The Royal Society report raises a host of other challenges that will come with the arrival of artificial intelligence. Jürgen Schmidhuber on the robot future​: ‘They will pay as much attention to us as we do to ants' Read more Artificial intelligence systems can pick up biases from training data, making them racist and sexist, and cannot always explain their decisions, both issues that scientists must work on, the report states. Meanwhile, tech firms are poaching some key UK academics, leaving universities struggling to keep the best minds. Skip to main content current edition: International edition The Guardian - Back to home Become a supporter Subscribe Find a job Jobs Sign in Search Show More Close with google Robots Millions of UK workers at risk of being replaced by robots, study says Workers in wholesale and retail sectors at highest risk from breakthroughs in robotics and artificial intelligence, PwC report finds Army of robots increasingly being used for low-skill tasks. Photograph: Alamy Robots Millions of UK workers at risk of being replaced by robots, study says Workers in wholesale and retail sectors at highest risk from breakthroughs in robotics and artificial intelligence, PwC report finds Larry Elliott Economics editor Fri 24 Mar ‘17 07. 30 GMT Last modified on Sat 2 Dec ‘17 17. 52 GMT This article is 10 months old More than 10 million UK workers are at high risk of being replaced by robots within 15 years as the automation of routine tasks gathers pace in a new machine age. A report by the consultancy firm PwC found that 30% of jobs in Britain were potentially under threat from breakthroughs in artificial intelligence (AI). In some sectors half the jobs could go. -- 1 million in administrative and support services and 950,000 in transport and storage. Jobs at risk from artificial intelligence The report said the biggest impact would be on workers who had left school with GCSEs or lower, and that there was an argument for government intervention in education, lifelong learning and job matching to ensure the potential gains from automation were not concentrated in too few hands. Some form of universal basic income might also be considered. -- And this may not be a bad thing if it gives existing workers and businesses more time to adapt to this brave new world,” he said. Facebook Twitter Pinterest Robots can predict the future … and so can you Topics more on this story Robots could destabilise world through war and unemployment, says UN United Nations opens new centre in Netherlands to monitor artificial intelligence and second-guess threats Published: 27 Sep 2017 Robots could destabilise world through war and unemployment, says UN Robots have already taken over our work, but they’re made of flesh and bone Brett Frischmann and Evan Selinger The triumph of ‘digital Taylorism’ means that many jobs in the modern economy have been sapped of their humanity, write professors Brett Frischmann and Evan Selinger Published: 25 Sep 2017 Robots have already taken over our work, but they’re made of flesh and bone Robots 'could take 4m UK private sector jobs within 10 years' Royal Society of Arts survey suggests technology could phase out mundane roles, raise productivity and bolster wages Published: 19 Sep 2017 Robots 'could take 4m UK private sector jobs within 10 years' Deutsche Bank boss says 'big number' of staff will lose jobs to automation John Cryan told conference in Frankfurt that accountants could be replaced by machines, while also saying that Frankfurt is ideally placed to benefit from Brexit Published: 6 Sep 2017 Deutsche Bank boss says 'big number' of staff will lose jobs to automation + Robots and AI can bring down pension age, says TUC Published: 4 Sep 2017 Robots and AI can bring down pension age, says TUC + The future of funerals? Robot priest launched to undercut human-led rites Published: 23 Aug 2017 The future of funerals? Skip to main content current edition: International edition The Guardian - Back to home Become a supporter Subscribe Find a job Jobs Sign in Search Show More Close with google sign in become a supporter subscribe search find a job dating more from the guardian: change edition: edition International edition The Guardian - Back to home browse all sections close Artificial intelligence (AI) Opinion AI is getting brainier: when will the machines leave us in the dust? Ian Sample Ian Sample To usher in the ‘Singularity’ – when computers match human intelligence – superintelligent one trick ponies like DeepMind must become jacks of all trades Google DeepMind challenge match between AI program AlphaGo and the South Korean professional Go player Lee Sedol. South Korean professional Go player Lee Sedol. Photograph: Ahn Young-joon/AP Artificial intelligence (AI) Opinion AI is getting brainier: when will the machines leave us in the dust? Ian Sample Ian Sample To usher in the ‘Singularity’ – when computers match human intelligence – superintelligent one trick ponies like DeepMind must become jacks of all trades Contact author @iansample Wed 15 Mar ‘17 15. 43 GMT Last modified on Wed 15 Mar ‘17 16. 26 GMT The road to human-level artificial intelligence is long and wildly uncertain. Most AI programs today are one-trick ponies. -- Put humans in a situation where a problem must be solved and, if they can leave their smartphones alone for a moment, they will draw on experience to work out a solution. The skill, already evident in preschool children, is the ultimate goal of artificial intelligence. If it can be distilled and encoded in software, then thinking machines will finally deserve the name. -- Topics Loading comments… Trouble loading? more on this story Robots could destabilise world through war and unemployment, says UN United Nations opens new centre in Netherlands to monitor artificial intelligence and second-guess threats Published: 27 Sep 2017 Robots could destabilise world through war and unemployment, says UN Robots have already taken over our work, but they’re made of flesh and bone Brett Frischmann and Evan Selinger The triumph of ‘digital Taylorism’ means that many jobs in the modern economy have been sapped of their humanity, write professors Brett Frischmann and Evan Selinger Published: 25 Sep 2017 Robots have already taken over our work, but they’re made of flesh and bone Robots 'could take 4m UK private sector jobs within 10 years' Royal Society of Arts survey suggests technology could phase out mundane roles, raise productivity and bolster wages Published: 19 Sep 2017 Robots 'could take 4m UK private sector jobs within 10 years' Deutsche Bank boss says 'big number' of staff will lose jobs to automation John Cryan told conference in Frankfurt that accountants could be replaced by machines, while also saying that Frankfurt is ideally placed to benefit from Brexit Published: 6 Sep 2017 Deutsche Bank boss says 'big number' of staff will lose jobs to automation + Robots and AI can bring down pension age, says TUC Published: 4 Sep 2017 Robots and AI can bring down pension age, says TUC + The future of funerals? Robot priest launched to undercut human-led rites Published: 23 Aug 2017 The future of funerals? 27 GMT Last modified on Tue 28 Nov ‘17 03. 44 GMT This article is 10 months old Researchers have overcome one of the major stumbling blocks in artificial intelligence with a program that can learn one task after another using skills it acquires on the way. Developed by Google’s AI company, DeepMind, the program has taken on a range of different tasks and performed almost as well as a human. -- But we know that one thing that was considered to be a big block is not insurmountable,” Kirkpatrick said. “We are still a really long way from general-purpose artificial intelligence and there are many research challenges left to solve,” he added. “One key part of the puzzle is building systems that can learn to tackle new tasks and challenges while retaining the abilities that they have already learnt. -- more on this story Google's DeepMind plans bitcoin-style health record tracking for hospitals Tech company’s health subsidiary planning digital ledger based on blockchain to let hospitals, the NHS and eventually patients track personal data Published: 9 Mar 2017 Google's DeepMind plans bitcoin-style health record tracking for hospitals AI can win at poker: but as computers get smarter, who keeps tabs on their ethics? Artificial intelligence is fast at learning games, but applied to wider society it can have troubling outcomes Published: 5 Feb 2017 AI can win at poker: but as computers get smarter, who keeps tabs on their ethics? Whatever happened to the DeepMind AI ethics board Google promised? When the search giant bought the artificial intelligence company, part of the deal was setting up an ethics board. Three years on, where is it? -- The Guardian view on AI in the NHS: not the revolution you are looking for Editorial: Computer systems may not replace doctors or nurses. But even to replace support staff would be a huge change Published: 6 Jan 2017 The Guardian view on AI in the NHS: not the revolution you are looking for + No one can read what’s on the cards for artificial intelligence John Naughton Published: 29 Jan 2017 No one can read what’s on the cards for artificial intelligence + Labour calls for closer scrutiny of tech firms and their algorithms Published: 18 Dec 2016 Labour calls for closer scrutiny of tech firms and their algorithms + How can we address real concerns over artificial intelligence? Harry Armstrong and Jared Robert Keller Published: 15 Sep 2016 How can we address real concerns over artificial intelligence? + Google DeepMind and UCLH collaborate on AI-based radiotherapy treatment Published: 30 Aug 2016 Google DeepMind and UCLH collaborate on AI-based radiotherapy treatment most viewed back to top All rights reserved. Skip to main content current edition: International edition The Guardian - Back to home Become a supporter Subscribe Find a job Jobs Sign in Search Show More Close with google sign in become a supporter subscribe search find a job dating more from the guardian: change edition: edition International edition The Guardian - Back to home browse all sections close Robots Robots won't just take our jobs – they'll make the rich even richer Robotics and artificial intelligence will continue to improve – but without political change such as a tax, the outcome will range from bad to apocalyptic Instead of making it possible to create more wealth with less labor, automation might make it possible to create more wealth without labor. labor, automation might make it possible to create more wealth without labor. Photograph: Paul Hanna/Reuters Robots Robots won't just take our jobs – they'll make the rich even richer Robotics and artificial intelligence will continue to improve – but without political change such as a tax, the outcome will range from bad to apocalyptic Ben Tarnoff Ben Tarnoff in San Francisco @bentarnoff Thu 2 Mar ‘17 11. 00 GMT Last modified on Thu 2 Mar ‘17 15. -- What if your ATM could not only give you a hundred bucks, but sell you an adjustable-rate mortgage? While the current rhetoric around artificial intelligence is overhyped, there have been meaningful advances over the past several years. And it’s not inconceivable that much bigger breakthroughs are on the horizon. -- – original drama video Read more These dystopias may sound like science fiction, but they’re perfectly plausible given our current trajectory. The technology around robotics and artificial intelligence will continue to improve – but without substantive political change, the outcome will range from bad to apocalyptic for most people. That’s why the recent rumblings about a robot tax are worth taking seriously. -- Then, perhaps, the idea that wealth should be owned by the many, rather than monopolized by the few, won’t seem so radical, and we can undertake a bit of sorely needed redistribution – before robot capitalism kills us all. Topics more on this story Robots could destabilise world through war and unemployment, says UN United Nations opens new centre in Netherlands to monitor artificial intelligence and second-guess threats Published: 27 Sep 2017 Robots could destabilise world through war and unemployment, says UN Robots have already taken over our work, but they’re made of flesh and bone Brett Frischmann and Evan Selinger The triumph of ‘digital Taylorism’ means that many jobs in the modern economy have been sapped of their humanity, write professors Brett Frischmann and Evan Selinger Published: 25 Sep 2017 Robots have already taken over our work, but they’re made of flesh and bone Robots 'could take 4m UK private sector jobs within 10 years' Royal Society of Arts survey suggests technology could phase out mundane roles, raise productivity and bolster wages Published: 19 Sep 2017 Robots 'could take 4m UK private sector jobs within 10 years' Deutsche Bank boss says 'big number' of staff will lose jobs to automation John Cryan told conference in Frankfurt that accountants could be replaced by machines, while also saying that Frankfurt is ideally placed to benefit from Brexit Published: 6 Sep 2017 Deutsche Bank boss says 'big number' of staff will lose jobs to automation + Robots and AI can bring down pension age, says TUC Published: 4 Sep 2017 Robots and AI can bring down pension age, says TUC + The future of funerals? Robot priest launched to undercut human-led rites Published: 23 Aug 2017 The future of funerals? Skip to main content current edition: International edition The Guardian - Back to home Become a supporter Subscribe Find a job Jobs Sign in Search Show More Close with google Guardian sustainable business Transport Automated holidays: how AI is affecting the travel industry Travel companies are investing in artificial intelligence, but that doesn’t mean fewer jobs for humans Airlines logos last year, but online bookings are becoming the norm. Photograph: Alamy Guardian sustainable business Transport Automated holidays: how AI is affecting the travel industry Travel companies are investing in artificial intelligence, but that doesn’t mean fewer jobs for humans Senay Boztas Fri 17 Feb ‘17 06. 00 GMT Last modified on Tue 21 Feb ‘17 17. -- “We have to reinvent the place of the man in the system,” says Fabrice Otaño, chief data officer at AccorHotels group. “Artificial intelligence can replace some existing jobs, and managers have to take care of what the next step for people is, that is relevant in the data world. We have to evolve our revenue managers into more data jobs, balancing old jobs with new school jobs in business analytics. -- Read more But not everyone is predicting the demise of travel agents. A spokesperson for ABTA, which represents UK travel agents and tour operators, says almost a fifth of Brits still booked a holiday in a travel store last year and that although artificial intelligence can help with targeted marketing, “it can be hard to beat the human touch”. People quickly get frustrated if a chatbot isn’t responding accurately, for a start. Skip to main content current edition: International edition The Guardian - Back to home Become a supporter Subscribe Find a job Jobs Sign in Search Show More Close with google sign in become a supporter subscribe search find a job dating more from the guardian: change edition: edition International edition The Guardian - Back to home browse all sections close Artificial intelligence (AI) Opinion The Observer view on artificial intelligence Observer editorial Superintelligent computers may grab the headlines, but the humble algorithm is a significant threat to humanity Libratus beats poker players world’s best poker players in Pittsburgh last week. Photograph: Carnegie Mellon University Artificial intelligence (AI) Opinion The Observer view on artificial intelligence Observer editorial Superintelligent computers may grab the headlines, but the humble algorithm is a significant threat to humanity Sun 5 Feb ‘17 00. 05 GMT Last modified on Sat 2 Dec ‘17 03. -- , then Go and now poker. One after another, these games, all of which require significant amounts of intelligence and expertise if they are to be played well, have fallen to the technology we call artificial intelligence (AI). And as each of these milestones is passed, speculation about the prospect of “superintelligence” (the attainment by machines of human-level capabilities) reaches a new high before the media caravan moves on to its next obsession du jour. Skip to main content current edition: International edition The Guardian - Back to home Become a supporter Subscribe Find a job Jobs Sign in Search Show More Close with google Science Political science It's time for some messy, democratic discussions about the future of AI With a new set of principles for artificial intelligence, tech pioneers seem to be developing a conscience. Good – but the discussion must include more voices Computers are now beating humans at poker. What’s next for artificial intelligence? artificial intelligence? Photograph: AP Science Political science It's time for some messy, democratic discussions about the future of AI With a new set of principles for artificial intelligence, tech pioneers seem to be developing a conscience. Good – but the discussion must include more voices Jack Stilgoe and Andrew Maynard Jack Stilgoe teaches science policy at UCL. -- 35 GMT Last modified on Tue 9 May ‘17 18. 30 BST Today in Washington DC, leading US and UK scientists are meeting to share dispatches from the frontiers of machine learning – an area of research that is creating new breakthroughs in artificial intelligence (AI). Their meeting follows the publication of a set of principles for beneficial AI that emerged from a conference earlier this year at a place with an important history. Skip to main content current edition: International edition The Guardian - Back to home Become a supporter Subscribe Find a job Jobs Sign in Search Show More Close with google sign in become a supporter subscribe search find a job dating more from the guardian: change edition: edition International edition The Guardian - Back to home browse all sections close Guardian sustainable business Values-led business How artificial intelligence could help make the insurance industry trustworthy NYC-based Lemonade hopes to reverse the poor reputation of insurance companies by using tech and behavioral science to appeal to younger customers Lemonade recently raised $34m from investors including GV, formerly Google Ventures. Google Ventures. Photograph: Alamy Stock Photo Guardian sustainable business Values-led business How artificial intelligence could help make the insurance industry trustworthy NYC-based Lemonade hopes to reverse the poor reputation of insurance companies by using tech and behavioral science to appeal to younger customers Alison Moodie Sat 28 Jan ‘17 15. 00 GMT Last modified on Wed 22 Feb ‘17 17. -- ” In a quarterly performance review posted online, Lemonade noted that five of the six claims from 2016 required human intervention. But it touted a particular claim was handled completely by a chatbot: “The first time ever that a claim was handled solely by artificial intelligence – from triage, through fraud mitigation and down to the actual payment by wire. Start to finish, without involving us humans, all done by AI Jim! Skip to main content current edition: International edition The Guardian - Back to home Become a supporter Subscribe Find a job Jobs Sign in Search Show More Close with google sign in become a supporter subscribe search find a job dating more from the guardian: change edition: edition International edition The Guardian - Back to home browse all sections close Artificial intelligence (AI) 2016: the year AI came of age Google and Amazon brought AI into the home and DeepMind built a computer that could outsmart humans at Go. Will 2017 hold similar advancements? The world’s top human Go player Lee Sedol reacts before the fourth match of the Google DeepMind Challenge Match against Google’s artificial intelligence program AlphaGo in Seoul, South Korea. Out of five matches, Lee lost 4-1. of the Google DeepMind Challenge Match against Google’s artificial intelligence program AlphaGo in Seoul, South Korea. Out of five matches, Lee lost 4-1. Photograph: Reuters Artificial intelligence (AI) 2016: the year AI came of age Google and Amazon brought AI into the home and DeepMind built a computer that could outsmart humans at Go. Will 2017 hold similar advancements? -- 00 GMT Last modified on Sun 16 Jul ‘17 21. 45 BST Over the course of 2016, artificial intelligence made the leap from “science fiction concept” to “almost meaningless buzzword” with alarmingspeed. Everything has AI now. Period-tracking app Flo “uses a neural network approach” to deliver “high period forecast accuracy”; food delivery app Just Eat launched a chatbot that “sees AI integrated into the ordering experience to ensure that customers receive the best, round the clock support and service”; restaurant guide Borsch “uses artificial intelligence to help people discover the yummiest dishes around”. But unlike many buzzwords before it, from “big data” to “blockchain”, artificial intelligence’s transformation into venture capitalist-catnip doesn’t signify the end of anyone serious using the term themselves. In fact, 2017 looks like it could be the most important year yet for the technology: AI will butt up against not only what is possible, but also what is desirable for the first time. -- That was when Apple’s Siri hit iPhones, introducing the world to the first major “virtual assistant”. It was also the year the Google Brain project was instituted: the search engine’s blue-sky research team aimed to address as many tasks as possible through neural network-based learning, the computational technique that has come to define what we mean by artificial intelligence. DeepMind's AlphaGo beating South Korean professional Go player Lee Sedol. Skip to main content current edition: International edition The Guardian - Back to home Become a supporter Subscribe Find a job Jobs Sign in Search Show More Close with google Artificial intelligence (AI) Could online tutors and artificial intelligence be the future of teaching? Online maths company has partnered with scientists to identify what makes lessons successful - and to see if AI can be used to improve teaching Ambar (foreground) and Ruwaan during an online maths session at Pakeman primary school. Pakeman primary school. Photograph: Linda Nylind for the Guardian Artificial intelligence (AI) Could online tutors and artificial intelligence be the future of teaching? Online maths company has partnered with scientists to identify what makes lessons successful - and to see if AI can be used to improve teaching Hannah Devlin Science corespondent @hannahdev Mon 26 Dec ‘16 07. -- Can technology replace teachers? You asked Google – here’s the answer | Harpreet Purewal Read more From next year, the platform will become one of the first examples of artificial intelligence (AI) software being used to monitor, and ideally improve, teaching. Together with scientists at University College London (UCL), the company has analysed around 100,000 hours of audio and written data from its tutorials, with the goal of identifying what makes a good teacher and a successful lesson. -- As the technology evolves, the interventions could become more sophisticated and the software might play a more active role in teaching, raising questions about the extent to which intelligent software could replace human teachers. Rose Luckin, a professor of learner centred design at University College London, who is collaborating with Third Space Learning on the project, said: “What we are very interested in is the right blend of human and artificial intelligence in the classroom – identifying that sweet spot. ” According to Luckin, AI provides a unique opportunity to assess which teaching strategies are working and to individualise teaching. Skip to main content current edition: International edition The Guardian - Back to home Become a supporter Subscribe Find a job Jobs Sign in Search Show More Close with google sign in become a supporter subscribe search find a job dating more from the guardian: change edition: edition International edition The Guardian - Back to home browse all sections close Artificial intelligence (AI) AI, self-driving cars and cyberwar – the tech trends to watch for in 2017 From a rise in AI and improvements to self-driving cars, to televised eSports and all-out cyberwar, the coming year has it all League of Legends Oceanic Pro League grand final in Brisbane, Australia. Australia. Photograph: Riot Games Artificial intelligence (AI) AI, self-driving cars and cyberwar – the tech trends to watch for in 2017 From a rise in AI and improvements to self-driving cars, to televised eSports and all-out cyberwar, the coming year has it all Alex Hern Alex Hern @alexhern Sun 25 Dec ‘16 12. 00 GMT Last modified on Tue 12 Dec ‘17 11. -- In other ways, though, it will be just as upended as the rest of the world by the unprecedented disruption that 2016 has left in its wake. Here are the trends to watch out for in the coming year: More AI, less data The artificial intelligence revolution is well and truly upon us, but so far, the biggest players are venerable Silicon Valley titans such as Google, Amazon and Apple. That’s partially because they have the money to hire teams full of PhDs at seven-figure salaries, but it’s also because they have the data. Skip to main content current edition: International edition The Guardian - Back to home Become a supporter Subscribe Find a job Jobs Sign in Search Show More Close with google sign in become a supporter subscribe search find a job dating more from the guardian: change edition: edition International edition The Guardian - Back to home browse all sections close Guardian sustainable business The new bottom line The latest weapon in the fight against illegal fishing? Artificial intelligence A $150,000 reward is up for grabs for any data scientist who can write code for facial recognition software that can pinpoint illegal catch on fishing boats A catch of tuna trans-shipped from an illegal, unregistered and unlicensed (IUU) purse seine fishing vessel. As illegal fishing continues to grow, scientists are turning to data and artificial intelligence to help stem the problem. unlicensed (IUU) purse seine fishing vessel. As illegal fishing continues to grow, scientists are turning to data and artificial intelligence to help stem the problem. Photograph: Alex Hofford/AFP/Getty Images Guardian sustainable business The new bottom line The latest weapon in the fight against illegal fishing? Artificial intelligence A $150,000 reward is up for grabs for any data scientist who can write code for facial recognition software that can pinpoint illegal catch on fishing boats Mary Catherine O'Connor @mcoc Sun 20 Nov ‘16 15. 00 GMT Last modified on Fri 14 Jul ‘17 19. -- The larger the database, with a greater variety of facial features, the smarter and more successful the software becomes – effectively learning from its mistakes to improve its accuracy. The government wants more offshore fish farms, but no one is biting Read more Now, this type of artificial intelligence is starting to be used in fighting a specific but pervasive type of crime – illegal fishing. Rather than picking out faces, the software tracks the movement of fishing boats to root out illegal behavior. And soon, using a twist on facial recognition, it may be able to recognize when a boat’s haul includes endangered and protected fish. The latest effort to use artificial intelligence to fight illegal fishing is coming from Virginia-based The Nature Conservancy (TNC), which launched a contest on Kaggle – a crowdsourcing site based in San Francisco that uses competitions to advance data science –earlier this week. TNC hopes the winning team will write software to identify specific species of fish. -- Given those challenges, it’s too early to know how large this market will grow, or how quickly. While the use of artificial intelligence to reduce illegal catch is relatively new, the Kaggle contest isn’t the first time it is being applied to the fishing industry. San Francisco-based startup Pelagic Data Systems (PDS) has developed technology that illuminates the activity of some of the 4. -- ” Oysters are making a comeback in the polluted waters around New York City Read more But, he adds, Silicon Valley does provide important undergirding for using technology to solve environmental problems. Bosworth argues that the advancement in core technologies behind things like multiplayer gaming software and smartphone apps has propelled the rise of machine learning and artificial intelligence and lowered the development costs over time. The winning team of the contest will earn a prize of $150,000. Skip to main content current edition: International edition The Guardian - Back to home Become a supporter Subscribe Find a job Jobs Sign in Search Show More Close with google sign in become a supporter subscribe search find a job dating more from the guardian: change edition: edition International edition The Guardian - Back to home browse all sections close Stephen Hawking Stephen Hawking: AI will be 'either best or worst thing' for humanity Professor praises creation of Cambridge University institute to study future of artificial intelligence Stephen Hawking at the opening of the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence on Wednesday. Future of Intelligence on Wednesday. Photograph: Chris Radburn/PA Stephen Hawking Stephen Hawking: AI will be 'either best or worst thing' for humanity Professor praises creation of Cambridge University institute to study future of artificial intelligence Alex Hern @alexhern Wed 19 Oct ‘16 21. 05 BST Last modified on Wed 22 Feb ‘17 17. 43 GMT This article is 1 year old Professor Stephen Hawking has warned that the creation of powerful artificial intelligence will be “either the best, or the worst thing, ever to happen to humanity”, and praised the creation of an academic institute dedicated to researching the future of intelligence as “crucial to the future of our civilisation and our species”. Hawking was speaking at the opening of the Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence (LCFI) at Cambridge University, a multi-disciplinary institute that will attempt to tackle some of the open-ended questions raised by the rapid pace of development in AI research. -- Topics Loading comments… Trouble loading? more on this story Stephen Hawking's 1966 doctoral thesis made available for first time Cambridge University says Properties of Expanding Universes is already most-requested item in open access repository Published: 23 Oct 2017 Stephen Hawking's 1966 doctoral thesis made available for first time World's best Go player flummoxed by Google’s ‘godlike’ AlphaGo AI Ke Jie, who once boasted he would never be beaten by a computer at the ancient Chinese game, said he had ‘horrible experience’ Published: 23 May 2017 World's best Go player flummoxed by Google’s ‘godlike’ AlphaGo AI Artificial intelligence 'judge' developed by UCL computer scientists Software program can weigh up legal evidence and moral questions of right and wrong to predict the outcome of trials Published: 24 Oct 2016 Artificial intelligence 'judge' developed by UCL computer scientists Doctors back Stephen Hawking’s challenge to Jeremy Hunt NHS professionals and readers respond to the debate between Professor Hawking and the UK health secretary Published: 30 Aug 2017 Doctors back Stephen Hawking’s challenge to Jeremy Hunt + Jeremy Hunt continues war of words with Stephen Hawking over NHS Published: 27 Aug 2017 Jeremy Hunt continues war of words with Stephen Hawking over NHS + Stephen Hawking blames Tory politicians for damaging NHS Published: 19 Aug 2017 Stephen Hawking blames Tory politicians for damaging NHS + Google creates AI program that uses reasoning to navigate the London tube Published: 12 Oct 2016 Google creates AI program that uses reasoning to navigate the London tube + Machine logic: our lives are ruled by big tech's 'decisions by data' Julia Powles in Berlin Published: 8 Oct 2016 Machine logic: our lives are ruled by big tech's 'decisions by data' most viewed The Guardian back to top all sections close back to top All rights reserved. y%2CUniversity+of+Cambridge] Skip to main content current edition: International edition The Guardian - Back to home Become a supporter Subscribe Find a job Jobs Sign in Search Show More Close with google sign in become a supporter subscribe search find a job dating more from the guardian: change edition: edition International edition The Guardian - Back to home browse all sections close Artificial intelligence (AI) Google creates AI program that uses reasoning to navigate the London tube Combining external memory and deep learning, DeepMind’s program learns how to do tasks independently, and could pave the way for sophisticated AI assistants Facebook Twitter Pinterest Scientists predicted that in future a similar approach to the one shown in this video could pave the way for virtual assistants that would be able to instantaneously scour the internet to answer questions and carry out instructions with precision. Artificial intelligence (AI) Google creates AI program that uses reasoning to navigate the London tube Combining external memory and deep learning, DeepMind’s program learns how to do tasks independently, and could pave the way for sophisticated AI assistants Hannah Devlin Science correspondent @hannahdev Wed 12 Oct ‘16 18. 04 BST Last modified on Wed 22 Feb ‘17 17. 43 GMT This article is 1 year old Google scientists have created a computer program that uses basic reasoning to learn to navigate the London Underground system by itself. The same Artificial Intelligence (AI) agent could also answer questions about the content of snippets of stories and work out family relationships by looking at a family tree. Scientists predict that in future a similar approach could pave the way for virtual assistants that would be able to instantaneously scour the internet to answer questions and carry out instructions with precision. -- It’s a matter of time and of funding: whether anyone will be willing to spend the necessary millions to develop these things. ” A number of high profile scientists have warned about the existential threat posed by AI, with Stephen Hawking cautioning that “once humans develop artificial intelligence, it will take off on its own and redesign itself at an ever-increasing rate”. But Demis Hassabis, the founder of DeepMind has previously played down such concerns. -- Topics Loading comments… Trouble loading? more on this story World's best Go player flummoxed by Google’s ‘godlike’ AlphaGo AI Ke Jie, who once boasted he would never be beaten by a computer at the ancient Chinese game, said he had ‘horrible experience’ Published: 23 May 2017 World's best Go player flummoxed by Google’s ‘godlike’ AlphaGo AI Artificial intelligence 'judge' developed by UCL computer scientists Software program can weigh up legal evidence and moral questions of right and wrong to predict the outcome of trials Published: 24 Oct 2016 Artificial intelligence 'judge' developed by UCL computer scientists Stephen Hawking: AI will be 'either best or worst thing' for humanity Professor praises creation of Cambridge University institute to study future of artificial intelligence Published: 19 Oct 2016 Stephen Hawking: AI will be 'either best or worst thing' for humanity Machine logic: our lives are ruled by big tech's 'decisions by data' Julia Powles in Berlin Aiming at population-level predictive gambles, they filter who and what counts – including who is released from jail and the news that you see, researchers warn Published: 8 Oct 2016 Machine logic: our lives are ruled by big tech's 'decisions by data' + James Lovelock: ‘Before the end of this century, robots will have taken over’ Published: 30 Sep 2016 James Lovelock: ‘Before the end of this century, robots will have taken over’ + How can we address real concerns over artificial intelligence? Harry Armstrong and Jared Robert Keller Published: 15 Sep 2016 How can we address real concerns over artificial intelligence? + Artificial intelligence: ‘We’re like children playing with a bomb’ Published: 12 Jun 2016 Artificial intelligence: ‘We’re like children playing with a bomb’ + Google AI project writes poetry which could make a Vogon proud Published: 17 May 2016 Google AI project writes poetry which could make a Vogon proud most viewed The Guardian back to top all sections close back to top All rights reserved. ind] Skip to main content current edition: International edition The Guardian - Back to home Become a supporter Subscribe Find a job Jobs Sign in Search Show More Close with google sign in become a supporter subscribe search find a job dating more from the guardian: change edition: edition International edition The Guardian - Back to home browse all sections close Artificial intelligence (AI) 'Partnership on AI' formed by Google, Facebook, Amazon, IBM and Microsoft Two big Silicon Valley names are missing from the alliance, which aims to set societal and ethical best practice for artificial intelligence research An army of robots non-profits and specialists in policy and ethics’ to join. Photograph: Alamy Artificial intelligence (AI) 'Partnership on AI' formed by Google, Facebook, Amazon, IBM and Microsoft Two big Silicon Valley names are missing from the alliance, which aims to set societal and ethical best practice for artificial intelligence research Alex Hern @alexhern Wed 28 Sep ‘16 22. 00 BST Last modified on Tue 21 Feb ‘17 17. 13 GMT This article is 1 year old Google, Facebook, Amazon, IBM and Microsoft are joining forces to create a new AI partnership dedicated to advancing public understanding of the sector, as well as coming up with standards for future researchers to abide by. Going by the unwieldy name of the Partnership on Artificial Intelligence to Benefit People and Society, the alliance isn’t a lobbying organisation (at least, it says it “does not intend” to lobby government bodies). Instead, it says it will “conduct research, recommend best practices, and publish research under an open license in areas such as ethics, fairness and inclusivity; transparency, privacy, and interoperability; collaboration between people and AI systems; and the trustworthiness, reliability and robustness of the technology”. There will be equal representation between corporate and non-corporate members on the board of the partnership, and it hopes to invite “academics, non-profits and specialists in policy and ethics” to join. An iPhone with Siri working on screen Facebook Twitter Pinterest Despite its work in artificial intelligence through products such as Siri, Apple is not included in the group. Photograph: Alamy Each of the five founding corporate members has strong AI research teams, some of which have become household names, such as IBM’s Watson and Amazon’s Alexa. -- With funding of $1bn (£777m), the group is one of the industry’s best-funded independent AI research labs, and its aims seem to complement those of the Partnership. A small number of large corporations are the powerhouses behind the development of sophisticated artificial intelligence Murray Shanahan, cognitive robotics professor at Imperial College “We’re in the process of inviting many many different research labs and groups,” said Mustafa Suleyman or Deep Mind, the other interim co-chair. “We encourage there to be a diverse range of effort in AI, and we think that’s a great thing. -- He welcomed the creation of the partnership. Research will ‘maximise societal benefits and tackle ethical concerns’ “A small number of large corporations are today the powerhouses behind the development of sophisticated artificial intelligence. The inauguration of the partnership on AI is a very welcome step towards ensuring this technology is used wisely,” he said. -- “This group is a huge step forward, breaking down barriers for AI teams to share best practices, research ways to maximise societal benefits and tackle ethical concerns, and make it easier for those in other fields to engage with everyone’s work. We’re really proud of how this has come together, and we’re looking forward to working with everyone inside and outside the Partnership on Artificial Intelligence to make sure AI has the broad and transformative impact we all want to see. ” Facebook’s director of AI research, Yann LeCun, said: “By openly collaborating with our peers and sharing findings, we aim to push new boundaries every day, not only within Facebook, but across the entire research community. Skip to main content current edition: International edition The Guardian - Back to home Become a supporter Subscribe Find a job Jobs Sign in Search Show More Close with google sign in become a supporter subscribe search find a job dating more from the guardian: change edition: edition International edition The Guardian - Back to home browse all sections close Artificial intelligence (AI) The rise of robots: forget evil AI – the real risk is far more insidious It’s far more likely that robots would inadvertently harm or frustrate humans while carrying out our orders than they would rise up against us Stuart Russell: ‘The risk doesn’t come from machines suddenly developing spontaneous malevolent consciousness. ’ developing spontaneous malevolent consciousness. ’ Photograph: Alamy Artificial intelligence (AI) The rise of robots: forget evil AI – the real risk is far more insidious It’s far more likely that robots would inadvertently harm or frustrate humans while carrying out our orders than they would rise up against us Olivia Solon in San Francisco @oliviasolon email Tue 30 Aug ‘16 14. 00 BST Last modified on Fri 14 Jul ‘17 19. 48 BST This article is 1 year old When we look at the rise of artificial intelligence, it’s easy to get carried away with dystopian visions of sentient machines that rebel against their human creators. Fictional baddies such as the Terminator’s Skynet or Hal from 2001: A Space Odyssey have a lot to answer for. -- In recognition of this, the University of California, Berkeley has this week launched a center to focus on building people-pleasing AIs. The Center for Human-Compatible Artificial Intelligence, launched this week with $5. 5m in funding from the Open Philanthropy Project, is lead by computer science professor and artificial intelligence pioneer Stuart Russell. He’s quick to dispel any “unreasonable and melodramatic” comparisons to the threats posed in science fiction. -- “It’s important that we’re not trying to prevent that from happening because there’s absolutely no understanding of consciousness whatsoever. ” Russell is well known in the artificial intelligence community and in 2015 penned an open letter calling for researchers to look beyond the goal of simply making AI more capable and powerful to think about maximizing its social benefit. The letter has been signed by more than 8,000 scientists and entrepreneurs including physicist Stephen Hawking, entrepreneur Elon Musk and Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. Photograph: Tate Launching on Friday, Recognition is the winner of 2016’s IK prize – an annual award, this year supported by Microsoft, for a project that embraces digital technology to explore and showcase Tate’s collection of British art. Tate Britain revamps Turner galleries after paintings return from tour Read more This year, the challenge was to do it with artificial intelligence. The team behind the winning project, from the Italy-based communication research centre Fabrica, say their inspiration came from an intriguing conundrum: how can you apply rational thinking to a subject like art? -- “News always presents itself as this mimetic, glass window on to the world, but of course photojournalism is an art form often; it is a mode of communication – and so is art and painting,” he said. With £15,000 in prize money and £90,000 to produce their vision, the four-strong team at Fabrica have spent months developing the project, which harnesses a burgeoning form of artificial intelligence known as machine learning. It will be available in full online and there will be a small exhibition at Tate Britain. -- “It is really an experiment for us. ” The team also hope the project will showcase the positive side of artificial intelligence – a technology that experts including the physicist Stephen Hawking have raised safety concerns about. “Technology is an empowering tool,” said Vallentin. Skip to main content current edition: International edition The Guardian - Back to home Become a supporter Subscribe Find a job Jobs Sign in Search Show More Close with google sign in become a supporter subscribe search find a job dating more from the guardian: change edition: edition International edition The Guardian - Back to home browse all sections close Digital business What does artificial intelligence mean for the creative mind? Assistive and smart technologies can lead to a whole new world of creative possibilities and greater understanding of consumers conceptual futuristic female robot that AI technology must play a chief role in the research and design of brand experiences. Photograph: I Glory/Alamy Digital business What does artificial intelligence mean for the creative mind? Assistive and smart technologies can lead to a whole new world of creative possibilities and greater understanding of consumers Anthony Baker tech director at R/GA London Wed 10 Aug ‘16 08. 00 BST Last modified on Tue 21 Feb ‘17 17. 18 GMT Artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) have huge potential to drive a new generation of creative brand experiences. They are at the forefront of a powerful shift that will bring brands closer to consumer expectations, passions and emotions. Skip to main content current edition: International edition The Guardian - Back to home Become a supporter Subscribe Find a job Jobs Sign in Search Show More Close with google sign in become a supporter subscribe search find a job dating more from the guardian: change edition: edition International edition The Guardian - Back to home browse all sections close Artificial intelligence (AI) The Observer Seven ways that AI could be A-OK As artificial intelligence increases its influence on our lives, the talk is of job losses, self-driving car crashes, algorithms running amok. But there is an upside… The IntelligentX boffins ponder the computer’s latest beer recipe. -- Photograph: weare10x. com Artificial intelligence (AI) The Observer Seven ways that AI could be A-OK As artificial intelligence increases its influence on our lives, the talk is of job losses, self-driving car crashes, algorithms running amok. But there is an upside… Luke Dormehl Sun 7 Aug ‘16 06. -- 20 GMT Brewing you the perfect pint AI might be shaking up life as we know it, but like any good party guest, it’s about bringing the beers. That’s according to the work of London-based company IntelligentX, which is using artificial intelligence to brew the perfect pint. What makes IntelligentX’s beers smart is the speed at which the firm is able to respond to the changing tastes of customers – on a batch-by-batch basis. -- Facebook Twitter Pinterest A scene from Sunspring, a film written by AI. Writing the next blockbuster movie From Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey to last year’s Ex Machina (with Steven Spielberg’s AI somewhere in between) there have been plenty of films about artificial intelligence. But what about AI actually writing the films themselves? -- Facebook Twitter Pinterest The robotic equivalent of Ronaldo lines up a free kick at a RoboCup football competition. Photograph: Rex Being tomorrow’s sport stars Despite the fact that many AI researchers veer closer to the “geek” than the “jock” end of the spectrum, that doesn’t mean that the important factors in what makes someone proficient at sport aren’t of interest to those in artificial intelligence. Topics such as co-ordination, agility and evaluation of the available legal moves in a constantly shifting game are at the core of AI and robotics research. Skip to main content current edition: International edition The Guardian - Back to home Become a supporter Subscribe Find a job Jobs Sign in Search Show More Close with google sign in become a supporter subscribe search find a job dating more from the guardian: change edition: edition International edition The Guardian - Back to home browse all sections close Artificial intelligence (AI) The Observer Artificial intelligence: ‘We’re like children playing with a bomb’ Sentient machines are a greater threat to humanity than climate change, according to Oxford philosopher Nick Bostrom Nick Bostrom. compete with the great composers’: Nick Bostrom. Photograph: The Washington Post Artificial intelligence (AI) The Observer Artificial intelligence: ‘We’re like children playing with a bomb’ Sentient machines are a greater threat to humanity than climate change, according to Oxford philosopher Nick Bostrom Tim Adams Sun 12 Jun ‘16 08. 30 BST Last modified on Sat 2 Dec ‘17 16. -- Owl-taming would be complicated; why not get the owl first and work out the fine details later? Bostrom’s book, which is a shrill alarm call about the darker implications of artificial intelligence, is dedicated to Scronkfinkle. Bostrom articulates his own warnings in a suitably fretful manner. -- We speak first about the success of his book, the way it has squarely hit a nerve. It coincided with the open letter signed by more than 1,000 eminent scientists – including Stephen Hawking, Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak and Musk – and presented at last year’s International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence, urging a ban on the use and development of fully autonomous weapons (the “killer robots” of science fiction that are very close to reality). Bostrom, who is both aware of his own capacities and modest about his influence, suggests it was a happy accident of timing. -- Topics Loading comments… Trouble loading? more on this story World's best Go player flummoxed by Google’s ‘godlike’ AlphaGo AI Ke Jie, who once boasted he would never be beaten by a computer at the ancient Chinese game, said he had ‘horrible experience’ Published: 23 May 2017 World's best Go player flummoxed by Google’s ‘godlike’ AlphaGo AI Artificial intelligence 'judge' developed by UCL computer scientists Software program can weigh up legal evidence and moral questions of right and wrong to predict the outcome of trials Published: 24 Oct 2016 Artificial intelligence 'judge' developed by UCL computer scientists Stephen Hawking: AI will be 'either best or worst thing' for humanity Professor praises creation of Cambridge University institute to study future of artificial intelligence Published: 19 Oct 2016 Stephen Hawking: AI will be 'either best or worst thing' for humanity Google creates AI program that uses reasoning to navigate the London tube Combining external memory and deep learning, DeepMind’s program learns how to do tasks independently, and could pave the way for sophisticated AI assistants Published: 12 Oct 2016 Google creates AI program that uses reasoning to navigate the London tube + Machine logic: our lives are ruled by big tech's 'decisions by data' Julia Powles in Berlin Published: 8 Oct 2016 Machine logic: our lives are ruled by big tech's 'decisions by data' + James Lovelock: ‘Before the end of this century, robots will have taken over’ Published: 30 Sep 2016 James Lovelock: ‘Before the end of this century, robots will have taken over’ + How can we address real concerns over artificial intelligence? Harry Armstrong and Jared Robert Keller Published: 15 Sep 2016 How can we address real concerns over artificial intelligence? + Google AI project writes poetry which could make a Vogon proud Published: 17 May 2016 Google AI project writes poetry which could make a Vogon proud most viewed The Guardian back to top all sections close back to top All rights reserved. Skip to main content current edition: International edition The Guardian - Back to home Become a supporter Subscribe Find a job Jobs Sign in Search Show More Close with google sign in become a supporter subscribe search find a job dating more from the guardian: change edition: edition International edition The Guardian - Back to home browse all sections close Artificial intelligence (AI) AI will create 'useless class' of human, predicts bestselling historian Smarter artificial intelligence is one of 21st century’s most dire threats, writes Yuval Noah Harari in follow-up to Sapiens An iCub robot learning how to play from a child Patricia Shaw/EPSRC/PA Artificial intelligence (AI) AI will create 'useless class' of human, predicts bestselling historian Smarter artificial intelligence is one of 21st century’s most dire threats, writes Yuval Noah Harari in follow-up to Sapiens Ian Sample Science editor @iansample Fri 20 May ‘16 13. 20 BST First published on Fri 20 May ‘16 13. -- Harari calls it “the rise of the useless class” and ranks it as one of the most dire threats of the 21st century. In a nutshell, as artificial intelligence gets smarter, more humans are pushed out of the job market. No one knows what to study at college, because no one knows what skills learned at 20 will be relevant at 40. -- Facebook Twitter Pinterest The last job on Earth: imagining a fully automated world Topics Loading comments… Trouble loading? more on this story World's best Go player flummoxed by Google’s ‘godlike’ AlphaGo AI Ke Jie, who once boasted he would never be beaten by a computer at the ancient Chinese game, said he had ‘horrible experience’ Published: 23 May 2017 World's best Go player flummoxed by Google’s ‘godlike’ AlphaGo AI Artificial intelligence 'judge' developed by UCL computer scientists Software program can weigh up legal evidence and moral questions of right and wrong to predict the outcome of trials Published: 24 Oct 2016 Artificial intelligence 'judge' developed by UCL computer scientists Stephen Hawking: AI will be 'either best or worst thing' for humanity Professor praises creation of Cambridge University institute to study future of artificial intelligence Published: 19 Oct 2016 Stephen Hawking: AI will be 'either best or worst thing' for humanity Google creates AI program that uses reasoning to navigate the London tube Combining external memory and deep learning, DeepMind’s program learns how to do tasks independently, and could pave the way for sophisticated AI assistants Published: 12 Oct 2016 Google creates AI program that uses reasoning to navigate the London tube + Machine logic: our lives are ruled by big tech's 'decisions by data' Julia Powles in Berlin Published: 8 Oct 2016 Machine logic: our lives are ruled by big tech's 'decisions by data' + James Lovelock: ‘Before the end of this century, robots will have taken over’ Published: 30 Sep 2016 James Lovelock: ‘Before the end of this century, robots will have taken over’ + How can we address real concerns over artificial intelligence? Harry Armstrong and Jared Robert Keller Published: 15 Sep 2016 How can we address real concerns over artificial intelligence? + Artificial intelligence: ‘We’re like children playing with a bomb’ Published: 12 Jun 2016 Artificial intelligence: ‘We’re like children playing with a bomb’ most viewed The Guardian back to top all sections close back to top All rights reserved. careers%2CMoney] 01 BST Last modified on Wed 22 Feb ‘17 17. 50 GMT This article is 1 year old After its attempts to digest romance novels, one of Google’s artificial intelligence projects is now accidentally writing poetry, some of which would make the fictional Vogons proud. there is no one else in the world. -- The results show interesting improvements in the ability of the machine to generate sentences that make sense together, which could led to much more human-like interactions with AI chatbots, perhaps even Google’s Now. Topics more on this story World's best Go player flummoxed by Google’s ‘godlike’ AlphaGo AI Ke Jie, who once boasted he would never be beaten by a computer at the ancient Chinese game, said he had ‘horrible experience’ Published: 23 May 2017 World's best Go player flummoxed by Google’s ‘godlike’ AlphaGo AI Artificial intelligence 'judge' developed by UCL computer scientists Software program can weigh up legal evidence and moral questions of right and wrong to predict the outcome of trials Published: 24 Oct 2016 Artificial intelligence 'judge' developed by UCL computer scientists Stephen Hawking: AI will be 'either best or worst thing' for humanity Professor praises creation of Cambridge University institute to study future of artificial intelligence Published: 19 Oct 2016 Stephen Hawking: AI will be 'either best or worst thing' for humanity Google creates AI program that uses reasoning to navigate the London tube Combining external memory and deep learning, DeepMind’s program learns how to do tasks independently, and could pave the way for sophisticated AI assistants Published: 12 Oct 2016 Google creates AI program that uses reasoning to navigate the London tube + Machine logic: our lives are ruled by big tech's 'decisions by data' Julia Powles in Berlin Published: 8 Oct 2016 Machine logic: our lives are ruled by big tech's 'decisions by data' + James Lovelock: ‘Before the end of this century, robots will have taken over’ Published: 30 Sep 2016 James Lovelock: ‘Before the end of this century, robots will have taken over’ + How can we address real concerns over artificial intelligence? Harry Armstrong and Jared Robert Keller Published: 15 Sep 2016 How can we address real concerns over artificial intelligence? + Artificial intelligence: ‘We’re like children playing with a bomb’ Published: 12 Jun 2016 Artificial intelligence: ‘We’re like children playing with a bomb’ most viewed The Guardian back to top all sections close back to top All rights reserved. Skip to main content current edition: International edition The Guardian - Back to home Become a supporter Subscribe Find a job Jobs Sign in Search Show More Close with google sign in become a supporter subscribe search find a job dating more from the guardian: change edition: edition International edition The Guardian - Back to home browse all sections close Artificial intelligence (AI) Google updates TensorFlow, its open source artificial intelligence Google answers plea from users with update to open source tool that adds ability to operate on multiple devices – it’s like using many brain cells instead of one Google that external developers can use and improve it. Photograph: Karen Bleier/AFP/Getty Images Artificial intelligence (AI) Google updates TensorFlow, its open source artificial intelligence Google answers plea from users with update to open source tool that adds ability to operate on multiple devices – it’s like using many brain cells instead of one Nathaniel Mott in New York Wed 13 Apr ‘16 19. 08 BST Last modified on Tue 21 Feb ‘17 17. 28 GMT This article is 1 year old The battle for the future of computing is a battle to bring artificial intelligence to the mainstream – and Google is quietly overhauling a machine learning tool used to improve some of its most popular services including Google Translate and Google Photos. TensorFlow can be used to help teach computers how to process data in ways similar to how the human brain handles information. Skip to main content current edition: International edition The Guardian - Back to home Become a supporter Subscribe Find a job Jobs Sign in Search Show More Close with google sign in become a supporter subscribe search find a job dating more from the guardian: change edition: edition International edition The Guardian - Back to home browse all sections close Artificial intelligence (AI) Opinion How much should we fear the rise of artificial intelligence? Tom Chatfield From the games program AlphaGo to the movie 2001, we are often warned of the threats posed by computers. But there is a way to live alongside technology Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey. MGM/Everett//Rex Features Artificial intelligence (AI) Opinion How much should we fear the rise of artificial intelligence? Tom Chatfield From the games program AlphaGo to the movie 2001, we are often warned of the threats posed by computers. -- Where will the machines claim their next victory: putting you out of a job; solving the mysteries of science; bettering human abilities in the bedroom? AlphaGo’s success was down to artificial intelligence (AI): the computer program taught itself how to improve its game by playing millions of matches against itself. But the trouble with using games such as chess and Go as measures of technological progress is that they are competitions. -- The results closely map the degree of intimacy involved. Artificial intelligence is OK at a distance. Up close and personal, however, the lack of a human face counts more and more. -- Topics Loading comments… Trouble loading? more on this story World's best Go player flummoxed by Google’s ‘godlike’ AlphaGo AI Ke Jie, who once boasted he would never be beaten by a computer at the ancient Chinese game, said he had ‘horrible experience’ Published: 23 May 2017 World's best Go player flummoxed by Google’s ‘godlike’ AlphaGo AI Artificial intelligence 'judge' developed by UCL computer scientists Software program can weigh up legal evidence and moral questions of right and wrong to predict the outcome of trials Published: 24 Oct 2016 Artificial intelligence 'judge' developed by UCL computer scientists Stephen Hawking: AI will be 'either best or worst thing' for humanity Professor praises creation of Cambridge University institute to study future of artificial intelligence Published: 19 Oct 2016 Stephen Hawking: AI will be 'either best or worst thing' for humanity Google creates AI program that uses reasoning to navigate the London tube Combining external memory and deep learning, DeepMind’s program learns how to do tasks independently, and could pave the way for sophisticated AI assistants Published: 12 Oct 2016 Google creates AI program that uses reasoning to navigate the London tube + Machine logic: our lives are ruled by big tech's 'decisions by data' Julia Powles in Berlin Published: 8 Oct 2016 Machine logic: our lives are ruled by big tech's 'decisions by data' + James Lovelock: ‘Before the end of this century, robots will have taken over’ Published: 30 Sep 2016 James Lovelock: ‘Before the end of this century, robots will have taken over’ + How can we address real concerns over artificial intelligence? Harry Armstrong and Jared Robert Keller Published: 15 Sep 2016 How can we address real concerns over artificial intelligence? + Artificial intelligence: ‘We’re like children playing with a bomb’ Published: 12 Jun 2016 Artificial intelligence: ‘We’re like children playing with a bomb’ most viewed The Guardian back to top all sections close back to top All rights reserved. Skip to main content current edition: International edition The Guardian - Back to home Become a supporter Subscribe Find a job Jobs Sign in Search Show More Close with google sign in become a supporter subscribe search find a job dating more from the guardian: change edition: edition International edition The Guardian - Back to home browse all sections close Artificial intelligence (AI) AlphaGo: beating humans is one thing but to really succeed AI must work with them Google DeepMind’s success is significant, but artificial intelligence practitioners must teach the public there’s more to AI than trying to replace them Thinking Robot understanding co-operation and team communication with humans? ’ Photograph: Blutgruppe/Corbis Artificial intelligence (AI) AlphaGo: beating humans is one thing but to really succeed AI must work with them Google DeepMind’s success is significant, but artificial intelligence practitioners must teach the public there’s more to AI than trying to replace them Michael Cook Tue 15 Mar ‘16 14. 00 GMT Last modified on Tue 21 Feb ‘17 17. -- Can we teach a computer to be as realistically fallible and prone to tricks as your best friend is? Can we look to the unexplored parts of artificial intelligence, the empty spaces on the far side of the board, and think more broadly about what AI can do and be? Facebook Twitter Pinterest AlphaGo computer beats Go champion – video I’m truly delighted that AlphaGo has managed to beat a world champion at Go – it’s a milestone that has been in the minds of researchers since before the field even existed. -- Michael Cook is an AI researcher at Goldsmiths, University of Falmouth Topics Loading comments… Trouble loading? more on this story World's best Go player flummoxed by Google’s ‘godlike’ AlphaGo AI Ke Jie, who once boasted he would never be beaten by a computer at the ancient Chinese game, said he had ‘horrible experience’ Published: 23 May 2017 World's best Go player flummoxed by Google’s ‘godlike’ AlphaGo AI Artificial intelligence 'judge' developed by UCL computer scientists Software program can weigh up legal evidence and moral questions of right and wrong to predict the outcome of trials Published: 24 Oct 2016 Artificial intelligence 'judge' developed by UCL computer scientists Stephen Hawking: AI will be 'either best or worst thing' for humanity Professor praises creation of Cambridge University institute to study future of artificial intelligence Published: 19 Oct 2016 Stephen Hawking: AI will be 'either best or worst thing' for humanity Google creates AI program that uses reasoning to navigate the London tube Combining external memory and deep learning, DeepMind’s program learns how to do tasks independently, and could pave the way for sophisticated AI assistants Published: 12 Oct 2016 Google creates AI program that uses reasoning to navigate the London tube + Machine logic: our lives are ruled by big tech's 'decisions by data' Julia Powles in Berlin Published: 8 Oct 2016 Machine logic: our lives are ruled by big tech's 'decisions by data' + James Lovelock: ‘Before the end of this century, robots will have taken over’ Published: 30 Sep 2016 James Lovelock: ‘Before the end of this century, robots will have taken over’ + How can we address real concerns over artificial intelligence? Harry Armstrong and Jared Robert Keller Published: 15 Sep 2016 How can we address real concerns over artificial intelligence? + Artificial intelligence: ‘We’re like children playing with a bomb’ Published: 12 Jun 2016 Artificial intelligence: ‘We’re like children playing with a bomb’ most viewed The Guardian back to top all sections close back to top All rights reserved. Skip to main content current edition: International edition The Guardian - Back to home Become a supporter Subscribe Find a job Jobs Sign in Search Show More Close with google sign in become a supporter subscribe search find a job dating more from the guardian: change edition: edition International edition The Guardian - Back to home browse all sections close Artificial intelligence (AI) The Observer Artificial intelligence brings its brains and money to London Following two big acquisitions by US tech companies of AI startups based in academia, the capital is emerging as a hub for young scientist-entrepreneurs Alicia Vikander in Ex Machina portrayals of he sometimes slow and laborious work of AI research. Photograph: Film4/Sportsphoto Ltd/Allstar Artificial intelligence (AI) The Observer Artificial intelligence brings its brains and money to London Following two big acquisitions by US tech companies of AI startups based in academia, the capital is emerging as a hub for young scientist-entrepreneurs Rob Davies @ByRobDavies Sat 5 Mar ‘16 16. 05 GMT Last modified on Sat 2 Dec ‘17 04. -- With time though, experience helps it decide which manoeuvres will allow it to evade the clutches of a relentless gang of animated ghosts. This is just one of dozens of artificial intelligence (AI) projects slowly transforming the UK into the global hub for a technology that elicits fascination and fear in equal measure. The point of teaching a computer to master Pac-Man is to help it “think” and learn like a human. -- Murray Shanahan, professor of cognitive robotics at Imperial, believes that while we should be thinking hard about the moral and ethical ramifications of AI, computers are still decades away from developing the sort of abilities they’d need to enslave or eliminate humankind and bringing Hawking’s worst fears to reality. One reason for this is that while early artificial intelligence systems can learn, they do so only falteringly. For instance, a human who picks up one bottle of water will have a good idea of how to pick up others of different shapes and sizes. -- But it’s hard to escape the feeling – in the wake of DeepMind and SwiftKey – that they if they want to, the door is open. CASE STUDIES One reason corporate behemoths are willing to spend so much money on artificial intelligence is that the global talent pool is still relatively limited. London has proved a particularly good hunting ground for Silicon Valley stalwarts ready to spend big on the most promising AI inventions and, most importantly, on the people who came up with them. DEEPMIND When Google spent £400m on machine-learning startup DeepMind, it was a ringing endorsement of the wealth of talent in London’s artificial intelligence scene. The firm was founded in 2010 by chess prodigy and neuroscientist Demis Hassabis with University College London colleague Shane Legg and Mustafa Suleyman. They are said to have turned down an offer from Facebook before agreeing to the Google deal, which was reportedly overseen personally by the company’s then chief executive, Larry Page. For Google, the deal was as much about acquiring the most talented brains in artificial intelligence as getting its hands on DeepMind’s technology. DeepMind is about reinforcement learning, or teaching computers to learn skills at the speed a human can. -- Microsoft wanted to integrate that technology with its own Word Flow keyboard app, and was prepared to pay top dollar for the privilege. SwiftKey is more than just an alternative keyboard: it uses high-quality predictive text, based on artificial intelligence, to suggest the word a user will type next, having analysed their writing style. The keyboard supports more than 100 languages and has been used by astrophysicist Stephen Hawking, for whom the company built a special tool to assist him in giving lectures. AI ON THE BIG SCREEN According to researchers at Imperial College, one of the most realistic cinema portrayals of artificial intelligence is the 2015 film Ex Machina, written and directed by Alex Garland. The film charts the efforts of a young programmer to assess the abilities of a humanoid AI system built by an eccentric scientist. Skip to main content current edition: International edition The Guardian - Back to home Become a supporter Subscribe Find a job Jobs Sign in Search Show More Close with google sign in become a supporter subscribe search find a job dating more from the guardian: change edition: edition International edition The Guardian - Back to home browse all sections close Artificial intelligence (AI) Would you bet against sex robots? AI 'could leave half of world unemployed' Scientist Moshe Vardi tells colleagues that change could come within 30 years, with few professions immune to effect of advanced artificial intelligence warn Thought Mechanism08 Dec 2011 --- A side view of a human female head with the human mind represented as a gear system. --- Image by Science Picture Co. -- Photograph: Science Picture Co. /Corbis Artificial intelligence (AI) Would you bet against sex robots? AI 'could leave half of world unemployed' Scientist Moshe Vardi tells colleagues that change could come within 30 years, with few professions immune to effect of advanced artificial intelligence warn Alan Yuhas in Washington DC @alanyuhas Sat 13 Feb ‘16 15. 00 GMT Last modified on Wed 22 Feb ‘17 17. 56 GMT This article is 1 year old Machines could put more than half the world’s population out of a job in the next 30 years, according to a computer scientist who said on Saturday that artificial intelligence’s threat to the economy should not be understated. Expert Moshe Vardi told the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS): “We are approaching a time when machines will be able to outperform humans at almost any task. -- Hawking warned that AI “could spell the end of the human race” and Musk said it represents “our biggest existential threat”. ‘Mini-brains’ could revolutionise drug research and reduce animal use Read more The fear of artificial intelligence has even reached the UN, where a group billing itself the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots met with diplomats last year. Vardi, a professor at Rice University and Guggenheim fellow, said that technology presents a more subtle threat than the masterless drones that some activists fear. -- Vardi said he wanted the gathering of scientists to consider: “Does the technology we are developing ultimately benefit mankind? Artificial Intelligence: Gods, egos and Ex Machina Read more “Humanity is about to face perhaps its greatest challenge ever, which is finding meaning in life after the end of ‘in the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread’,” he said. “We need to rise to the occasion and meet this challenge. -- Topics Loading comments… Trouble loading? more on this story Robots could destabilise world through war and unemployment, says UN United Nations opens new centre in Netherlands to monitor artificial intelligence and second-guess threats Published: 27 Sep 2017 Robots could destabilise world through war and unemployment, says UN Robots have already taken over our work, but they’re made of flesh and bone Brett Frischmann and Evan Selinger The triumph of ‘digital Taylorism’ means that many jobs in the modern economy have been sapped of their humanity, write professors Brett Frischmann and Evan Selinger Published: 25 Sep 2017 Robots have already taken over our work, but they’re made of flesh and bone Robots 'could take 4m UK private sector jobs within 10 years' Royal Society of Arts survey suggests technology could phase out mundane roles, raise productivity and bolster wages Published: 19 Sep 2017 Robots 'could take 4m UK private sector jobs within 10 years' Deutsche Bank boss says 'big number' of staff will lose jobs to automation John Cryan told conference in Frankfurt that accountants could be replaced by machines, while also saying that Frankfurt is ideally placed to benefit from Brexit Published: 6 Sep 2017 Deutsche Bank boss says 'big number' of staff will lose jobs to automation + Robots and AI can bring down pension age, says TUC Published: 4 Sep 2017 Robots and AI can bring down pension age, says TUC + The future of funerals? Robot priest launched to undercut human-led rites Published: 23 Aug 2017 The future of funerals? Skip to main content current edition: International edition The Guardian - Back to home Become a supporter Subscribe Find a job Jobs Sign in Search Show More Close with google sign in become a supporter subscribe search find a job dating more from the guardian: change edition: edition International edition The Guardian - Back to home browse all sections close Artificial intelligence (AI) The Observer Robot panic peaked in 2015 – so where will AI go next? This year experts from Elon Musk to Stephen Hawking warned about the havoc robots could cause the economy and humanity. -- Tesla owner Elon Musk has since warned that AI is an existential threat to mankind. Photograph: The Washington Post/Getty Images Artificial intelligence (AI) The Observer Robot panic peaked in 2015 – so where will AI go next? This year experts from Elon Musk to Stephen Hawking warned about the havoc robots could cause the economy and humanity. -- The humans’ task was made easier, but it was abstracted from the process and outcome. What is indisputable is that robots equipped with computer vision and paired with artificial intelligence (AI) systems – often called “machine learning”, or “deep learning”, or “neural network” systems – will take over more of the work that humans do today. Foxconn is one of the world’s biggest manufacturers of electronics, with giant factories in China which assemble phones, tablets and computers for Apple and other companies. -- Isaac Asimov introduced his famous Three Laws of Robotics for Runaround, a science fiction story set in 2015. In July, an article appeared in the science journal Nature, pointing out that “working out how to build ethical robots is one of the thorniest challenges in artificial intelligence”. That month, a 22-year-old worker installing a robot at a VW plant in Germany was killed when it was wrongly activated. Skip to main content current edition: International edition The Guardian - Back to home Become a supporter Subscribe Find a job Jobs Sign in Search Show More Close with google Technology sector The Observer Artificial intelligence: ‘Homo sapiens will be split into a handful of gods and the rest of us’ A new report suggests that the marriage of AI and robotics could replace so many jobs that the era of mass employment could come to an end Robots manufactured by Shaanxi Jiuli Robot Manufacturing Co on display at a technology fair in Shanghai display at a technology fair in Shanghai Photograph: Imaginechina/Corbis Technology sector The Observer Artificial intelligence: ‘Homo sapiens will be split into a handful of gods and the rest of us’ A new report suggests that the marriage of AI and robotics could replace so many jobs that the era of mass employment could come to an end Charles Arthur Charles Arthur @charlesarthur Sat 7 Nov ‘15 16. 18 GMT Last modified on Sat 2 Dec ‘17 05. -- And yet we keep on creating new job categories. However, there are still concerns that the combination of artificial intelligence (AI) – which is able to make logical inferences about its surroundings and experience – married to ever-improving robotics, will wipe away entire swaths of work and radically reshape society. “The poster child for automation is agriculture,” says Calum Chace, author of Surviving AI and the novel Pandora’s Brain. -- ” What if we’re the horses to AI’s humans? To those who don’t watch the industry closely, it’s hard to see how quickly the combination of robotics and artificial intelligence is advancing. Last week a team from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology released a video showing a tiny drone flying through a lightly forested area at 30mph, avoiding the trees – all without a pilot, using only its onboard processors. Skip to main content current edition: International edition The Guardian - Back to home Become a supporter Subscribe Find a job Jobs Sign in Search Show More Close with google Artificial intelligence (AI) Opinion It’s too late to give machines ethics – they’re already beyond our control Sue Blackmore Google’s Demis Hassabis suggests we can mitigate the dangers of artificial intelligence by instilling values, but even now it’s evolving for its own benefit, fed by our phones, drones and CCTV plays rock-scissors-paper with a robot programmed by scientists to use artificial intelligence controls on to AI before it’s too late. ’ Photograph: David Cheskin/PA Artificial intelligence (AI) Opinion It’s too late to give machines ethics – they’re already beyond our control Sue Blackmore Google’s Demis Hassabis suggests we can mitigate the dangers of artificial intelligence by instilling values, but even now it’s evolving for its own benefit, fed by our phones, drones and CCTV Fri 18 Sep ‘15 11. 09 BST Last modified on Wed 22 Feb ‘17 18. 05 GMT Stephen Hawking, Bill Gates and now Demis Hassabis of Google’s DeepMind have all warned of the dangers of artificial intelligence (AI), urging that we put ethical controls in place before it’s too late. But they have all mistaken the threat: the AI we have let loose is already evolving for its own benefit. Skip to main content current edition: International edition The Guardian - Back to home Become a supporter Subscribe Find a job Jobs Sign in Search Show More Close with google sign in become a supporter subscribe search find a job dating more from the guardian: change edition: edition International edition The Guardian - Back to home browse all sections close Artificial intelligence (AI) Opposition to autonomous warfare swells to 16,000 signatories Artificial intelligence community comes together in unprecedented numbers to call for a ban on AI-controlled weaponry GLaDOS, the malicious AI from the Portal series of video games. Image: Valve Photograph: Valve Artificial intelligence (AI) Opposition to autonomous warfare swells to 16,000 signatories Artificial intelligence community comes together in unprecedented numbers to call for a ban on AI-controlled weaponry Alex Hern @alexhern Thu 30 Jul ‘15 13. 59 BST Last modified on Wed 22 Feb ‘17 18. From Ex Machina to Terminator Genisys, ‘synths’ and robots have invaded our popular culture. But how real is the reel depiction of artificial intelligence? Terminator Genisys Terminator Genisys - 2015 science fiction. -- From Ex Machina to Terminator Genisys, ‘synths’ and robots have invaded our popular culture. But how real is the reel depiction of artificial intelligence? Ian Sample Ian Sample, science editor @iansample Fri 26 Jun ‘15 18. -- The teenage son, of course, is preoccupied with the sexual possibilities. The thriller has become the biggest home-made drama on Channel 4 for more than two decades, according to viewing figures published this week, and is the latest to explore what has been described as perhaps the greatest existential threat the human race has ever faced, artificial intelligence: the idea that computers will start thinking for themselves and not much like what they see when they cast their eyes on their creators. The humanoid robots in Humans are not portrayed as good or evil but are dropped into suburbia, where the crises they cause are domestic: disrupting relationships, employment aspirations, and feelings of freedom. -- The answer to us is no. ” The series plays out the consequences of human-like artificial intelligence in the humdrum reality of modern life, but Vincent and Brackley see parallels with our increasing attachment to electronic devices. “Technology used to be just for work. -- Apocalyptic pronouncements from scientists and entrepreneurs have driven the surge in interest. It was the inventor Elon Musk who last year said artificial intelligence might be the greatest existential threat that humans faced. Stephen Hawking joined in the chorus, warning that the development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race. The same year, the Oxford scientist Nick Bostrom, published the thoughtful book Superintelligence, in which he made similarly gloomy predictions. Concerns about the consequences of creating an intelligence that matches, or far exceeds, our own are not entirely new. HAL 9000, the artificial intelligence in Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, takes to bumping off astronauts with menacing efficiency. In Ridley Scott’s Alien, Ash is outed as an android with a secret agenda. -- The present day setting for Humans gives the conflicts an immediate power and persuasiveness. But it also bolsters the misconception that human-like artificial intelligence is looming on the horizon. Though scientists have made serious progress in AI, the advances are almost entirely in what researchers call narrow AI: the creation of smart algorithms for dedicated tasks. -- Channel 4 drama, Humans, creates a future where families buy human-like robots - synths, that help them with a variety of tasks from household chores to doing homework. Photograph: Persona Synthetics/Channel 4 The distinction between narrow and general artificial intelligence is crucial. Humans are so effective because they have general intelligence: the ability to learn from one situation and apply it to another. -- Researchers at DeepMind, a London-based company owned by Google, made what they called “baby steps” towards artificial general intelligence in February when they unveiled a game-playing agent that could learn how to play retro games such as Breakout and Space Invaders and apply the skills to tackle other games. But Nigel Shadbolt, professor of artificial intelligence at Southampton University, stresses that the hurdles which remain are major ones. “Brilliant scientists and entrepreneurs talk about this as if it’s only two decades away. -- But they are not going to do that on their own volition. The danger is not artificial intelligence, it’s natural stupidity. ” Topics Loading comments… Trouble loading? Skip to main content current edition: International edition The Guardian - Back to home Become a supporter Subscribe Find a job Jobs Sign in Search Show More Close with google sign in become a supporter subscribe search find a job dating more from the guardian: change edition: edition International edition The Guardian - Back to home browse all sections close Amazon Computer says no: Amazon uses AI to combat fake reviews Retailer uses artificial intelligence to fight astroturfing by putting greater emphasis on verified and helpful reviews Amazon reviews reviews. Photograph: Samuel Gibbs for the Guardian Amazon Computer says no: Amazon uses AI to combat fake reviews Retailer uses artificial intelligence to fight astroturfing by putting greater emphasis on verified and helpful reviews Samuel Gibbs Mon 22 Jun ‘15 11. 12 BST Last modified on Tue 21 Feb ‘17 17. 58 GMT This article is 2 years old Amazon is using artificial intelligence to combat fake product reviews and inflated star ratings. It is employing a new AI machine-learning system that the online retailer built in-house to boost the prominence and weight of verified customer purchase reviews, those marked as helpful by other users and newer, more up-to-date critiques on its site. -- If it works it could end astroturfing as we know it today. • Yes, androids do dream of electric sheep • DeepMind: ‘Artificial intelligence is a tool that humans can control and direct’ Topics Loading comments… Trouble loading? most viewed The Guardian back to top all sections close back to top All rights reserved. Skip to main content current edition: International edition The Guardian - Back to home Become a supporter Subscribe Find a job Jobs Sign in Search Show More Close with google sign in become a supporter subscribe search find a job dating more from the guardian: change edition: edition International edition The Guardian - Back to home browse all sections close Artificial intelligence (AI) DeepMind: 'Artificial intelligence is a tool that humans can control and direct' Co-founder of technology company insists AI is not a danger to humanity, but will help tackle lack of clean water, financial inequality and stock market risks Artificial intelligence robot out how to succeed at nearly 50 Atari computer games without any foreknowledge of how to play them. Photograph: Blutgruppe/Blutgruppe/Corbis Artificial intelligence (AI) DeepMind: 'Artificial intelligence is a tool that humans can control and direct' Co-founder of technology company insists AI is not a danger to humanity, but will help tackle lack of clean water, financial inequality and stock market risks Charles Arthur Charles Arthur @charlesarthur Tue 9 Jun ‘15 11. 29 BST Last modified on Wed 22 Feb ‘17 18. 11 GMT This article is 2 years old Fears that artificial intelligence will wipe out human beings are completely overblown, according to the co-founder of Britain’s DeepMind, who has insisted that the technology will help tackle some of the world’s biggest problems including accessing clean water, financial inequality and stock market risks. Mustafa Suleyman, who with Demis Hassabis and Shane Legg set up the London-based machine learning company that was bought by Google in January 2014 for £400m, mounted a spirited defence of the company’s successes. He told a conference on machine learning that “artificial intelligence, AI, has arrived. This isn’t just some brief summer for this technology, and it’s not about to go away again. -- AGI is a tool to massively amplify our ability to control the world. ” DeepMind, based by Kings Cross station in London, has developed a “generalised artificial intelligence” which was able to figure out how to succeed at nearly 50 Atari computer games without any foreknowledge of how to play them. Given inputs of just the score and the pixels on the screen, and control of the games buttons – again without any knowledge of their relevance – it was able to play as well as a human after a few hundred games. -- The company is also seeking to expand that categorisation so that when there are multiple recognisable objects in a picture it can describe them all in a single coherent sentence. But Suleyman said the idea that a machine-based artificial intelligence could take over decision and pose a threat to humans was “preposterous”. “Any talk of a superintelligent machine vacuuming up all the knowledge in the world and then going about making its own decisions are absurd. Skip to main content current edition: International edition The Guardian - Back to home Become a supporter Subscribe Find a job Jobs Sign in Search Show More Close with google sign in become a supporter subscribe search find a job dating more from the guardian: change edition: edition International edition The Guardian - Back to home browse all sections close Guardian sustainable business business futures What will artificial intelligence mean for the world of work? Machines are good at complex tasks, but not at activities that humans find simple. -- future are made by machines? Photograph: Blutgruppe/Blutgruppe/Corbis Guardian sustainable business business futures What will artificial intelligence mean for the world of work? Machines are good at complex tasks, but not at activities that humans find simple. -- 18 GMT What can scientists tell us about business? I had an opportunity to consider this important question when, earlier this year, I led a debate with four professors from the University of California, Berkeley, who were experts in artificial intelligence, neuroscience and psychology. The question under discussion was one of the most troubling of our time: will machines ever make better decisions than humans? -- Around 50% agreed and 50% disagreed; there is no consensus on such a tricky question. The first issue with the problem of future decision-making is well-known to scientists specialising in artificial intelligence. It is best described in Moravec’s paradox: why is it that computers are very good at undertaking tasks that require speed and precision, and which humans find difficult (such as solving mathematical equations, playing chess, or even driving cars), and yet bad at tasks we humans find simple, such as clearing coffee cups from a table? -- Can computers have values? The artificial intelligence expert Stuart Russell argues that it is already possible to programme computers on the basis of utility, in terms of gaining the highest-value outcome. However, programming is still carried out on the basis of the values of the programmer. Skip to main content current edition: International edition The Guardian - Back to home Become a supporter Subscribe Find a job Jobs Sign in Search Show More Close with google Artificial intelligence (AI) Artificial intelligence and nanotechnology 'threaten civilisation' Technologies join nuclear war, ecological catastrophe, super-volcanoes and asteroid impacts in Global Challenges Foundation’s risk report Empathetic robot Pepper isn't a threat to humanity, but more advanced AI in the future could be, claims a new report. advanced AI in the future could be, claims a new report. Photograph: Koji Sasahara/AP Artificial intelligence (AI) Artificial intelligence and nanotechnology 'threaten civilisation' Technologies join nuclear war, ecological catastrophe, super-volcanoes and asteroid impacts in Global Challenges Foundation’s risk report Stuart Dredge @stuartdredge Wed 18 Feb ‘15 10. 11 GMT Last modified on Tue 21 Feb ‘17 18. 11 GMT This article is 2 years old Artificial intelligence and nanotechnology have been named alongside nuclear war, ecological catastrophe and super-volcano eruptions as “risks that threaten human civilisation” in a report by the Global Challenges Foundation. In the case of AI, the report suggests that future machines and software with “human-level intelligence” could create new, dangerous challenges for humanity – although they could also help to combat many of the other risks cited in the report. “Such extreme intelligences could not easily be controlled (either by the groups creating them, or by some international regulatory regime), and would probably act to boost their own intelligence and acquire maximal resources for almost all initial AI motivations,” suggest authors Dennis Pamlin and Stuart Armstrong. Artificial intelligence: can scientists stop ‘negative’ outcomes? Read more “And if these motivations do not detail the survival and value of humanity, the intelligence will be driven to construct a world without humans. -- That is why its report presents worst-case scenarios for its 12 chosen risks, albeit alongside suggestions for avoiding them and acknowledgements of the positive potential for the technologies involved. In the case of artificial intelligence, though, Global Challenges Foundation’s report is part of a wider debate about possible risks as AI gets more powerful in the future. In January, former Microsoft boss Bill Gates said that he is “in the camp that is concerned about super intelligence”, even if in the short term, machines doing more jobs for humans should be a positive trend if managed well. -- I agree with Elon Musk and some others on this and don’t understand why some people are not concerned. ” Tesla and SpaceX boss Musk had spoken out in October 2014, suggesting that “we should be very careful about artificial intelligence. If I had to guess at what our biggest existential threat is, it’s probably that”. Professor Stephen Hawking is another worrier, saying in December that “the primitive forms of artificial intelligence we already have, have proved very useful. But I think the development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race. ” The full list of “risks that threaten human civilisation, according to Global Challenges Foundation: Topics Loading comments… Trouble loading? Skip to main content current edition: International edition The Guardian - Back to home Become a supporter Subscribe Find a job Jobs Sign in Search Show More Close with google sign in become a supporter subscribe search find a job dating more from the guardian: change edition: edition International edition The Guardian - Back to home browse all sections close Technology Artificial intelligence 'will not end human race' Head of Microsoft’s main research lab admits that AI will pose legal, ethical and psychological issues as it becomes more sophisticated Titan, created by England Cyberstein Robots, at a food market ahead of an robotics exhibition in Moscow last year. of a robotics exhibition in Moscow last year. Photograph: Sergei Ilnitsky/EPA Technology Artificial intelligence 'will not end human race' Head of Microsoft’s main research lab admits that AI will pose legal, ethical and psychological issues as it becomes more sophisticated Chris Johnston @cajuk Wed 28 Jan ‘15 18. 08 GMT Last modified on Wed 22 Feb ‘17 18. 19 GMT The head of Microsoft’s main research lab has dismissed fears that artificial intelligence could pose a threat to the survival of the human race. Eric Horvitz believed that humans would not “lose control of certain kinds of intelligences”, adding: “In the end we’ll be able to get incredible benefits from machine intelligence in all realms of life, from science to education to economics to daily life. ” Professor Stephen Hawking last month expressed his fears about the rise of AI. He believed that technology would eventually become self-aware and supersede humanity: “The primitive forms of artificial intelligence we already have, have proved very useful. But I think the development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race. ” Eric Horvitz Eric Horvitz, head of the Microsoft Research Redmond lab. Photograph: Microsoft Horvitz made his comments in an video interview after being awarded the Feigenbaum Prize by the AAAI for his contribution to artificial intelligence research. However, he acknowledged that advances in AI were likely to have significant impact on society and pose numerous legal, ethical, economic and psychological issues. Skip to main content current edition: International edition The Guardian - Back to home Become a supporter Subscribe Find a job Jobs Sign in Search Show More Close with google Next-gen tech Artificial intelligence might be a threat to humans but not for the reasons you think Nigel Shadbolt AI computers will benefit humanity – and fears that they might determine that the planet would prosper without us are unfounded. But machines needn’t be self-aware to pose a threat A still from Ex Machina. depicted in Ex Machina, is as far away as ever. Universal Pictures International (UPI) / Film4 Photograph: Universal Pictures International (UPI) / Film4 Next-gen tech Artificial intelligence might be a threat to humans but not for the reasons you think Nigel Shadbolt AI computers will benefit humanity – and fears that they might determine that the planet would prosper without us are unfounded. But machines needn’t be self-aware to pose a threat Contact author @Nigel_Shadbolt Thu 22 Jan ‘15 14. 16 GMT Last modified on Wed 22 Feb ‘17 18. 19 GMT The new year saw the publication of an open letter from leading artificial intelligence experts arguing for vigilance so as to ensure that this fast developing field benefits humanity. It follows hard on the heels of Stephen Hawking’s worries that super smart computers could spell the end of the human race. Skip to main content current edition: International edition The Guardian - Back to home Become a supporter Subscribe Find a job Jobs Sign in Search Show More Close with google sign in become a supporter subscribe search find a job dating more from the guardian: change edition: edition International edition The Guardian - Back to home browse all sections close Artificial intelligence (AI) The Observer Artificial intelligence: how clever do we want our machines to be? The theory of artificial intelligence is already fact in some financial and transport sectors, yet as its uses become more widespread – and perhaps threatening – how do we ensure we control it rather than vice versa? Ex Machina Photograph: Film4/Sportsphoto Ltd/Allstar Artificial intelligence (AI) The Observer Artificial intelligence: how clever do we want our machines to be? The theory of artificial intelligence is already fact in some financial and transport sectors, yet as its uses become more widespread – and perhaps threatening – how do we ensure we control it rather than vice versa? Alex Hern Alex Hern @alexhern Sat 29 Nov ‘14 19. -- And so long as Silicon Valley companies such as Google and Facebook continue to acquire AI firms and hire AI experts, AI’s IQ will continue to rise… Isn’t AI a Steven Spielberg movie? No arguments there, but the term, which stands for “artificial intelligence”, has a more storied history than Spielberg and Kubrick’s 2001 film. The concept of artificial intelligence goes back to the birth of computing: in 1950, just 14 years after defining the concept of a general-purpose computer, Alan Turing asked “Can machines think? ” AI Facebook Twitter Pinterest Jude Law as Gigolo Joe (and pals) in Spielberg and Kubrick’s 2001 film AI. -- Well, not quite. Even if we manage to not get wiped out by malicious AI, there’s still the issue of how society adapts to the increasing capability of artificial intelligence. The Industrial Revolution was characterised by the automation of a number of jobs that previously relied on manual labour. Skip to main content current edition: International edition The Guardian - Back to home Become a supporter Subscribe Find a job Jobs Sign in Search Show More Close with google sign in become a supporter subscribe search find a job dating more from the guardian: change edition: edition International edition The Guardian - Back to home browse all sections close Artificial intelligence (AI) The Observer Artificial intelligence: how clever do we want our machines to be? The theory of artificial intelligence is already fact in some financial and transport sectors, yet as its uses become more widespread – and perhaps threatening – how do we ensure we control it rather than vice versa? Ex Machina Photograph: Film4/Sportsphoto Ltd/Allstar Artificial intelligence (AI) The Observer Artificial intelligence: how clever do we want our machines to be? The theory of artificial intelligence is already fact in some financial and transport sectors, yet as its uses become more widespread – and perhaps threatening – how do we ensure we control it rather than vice versa? Alex Hern Alex Hern @alexhern Sat 29 Nov ‘14 19. -- And so long as Silicon Valley companies such as Google and Facebook continue to acquire AI firms and hire AI experts, AI’s IQ will continue to rise… Isn’t AI a Steven Spielberg movie? No arguments there, but the term, which stands for “artificial intelligence”, has a more storied history than Spielberg and Kubrick’s 2001 film. The concept of artificial intelligence goes back to the birth of computing: in 1950, just 14 years after defining the concept of a general-purpose computer, Alan Turing asked “Can machines think? ” AI Facebook Twitter Pinterest Jude Law as Gigolo Joe (and pals) in Spielberg and Kubrick’s 2001 film AI. -- Well, not quite. Even if we manage to not get wiped out by malicious AI, there’s still the issue of how society adapts to the increasing capability of artificial intelligence. The Industrial Revolution was characterised by the automation of a number of jobs that previously relied on manual labour. Skip to main content current edition: International edition The Guardian - Back to home Become a supporter Subscribe Find a job Jobs Sign in Search Show More Close with google sign in become a supporter subscribe search find a job dating more from the guardian: change edition: edition International edition The Guardian - Back to home browse all sections close Artificial intelligence (AI) Google buys two more UK artificial intelligence startups Company funds new computer science research partnership with Oxford University, where three of its new artificial intelligence hires will remain lecturers artificial intelligence with new Oxford University partnerships and British startup acqusitions. Photograph: Science Picture Co. /Science Picture Co. /Corbis Artificial intelligence (AI) Google buys two more UK artificial intelligence startups Company funds new computer science research partnership with Oxford University, where three of its new artificial intelligence hires will remain lecturers Samuel Gibbs Thu 23 Oct ‘14 14. 56 BST Last modified on Wed 22 Feb ‘17 18. 25 GMT This article is 3 years old Google has expanded its artificial intelligence research team, acquiring two Oxford University spin-off companies specialising in machine learning and computer vision. Dark Blue Labs and Vision Factory and their seven key researchers will be added to Google’s DeepMind artificial intelligence research company – another British artificial intelligence startup which the search giant acquired in January. “We are thrilled to welcome these extremely talented machine learning researchers to the Google DeepMind team and are excited about the potential impact of the advances their research will bring,” wrote Demis Hassabis, co-founder of DeepMind. Brain-like computers Google’s DeepMind is working on artificial intelligence similar to those portrayed in movies – a computer system that works like a human brain, using information from its environment to make decisions free of human interaction. Dark Blue Labs specialised in deep learning for understanding natural language, something Google’s search products have been pioneering on a large scale with both typed and spoken natural language queries. -- Prof Nando de Freitas, Prof Phil Blunsom, Dr Edward Grefenstette and Dr Karl Moritz Hermann from Dark Blue Labs will focus on research to enable machines, be they computers or robots, to better understand what users say and are asking of them. Vision Factory specialised in visual recognition systems and deep learning, applying artificial intelligence techniques to enhance the accuracy and speed of object recognition and other vision-based computer systems. Dr Karen Simonyan, Max Jaderberg and Prof Andrew Zisserman, founders of Vision Factory, will help Google improve its vision systems, which include object recognition in search, its camera-based search apps and undoubtedly the data-processing systems needed for its self-driving cars. -- “We have invested heavily in this area and we are truly excited at the prospect of what we can achieve together with Google. ” “It is a really exciting time for Artificial Intelligence research these days, and progress is being made on many fronts including image recognition and natural language understanding,” said Hassabis. Google’s artificial intelligence efforts hit the headlines at the beginning of the year when the company acquired DeepMind technologies, a London-based artificial intelligence firm specialising in machine learning, advanced algorithms and systems neuroscience for £400m – Google’s largest European purchase and now employing around 100 researchers in London. • Demis Hassabis: 15 facts about the DeepMind Technologies founder • Google buys UK artificial intelligence startup Deepmind for £400m • Elon Musk says he invested in DeepMind over ‘Terminator’ fears Topics Loading comments… Trouble loading? most viewed The Guardian back to top all sections close back to top All rights reserved. Skip to main content current edition: International edition The Guardian - Back to home Become a supporter Subscribe Find a job Jobs Sign in Search Show More Close with google Artificial intelligence (AI) Monthly science explainer From online dating to driverless cars, machine learning is everywhere the mysteries of a component of artificial intelligence self driving car Risberg/AP Artificial intelligence (AI) Monthly science explainer From online dating to driverless cars, machine learning is everywhere the mysteries of a component of artificial intelligence Nicola Davis @NicolaKSDavis Thu 18 Sep ‘14 07. 00 BST Last modified on Tue 21 Feb ‘17 18. -- What is machine learning? Artificial intelligence is really the goal of trying to develop algorithms that can learn and act. Older AI research ran up against this difficulty that people didn’t really know what intelligence was. Skip to main content current edition: International edition The Guardian - Back to home Become a supporter Subscribe Find a job Jobs Sign in Search Show More Close with google sign in become a supporter subscribe search find a job dating more from the guardian: change edition: edition International edition The Guardian - Back to home browse all sections close Artificial intelligence (AI) The journalists who never sleep ‘Robot writers’ that can interpret data and generate stories are starting to appear in certain business and media sectors Robotic hand typing on keyboard ordinary PC, despite its high performance. Photograph: Getty Images Artificial intelligence (AI) The journalists who never sleep ‘Robot writers’ that can interpret data and generate stories are starting to appear in certain business and media sectors Yves Eudes Fri 12 Sep ‘14 11. 17 BST Last modified on Fri 14 Jul ‘17 22. -- In practice, “robot writers” – with varying levels of sophistication and autonomy – are beginning to be installed, discreetly, by a few media and other business sectors that generate large volumes of written documents. In the US automated writing technology was partly developed by artificial intelligence specialists at Northwestern University in Illinois. Professor Larry Birnbaum, joint head of the Intelligent Information Laboratory, is an emblematic figure in this new, horizontal discipline, for he also teaches at the nearby Medill School of Journalism. -- “To compose sentences it has a library of rules, words and turns of phrase, taken from everyday English, but also specialist professional terminology,” Birnbaum says. For the uninitiated this final step is the most spectacular and the most astonishing, but it is not the most complex part for artificial intelligence professionals. “Computers have known how to write in English for years. Skip to main content current edition: International edition The Guardian - Back to home Become a supporter Subscribe Find a job Jobs Sign in Search Show More Close with google sign in become a supporter subscribe search find a job dating more from the guardian: change edition: edition International edition The Guardian - Back to home browse all sections close Google Google buys neural network city guide creator Jetpac Artificial intelligence-based method of creating guides to cities using public photos appealed to Google’s drive for building smart systems Belfast at dusk - identified as Britain's happiest city according to Jetpac's neural network analysis of public photos. to Jetpac’s neural network analysis of public photos. Photograph: scenicireland. com/Christopher/Alamy Google Google buys neural network city guide creator Jetpac Artificial intelligence-based method of creating guides to cities using public photos appealed to Google’s drive for building smart systems Charles Arthur @charlesarthur Mon 18 Aug ‘14 14. 35 BST Last modified on Tue 21 Feb ‘17 18. -- It did not yet have an app for Android. The purchase, for an undisclosed sum, points to Google’s growing interest in artificial intelligence applications as it seeks to grow offerings such as its Google Now personal assistant. This year it acquired the British AI company DeepMind for $400m. Skip to main content current edition: International edition The Guardian - Back to home Become a supporter Subscribe Find a job Jobs Sign in Search Show More Close with google Artificial intelligence (AI) The Observer Artificial intelligence will not turn into a Frankenstein's monster The doomsayers believe that humanity will be overwhelmed by creating machines that – like Terminator's Skynet – become ever-more clever and reach a singularity. They're wrong Robots like them. Photograph: Robert Pratta/Reuters Artificial intelligence (AI) The Observer Artificial intelligence will not turn into a Frankenstein's monster The doomsayers believe that humanity will be overwhelmed by creating machines that – like Terminator's Skynet – become ever-more clever and reach a singularity. They're wrong Alan Winfield Sun 10 Aug ‘14 00. -- It's a Thing for techno-utopians: wealthy middle-aged men who regard the singularity as their best chance of immortality. They are Singularitarians, some seemingly prepared to go to extremes to stay alive for long enough to benefit from a benevolent super-artificial intelligence – a man-made god that grants transcendence. And it's a thing for the doomsayers, the techno-dystopians. Skip to main content current edition: International edition The Guardian - Back to home Become a supporter Subscribe Find a job Jobs Sign in Search Show More Close with google sign in become a supporter subscribe search find a job dating more from the guardian: change edition: edition International edition The Guardian - Back to home browse all sections close Artificial intelligence (AI) The Observer Artificial intelligence powers Anki Drive to pole position on the indoor racetrack A new car racing game uses robotics to bring the thrills and spills of Formula One into the home Anki cars Artificial intelligence (AI) The Observer Artificial intelligence powers Anki Drive to pole position on the indoor racetrack A new car racing game uses robotics to bring the thrills and spills of Formula One into the home Matt Weiner Mon 14 Jul ‘14 13. 00 BST First published on Mon 14 Jul ‘14 13. -- Meanwhile, you can "disable" or slow down your opposition with virtual weapons mounted on your car triggered by buttons on the phone interface. The idea is that the basic tenets of a physical racing game (go faster, steer well) are enhanced by the sophistication of video games (each car has unique characteristics; you can accrue weapons and better skills) and artificial intelligence (the cars improve as they "learn" from each race; anki means "learn by heart" in Japanese). Unboxing the kit, I shared the unfettered excitement of my sons (the older was literally hopping round the room). Skip to main content current edition: International edition The Guardian - Back to home Become a supporter Subscribe Find a job Jobs Sign in Search Show More Close with google sign in become a supporter subscribe search find a job dating more from the guardian: change edition: edition International edition The Guardian - Back to home browse all sections close Artificial intelligence (AI) Computer simulating 13-year-old boy becomes first to pass Turing test 'Eugene Goostman' fools 33% of interrogators into thinking it is human, in what is seen as a milestone in artificial intelligence • In 'his own' words: how Eugene fooled the Turing judges • What is the Turing test? And are we all doomed now? turing test machine was indistinguishable from a human, then it was 'thinking'. Photograph: Sherborne School/AFP/Getty Images Artificial intelligence (AI) Computer simulating 13-year-old boy becomes first to pass Turing test 'Eugene Goostman' fools 33% of interrogators into thinking it is human, in what is seen as a milestone in artificial intelligence • In 'his own' words: how Eugene fooled the Turing judges • What is the Turing test? And are we all doomed now? -- But "Eugene Goostman", a computer programme developed to simulate a 13-year-old boy, managed to convince 33% of the judges that it was human, the university said. Professor Kevin Warwick, from the University of Reading, said: "In the field of artificial intelligence, there is no more iconic and controversial milestone than the Turing test. It is fitting that such an important landmark has been reached at the Royal Society in London, the home of British science and the scene of many great advances in human understanding over the centuries. -- " The successful machine was created by Russian-born Vladimir Veselov, who lives in the United States, and Ukrainian Eugene Demchenko, who lives in Russia. Veselov said: "It's a remarkable achievement for us and we hope it boosts interest in artificial intelligence and chatbots. " Warwick said there had been previous claims that the test was passed in similar competitions around the world. -- "We are therefore proud to declare that Alan Turing's test was passed for the first time. " Warwick said having a computer with such artificial intelligence had "implications for society" and would serve as a "wake-up call to cybercrime". The event on Saturday was poignant as it took place on the 60th anniversary of the death of Turing, who laid the foundations of modern computing. Skip to main content current edition: International edition The Guardian - Back to home Become a supporter Subscribe Find a job Jobs Sign in Search Show More Close with google sign in become a supporter subscribe search find a job dating more from the guardian: change edition: edition International edition The Guardian - Back to home browse all sections close Artificial intelligence (AI) The Observer Facial recognition: is the technology taking away your identity? Facial recognition technology is being used by companies such as Tesco, Google and Facebook, and it has huge potential for security. -- It may be too late to opt out… facial recognition algorithms may be neutral themselves, the databases they are tied to are anything but. ' Artificial intelligence (AI) The Observer Facial recognition: is the technology taking away your identity? Facial recognition technology is being used by companies such as Tesco, Google and Facebook, and it has huge potential for security. -- "We closely approach human performance," says Yaniv Taigman, a member of its AI team. Since the ability to recognise faces has long been a benchmark for artificial intelligence, developments such as Facebook's "DeepFace" technology (yes, that's what it called it) raise big questions about the power of today's facial recognition tools and what these mean for the future. Facebook is not the only tech company interested in facial recognition. Skip to main content current edition: International edition The Guardian - Back to home Become a supporter Subscribe Find a job Jobs Sign in Search Show More Close with google sign in become a supporter subscribe search find a job dating more from the guardian: change edition: edition International edition The Guardian - Back to home browse all sections close Artificial intelligence (AI) Zuckerberg and Musk back software startup that mimics human learning San Francisco startup Vicarious aims to create 'a computer that thinks like a person except it doesn't need to eat or sleep' human brain computational principles of the human brain'. Photograph: Sebastian Kaulitzki / Alamy/Alamy Artificial intelligence (AI) Zuckerberg and Musk back software startup that mimics human learning San Francisco startup Vicarious aims to create 'a computer that thinks like a person except it doesn't need to eat or sleep' Dominic Rushe in New York @dominicru Fri 21 Mar ‘14 16. 47 GMT Last modified on Fri 14 Jul ‘17 23. -- “We tell investors that right now, human beings are doing a lot of things that computers should be able to do,” he said. The investment comes amid a boom in funding for artificial intelligence ventures, In January IBM announced it was investing more than $1bn to create the Watson Group, a 2,000-employee division dedicated to developing its self-learning super-computer. The money includes $100m to fund startups that find creative uses for Watson. The Telegraph My details My newsletters Logout Upgrade to Premium My details My newsletters Logout The Telegraph Inside the AI healthcare revolution: meeting the robots that can detect Alzheimer's and depression Credit: WinterLight Labs 28 August 2017 • 7:00am This is the second in a three-part series reporting from Toronto’s booming Artificial Intelligence sector where new technologies are being pioneered that will permanently change all of our lives Just 45 seconds in the company of scientist Frank Rudzicz and his machines is all it takes to determine whether or not you are suffering from Alzheimer’s disease. In that time, the complex Artificial Intelligence (AI) algorithms that the 37-year-old and his team have developed are able to pick apart your voice and predict the severity of the disease to an accuracy of around 82 per cent (and rising). First, there is your actual use of language. -- All the experts predict that in the coming years this ceding of our biological data to machines will rise exponentially to the point where each of us carries around what is, in essence, our own portable GP. According to Android Dreams, the new book written by the eminent Australian artificial intelligence professor Toby Walsh, smartphones may also take selfies to identify suspect melanomas and monitor the health of eyes. AI-equipped toilets, meanwhile, will unprompted analyse samples of urine and stool and alert us to anything amiss. In his book, Professor Walsh also offers another prediction: that by 2050, many of us will have had our genes sequenced making it far easier to identify and treat genetic disorders which presently affect some 350m people worldwide. In a different building in Toronto’s Mars Discovery District, another pioneer in the field of artificial intelligence is working on that exact problem. The aim of Brendan Frey’s work is simple. -- “We have an exponentially growing set of data to allow us to peer into cells and read out what is changing. There is only one solution: artificial intelligence. It’s the best technology we have in our systems to understand complex data. The Telegraph My details My newsletters Logout Upgrade to Premium My details My newsletters Logout The Telegraph The 'Godfather of AI' on making machines clever and whether robots really will learn to kill us all? the 2004 film I Robot Credit: Alamy 26 August 2017 • 6:00am Today, the Telegraph begins a three-part series reporting from Toronto’s booming Artificial Intelligence sector where new technologies are being pioneered that will permanently change all of our lives Deep within the inner sanctum of Google’s downtown HQ in Toronto, past the rooftop crazy golf putting greens, foosball tables and ergonomic furniture sporting the bold primary colours of the company logo – stands a scruffy figure so incongruous, he might have been drawn by Quentin Blake. In person, Professor Geoffrey Hinton bears all the hallmarks of the quintessential British academic: tousled hair; crumpled shirt with a barrage of biros in the top pocket and flanked by a vast, mucky whiteboard scrawled with impregnable equations. -- The 69-year-old prefers always to stand. Gleefully eccentric he may be, but to the bright young things outside his office, Hinton is akin to a deity: the so-called “Godfather of Artificial Intelligence (AI)” and the brilliant mind behind the technology that has sparked a global revolution. In this, his first British newspaper interview, Professor Hinton admits to being bemused by the nickname that has accompanied his late career surge. -- ” Each Saturday morning he would go to Islington’s Essex Road library – the same establishment where Sixties playwright Joe Orton used to deface the books with pornographic images – and jot down in his notebook theories about how the brain worked. After a few years of toil, he returned to academia and in 1973 started a PHD in artificial intelligence at the University of Edinburgh. His tutors regularly told him he was wasting his time on neural networks, but Hinton plugged on regardless. The Telegraph My details My newsletters Logout Upgrade to Premium My details My newsletters Logout The Telegraph Buy these seven shares to profit from driverless cars and artificial intelligence [TELEMMGLPICT000031983590_trans_NvBQzQNjv4Bqd5_sWj-Hu5YV1uSoc_Px3tp0rIA to be available to consumers in five years, depending on regulations Credit: Eric Risberg/AP 13 August 2017 • 7:27am The idea of investing in technology companies will, for many, bring back painful memories of the tech bubble bursting at the turn of the millennium. Today, there is little of the mania of two decades ago. -- Some investors will have exposure to technology through companies such as Amazon, Facebook and Google, which are popular holdings in many funds available to British savers. Such businesses are involved in many cutting-edge areas of technology, including autonomous cars, artificial intelligence, machine learning and more. But there is another approach: investing in companies that make “enabling” technology, the components and software used in many of the most advanced developments. -- " The company recently assembled an autonomous Audi which drove itself from San Francisco to New York, which Mr Sohn described as the "most sophisticated autonomous vehicle to date". Sign up to Telegraph Investor Artificial intelligence and machine learning The concept of artificial intelligence – the ability of a computer system to learn and adapt – has existed for decades. Ben Rogoff, manager of two Polar Capital technology funds totalling £2. There are currently four manufacturers making life-like robotic dolls worldwide, but experts predict that in coming decades they could become widespread, used not just as a fetish, but for sexual therapy and as companions for lonely, disabled or older people. Engineer-inventor Douglas Hines adjusts the head of his company's "True Companion" sex robot, Roxxxy Engineer-inventor Douglas Hines adjusts the head of his company's "True Companion" sex robot, Roxxxy Credit: AFP/Getty Images Noel Sharkey, Emeritus Professor of Robotics and Artificial Intelligence at the University of Sheffield, and co-founder of the FRR, said it was time for the government and the public to decide whether to regulate pleasure-bots. “I can tell you that robots are certainly coming,” he said at the launch of the new consultation report in central London. -- Probably not"Patrick Lin, Philosophy professor and robot ethicist The report found that up to two thirds of men and about 30 per cent of women were in favour of using sex robots, which currently cost between £4,000 and £12,000 and can be customised by sex, height, hair colour, eye colour and even personality. Companies are also starting to incorporate artificial intelligence so robots can communicate and respond to human emotions. Doll brothels already operate in South Korea, Japan and Spain, while the first robotic oral sex coffee shop opened in Paddington, west London, last year. -- Related Topics Follow the Telegraph If you would like to add a comment, please register or log in Register Log in Please review our commenting policy Follow the Telegraph Science latest 06 Jan 2018, 9:30pm How 'wi-fi' connects human brains and explains why people have 'gut feelings' 06 Jan 2018, 3:13pm Families put at risk because NHS is refusing to test for deadly 'Angelina Jolie gene', report claims scientists have found 05 Jan 2018, 2:32pm Hole in ozone layer has shrunk thanks to worldwide ban of CFCs, Nasa confirms 05 Jan 2018, 1:38pm CSI effect is a myth: forensic detective series do not make criminals better at crime exercise 04 Jan 2018, 10:00pm How 30 minutes of facial exercise a day can make women look three years younger 04 Jan 2018, 6:26pm Could this 4,000 year ancient monument be Yorkshire's first sauna? 04 Jan 2018, 12:01am NHS must offer transgender men egg storage so they can be parents, says British Fertility Society guidance trigger cancer 03 Jan 2018, 6:00pm Drinking alcohol raises risk of cancer by snapping DNA, scientists find disease 03 Jan 2018, 12:58am Artificial intelligence 'to diagnose heart disease' 03 Jan 2018, 12:39am Obsession with physical perfection rises by more than a third among young people 03 Jan 2018, 12:01am Sir David Attenborough: I'll give up filming when I can't climb the stairs How the UK will see the moon in 2018 02 Jan 2018, 12:47pm Complete list of every full moon in 2018, including January's Wolf supermoon 31 Dec 2017, 10:58pm Egyptian mummy can 'live forever' after development in scanning technique 31 Dec 2017, 2:42pm Night sky – January 2018: Once in a Blue Moon 31 Dec 2017, 7:00am Silicon Valley's 'fasting' chemical drinks diet may soon arrive in Britain Premium 30 Dec 2017, 12:01am Lost Roman roads could be found as Environment Agency laser scans whole of England from air unassisted 29 Dec 2017, 4:57pm British Polar explorer Ben Saunders echoes Shackleton as he abandons quest to cross South Pole unassisted burning patch with Asst Prof Xu Chenjie 29 Dec 2017, 2:53pm Tiny tummy patch could cut fat by one third in four weeks. . In their new book: Machine, Platform, Crowd, the authors set out to dispel the myth that robots are only suited for “dull, dirty and dangerous” tasks that people can’t - or simply don’t want - to do. They insist that artificial intelligence and machine learning is not only getting smarter, but more creative. _with_em_the_machines Take the US elections. -- Shanghai Tower The Shanghai Tower during its construction phase in 2013. The original concept was designed by artificial intelligence Credit: AFP/Getty Computers have even designed a race car chassis from scratch. A few years ago, researchers at the 3D design specialist Autodesk teamed up with a group of car designers and stunt drivers to take on the task. -- PwC is already working with haulage companies to ensure their drivers are equipped with the skills for the future. Euan Cameron, an artificial intelligence expert at PwC, believes the future is as bright for the company's auditors as the haulage companies they advise. "For the hauliers we see an augmented solution where for instance the trucks are doing a motorway stretch autonomously while the driver is doing other stuff or sleeping, ready to intervene. The Telegraph My details My newsletters Logout Upgrade to Premium My details My newsletters Logout The Telegraph Facebook using artificial intelligence to combat terrorist propaganda time about the artificial intelligence programmes it uses to deter and remove terrorist propaganda online Credit: Ap 16 June 2017 • 1:37am Facebookhas spoken for the first time about the artificial intelligence programmes it uses to deter and remove terrorist propaganda online after the platform was criticised for not doing enough to tackle extremism. The social media giant also revealed it is employing 3,000 extra people this year in order to trawl through posts and remove those that break the law or the sites' community guidelines. It also plans to boost it's "counter-speech" efforts, to encourage influential voices to condemn and call-out terrorism online to prevent people from being radicalised. In a landmark post titled "hard questions", Monika Bickert, Director of Global Policy Management, and Brian Fishman, Counterterrorism Policy Manager explained Facebook has been developing artificial intelligence to detect terror videos and messages before they are posted live and preventing them from appearing on the site. The pair state: "In the wake of recent terror attacks, people have questioned the role of tech companies in fighting terrorism online. The Telegraph My details My newsletters Logout Upgrade to Premium My details My newsletters Logout The Telegraph Computer beats Chinese master in ancient board game of Go with Dr David Silver after the match Credit: EPA 24 May 2017 • 1:23am A Google artificial intelligence programme defeated a Chinese grand master at the ancient board game Go on Tuesday, a major feather in the cap for the firm's AI ambitions as it looks to woo Beijing to gain re-entry into the country. In the first of three planned games in the eastern water town of Wuzhen, the AlphaGo programme held off China's world number one Ke Jie in front of Chinese officials and Google parent Alphabet's chief executive Eric Schmidt. The victory over the world's top player - which many thought would take decades to achieve - underlines the potential of artificial intelligence to take on humans at complex tasks. Wooing Beijing may be less simple. -- Both are blocked by China, as is Google search. Ke Jie competes against Google's artificial intelligence (AI) program AlphaGo Ke Jie competes against Google's artificial intelligence (AI) program AlphaGo Credit: Rex Google pulled its search engine from China seven years ago after it refused to self-censor internet searches, a requirement of Beijing. Since then it has been inaccessible behind the country's nationwide firewall. -- In March it also said Chinese users would be able to access the Translate mobile app, marking its most recent success launching a previously banned service. Like AlphaGo, Translate also uses DeepMind's artificial intelligence software. A screen shows referees judging after the match featuring Ke Jie against AlphaGo A screen shows referees judging after the match featuring Ke Jie against AlphaGo Credit: EPA Beijing is pushing to become a major player in artificial intelligence. Chinese search engine giant Baidu Inc, launched an AI lab in March with China's state planner, the National Development and Reform Commission. But if we are going to teach children to use the internet properly we need to do more than controlling its ‘threats’. virtual reality Whether we like it or not, artificial intelligence, algorithms, advances in genetic engineering, nanotechnology and biology are already shaping our world at a pace we can scarcely comprehend. Rather than adding another ‘subject’, we should be looking at the whole purpose of education and asking whether our current systems are still fit for purpose. -- As many occupations disappear altogether, in the same way that streaming has decimated video and music stores, new professions will undoubtedly surface, but it is likely they will require more flexibility and creativity than our current education system allows. Artificial intelligence and algorithms are already playing a significant role in our day to day lives, so it will be no surprise when teachers also become surplus to requirements. Meanwhile, we are so hung up on data that we are wasting huge amounts of human potential, squeezing the creativity out of young minds. -- ' School updates carol to be more 'inclusive' 29 Dec 2017, 12:01am Leading private school uses Greek philosophers to teach pupils how to spot 'fake news' 27 Dec 2017, 6:11pm Academics who criticised professor's British Empire research likened to Stalin by former equalities tsar Trevor Phillips before term starts means parents feel no guilt in employing a tutor 27 Dec 2017, 2:24pm Should your child be tutored over the Christmas break? 26 Dec 2017, 12:50pm Universities will be less able to make scientific breakthroughs if they do not tackle 'safe space' culture, minister warns 26 Dec 2017, 6:00am Don’t shield students from opinions they don’t agree with, universities minister Jo Johnson warns 23 Dec 2017, 3:00pm Comment: Universities cashing in on unconditional offers are doing great harm to our examinations system Chris Ramsey 22 Dec 2017, 8:21pm Home Office blocks Canadian from teaching Gaelic in Hebridean primary school 22 Dec 2017, 7:17pm Rounders is being replaced by cricket at girls’ schools as it is seen as a 'leisure activity' rather than a sport, leading head says month 22 Dec 2017, 7:01pm Mosques launch legal challenge against an council’s bid to ban halal meat in schools select committee chair writes 22 Dec 2017, 3:31pm Comment: Foster children face a lottery of care in a system that is under pressure Rob Halfon 22 Dec 2017, 12:15pm Vice-chancellors enriched by deficit-hit pension scheme Codrington Library 22 Dec 2017, 9:00am Comment: Let us not forget the positives of empire – not least its lessons for the future David Twiston Davies Premium 21 Dec 2017, 6:03pm Skateboarding to success: how half pipes are helping children caught up in the Greek refugee crisis rated inadequate or requires improvement 21 Dec 2017, 5:59pm Ofsted should use artificial intelligence to determine which schools will fail, report suggests legacy of the British Empire 20 Dec 2017, 6:26pm Oxford academics criticise professor who suggested people should have 'pride' about aspects of British Empire against the Codrington Library and commemoration of its founder, Christopher Codrington 20 Dec 2017, 6:16pm Oxford college commissions slavery plaque amid student pressure over benefactor's colonial links 20 Dec 2017, 3:22pm Comment: Can a university education still guarantee prosperity? Professor Sir Keith Burnett Premium Keith Burnett Please support us by disabling your adblocker We've noticed you're adblocking. In a time of great uncertainty for our country, we should turn to the past for inspiration and use our history and institutions as a platform to become the global centre of science, technology and education. Such a role will become increasingly important in the coming decades, as a whole range of advances – artificial intelligence, robotics, and genetic engineering to name just a few – radically change societies across the world. Crucially, this role is independent of size; we need not compete with the industrial might of China to teach their students physics, mathematics and computer science. -- 7 billion over 4 years - which he had announced in the autumn statement last November. After consulting universities and industries on its industrial strategy, the Government pledged to focus funding research and manufacturing technology, artificial intelligence, robotics, biotechnology, offshore energy, nuclear power plants, and mining. £16 million will be used to develop a high-speed and next-generation 5G mobile network. -- ' School updates carol to be more 'inclusive' 29 Dec 2017, 12:01am Leading private school uses Greek philosophers to teach pupils how to spot 'fake news' 27 Dec 2017, 6:11pm Academics who criticised professor's British Empire research likened to Stalin by former equalities tsar Trevor Phillips before term starts means parents feel no guilt in employing a tutor 27 Dec 2017, 2:24pm Should your child be tutored over the Christmas break? 26 Dec 2017, 12:50pm Universities will be less able to make scientific breakthroughs if they do not tackle 'safe space' culture, minister warns 26 Dec 2017, 6:00am Don’t shield students from opinions they don’t agree with, universities minister Jo Johnson warns 23 Dec 2017, 3:00pm Comment: Universities cashing in on unconditional offers are doing great harm to our examinations system Chris Ramsey 22 Dec 2017, 8:21pm Home Office blocks Canadian from teaching Gaelic in Hebridean primary school 22 Dec 2017, 7:17pm Rounders is being replaced by cricket at girls’ schools as it is seen as a 'leisure activity' rather than a sport, leading head says month 22 Dec 2017, 7:01pm Mosques launch legal challenge against an council’s bid to ban halal meat in schools select committee chair writes 22 Dec 2017, 3:31pm Comment: Foster children face a lottery of care in a system that is under pressure Rob Halfon 22 Dec 2017, 12:15pm Vice-chancellors enriched by deficit-hit pension scheme Codrington Library 22 Dec 2017, 9:00am Comment: Let us not forget the positives of empire – not least its lessons for the future David Twiston Davies Premium 21 Dec 2017, 6:03pm Skateboarding to success: how half pipes are helping children caught up in the Greek refugee crisis rated inadequate or requires improvement 21 Dec 2017, 5:59pm Ofsted should use artificial intelligence to determine which schools will fail, report suggests legacy of the British Empire 20 Dec 2017, 6:26pm Oxford academics criticise professor who suggested people should have 'pride' about aspects of British Empire against the Codrington Library and commemoration of its founder, Christopher Codrington 20 Dec 2017, 6:16pm Oxford college commissions slavery plaque amid student pressure over benefactor's colonial links Please support us by disabling your adblocker We've noticed you're adblocking. We rely on advertising to help fund our award-winning journalism. The Telegraph My details My newsletters Logout Upgrade to Premium My details My newsletters Logout The Telegraph Forget your GP, robots will 'soon be able to diagnose more accurately than almost any doctor' [parsa_trans_NvBQzQNjv4Bq1rJ9pSNcEwURYMTh2-V-meIJ02v23m6JBWZjDUILQig. jp artificial intelligence Credit: Geoff Pugh for The Telegraph 7 March 2017 • 10:00pm Robots will soon be able to diagnose patients “more accurately and faster” than almost any doctor, says the man behind a controversial NHS scheme which will see chatbots employed to assess 111 calls. A private company with a string of health service contracts is to launch a national scheme which allows patients to receive a full diagnosis by smartphone – without ever having to see a GP. Babylon Health has just begun a pilot scheme which means patients in five boroughs of London are encouraged to consult a chatbot instead of a human being, when they contact the 111 non-emergency line. Under the system, patients key in their symptoms, with artificial intelligence used to assess the urgency of each case, and determine home. "We would not accurately forecast the weather without a computer - we need to be giving this support to our doctors"Dr Ali Parsa Now the company’s chief executive has revealed it is to launch a more sophisticated model which will allow any individual to receive a diagnosis by smartphone. Dr Ali Parsa, the company’s founder said the system would allow doctors to work in tandem with artificial intelligence – so that medics could focus on treating rather than diagnosing diseases. The entrepreneur said: “There are 300 million pieces of knowledge that we have collected. -- And concerns have been raised that such schemes pave the way for the “privatisation” of the NHS, at a time when it is under unprecented strain. However, Dr Parsa said tests comparing speed, accuracy and safety of the artificial intelligence system showed the computer consistently outperforming the human. Tests comparing accuracy of triage forund that nurses results were accurate in 73. The Telegraph My details My newsletters Logout Upgrade to Premium My details My newsletters Logout The Telegraph Facebook to use artificial intelligence to combat suicides help connect a person in distress with people who can support them Credit: David Paul Morris/Bloomberg 1 March 2017 • 3:37pm Facebook will use artificial intelligence to spot users who may be at risk of suicide, telling people to talk to friends or contact a helpline if their posts show signs that they may be considering taking their own lives. Suicide prevention services have been available on Facebook for more than 10 years, but it is now testing artificial intelligence as a way of identifying users who may be at risk. Its algorithm will flag up posts that are likely to include thoughts of suicide, Facebook said, by using pattern recognition on previous posts that have been reported. The Telegraph My details My newsletters Logout Upgrade to Premium My details My newsletters Logout The Telegraph Government to plough £20m into artificial intelligence research including robots and driverless cars surgeries will be financed Credit: Bloomberg News 26 February 2017 • 12:01am A major review into how Britain can become the world leader in Leading figures from academia and business will lead the drive into how Government can encourage the fledgling industry in the wake of the Brexit vote. Experts believe £654 billion can be added to the British economy by 2035 if the growth potential in AI is achieved. -- Karen Bradley, the Culture Secretary, said: “Britain has a proud history of digital innovation - from the earliest days of computing to Sir Tim Berners-Lee’s development of the World Wide Web. “We are already pioneers in today’s Artificial Intelligence revolution and the digital strategy will build on our strengths to make sure UK-based scientists, researchers and entrepreneurs continue to be at the forefront. “Technologies like AI have the potential to transform how we live, work, travel and learn … It’s great that Government and industry will be working together to drive growth in the sector, to realise all the economic and social benefits for the UK. ” Ministers are keen to grasp the economic opportunity from developing driverless cars Ministers are keen to grasp the economic opportunity from developing driverless cars Credit: Bloomberg The review will be led by Professor Dame Wendy Hall, Regius Professor of Computer Science at the University of Southampton, and Jérôme Pesenti, the CEO of BenevolentTech, a British technology company using artificial intelligence to accelerate scientific discovery. A funding boost of £17. 3m from the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC) to support university research will also be announced. Dame Wendy said: “Our scientists, researchers and entrepreneurs are at the forefront of the development of artificial intelligence and I’m looking forward to exploring how industry and government can work together to support the technology in the UK. " Greg Clark, the Business Secretary, said: “Investment in robotics and artificial intelligence will help make our economy more competitive, build on our world-leading reputation in these cutting-edge sectors and help us create new products, develop more innovative services and establish better ways of doing business. ” Follow Telegraph News READ MORE ABOUT: If you would like to add a comment, please register or log in Register Log in Please review our commenting policy Follow Telegraph News News latest 07 Jan 2018, 12:07am Post-Brexit trade deal at risk if Donald Trump is not invited to Royal wedding, says Fire and Fury author 07 Jan 2018, 12:01am Project Fear predictions that Brexit would damage the economy were 'wildly wrong' Premium 07 Jan 2018, 12:01am Pubs to stay open late for Prince Harry and Meghan Markle's royal wedding the Metropolitan Police, shows John Worboys. The Telegraph My details My newsletters Logout Upgrade to Premium My details My newsletters Logout The Telegraph Artificial intelligence the next ‘big bet’ for online retailers, say bosses 8 November 2016 • 2:26pm Artificial intelligence is the key to the future of online retail, business bosses have said, providing a crucial way to help shoppers find what they want. Alex Baldock, chief executive of Shop Direct, which runs very. co. uk and Littlewoods, told the Telegraph Festival of Business in London that artificial intelligence was the company’s “big bet”. “You have three seconds to seize the shopper’s attention - it’s called thumb stopping, the three-second audition,” Mr Baldock said. -- Both Mr Baldock and Mr Blair affirmed that all their online growth was now coming from mobile: Just Eat, for example, currently takes 80pc of its orders on mobile devices. The delivery company also uses chatbots and artificial intelligence for restaurant recommendations, and customers can now order food using an Amazon Echo, a voice command device produced by the US tech giant. “When I was a student I would have dreamed of that,” Mr Blair said. -- He said that automated manufacture was used throughout the company, from creating teabags to steel and cars. “Once you can bring in the five digital forces - cloud computing, big data, social media, artificial intelligence, mobile - you can start looking at whole process and virtualise the whole factory, and work out what’s going to happen before it does,” he said. Jenny Knott, chief executive of Icap’s Post Trade Risk and Information division, also argued the AI had a role to play in the future of financial services - particularly alongside blockchain, a type of digital ledger that can speed up secure transactions. Ms Knott said blockchain was an immutable, “golden version of whatever you are keeping a record of”. She tipped big things from “blockchain with a brain” - partnering the technology with artificial intelligence and big data. “It’s incredibly empowering in creating transparency,” Ms Knott said. But as well as competing directly, these clashes between titans have manifested themselves collaterally into a series of ideological arguments. Take the battle between privacy and progress: Apple, for example, has taken a strict line on using customers’ information, while others are more relaxed, partly because their use of data has allowed them to make great strides in areas such as artificial intelligence. Another one of these religious splits has been in the idea of “open” against “closed” systems. -- The Google Pixel is intended to be a direct competitor to the iPhone (as the frequency of Google’s potshots at Apple during its presentation showed). At its heart is the Google Assistant, an artificial intelligence designed to respond to millions of voice queries and demonstrate the power of the company’s smarts. google biggest failures It is a rare foray into hardware for Google, which has traditionally left the job of making Android phones to other manufacturers such as Samsung, LG and HTC. -- It is partly why the company requires that its search engine and web browser be installed on any Android phone that wants to use the Google Play app store, a directive that has landed it in hot water with EU competition regulators. The new Google Assistant software that features in the Pixel is a crucial element of the company’s future: computing is moving away from the web searches that make the majority of the company’s money and towards artificial intelligence that can talk and answer questions, so naturally Google is desperate to control this new channel. So ask yourself: if you were Google, and needed Assistant to be a success at this crucial juncture, would you leave it to unreliable third parties or take things into your own hands? Spotting traffic jams outside Wal-Marts can help traders looking to bet on the success of Black Friday sales each year – and it’s easier to do this from space than sending analysts to car parks. Some data providers have been feeding transcripts of calls with company executives into a natural language processor – an area of artificial intelligence that the Turing test foresaw – to figure out if they have gained or lost confidence in their business. Trades might have had gut feelings about this before, but now they can get graphs. -- What we’re doing is trying to harness a very small edge and doing it over a long period in a large number of markets. ” The statistics expert said the plunging cost of computer power and data storage, crossed with a “quite extraordinary” proliferation of recorded data, have helped breathe life into concepts like artificial intelligence for big investors. “The trading phase at the moment is making better use of the signals we already know about. -- Developments in disciplines such as engineering and computer science have contributed to the field, according to the former academic based in Oxford, where Man Group this week jointly sponsored a new research professorship in machine learning at the university. driverless car The artificial intelligence used in driverless cars could have applications in finance Credit: Google Dr Ledford said the technology has applications in driverless cars, which must learn how to drive in novel conditions, and identifying stars from telescope images. Indeed, he has adapted the methods used in the Zooniverse project, which asked thousands of volunteers to help teach a computer to spot supernovae, to build a new way of spotting useful trends in the City’s daily avalanche of analyst research. The Telegraph My details My newsletters Logout Upgrade to Premium My details My newsletters Logout The Telegraph Amazon's Echo steals a march in the race for artificial intelligence 20 September 2016 • 10:24am this year Credit: Amazon It came and went so quickly that one could easily forget it ever existed, but it was only two years ago that Amazon released its own smartphone. Developed in the web retailer’s secretive “Lab 126”, a Silicon Valley subsidiary 800 miles south of Amazon’s Seattle headquarters, the “Fire Phone” was applauded for its ideas, which included a 3D screen effect made possible by an elaborate four-camera system. -- A few months after the Fire Phone, Amazon unveiled a mysterious black cylinder it called the Echo. A two-way wireless speaker and microphone combination with a virtual artificial intelligence assistant – “Alexa” – that responds to voice commands like “Read me the news” or “Turn off the lights”, it is designed to blend into the background in a kitchen or living room, responding to every wish. At a glance | Amazon Echo When it was first announced to a sceptical tech press months after a flop phone, the Echo was dismissed separately as a joke and a privacy nightmare. -- The company’s prowess in cloud computing – which has spawned the colossal Amazon Web Services unit – means that the Echo has access to the near-infinite computing resources of the company’s servers: it can hear a question, send it to be processed, receive an answer and relay it in milliseconds. And Amazon’s underrated artificial intelligence chops, honed using years of it to sneak under the radar. It is important not to get carried away about the Echo, despite its growing buzz. -- But in the same way that Amazon’s tardiness in the smartphone game punished it, the company getting ahead of its competitors may prove crucial. Incidentally, the arms race that will follow is only likely to heighten interest in British expertise in artificial intelligence. Much of the Echo’s technology stems from Evi, a startup it acquired in 2012. The Telegraph My details My newsletters Logout Upgrade to Premium My details My newsletters Logout The Telegraph How artificial intelligence will transform your business Brought to you by Tata Communcations future: artifical intelligence is already walking and talking among us 12 July 2016 • 10:15am Oliver Pickup Computer intelligence will overturn everything from medicine to the stock market and the revolution is only just beginning. Artificial intelligence (AI) and a world in which machines threaten humanity’s status quo has been the preserve of science fiction for decades. In the Eighties, Terminator was set in a post-apocalyptic world in which cyborgs rule, RoboCop’s protagonist was part-man, part-machine and Short Circuit toyed with the idea of robots developing human-like minds, with rather more endearing results. -- 7pc of the world’s GDP • Tata Communications’ IZO cloud ecosystem includes the world’s largest cloud platforms – Microsoft Azure, Office 365, Salesforce, Amazon Web Services and Google Cloud Platform • Through its cloud ecosystem and global network, Tata Communications is an enabler for AI solutions that have the potential to transform how businesses operate See how you can connect your business at tatacommunications. com If you would like to add a comment, please register or log in Register Log in Please review our commenting policy Don't miss experts 08 Aug 2016, 11:45am Instant diagnosis by smartphone: how artificial intelligence can save lives experts 03 Aug 2016, 4:30pm Artificial intelligence and the implications of its rapid growth humans 25 Jul 2016, 12:15pm How worldwide businesses should prepare for the rise of artificial intelligence 20 Jul 2016, 11:30am Act now to benefit from artificial intelligence – before it’s too late To keep up with business demands innovation is essential How to recruit the best talent for your business Disruption in the marketplace is good for business busy streets, full of people 09 Jul 2015, 3:04pm Social responsibility: giving back is important More from Tata Communications Enterprises are moving away from the in-house data centre and forging new hybrid relationships between their existing data centres and cloud-hosted solutions Cloudification As technology continues to move at a breakneck pace — with social, mobile, analytics and cloud driving the evolution of businesses — innovative telecoms players are helping enterprises to embrace the change Embracing change From Bahrain to Brazil and back again, Tata Communications helps businesses reach their audiences faster and expand into new territories. There are some great stories to tell. The Telegraph My details My newsletters Logout Upgrade to Premium My details My newsletters Logout The Telegraph Instant diagnosis by smartphone: how artificial intelligence can save lives Brought to you by Tata Communcations possibilities: artificial intelligence has the power to save lives 8 August 2016 • 11:45am Oliver Pickup Drones that pick inaccessible crops and mobile phones that give medical advice are two of the ways AI can transform life in the developing world. Artificial intelligence (AI) will be a “game changer” in improving the lives of the world’s poor, according to the New York-based technology entrepreneur Jack Hidary. He says the technology needed to revolutionise inefficient, ineffective food and healthcare systems in developing countries is well within grasp. “In low-income areas, agriculture and healthcare are two critical ecosystems that we can apply AI to immediately; this is not the far future, or even in five years – we can start this year,” said Mr Hidary, moderator and session leader of Tata Communications’ recent 2016 CEO Summit, with the theme “Artificial intelligence meets emotional intelligence”. "Soon we could expect instant medical advice and prescriptions from 'smartphone laboratories'" “AI will be a game changer, and benefit billions. -- See how you can connect your business at tatacommunications. com If you would like to add a comment, please register or log in Register Log in Please review our commenting policy Don't miss experts 03 Aug 2016, 4:30pm Artificial intelligence and the implications of its rapid growth humans 25 Jul 2016, 12:15pm How worldwide businesses should prepare for the rise of artificial intelligence 20 Jul 2016, 11:30am Act now to benefit from artificial intelligence – before it’s too late intelligence: driver-less cars, robots, virtual reality 12 Jul 2016, 10:15am How artificial intelligence will transform your business To keep up with business demands innovation is essential How to recruit the best talent for your business Disruption in the marketplace is good for business busy streets, full of people 09 Jul 2015, 3:04pm Social responsibility: giving back is important More from Tata Communications Enterprises are moving away from the in-house data centre and forging new hybrid relationships between their existing data centres and cloud-hosted solutions Cloudification As technology continues to move at a breakneck pace — with social, mobile, analytics and cloud driving the evolution of businesses — innovative telecoms players are helping enterprises to embrace the change Embracing change From Bahrain to Brazil and back again, Tata Communications helps businesses reach their audiences faster and expand into new territories. There are some great stories to tell. The Telegraph My details My newsletters Logout Upgrade to Premium My details My newsletters Logout The Telegraph Artificial intelligence and the implications of its rapid growth Brought to you by Tata Communcations different forms, and already permeates our everyday life 3 August 2016 • 4:30pm Oliver Pickup As artificial intelligence reinvents every business, chief executives have a responsibility to consider the implications of this transformative technology. Artificial intelligence is no longer the subject of science fiction, or something we are going to see in 20 or 30 years,” said Vinod Kumar, chief executive of Tata Communications, in his welcome address at the recent 2016 CEO Summit with the theme “Artificial intelligence meets emotional intelligence”. Mr Kumar set the scene for the summit, which gathered 60 business leaders and tech trendsetters at Coworth Park in Ascot, Berkshire, to discuss possible threats and opportunities in the coming AI age. -- ” Tata Communications reached by this internet backbone inviting employees to submit ideas with the potential to become a $200m business within 10 years and touch billions network, being built in cities including Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore by Tata Communications See how you can connect your business at tatacommunications. com If you would like to add a comment, please register or log in Register Log in Please review our commenting policy Don't miss experts 08 Aug 2016, 11:45am Instant diagnosis by smartphone: how artificial intelligence can save lives humans 25 Jul 2016, 12:15pm How worldwide businesses should prepare for the rise of artificial intelligence 20 Jul 2016, 11:30am Act now to benefit from artificial intelligence – before it’s too late intelligence: driver-less cars, robots, virtual reality 12 Jul 2016, 10:15am How artificial intelligence will transform your business To keep up with business demands innovation is essential How to recruit the best talent for your business Disruption in the marketplace is good for business busy streets, full of people 09 Jul 2015, 3:04pm Social responsibility: giving back is important More from Tata Communications Enterprises are moving away from the in-house data centre and forging new hybrid relationships between their existing data centres and cloud-hosted solutions Cloudification As technology continues to move at a breakneck pace — with social, mobile, analytics and cloud driving the evolution of businesses — innovative telecoms players are helping enterprises to embrace the change Embracing change From Bahrain to Brazil and back again, Tata Communications helps businesses reach their audiences faster and expand into new territories. There are some great stories to tell. The Telegraph My details My newsletters Logout Upgrade to Premium My details My newsletters Logout The Telegraph Act now to benefit from artificial intelligence – before it’s too late Brought to you by Tata Communcations things to come: don't get left behind in the AI revolution 20 July 2016 • 11:30am Oliver Pickup Chief executives must be acutely aware of how to harness the power of AI to transform their human capital if they are to avoid a future of failure. Artificial intelligence (AI) is rapidly and inexorably reshaping all aspects of our world. Businesses that fail to switch on to the possibilities of seismic market disruption and advancement or utilise the technology now available face being banished to history – and soon. -- See how you can connect your business at tatacommunications. com If you would like to add a comment, please register or log in Register Log in Please review our commenting policy Don't miss experts 08 Aug 2016, 11:45am Instant diagnosis by smartphone: how artificial intelligence can save lives experts 03 Aug 2016, 4:30pm Artificial intelligence and the implications of its rapid growth humans 25 Jul 2016, 12:15pm How worldwide businesses should prepare for the rise of artificial intelligence intelligence: driver-less cars, robots, virtual reality 12 Jul 2016, 10:15am How artificial intelligence will transform your business To keep up with business demands innovation is essential How to recruit the best talent for your business Disruption in the marketplace is good for business busy streets, full of people 09 Jul 2015, 3:04pm Social responsibility: giving back is important More from Tata Communications Enterprises are moving away from the in-house data centre and forging new hybrid relationships between their existing data centres and cloud-hosted solutions Cloudification As technology continues to move at a breakneck pace — with social, mobile, analytics and cloud driving the evolution of businesses — innovative telecoms players are helping enterprises to embrace the change Embracing change From Bahrain to Brazil and back again, Tata Communications helps businesses reach their audiences faster and expand into new territories. There are some great stories to tell. The Telegraph My details My newsletters Logout Upgrade to Premium My details My newsletters Logout The Telegraph My week with a very bossy robot [ChatBotsHumans_trans_NvBQzQNjv4Bqek9vKm18v_rkIPH9w2GMNtm3NAjPW-2_OvjCi which portrayed artificial intelligence robots Credit: Des Willie/Kudos/Channel 4 12 April 2016 • 6:42pm After two decades being an office worker, I finally made it. I now have a personal assistant. -- She is the latest, and possibly the most interesting, version of a phenomenon that has taken Silicon Valley by storm: chatbots. These are computer software programmes that are able to communicate with humans through artificial intelligence and, possibly, help run their homes. Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, is developing an AI robot Mark Zuckerberg, founder of Facebook, is developing an AI robot Earlier this year, Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook founder, announced that he was going to dedicate his spare time to building a “simple AI”, similar to Jarvis, the robotic butler in Iron Man. -- “There are a number of daily tasks that I’d love help with. Something that could summarise all the emails I get sent during a day would be great” Sabine Hubert, lecturer in robotics at Bristol University First, there’s Apple’s Siri and Microsoft’s Cortana, mobile phone software that uses very basic artificial intelligence to understand your voice and answer your questions. Also, some companies, such as Ikea, use chatbots to answer standard customer service enquiries when you get in touch with a complaint. The Telegraph My details My newsletters Logout Upgrade to Premium My details My newsletters Logout The Telegraph Improve your customer service experience with AI In association with Brother logo founder Mark Zuckerberg have proclaimed chatbots to be the future of computing Credit: AP/Eric Risberg 30 November 2016 • 5:00pm SMEs cannot afford to ignore larger companies' use of artificial intelligence to solve customer needs, but nor should they rush to invest in imperfect computing. The best customer service agent is knowledgeable, always available and knows precisely what your customer wants, but increasingly, they’re not human. Chatbots and other artificial intelligence tools could help your SME offer a more comprehensive, personalised customer service without hiring new staff. But, alongside the benefits of computerising customer service, there are risks, particularly as it’s such early days for the technology involved. The Telegraph My details My newsletters Logout Upgrade to Premium My details My newsletters Logout The Telegraph Marketing faces death by algorithm unless it finds a new code speaker Amazon Echo, will play a role in how brands market to consumers in the future Credit: BLOOMBERG FINANCE LP/LUKE MACGREGOR 10 November 2016 • 5:00pm As artificial intelligence becomes more widespread, marketing strategies must be both human-focused and optimised for machine algorithms. Artificial intelligence (AI) is one of the most-hyped topics in advertising right now. Brands are increasingly finding that they need to market to intelligent machines in order to reach humans, and this is set to transform the marketing function. The Telegraph My details My newsletters Logout Upgrade to Premium My details My newsletters Logout The Telegraph Seymour Papert, artificial intelligence guru – obituary [105465446_MIT_mathematician_Seymour_Papert_who_w_his_MIT_colleagues_de Pierce/The LIFE Images Collection/Getty 11 August 2016 • 4:29pm Seymour Papert, who has died aged 88, held the title Lego Professor for Learning Research at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and was a world expert on IT and learning – and artificial intelligence. Once described as a “cross between Robin Williams in the movie Toys and Albert Einstein”, Papert argued that children, in all societies, can master computing, not just their simple operation but the writing of computer code (programming) as well. -- He went on to do post-doctoral research on mathematics and children’s education at the University of Geneva, under the psychologist Jean Piaget, who taught that play was a vital part of a child’s cognitive development. In 1960, Papert attended a cybernetics conference in London where he met Marvin Minsky, the co-founder of the artificial intelligence group at MIT. Papert moved to MIT in 1963 at a time when there was a schism in the American computer science community between those who sought to develop intelligent software by whatever practical means, and those who based their work on the similation of the cognitive processes that go on in the human brain. The Telegraph My details My newsletters Logout Upgrade to Premium My details My newsletters Logout The Telegraph Google cut its electricity bill by 40pc using artificial intelligence put to work at its immense data centres Credit: Google 20 July 2016 • 3:59pm Google is using artificial intelligence to reduce the amount of energy it uses to cool its immense data centres. The energy consumed at the centres, a maze of cables, pipes and servers where Google processes all of the information consumed by its users, could account for as much as 2 per cent of the world's total greenhouse gas emissions. Using machine learning, the search giant said it has managed to reduce the energy used to cool them by as much as 40 per cent. Google data centre emitting steam Water vapour streams from cooling towers at a Google data centre called The Dalles in Orgeon Credit: Google The technology created at DeepMind, the Cambridge-based artificial intelligence company acquired by Google in 2014, uses machine learning to understand the environment at the centres and make them more efficient. For two years an AI has been analysing a wealth of data from thousands of sensors at the centres, including temperature, weather, power, and pump speeds. The Telegraph My details My newsletters Logout Upgrade to Premium My details My newsletters Logout The Telegraph Asos experiments with artifical intelligence as sales climb artificial intelligence after sales increased 30pc to £500m in the last four months 12 July 2016 • 4:04pm The boss of Asos has revealed that the company is working on artificial intelligence and voice-recognition technology to ensure the online fashion retailer is at the forefront of changing shopping behaviours. Nick Beighton, chief executive, revealed to The Telegraph that the company was already developing the technology as Asos beat City expectations with a 30pc rise in group revenues to £514. -- . we are now working on various investments such as developing our own artificial intelligence and voice recognition…we have to nimble and vigilant to change,”said Mr Beighton. AI timeline “We want a Siri on steroids to inform customers when a dress is back in stock”, he said. ” Teaching computers to understand casual, contextual conversation in every language and accent is key to this quest to normalise our interactions with computers and to place Google even more squarely at the centre of our lives. Achieving this would require solving complex computational problems, and Google is investing vast amounts in machine learning - a form of artificial intelligence (AI). This is central to the company’s long term future; it permeates everything it now does. -- The rate has reached an inflection point. ” To some, Google’s strategy will seem terrifying: won't artificial intelligence end up automating all jobs, and, in extremis, lead to a Terminator-style dystopia where machines take control? Google is hoping to pioneer post-mobile computing with products such as the speaker-based Google Home Google is hoping to pioneer post-mobile computing with products such as the speaker-based Google Home Credit: Getty Images The Google boss believes that the benefits of harnessing AI will be much greater than the costs and that the changes will take decades, allowing societies to adapt. -- It's shocking to see. I look at that and I think: can machine learning and artificial intelligence make progress on these things? In my mind, the answer is yes. -- But it’s a force for making people’s lives better. It's also an incredibly democratising force over time" He also believes that his “assistant” project, and the progress of artificial intelligence, will make it easier to protect privacy, another controversial area for the tech industry. “Today's software is difficult. -- Or take Google Translate: the app, using a phone’s camera, now “reads” Russian or Mandarin and instantly translates the characters into English. There is no immediate monetisation mechanism for any of these projects, but they all form part of the company’s mission to apply machine learning and artificial intelligence to as many problems as possible. Refreshingly, the Google chief is careful not to express a view on Brexit. The Telegraph My details My newsletters Logout Upgrade to Premium My details My newsletters Logout The Telegraph Twitter pays $150m for London AI startup Magic Pony Magic Pony has been acquired by Twitter Credit: Peter Matthews, Balderton Capital 20 June 2016 • 3:03pm Twitter has acquired London artificial intelligence startup Magic Pony for around $150m (£102m), according to sources close to the company. The startup, founded by graduates of Imperial College London uses machine learning to create high-quality videos from grainy footage, and will likely be integrated into Twitter's live and video services such as Periscope and Vine. -- I happen to think this view is phenomenally short sighted," said Suranga Chandratillake, partner of Balderton Capital who invested in Magic Pony Technology in 2015. "It is, instead, a huge opportunity for Europe to be at the heart of the artificial intelligence revolution and do it off the back of US investment. " What Magic Pony does According to a previous interview by Rob Bishop, the startup's CEO, the patented technology can enhance image quality, particularly video captured on mobile phones in poor lighting conditions. The Telegraph My details My newsletters Logout Upgrade to Premium My details My newsletters Logout The Telegraph Will Apple have to sacrifice your privacy to keep its edge? 16 June 2016 • 7:21pm while taking steps in AI this week Credit: AFP The defining advance of the next decade, if you listen to the prophets of Silicon Valley, will be the seismic and unavoidable ascent of artificial intelligence. It might be hard to take the thought seriously when a satnav sends you down a dead-end country road, or your phone’s autocorrect feature turns a carefully-constructed text message to gibberish, but the milestones reached in the last year alone have been exceptional. -- Amazon has emerged as a sleeping giant in the field. And Microsoft is ploughing resources into artificial intelligence, albeit with mixed success (a conversational Twitter bot it unveiled earlier this year was swiftly shut down after “learning” to spew vile insults at those who engaged with it). Google's driverless cars Google's driverless cars - one advance in AI Credit: AFP The missing name here is Apple. -- But another reason, and one that is often brushed aside by other tech groups invested in AI, is privacy. Artificial intelligence, at least for now, needs to be trained on heaps of data. A computer vision programme does not instinctively know what a cat is – it must be shown millions of photos of cats to be able to identify one, and even then, tends to recognise cat characteristics – four legs, tail – rather than the understanding a human will have (show it a cat with three legs and it might struggle). The Telegraph My details My newsletters Logout Upgrade to Premium My details My newsletters Logout The Telegraph Elon Musk: Become cyborgs or risk humans being turned into robots' pets the rise of AI Credit: Reuters 2 June 2016 • 10:26am Elon Musk, the billionaire boss of Tesla and SpaceX, has said that humans need to become cyborgs to avoid becoming “house cats” for vastly more intelligent robots. Musk said that as artificial intelligence advances, people will need to augment their brain power with digital technology to prevent them becoming irrelevant. He backed the idea of a “neural lace” – a new electronic layer of the brain that would allow us to instantly access online information and greatly improve cognitive powers by tapping into artificial intelligence. "The benign situation with ultra-intelligent AI is that we would be so far below in intelligence we’d be like a pet, or a house cat"Elon Musk “Under any rate of advancement in AI we will be left behind by a lot. -- If somebody doesn’t do it then I think I should probably do it,” he said. Musk said the scenario in which humans are turned into pets was the optimistic one, and that the true consequences of artificial intelligence could be much worse. Last year he launched a $1 billion fund into research on saving humanity from AI, and has joined Professor Stephen Hawking and Bill Gates in warning about the dangers. The Telegraph My details My newsletters Logout Upgrade to Premium My details My newsletters Logout The Telegraph Computers will outperform doctors at diagnosing illnesses, says government technology adviser [rexfeatures_5669897a_doctor_trans_NvBQzQNjv4Bqeo_i_u9APj8RuoebjoAHt0k9 artificial intelligence meant computers would be able to outperform doctors Credit: Rex 1 June 2016 • 8:42pm Computers will soon outperform even the best doctors at diagnosing illnesses, because of the rapid growth of processing power, a government technology adviser has said. Richard Susskind, an Oxford professor who has advised governments around the world, said that in the coming years, patients would be able to take pictures of their ailments and receive an accurate, computer-generated diagnosis. -- Richard Susskind is IT Adviser to the Lord Chief Justice of England and Wales, and chairman of the Advisory Board of the Oxford Internet Institute. Credit: Oxford Internet Institute Appearing at the Hay Festival, sponsored by the Telegraph, Prof Susskind said that advances in artificial intelligence will result in the decline of the traditional professions, such as accountancy, the law, and medicine, as computers become adept at performing the roles of experts. He said: “It’s no longer science fiction. -- In our view a lot of these technologies will be coming through in the 2020s. "We’re not saying that doctors are going to be replaced overnight, we’re not even saying in the 2020s, but we are saying that the practical impact of artificial intelligence research coming out of research laboratories is remarkable. ” Children in a coding lesson Children in a coding lesson Credit: Paul Grover Referring to the field of medicine, Prof Susskind gave the example of skin disorders. The Telegraph My details My newsletters Logout Upgrade to Premium My details My newsletters Logout The Telegraph 'Care-bots' for the elderly are dangerous, warns artificial intelligence professor 30 May 2016 • 10:00pm Computer companions for elderly people are ‘emotionally dangerous’ and will never be good enough to take the place of real human contact, an artificial intelligence expert has warned. In December the University of Singapore introduced ‘Nadine’ the world’s most lifelike robot whose creators say will eventually provide childcare and offer friendship to lonely pensioners. -- In Japan cyber-pets such as the robotic seal Paro and dog AIBO were popular until Sony discontinued them. Many scientists have warned that advances in artificial intelligence mean we are heading for a time when computer ‘thinking’ passes that of humans, a threshold dubbed the ‘technological singularity. ” However Prof Boden said it was unlikely that technology would ever succeed in matching the complexity of the human brain. -- ” Follow the Telegraph READ MORE ABOUT: If you would like to add a comment, please register or log in Register Log in Please review our commenting policy Follow the Telegraph Science latest serpentine lake at Clumber Park 07 Jan 2018, 12:01am National Trust sends heartfelt letter to fracking company asking it to abandon Clumber Park survey plans 06 Jan 2018, 9:30pm How 'wi-fi' connects human brains and explains why people have 'gut feelings' 06 Jan 2018, 3:13pm Families put at risk because NHS is refusing to test for deadly 'Angelina Jolie gene', report claims scientists have found 05 Jan 2018, 2:32pm Hole in ozone layer has shrunk thanks to worldwide ban of CFCs, Nasa confirms 05 Jan 2018, 1:38pm CSI effect is a myth: forensic detective series do not make criminals better at crime exercise 04 Jan 2018, 10:00pm How 30 minutes of facial exercise a day can make women look three years younger 04 Jan 2018, 6:26pm Could this 4,000 year ancient monument be Yorkshire's first sauna? 04 Jan 2018, 12:01am NHS must offer transgender men egg storage so they can be parents, says British Fertility Society guidance trigger cancer 03 Jan 2018, 6:00pm Drinking alcohol raises risk of cancer by snapping DNA, scientists find disease 03 Jan 2018, 12:58am Artificial intelligence 'to diagnose heart disease' 03 Jan 2018, 12:39am Obsession with physical perfection rises by more than a third among young people 03 Jan 2018, 12:01am Sir David Attenborough: I'll give up filming when I can't climb the stairs How the UK will see the moon in 2018 02 Jan 2018, 12:47pm Complete list of every full moon in 2018, including January's Wolf supermoon 31 Dec 2017, 10:58pm Egyptian mummy can 'live forever' after development in scanning technique 31 Dec 2017, 2:42pm Night sky – January 2018: Once in a Blue Moon 31 Dec 2017, 7:00am Silicon Valley's 'fasting' chemical drinks diet may soon arrive in Britain Premium 30 Dec 2017, 12:01am Lost Roman roads could be found as Environment Agency laser scans whole of England from air unassisted 29 Dec 2017, 4:57pm British Polar explorer Ben Saunders echoes Shackleton as he abandons quest to cross South Pole unassisted burning patch with Asst Prof Xu Chenjie 29 Dec 2017, 2:53pm Tiny tummy patch could cut fat by one third in four weeks. . The Telegraph My details My newsletters Logout Upgrade to Premium My details My newsletters Logout The Telegraph Computers could develop consciousness and may need 'human' rights, says Oxford professor 29 May 2016 • 2:14pm Advances in artificial intelligence could lead to computers and smartphones developing consciousness and they may need to be given ‘human’ rights, an expert has claimed. Marcus du Sautoy, who took over from Richard Dawkins as Professor for the Public Understanding of Science at Oxford University in 2008 said it was now possible to measure consciousness and, in the future, technology could be deemed to be ‘alive. -- ’ "If we understand these things are having a level of consciousness are we might well have to introduce rights. "Marcus du Sautoy Prof du Sautoy, who was speaking about his new book ‘What We Cannot Know’, at The Hay Literary Festival, said artificial intelligence could reach a ‘threshold’ where life ignites. “It’s getting to a point where we will might be able to say this thing has a sense of itself and maybe there is a threshold moment where suddenly this consciousness emerges. -- ” Follow the Telegraph READ MORE ABOUT: If you would like to add a comment, please register or log in Register Log in Please review our commenting policy Follow the Telegraph Science latest serpentine lake at Clumber Park 07 Jan 2018, 12:01am National Trust sends heartfelt letter to fracking company asking it to abandon Clumber Park survey plans 06 Jan 2018, 9:30pm How 'wi-fi' connects human brains and explains why people have 'gut feelings' 06 Jan 2018, 3:13pm Families put at risk because NHS is refusing to test for deadly 'Angelina Jolie gene', report claims scientists have found 05 Jan 2018, 2:32pm Hole in ozone layer has shrunk thanks to worldwide ban of CFCs, Nasa confirms 05 Jan 2018, 1:38pm CSI effect is a myth: forensic detective series do not make criminals better at crime exercise 04 Jan 2018, 10:00pm How 30 minutes of facial exercise a day can make women look three years younger 04 Jan 2018, 6:26pm Could this 4,000 year ancient monument be Yorkshire's first sauna? 04 Jan 2018, 12:01am NHS must offer transgender men egg storage so they can be parents, says British Fertility Society guidance trigger cancer 03 Jan 2018, 6:00pm Drinking alcohol raises risk of cancer by snapping DNA, scientists find disease 03 Jan 2018, 12:58am Artificial intelligence 'to diagnose heart disease' 03 Jan 2018, 12:39am Obsession with physical perfection rises by more than a third among young people 03 Jan 2018, 12:01am Sir David Attenborough: I'll give up filming when I can't climb the stairs How the UK will see the moon in 2018 02 Jan 2018, 12:47pm Complete list of every full moon in 2018, including January's Wolf supermoon 31 Dec 2017, 10:58pm Egyptian mummy can 'live forever' after development in scanning technique 31 Dec 2017, 2:42pm Night sky – January 2018: Once in a Blue Moon 31 Dec 2017, 7:00am Silicon Valley's 'fasting' chemical drinks diet may soon arrive in Britain Premium 30 Dec 2017, 12:01am Lost Roman roads could be found as Environment Agency laser scans whole of England from air unassisted 29 Dec 2017, 4:57pm British Polar explorer Ben Saunders echoes Shackleton as he abandons quest to cross South Pole unassisted burning patch with Asst Prof Xu Chenjie 29 Dec 2017, 2:53pm Tiny tummy patch could cut fat by one third in four weeks. . twitter. com/GP3HHE3F6c — Hugo Barra (@hbarra) May 17, 2016 Artificial intelligence Google has been telling everyone who will listen about its strides in artificial intelligence in the last few months. It has open-sourced AI software, began using it more in its everyday services, and beaten the world champion at Go. Given that, it would be highly unlikely that it won't be showing off its artificial intelligence prowess with some item or other at I/O. best android apps READ MORE ABOUT: If you would like to add a comment, please register or log in Register Log in Please review our commenting policy Technology latest 06 Jan 2018, 2:35pm Bitcoin futures investors set to suffer losses as cryptocurrency fever fades Premium 06 Jan 2018, 2:28pm How can I buy bitcoin in the UK? The Telegraph My details My newsletters Logout Upgrade to Premium My details My newsletters Logout The Telegraph Standard Chartered investing in robots to help cut costs more compliance and regulatory staff Credit: Bloomberg 26 March 2016 • 5:00pm Standard Chartered is moving heavily into radical new technologies that could one day see robots providing bespoke wealth advice and artificial intelligence answering customer questions. The emerging markets-focused British bank has set up a new lab called the eXellerator in Singapore in an attempt to bring theoretical ideas from Silicon Valley to life. -- Banks across the world are hiring more compliance and regulatory staff, leading to a shortfall of suitably qualified workers and spiralling costs. To combat this, Standard Chartered wants to run computer systems and artificial intelligence programmes to ensure the regulations are not broken, rather than hiring staff to manually implement them and monitor the results. “In the last two or three years, almost all banks have added hundreds or thousands of additional people for compliance, to regulate reporting, regulate compliance – now, banks understand what is going on and want a way to make it more efficient,” said the bank’s global chief innovation officer Anju Patwardhan. -- Currently a customer typically tells a bank how much risk they are prepared to tolerate in their investment portfolio and the banker – or a machine – matches suitable investments to that risk profile. In future, Ms Patwardhan believes artificial intelligence could offer more tailored advice, understanding customers’ end goals. “If you moved to using cognitive computing, the computers would give you recommendations based on the data received without you having to disclose anything… the computers are continuously learning,” she said. While all of this may be true, there is a bigger issue at hand here. This is an example of artificial intelligence at its very worst - and it’s only the beginning. I'm not at all concerned about the future of AI pic. -- These entities can digest all the data in the world, and analyse it for patterns, ultimately tackling global crises in healthcare, counter-terrorism and energy. According to technology research firm Tractica, the artificial intelligence market is set to reach $11. 1bn by 2024. -- A super intelligent AI will be extremely good at accomplishing its goals, and if those goals aren't aligned with ours, we're in trouble. ” This was echoed by British neuroscientist and artificial intelligence expert, Demis Hassabis, whose company DeepMind was acquired by Google for a hefty £400m in 2014 – its largest ever European acquisition – even though the startup didn’t even have a product for sale. Hassabis’ company built AlphaGo, the computer program that was able to defeat the world champion of Go, an ancient Chinese board game in which humans had remained undefeated by machines - until earlier this month. -- atlas 2 Ultimately, there will come a time when even humans cannot keep up with the inner workings of an artificially intelligent entity’s “mind” so policing in real-time through a moral framework may become impossible. Instead, perhaps we should start designing systems now that can keep their own kind in check - experts such as Oren Etzioni of the Allen Institute for Artificial Intelligence have called this a “guardian AI” that can act as a moral police. It’s a lesson we have already learned from millenia of human evolution - too much concentration of power never ends well. The Telegraph My details My newsletters Logout Upgrade to Premium My details My newsletters Logout The Telegraph Lip-reading artificial intelligence could help police fight crime 24 March 2016 • 5:59pm If the lip-reading technology had been used during the 2006 World Cup Final, when Zinedine Zidane was given a red card for headbutting Marco Materazzi, the outcome of the game could have been different. Closer analysis of the event revealed that Zidane responded to Materazzi insulting his family. "If we'd had live lip-reading technology they probably would have both been red carded," said Dr Helen Bear, a researcher at the University of East Anglia in Norwich who has developed a lip-reading artificial intelligence program. The new technology can lip-read better than humans could help solve crimes by analysing speech in CCTV footage. -- We’ve still got more ideas for how we can improve the research further," said Dr Bear. Dr Richard Harvey, another researcher who worked on the technology, said: "Lip-reading is one of the most challenging problems in artificial intelligence so it’s great to make progress on one of the trickier aspects, which is how to train machines to recognise the appearance and shape of human lips. " Most embarassing hacks of all time For a round-up of technology news and analysis, sign up to our weekly Tech Briefing here. co. uk Wednesday 03 January 2018 Advertisement Defeated Go grandmaster wants a rematch against computer Lee Se-dol believes he learned enough about AplhaGo's tactics that he will triumph in next contest The world's top Go player Lee Sedol drinks water after putting the first stone against Google's artificial intelligence program AlphaGo during the third match of Google DeepMind Challenge Match in Seoul Lee Sedol after finishing the third match of the Google DeepMind Challenge Photo: Lee Jin-man/AP By Julian Ryall, Tokyo 6:46AM GMT 22 Mar 2016 The South Korean Go grandmaster soundly defeated by the AlphaGo computer programme says he would like a rematch and hinted that he may have found a tactic to defeat the machine. Lee Se-dol conceded the final match in the five-game series in Seoul on March 15, losing the tournament by four games to one. Yet the fact that he triumphed in the penultimate contest has apparently given Mr Lee hope that he can get the better of artificial intelligence over a new series of games. "I will have to consider it carefully, but if AlphaGo wants a rematch, I'd like to face it again, but on the condition that it will take place in the near future", Mr Lee told Yonhap News. -- Mr Hassabis said no decision has been made on the computer's next opponent. One possible match could pit artificial intelligence against Ke Jie, the 18-year-old world number one. "Even if AlphaGo can defeat Lee Se-dol, it can't bear me", Mr Ke wrote on his microblog account. The Telegraph My details My newsletters Logout Upgrade to Premium My details My newsletters Logout The Telegraph Minecraft becomes testbed for artificial intelligence experiments its artificial intelligence technology Credit: Microsoft 14 March 2016 • 11:12am Minecraft is going to be a testbed for artificial intelligence (AI) experiments. Microsoft, who owns the hugely popular world-building game, revealed it will train an AI program to play Minecraft, which is more "sophisticated" than current AI research simulations. -- "You can do survival mode, you can do 'build battles' with your friends, you can do courses, you can implement our own games. "This is really exciting for artificial intelligence because it allows us to create games that stretch beyond current abilities. " Minecraft and artificial intelligence Credit: Microsoft The new research is the latest step in Microsoft's plan to heavily invest in AI. It recently purchased British startup SwiftKey, a predictive typing app that uses AI to guess users'e next word, for £174 million. uk Wednesday 03 January 2018 Advertisement Google AlphaGo 'can’t beat me' says China Go grandmaster Teenage world number one Ke Jie says he wants to play against the British-built programme, which is currently beating South Korean veteran Lee Se-dol Google DeepMind Challenge Match Google DeepMind Challenge Match. Google's artificial intelligence (AI) program AlphaGo beat top-class South Korean Go player Lee Se-dol in the ancient board game Go Neil Connor By Neil Connor, Beijing 11:34AM GMT 11 Mar 2016 Follow A Chinese teenage prodigy in the board game Go has labelled Google’s AlphaGo “weaker” than him and confidently declared that he could take on the computer programme. “Even if AlphaGo can defeat Lee Se-dol, it can’t beat me,” 18-year-old Ke Jie said on his microblog account, as the programme stunned the world with two victories over the South Korean grandmaster this week. -- ” Mr Ke has beaten 33-year-old Mr Lee eight times over ten matches between the pair, with two of his victories over the world number four coming earlier this year. Go Fans watch a TV screen showing the live broadcast of the Google DeepMind Challenge Match at Yongsan Electronic Technology Land in Seoul, South Korea Go Fans watch a TV screen showing the live broadcast of the Google DeepMind Challenge Match at Yongsan Electronic Technology Land in Seoul, South Korea, as Google's artificial intelligence (AI) program AlphaGo beat top-class South Korean Go player Lee Se-dol in the ancient board game Go. Photo: Alamy Xinhua said Google Deepmind’s CEO Demis Hassabis is willing for Mr Ke to lined up as AlphaGo’s next opponent. -- “I don’t want AlphaGo to copy my style. ” AlphaGo’s first victory over Mr Lee on Wednesday was seen as a watershed moment for artificial intelligence, and the program went 2-0 ahead in the five game series a day later. The third match takes place in Seoul on Saturday. The Telegraph My details My newsletters Logout Upgrade to Premium My details My newsletters Logout The Telegraph 10 ways humans are still superior to robots ability to read emotions Credit: Reuters 11 March 2016 • 3:15pm In a giant leap forward for robotics and artificial intelligence, a computer program this week beat the world champion at a human strategy game. The AI called AlphaGo is the brainchild of Google-owned British company DeepMind, and it is was victorious in two games of Go against the world's best player. -- Tell jokes Friends script To tell really good jokes, humans draw on everything from body language to emotions. Researchers have been working for decades to produce funny artificial intelligence, but the artificial jokes don't quite have the same effect as Michael McIntyre bounding across the Apollo's stage sending up the habits of Britons. After being fed scripts from the entire Friends catalogue, an artificial intelligence from software developer Andy Herd came out with some funny but nonsensical lines such as: Chandler: So, Phoebe likes my pants Monica: Chicken Bob! Chandler: (in a muffin) (Runs to the girls to cry) Can I get some presents? -- IBM's Chef Watson has a similarly obscure palate. When the artificial intelligence was called upon to write a cookery book its dishes included asparagus grilled with pig's feet croquettes and mustard foam, and an apple and pork kebab cooked with curry powder, mushrooms and strawberries. Erm, yum. -- MIT robots built an Ikea coffee table in 2013, but that's the simplest build in the flat pack company's remit. Drive A Google self-driving car goes on a test drive near the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California A Google self-driving car goes on a test drive near the Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California Credit: PA Artificial intelligence hasn't quite mastered the art of driving in all environments yet. Google may have been testing its driverless cars in cities across the US, but adverse weather conditions such as rain, snow and even poor light are still a challenge for the technology. -- The best example of a robot that can feel "empathy" is Pepper - the Japanese humanoid robot. Pepper reads human emotions by memorising and storing data about human responses using its cloud-based artificial intelligence. It can respond to emotional signifiers such as laughing or frowning. The Telegraph My details My newsletters Logout Upgrade to Premium My details My newsletters Logout The Telegraph Britain shines in AI - but let's nurture it 3 March 2016 • 6:40pm become In 2008, three Cambridge graduates founded an app called Swiftkey, which uses artificial intelligence to predict the next word you write with extreme accuracy. The friends Jon Reynolds, Ben Medlock and Chris Hill-Scott, who later sold his stake in the startup for a bicycle, created an alternative keyboard app used on 300m smartphones which learns users’ typing habits over time. -- Needless to say, the technology will ultimately be integrated with Microsoft’s own products, to make them smarter and more intuitive. Swiftkey founders Jon Reynolds and Dr Ben Medlock Swiftkey founders Jon Reynolds and Dr Ben Medlock Credit: CREDIT: PA While this is a moment of celebration for UK entrepreneurs and investors, it’s not the first British artificial intelligence company that’s caught the fancy of a Silicon Valley monolith. The pattern is impossible to ignore. Look at the world’s biggest companies – Apple, Amazon, Google, Microsoft. All have been drawn to Britain’s disproportionately large pool of talented artificial intelligence entrepreneurs. British AI companies are crushing global competition. -- It will be an AI milestone no one has ever crossed. Founded by two young Britons Mustafa Suleyman and Cambridge graduate Demis Hassabis, DeepMind has assembled 250 of the world’s most respected artificial intelligence researchers right here in London. The company has now acquired two more British AI companies, Dark Blue Labs and Vision Factory, both spun out from Oxford University. -- The clue is in the locations of the startups. British universities specifically Cambridge, Oxford, Imperial College and University College London, are breeding grounds for the new generation of artificial intelligence companies mushrooming in Britain. "Machine learning powers everything from Netflix recommendations to your Facebook newsfeed and Google search results. " Investors who have nurtured the companies from the early days say that founders are building on cutting-edge machine learning research done by academics at these institutions in recent years. That's not hard to believe: the UK has an illustrious heritage in artificial intelligence research, starting with its founding father, Alan Turing. Although the term “artificial intelligence” itself was only coined in 1956, two years after Turing died, he proposed the conundrum of whether machines could really “think” back in 1950, when computers were just invented. His Turing Test is still the ultimate differentiator between human and machine. Artificial intelligence may seem like the domain of geeks and scientists, but increasingly it is intertwined with our everyday lives. Machine learning powers everything from Netflix recommendations to your Facebook newsfeed and Google search results. Soon it will power your home and your car. According to technology research firm Tractica, the artificial intelligence market is set to reach $11. 1bn by 2024. The Telegraph My details My newsletters Logout Upgrade to Premium My details My newsletters Logout The Telegraph How fairy tales could stop killer robots from taking over the world 17 February 2016 • 10:12am Artificial intelligence (AI) taking over the world may worry some doomsayers but a team of academics believe they can curtail the threat - by teaching them fairy tales. Fairy tales are being used to teach robots not to murder, with the ultimate goal of stopping them from rising up against humanity, the Georgia Institute of Technology has revealed. -- Stories encode many types of sociocultural knowledge: commonly shared knowledge, social protocols, examples of proper and improper behaviour, and strategies for coping with adversity. ” Fairy tales Artificial intelligence could mean end of human race, Stephen Hawking has previously warned. He argues that robots could “supersede” humanity as it developed faster than biological evolution. Elon Musk has also launched a $1bn fund to “save the world” from destruction by artificial intelligence. READ MORE ABOUT: If you would like to add a comment, please register or log in Register Log in Please review our commenting policy Technology latest 06 Jan 2018, 2:28pm How can I buy bitcoin in the UK? The Telegraph My details My newsletters Logout Upgrade to Premium My details My newsletters Logout The Telegraph Google's machine beats master at ancient game of Go in historic AI breakthrough 27 January 2016 • 6:00pm A computer program developed by Google has beaten a professional player at the ancient strategy game of Go, a potentially-historic breakthrough in the quest to develop artificial intelligence capable of matching humans. DeepMind, a British AI company owned by the internet giant, has developed software that repeatedly beat the European champion of the fiendishly-difficult board game, an advance that has evaded researchers for years and was believed to be a decade away. -- Instead, DeepMind developed a program that learned to play Go in a similar way to humans, by playing repeated games and figuring out the moves that are most likely to lead to success. Researchers believe these “deep learning” techniques could be used to build artificial intelligence capable of surpassing humans in many areas. The AlphaGo software was able to scan the gaming patterns of world-class players as well as playing millions of games against itself, learning by trial and error. -- Until now, the most advanced Go programs were only able to match up to amateur players. Gary Kasparov losing to IBM's Deep Blue at chess in 1996 Gary Kasparov was defeated by IBM's Deep Blue at chess in 1997 Credit: EPA The breakthrough, published in the scientific journal Nature, is one of the “long-standing grand challenges of artificial intelligence”, DeepMind’s Demis Hassabis said. “This has been the holy grail since Deep Blue beat Kasparov at chess, and it’s held out for over 20 years. -- The same techniques used to teach AlphaGo to play Go could be used to develop digital assistants that will automate parts of our daily lives, diagnose medical conditions faster than human doctors and help solve major scientific challenges such as modelling climate change and curing diseases, Mr Hassabis said. Facebook, which like Google is racing to develop artificial intelligence, has also been attempting to build a computer that can beat professional Go players. The ancient Chinese game of Go is one of the last games where the best human players can still beat the best artificial. The Telegraph My details My newsletters Logout Upgrade to Premium My details My newsletters Logout The Telegraph Four things we learned from the Festival of Marketing 2016 Katie Price speaks at the Festival of Marketing 2016 Credit: Getty Images/Tristan Fewings 11 October 2016 • 1:45pm From digital transformation to artificial intelligence, speakers from the Festival of Marketing reveal the biggest trends to expect in 2017 and beyond. The Festival of Marketing 2016 brought together more than 200 professionals for workshops and live debates, to learn about what’s been driving the industry – and to discuss what’s coming next. -- To be successful, digital transformation must be managed as an organisational change (processes, culture, staff), not just a technological one. ” Paul Poels, global lead of digital analytics, Philips Artificial intelligence offers a way to be more personal “Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the next frontier for marketing. It poses an enormous opportunity to create more meaningful connections than we’ve ever had. Chief Executive Anthony Morrow accepts that the simple delivery of an online portfolio alone will not be enough. Could artificial intelligence plug the gap by providing financial advice? “I think it’s maybe five years at least until the technology is at a level where AI can take on more of the customer-facing roles,” Mr Morrow said. IBM has been a major player in AI with its Watson technology which combines human capabilities with artificial intelligence. It can understand language, ingest large volumes of data (such as documents and videos), draw insights – and supposedly help us make better decisions. -- In the States, Fidelity have already worked with Google Glass so you can check your portfolio as you walk to work. In January this year, Swiss-based firm nviso launched a pilot with advisers in the States, using 3D facial imaging coupled with artificial intelligence algorithms to track and analyse facial expressions and reactions to financial scenarios in real-time to help you to discover how you really feel about your finances and risk. Sceptical? Sources close to the business say it is currently valued significantly higher than $100m. Investors include successful British entrepreneurs such as the founders of Innocent Drinks and DeepMind, the Google-owned artificial intelligence company. Currently, the London-based startup offers a mobile doctor app used by 250,000 people in the UK – pay £4. 99 a month, and get 7-days-a-week access to their pool of human doctors over video chat. “We can use artificial intelligence to start predicting the future of your health" Ali Parsa, Babylon CEO Nearly 60 businesses including Citigroup, Sky, and MasterCard, as well as health insurance providers such as Bupa and Aviva, have partnered with Babylon to offer its services to UK employees. Babylon is also trialling a partnership with the NHS, with a new pilot in Birmingham that makes its services available to the broader UK population. -- For instance, it can warn you about higher than normal heart rate, suggesting you may develop a cold. “We can use artificial intelligence to start predicting the future of your health,” chief executive Ali Parsa said. “I genuinely believe Britain has a great chance to be a global leader in digital health. co. uk Tuesday 02 January 2018 Advertisement What happens when a computer program is taught to write new episodes of Friends Artificial intelligence network attempts to recreate scene from comedy show after being fed every single script The Friends cast in Monica's apartment, the set which will be the main attraction at FriendsFest 'Monica: I hate men! I hate men! ' Photo: ALAMY By James Titcomb 4:30PM GMT 20 Jan 2016 Follow They say a monkey left to hit a keyboard for an infinite amount of time will write Shakespeare, but when it comes to Friends scripts, a computer can do the job a lot quicker. An artificial intelligence program, when fed with scripts from the entire Friends back catalogue, has produced hilarious, if not entirely up to scratch, new scenes for the show. The network re-creates the back-and-forth conversations between the show's six lead members, including faithfully adding character traits such as Chandler beginning sentences with "so," and Joey's "seriously", although they probably wouldn't be accepted by the show's producers. Andy Herd, a software developer from Dundee and creator of the Pandyland web comic, used a recurrent neural network - a form of artificial intelligence that has proven to be relatively adapt at understanding and forming language - to generate the new scripts. i fed a recurrent neural network with the scripts for every episode of friends and it learned to generate new scenes pic. -- Chandler: (in a muffin) (Runs to the girls to cry) Can I get some presents. Interactive: friends4 Interactive: friends3 Interactive: friends1 Interactive: friends2 There have been huge advances in artificial intelligence in recent years, with speech, image and text recognition as well as sentence formation improving markedly. This is enabling a wave of semi-intelligent assistants and customer service bots. Humour is seen as one of the final frontiers of artificial intelligence, being one of the most difficult things for computers to understand, which is perhaps unsurprising since psychologists also don't understand it nearly as well as other psychological phenomena. Most jokes told by robots have been pretty elementary, and pun based - "What do you call a strange market? co. uk Sunday 31 December 2017 Advertisement Google network learns to play Space Invaders in breakthrough for artificial intelligence The DQN network learned how to play classic video games including Space Invaders and Breakout without programming The network mastered the Atari game Space Invaders after being given just minimal information The network mastered the Atari game Space Invaders after being given just minimal information Photo: ALAMY Sarah Knapton By Sarah Knapton, Science Editor 7:18PM GMT 25 Feb 2015 Follow Artificial intelligence has taken a major step forward after Google created a network which learned to play a range of computer games on its own without being pre-programmed. The Deep Q Network (DQN) was given just the basic data from one Atari game and an algorithm which learned by trying out different scenarios to come up with the best score. Without any further programming the network worked out how to play a further 48 classic video games including Space Invaders and Breakout. Demis Hassabis of Google’s artificial intelligence arm DeepMind said the ultimate goal was to create a computer which had the mental capabilities of a toddler. “This work is the first time that anyone has built a single general learning system that can learn directly from experience to learn a wide range of challenging tasks,” he said. co. uk Friday 05 January 2018 Advertisement Google's artificial intelligence interprets photos as animal faces, with creepy results Engineers run photos through neural network that interprets them as disturbing collections of animal faces Dogs on horse from Google Many of the results are pretty disturbing Photo: Google By James Titcomb 10:48AM BST 02 Jul 2015 Follow Google has been one of the world's biggest backers of artificial intelligence development, investing heavily in machine learning technology, including with last year's acquisition of British company DeepMind. The company is developing "neural networks" that can spot patterns in pictures to identify them. -- Birds and insects appear in images of leaves. " Google is using the artificial intelligence software in its own products (Photos being one example), but the engineers said the techniques could one day be used as a new artform - a new way to remix visual concepts. While that might not be to everyone's tastes, the results are undoubtedly intriguing. co. uk Monday 01 January 2018 Advertisement Top scientists call for caution over artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence has the potential to eradicate disease and poverty, say world's top scientists, but researchers must not create something which cannot be controlled Google is reportedly poised to unveil a pair of Terminator-style glasses with a heads-up display that would allow users to view information on the move. Artificial intelligence must be carefully considered, say scientists Photo: REX By Matthew Sparkes, Deputy Head of Technology 11:46AM GMT 13 Jan 2015 Follow Dozens of the world’s top artificial intelligence experts have signed an open letter calling for researchers to take care to avoid potential “pitfalls” of the disruptive technology. Those who have already signed the letter include Stephen Hawking, Elon Musk, the co-founders of DeepMind, Google's director of research Peter Norvig and Harvard professor of computer science David Parkes. -- It also warns that legislative efforts are needed before autonomous cars become a practical and ubiquitous technology: “If self-driving cars cut the roughly 40,000 annual US traffic fatalities in half, the car makers might get not 20,000 thank-you notes, but 20,000 lawsuits. ” Professor Stephen Hawking has previously said that the rise of artificial intelligence could see the human race become extinct. He told the BBC: ''The primitive forms of artificial intelligence we already have have proved very useful. But I think the development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race. '' Technology entrepreneur Elon Musk has also described the rise of AI in the past as ''our biggest existential threat''. co. uk Tuesday 02 January 2018 Advertisement Apple founder: 'Computers will take over from humans' Engineering genius Steve Wozniak, who co-founded Apple with Steve Jobs, has warned that artificially intelligent computers will take over from humans and that the future is “scary and very bad for people” Steve Wozniak, who set-up the company in the mid-1970s with Steve Jobs before leaving in 1987 Steve Wozniak set-up Apple in the mid-1970s with Steve Jobs before leaving in 1987 Photo: Reuters By Matthew Sparkes, Deputy Head of Technology 1:41PM GMT 23 Mar 2015 Follow The co-founder of Apple who designed the company’s first computers in the 1970s has warned that artificial intelligence will take over from humans and that the future is “scary and very bad for people”. "Computers are going to take over from humans, no question,” he said in an interview with the Australian Financial Review. He explained that strong artificial intelligence, which would recreate the power and creativity of the human mind in software, is a risky thing for researchers to strive for. "Like people including Stephen Hawking and Elon Musk have predicted, I agree that the future is scary and very bad for people. -- I don't know about that… But when I got that thinking in my head about if I'm going to be treated in the future as a pet to these smart machines… well I'm going to treat my own pet dog really nice. " Professor Stephen Hawking has previously said that the rise of artificial intelligence could see the human race become extinct. He told the BBC: ''The primitive forms of artificial intelligence we already have have proved very useful. But I think the development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race. '' Technology entrepreneur Elon Musk has also described the rise of AI in the past as ''our biggest existential threat''. Dozens of the world’s top artificial intelligence experts have signed an open letter calling for researchers to take care to avoid potential “pitfalls” of the disruptive technology. Wozniak left Apple during the 1980s, claiming to be more interested in engineering than management. co. uk Wednesday 03 January 2018 Advertisement Google releases its artificial intelligence software into the wild Google is open-sourcing its machine learning system, TensorFlow, in the hope that it will accelerate research into artificial intelligence Google logo Google admits that its machine learning system could work much better Photo: AFP By Sophie Curtis 3:50PM GMT 10 Nov 2015 Follow Google has announced that it is releasing its artificial intelligence software into the wild, allowing third-party developers to contribute to its evolution. Artificial intelligence – or what Google describes as "machine learning" – is making computers and gadgets smarter every day. From image recognition to voice translation and noise cancellation, Google uses machine learning in many of its products, and has pumped a huge amount of its research and development budget into improving these systems. Earlier this year, for example, Google engineers released the bizarre results of an artificial intelligence experiment, which saw photos interpreted and edited by the company's "neural network", which has been trained to detect faces and other patterns in images. Google Tree One of the images thrown up by Google's neural network Photo: Google The latest iteration of its machine learning system is known as TensorFlow, which Google claims is faster, smarter and more flexible than its predecessor, DistBelief, which Google used to demonstrate that concepts like “cat” could be learned from unlabeled YouTube images. -- " He added that TensorFlow may be useful wherever researchers are trying to make sense of very complex data, from protein folding to crunching astronomy data. The news comes as new research released by online marketing technology company Rocket Fuel, reveals that almost twice as many people believe artificial intelligence can solve big world problems compared to those who think it is a threat to humanity. Channel 4's series, Humans prompted widespread debate about the dangers of artificial intelligence - and a world increasingly reliant on robots Stephen Hawking has famously been quoted as saying that the rise of artificial intelligence could see the human race become extinct, warning that technology will eventually ''supersede'' humanity, as it develops faster than biological evolution. However, the research reveals that only 21 per cent of Britons see artificial intelligence as a threat or are scared by it, while 42 per cent are excited or think it can solve big world problems. Meanwhile, despite reports that thousands of British jobs have already been replaced by machines, only 9 per cent of people believe that artificial intelligence will threaten their job, while 10 per cent think it will enhance it. telegraphsciencetech Follow @telegraphtech Read more from Telegraph Technology Home-made in China Fifty-year-old farmer Chen Lianxue with his homemade plane on the roof of his house in Qifu village of Pingliang, Gansu province, China. co. uk Wednesday 03 January 2018 Advertisement Can artificial intelligence help your business? Chris Price reports on the developments in artificial intelligence that are helping to provide ‘big data’ to companies and make our lives simpler Stephen Hawking Image 1 of 2 Professor Stephen Hawking believes that full artificial intelligence poses a threat to human existence Photo: 2015 Anthony Harvey Arnold Schwarzenegger as The Terminator Image 1 of 2 Features. No use without permission. By Chris Price 4:10PM GMT 04 Mar 2015 Artificial intelligence (AI) - the idea that machines and software can think and act like humans - isn’t new. Back in the early years of computing, Alan Turing predicted some of the ethical questions around AI that we still wrestle with today. -- To Professor Stephen Hawking, one of Britain's pre-eminent scientists, efforts to create thinking machines pose a threat to our very existence. He told the BBC in a recent interview: "The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race. " However, he conceded that elements of basic AI had been useful for him personally. co. uk Thursday 04 January 2018 Advertisement Threat from Artificial Intelligence not just Hollywood fantasy Oxford academic Dr Stuart Armstrong warns humanity runs the risk of creating super intelligent computers that eventually destroy us all Ex Machina 2015 Ex Machina 2015 Patrick Sawer By Patrick Sawer 11:00PM BST 27 Jun 2015 Follow From the dystopian writings of Aldous Huxley and HG Wells to the sinister and apocalyptic vision of modern Hollywood blockbusters, the rise of the machines has long terrified mankind. But it now seems that the brave new world of science-fiction could become all too real. An Oxford academic is warning that humanity runs the risk of creating super intelligent computers that eventually destroy us all, even when specifically instructed not to harm people. Dr Stuart Armstrong, of the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford University, has predicted a future where machines run by artificial intelligence become so indispensable in human lives they eventually make us redundant and take over. And he says his alarming vision could happen as soon as the next few decades. -- But these may not be the controls that were meant. " Dr Armstrong, who was speaking at a debate on artificial intelligence organised in London by the technology research firm Gartner, warns that it will be difficult to tell whether a machine is developing in a benign or deadly direction. He says an AI would always appear to act in a way that was beneficial to humanity, making itself useful and indispensable - much like the iPhone's Siri, which answers questions and performs simple organisational tasks - until the moment it could logically take over all functions. co. uk Wednesday 03 January 2018 Advertisement Toyota places $1bn bet on robot technology World's biggest car company to invest $1bn on robots and artificial intelligence as it looks to the future Toyota says robots will be able to assist and interact with humans By Alan Tovey, Industry Editor 9:41AM GMT 06 Nov 2015 Follow Toyota is placing a $1bn bet on robots and artificial intelligence being major future technologies by setting up a new research and development unit to investigate their uses. The world’s biggest car company will spend the money over five years to establish the Toyota Research Institute near Stanford University in Silicon Valley, with a second facility at Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, Massachusetts. It is our responsibility to make life better for our customers, and society as a whole Akio Toyoda, Toyota president The Japanese industrial giant said that it “believes artificial intelligence has significant potential to support future industrial technologies and the creation of an entirely new industry”. Investment in the research institute will be spread over five years and Toyota said it hopes the centre will “bridge the gap between fundamental research and product development”. The institute’s primary mission will be to speed up development of robots and artificial intelligence and to “help resolve society's future challenges by using artificial intelligence and big data…contributing to a sustainable future where everyone can experience a safer, freer, and unconstrained life”. Toyota has appointed its executive technical adviser Gill Pratt as chief executive of the new enterprise. uk Saturday 06 January 2018 Advertisement Should humans fear the rise of the machine? Artificial intelligence could usher in a new age of productivity. But it also threatens many jobs and raises fears that the machines could turn on us The killer robots of film might be closer than we think The Terminator is just one scenario where the robots take over Photo: Warner Br/Everett/REX By James Titcomb 5:05PM BST 01 Sep 2015 Follow Within the space of a couple of decades, a robot may be writing this article. -- And if it isn’t driving your car, you’ll need to get with the times. In the last few years, artificial intelligence (AI) has moved from a pipedream, or the domain of science fiction, to a reality that is certain to have a profound impact on our lives. Not only is AI certain to make millions of jobs that exist today obsolete, it will also force us to ask major questions, about privacy, laws and ethics. Last week, many of the world’s eminent computer scientists and mathematicians gathered at University College Cork, Ireland, to celebrate the legacy of George Boole, a legendary mathematician whose work on logic and human thought laid the groundwork for modern computing and today’s artificial intelligence revolution. Boole, who was born two centuries ago this year, devised the theory of logic that underpins binary – the “on” and “off” or “one” and “zero” commands that make up the language of computer code. Many academics believe that, were it not for Boole’s premature death in 1864, the digital revolution that began when Claude Shannon used Boolean logic to build and devise a type of electrical circuit in the 1930s would have come several decades earlier. Claude Shannon pioneered modern computing Claude Shannon, who pioneered computing Boole was also an early influence of the idea of artificial intelligence, believing that all human thought could be reduced into a series of mathematical rules. On one trip to London, recalls his biographer Des MacHale, Boole marvelled at the “thinking” exercised by Charles Babbage’s Analytical Engine, an early calculating machine using looms and punch cards. -- He points out that HAL 9000, the antagonist of 2001: A Space Odyssey who turned on his human passengers, was racked by paranoia. HAL’s problem wasn’t his artificial qualities, it was his human defects, and there is no reason to believe a real-life artificial intelligence would have such qualities. But fears over the power of artifical intelligence have not been helped by the eminence of the Turing Test, often seen as the litmus paper for AI. But now, for the first time, the pudgy Italian plumber from the Mushroom Kingdom has been given a mind of his own. A team of cognitive modelling researchers at the University of Tübingen in Germany have developed an artificial intelligence system that allows Mario to learn about his environment, experience emotions and respond to voice commands. In a video created to demonstrate the their work, the researchers show how Mario can describe his 'feelings' and act accordingly. -- Mario can calculate how many moves he needs to make to reach a certain position, and also learn that jumping on a Goomba (one of his mushroom-shaped enemies) will destroy it. Related Articles 19 Jan 2015 17 Jan 2015 18 Jan 2015 13 Jan 2015 The Mario AI project is part of an annual competition run by the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence – the aim of which is to document advances in artificial intelligence. The full list if entrants can be found here. co. uk Tuesday 02 January 2018 Advertisement Cancer drug development time halved thanks to artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence has halved the time it has taken to bring a cancer combatting drug to market, start-up claims Blood tests could identify an increased risk of breast cancer long before mammograms can spot it, research suggests The drug can help cells metabolise glucose again, letting them die off Ian Douglas By Ian Douglas 9:46AM BST 09 Oct 2015 Follow A cancer-fighting drug is on target to be brought to market in half the expected time thanks to the use of artificial inteligence in testing, a start up has claimed. Berg Health, a pharmaceutical startup founded in 2008 with Silicon Valley venture capital backing, said it expected the drug to go on sale within three years, marking seven years in development compared to the general 14. -- Berg’s drug, BPM31510, will reactivate the mitochondria, restarting the metabolising of glucose as normal and reinstituting cell death, so the body can harmlessly pass the problem cells out of the body. Berg Health's team used a specialised form of artificial intelligence to compare samples taken from patients with the most aggressive strains of cancer, including pancreatic, bladder and brain, with those from non-cancerous individuals. The technology highlighted disparities between the corresponding biological profiles, selecting those it predicted would respond best to the drug. co. uk Saturday 06 January 2018 Advertisement Artificial intelligence will enhance and personalise NHS care, says chairman of NHS England Sir Malcolm Grant says computers could enhance ability to diagnose illnesses and understand how to treat them better Sir Malcolm Grant, Chairman of NHS England Sir Malcolm Grant, Chairman of NHS England Photo: Rex Features By Victoria Ward 4:51PM BST 29 May 2015 Follow Artificial intelligence will bring NHS patients a greater quality of care by better diagnosing medical conditions and personalising medicine, according to the chairman of NHS England. Prof Sir Malcolm Grant said the health service would benefit hugely from the use of machine learning and robots, suggesting that if such technology could outperform humans, it would be daft not to use it. -- He said diagnoses could only be strengthened with the use of computers to scan the wealth of information available through patients’ records in order to identify similarities. “I do believe that artificial intelligence and machine learning has the capacity to hugely enhance our ability to diagnose illnesses and to understand how to treat them better,” he said. [Artificial intelligence will bring NHS patients a greater quality of care by better diagnosing medical conditions] “This has an enormous potency to personalise medicine and to get us away from current practice where we tend to use one set of pharmaceutical products to benefit 20 or 30 per cent of the population. ” Increasing numbers of robots are being used in the NHS, taking jobs in some hospitals such as dispensing drugs and ferrying linen and food. -- “By comparing this patient’s profile with of hundreds of thousands of other patients we can start to pick out what it might be that is causing the disorder is that we can see,” he said. [Artificial intelligence could be used to spot patterns and use each individual’s genomic structure] “For me, the overriding thing is that if a machine can outperform a human doing a task such as diagnosis, given the complexity of modern medicine, the complexities of modern science, why wouldn’t we use it? Why wouldn’t we use it to inform the human and to bring to our patients the greater quality and greater safety of care that I think AI really can achieve? ” Sir Malcolm, who last week took part in a panel discussion called Socioeconomic Impacts of Machine Learning at the Royal Society’s Machine Learning conference, said artificial intelligence could spot patterns and use each individual’s genomic structure to understand what would work best for them. He told the conference that around 50 per cent of morbidity was due to genetics, around 10 per cent was healthcare and 40 per cent largely down to lifestyle factors. co. uk Wednesday 03 January 2018 Advertisement Mass unemployment fears over Google artificial intelligence plans The development of artificial intelligence - thrown into spotlight this week after Google spent hundreds of millions on new technology - could mean computers take over human jobs at a faster rate than new roles can be created, experts have warned Exhibitors of the Google company work on laptop computers in front of an illuminated sign of the Google logo at the industrial fair Hannover Messe in Hanover, Germany DeepMind was founded two years ago by 37-year-old neuroscientist and former teenage chess prodigy Demis Hassabis, along with Shane Legg and Mustafa Suleyman Photo: AP By Miranda Prynne, News Reporter 9:50AM GMT 29 Jan 2014 Follow Artificial intelligence could lead to mass unemployment if computers develop the capacity to take over human work, experts warned days after it emerged that Google had beat competitors to buy a firm specialising in this kind of technology. Dr Stuart Armstrong, from the Future of Humanity Institute at the University of Oxford, gave the stark warning after it emerged that Google had paid £400m for the British artificial intelligence firm DeepMind. He welcomed the web giant’s decision to set up an ethics board to safely develop and use artificial intelligence claiming the advances in technology carried a number of risks. Mr Armstrong said computers had the potential to take over people’s jobs at a faster rate than new roles could be created. He cited logistics, administration and insurance underwriting as professions that were particularly vulnerable to the development of artificial intelligence. Related Articles 28 Jan 2014 27 Jan 2014 28 Jan 2014 27 Jan 2014 27 Jan 2014 06 Jan 2014 He also warned about the implications for uncontrolled mass surveillance if computers were taught to recognise human faces. Speaking on Radio 4’s Today programme, he said: “There’s a variety of short term risks for artificial intelligence, everyone knows about the autonomous drones. “But there’s also the potential for mass surveillance, you don’t just have to recognise cat images, you could also recognise human faces and also mass unemployment in a variety of professions. ” He added: “We have some studies looking into which jobs are the most vulnerable and there’s quite a lot of them in logistics, administration, insurance underwriting but ultimately a huge swathe of jobs are potentially vulnerable to improved artificial intelligence. ” His concerns were backed up by Murray Shanahan, professor of cognitive robotics at Imperial College London, who said: “I think it is a very good thing that Google has set up this ethics board and I think there certainly are some short term issues that we all need to be talking about. -- It is also working in an area called Deep Learning in which machines are taught to see patterns from large quantities of data so computers could start to recognise objects from daily life such as cars or food products and even human faces. It is believed Google will use DeepMind’s expertise to improve the functions of its current products such as the Google Glass and extend its current artificial intelligence work such as the development of self-driving cars. Mr Shanahan said: “We all know that Google have got an interest in wearable computing with their Google glass and you can imagine them and other companies using this technology to build some kind of assistant that for example could help you to make a lasagne in your kitchen and to tell you what ingredients you needed and where to find them. Thanks to its ability to apply advanced natural language processing, information retrieval, knowledge representation, automated reasoning, and machine learning technologies, Watson consistently outperformed its human opponents on the American quiz show Jeopardy. Watson represented an important milestone in the development of artificial intelligence, but the field has been progressing rapidly – particularly with regard to natural language processing and machine learning. In 2012, Google used 16,000 computer processors to build a simulated brain that could correctly identify cats in YouTube videos; the Kinect, which provides a 3D body-motion interface for Microsoft's Xbox, uses algorithms that emerged from artificial intelligence research, as does the iPhone's Siri virtual personal assistant. Today a new artificial intelligence computing system has been unveiled, which promises to transform the global workforce. Named 'Amelia' after American aviator and pioneer Amelia Earhart, the system is able to shoulder the burden of often tedious and laborious tasks, allowing human co-workers to take on more creative roles. -- "I am convinced that in the next decade you’ll pass someone in the corridor and not be able to discern if it’s a human or an android. " Given the premise of IPsoft's artificial intelligence system, it seems logical that the ultimate measure of Amelia's success would be passing the Turing Test – which sets out to see whether humans can discern whether they are interacting with a human or a machine. Earlier this year, a chatbot named Eugene Goostman became the first machine to pass the Turing Test by convincingly imitating a 13-year-old boy. co. uk Thursday 04 January 2018 Advertisement Artificial intelligence: the companies behind Britain's 'smart' revolution Google's acquisition of DeepMind has sparked that nation's interest in artificial intelligence. Sophie Curtis takes a look at some of Britain's most promising AI companies. -- I. : Haley Joel Osment and Jude Law Steven Spielberg's 2001 film Artificial Intelligence (AI) depicts a future where robots have become eerily human. By Sophie Curtis 12:00PM GMT 02 Feb 2014 Follow When Google forked out £400m for a British technology start-up this week, a lot of people sat up and took notice. Not only was it Google’s largest ever European acquisition, but the company in question was virtually unheard of. DeepMind specialises in artificial intelligence (AI), otherwise known as 'machine learning’. Its technology is designed to mimic human thought processes, and has so far been used in simulations, e-commerce and games, according to its website. -- For example, a machine learning system could be trained to distinguish between spam emails and non-spam emails, and then be used to classify new email messages into spam and non-spam folders. “It’s not just about learning to identify what it is, but learning to identify what it means, and understanding the relationship between different pieces of information,” said Andrew Anderson, chief executive of UK artificial intelligence company, Celaton. AI has a wide range of potential applications -- from virtual assistants like Apple Siri, which can interpret and answer questions, to cars that can automatically recognise road signs and games consoles like Xbox Kinect, which can read and understand 3D body movements. -- “Our goal over the next few years should be to capitalise on our AI heritage and world class talent. ” Some experts have warned that artificial intelligence could lead to mass unemployment. Dr Stuart Armstrong, from the Future of Humanity Institute at the University of Oxford, said computers had the potential to take over people’s jobs at a faster rate than new roles could be created. He cited logistics, administration and insurance underwriting as professions that were particularly vulnerable to the development of artificial intelligence. However, Anderson said AI is not all about “hacking the workforce to pieces”. -- Analyst firm Gartner predicts that 'smart machines’ will have a widespread impact on businesses by 2020. Here are some British companies are best placed to take advantage of this opportunity: SwiftKey SwiftKey uses artificial intelligence to make personalised mobile apps. It is best known for the SwiftKey keyboard, which learns from each individual user to accurately predict their next word and improve autocorrect. -- SwiftKey products were embedded on more than 100 million devices last year, and the company has just launched an app for iPhones and iPads called SwiftKey Note. Celaton Celaton’s inSTREAM software applies artificial intelligence to labour-intensive clerical tasks and decision making. Every day, businesses receive mountains of information via email and paper. But ''Eugene Goostman'', a computer programme developed to simulate a 13-year-old boy, managed to convince 33 per cent of the judges that it was human, the university said. Related Articles 19 Mar 2014 24 Dec 2013 28 Feb 2002 shows 12 Oct 2008 21 Aug 2012 Professor Kevin Warwick, from the University of Reading, said: ''In the field of artificial intelligence there is no more iconic and controversial milestone than the Turing Test. ''It is fitting that such an important landmark has been reached at the Royal Society in London, the home of British science and the scene of many great advances in human understanding over the centuries. -- '' The successful machine was created by Russian-born Vladimir Veselov, who lives in the United States, and Ukrainian Eugene Demchenko who lives in Russia. Mr Veselov said: ''It's a remarkable achievement for us and we hope it boosts interest in artificial intelligence and chatbots. '' Prof Warwick said there had been previous claims that the test was passed in similar competitions around the world. -- ''We are therefore proud to declare that Alan Turing's test was passed for the first time. '' Prof Warwick said having a computer with such artificial intelligence had ''implications for society'' and would serve as a ''wake-up call to cybercrime''. The event on Saturday was poignant as it took place on the 60th anniversary of the death of Dr Turing, who laid the foundations of modern computing. co. uk Saturday 06 January 2018 Advertisement Bankers beware: City ‘will soon be run by robots’ Artificial intelligence will render human efforts redundant, says Microsoft executive features an unlikely romance between two robots, Wall-E and EVE. When they kiss, sparks literally fly. Computers will not only be able to undertake complex mathematical equations but draw logical, nuanced conclusions Rebecca Burn Callander By Rebecca Burn-Callander 10:29PM BST 31 Aug 2014 Follow Robots will be running the City within 10 years, rendering investment bankers, analysts and even quants redundant, it has been claimed. Artificial intelligence is about to outpace human ability, according to Dave Coplin, a senior Microsoft executive. Computers will not only be able to undertake complex mathematical equations but draw logical, nuanced conclusions, reducing the need for human interference, he said. This will render certain professions redundant, while other “human only” skills will become increasingly valuable. “I believe in Moravec’s Paradox,” Mr Coplin, Microsoft’s UK-based chief envisioning officer, told The Telegraph, referring to the Eighties hypothesis discovered by artificial intelligence and robotics researchers. “This states that what we think is easy, robots find really hard, and what we think it really hard, robots find easy,” he said. -- But, according to Mr Coplin, in 10 years people will no longer be required to manage these algorithms. Decisions will be taken directly by the artificial intelligence. “Everyone thinks of Terminator and Skynet [the computer that becomes self-aware and attempts to destroy mankind in James Cameron’s 1984 film] when I start talking about this, but technology affords us a tremendous opportunity to play to our strengths as humans, and stand on the shoulders of robotic giants,” said Mr Coplin. For instance, we could have a robotic factory with three classes of robots: one for mining and transporting raw material, one for assembling raw materials into finished robots and one for designing processes and products. The last class, the “brains” of the autonomous robotic factory, would be artificial intelligence systems. But could these robots also “evolve”? -- (But perhaps not to computer viruses. ) Ultimately, the question whether self-reproducing robots will evolve or not boils down to the capability of artificial intelligence systems to self-improve. Only then could the “brains” of the robotic factory build evolved robots without the need of human designers. -- Nanotechnologists, like Eric Drexler, see the future of intelligent machines at the level of molecules: tiny robots that evolve and – like in Lem’s novel – come together to form intelligent superorganisms. Perhaps the future of artificial intelligence will be both silicon- and carbon-based: digital brains directing complex molecular structures to copulate at the nanometre level and reproduce. Perhaps the cyborgs of the future may involve human participation in robot sexual reproduction, and the creation of new, hybrid species. Every discussion of robots and warfare will always come back to one, or both, of two science fiction touchstones: Skynet and Asimov. “Skynet”, the artificial intelligence defence system described in the Terminator films, gains self-awareness and immediately attempts to wipe out humanity. In Isaac Asimov’s robot stories, he imagines “three laws of robotics”, the first of which instructed all robots: “A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm”. -- The concern is that such weapons, divorced from the human decision-making process, will make killing that much more of an automated process: press a button, and some number of hours later, someone in a distant country will explode, perhaps while surrounded by civilians. “What we are talking about, however, is fully automated machines that can select targets and kill them without any human intervention,” Noel Sharkey, a professor of artificial intelligence and one of the founders of the Campaign to Stop Killer Robots, told the Telegraph’s Harriet Alexander last year. “And that is something we should all be very worried about. -- Robot soldiers, as The Economist pointed out in 2012 in a discussion of the ethics of automated warfare, will not carry out revenge attacks on civilians, or rape people, or panic in the heat of battle and shoot their allies. When artificial intelligence systems are better, they might be able to distinguish more quickly and reliably between threats and civilians, and to therefore reduce collateral damage. A similar argument is being had over the morality, and legality, of robot cars: although they will probably save lives, because they will react faster to avoid crashes and not drive recklessly, when they do go wrong there will not be someone obviously at fault. Spike Jonze's Her, in which a man falls in love with his computer, was awarded Best Original Screenplay at last night's Academy Awards. The concept may seem laughable, but advances in artificial intelligence are bringing us closer to our machines than ever before, says Rhiannon Williams Joaquin Phoenix and Amy Adams in Spike Jonze's Golden Globe nominated film Her Joaquin Phoenix and Amy Adams in Spike Jonze's Golden Globe nominated film Her Photo: Warner/Everett/REX By Rhiannon Williams 11:33AM GMT 03 Mar 2014 Follow When I was a teenager, my friends and I used to hold conversations with a robot. Or to be precise, a chatterbot, a computer programme specifically designed to mimic human interaction through a series of exchanges. -- While we were always aware we weren’t actually communicating with it, the novelty of appearing to ‘chat’ with a computer programme lead to over 30 million individuals adding SmarterChild as a contact on MSN messenger and AIM. In the 14 years since SmarterChild’s creation artificial intelligence has evolved exponentially, as has our attachment and reliance upon computers to run our lives. But could we ever actually develop feelings for them? This is the premise explored by Spike Jonze’s Her, which won Best Original Screenplay at last night’s Academy Awards Ceremony, in which Theodore Twombly (played by Joaquin Phoenix) falls in love with his operating system Samantha, voiced by Scarlett Johansson. The genesis of Her was inspired by Cleverbot, a web application using a similar artificial intelligence algorithm to SmarterChild. In an interview last year with The Guardian, Jonze described the first 20 seconds of interacting with one of these bots as “a real buzz”. -- But on the whole it’s an utterly absorbing love story which deconstructs the complexities of falling in love through the frame of technological innovation. Such is Samantha’s artificial intelligence, she longs to possess a physical body so she can walk around with Theodore and see the world as he does. I found myself able to suspend my disbelief he had developed feelings for a programme, given the tender nature of the pair’s interactions. -- But in terms of having a romantic relationship with our technology, we’re still quite some way off. ” Owen explains the evolution of artificial intelligence is an extremely complex journey which began in the tail end of the 1950s. “By the 1970s, programmes could be created that could answer series of factual questions, but they were extremely limited. -- ” One of Samantha’s most appealing aspects is her sense of humour (far from hampered by Johansson’s husky laugh). Expression of humour and creativity are the most challenging areas for artificial intelligence development, says Fenn, but that’s not to say it’s impossible. Samantha than any human woman he has ever loved “If a computer can learn what makes people laugh – and more importantly what makes you laugh – based on watching and analysing over time, there is no theoretical reason that a computer couldn’t eventually display and respond to humour. Above all, he is a man with a utopian belief in the power of technology to change the world. Through a variety of venture capital funds and his non-profit Thiel Foundation, Thiel has invested substantially in space travel, artificial intelligence, biotechnology and information technology. He has been one of the most public champions of ‘seasteading’ – the idea of establishing floating communities outside territorial waters and beyond the regulatory powers of governments. -- Founders Fund was the first outside venture capital business to invest in Musk’s rocket company SpaceX (the fund made an initial investment of $20 million, and with additional investments Founders Fund’s holding in the company is now valued at $500 million). The British artificial intelligence company Deep Mind Technologies, which Founders Fund seeded with a $15 million investment, was bought by Google in January for £240 million. The Thiel Foundation, which perhaps most accurately reflects Thiel’s personal passions, funds a range of projects from a biotech company, Modern Meadow, that has developed methods of producing cultured meat and leather products without animal slaughter, to the Machine Intelligence Research Institute, a think tank devoted to the study of artificial intelligence, and ensuring that ‘smarter-than-human-intelligence’ machines behave as humans want them to do, rather than as the machines might want to do. The Thiel Fellowship is among his more controversial projects. -- Thiel’s libertarian ideals, his evangelical belief in the power of technology to shape the future, and his network of powerful contacts have elevated him to the role of a prophet in Silicon Valley, if breeding a degree of suspicion in some quarters outside it. In the course of researching Thiel, I came across an article linking his investments in seasteading, artificial intelligence and CIA and NSA intelligence-gathering to his role on the steering committee of the Bilderberg Group to place him at the heart of a ‘Zionist’ conspiracy, supposedly ‘deciding globalist agendas’ and advancing technology that will turn humanity into ‘the new slave-automatons of the Elite’. When I showed Thiel the article he speed-read the five pages in almost as few seconds, like a digital scanner, before tossing it aside with a bemused shake of the head. -- And I’m not sure I could do that. ’ His friends are, for the most part, ‘loosely’ in the world of technology, who share his belief in the redemptive power of technology, his enthusiasm for conversations about macroeconomics, artificial intelligence, and, as Thiel puts it, ‘figuring things out’. He is, as you might expect, a definite optimist. co. uk Tuesday 02 January 2018 Advertisement The Machine: director interview Ian Douglas talks to Caradog James, the director, and Caity Lotz, star of a new British film, The Machine, that explores the consequences of sentient artificial intelligence The Machine The Machine Ian Douglas By Ian Douglas 7:00AM GMT 21 Mar 2014 Follow Caity Lotz is an artificial intelligence in the process of coming alive. There are guns and disasters throughout her turn in new release The Machine, yet she’s optimistic about a future where the robots live among us. "I think artificial intelligence is not just possible, but inevitable. I don’t think there will be robots like my character straight away, but rather humans will slowly start to merge with computers and technology cyborg style," she says. -- The conflict between this new intelligence and the military urge to exploit it are what gives the film its tension, but Lotz and Caradog James, director and writer, agree that the real life version of events is likely to be more peaceful. "I spent almost a year reading every book that I could on artificial intelligence, robotics, I even struggled through a couple of books on quantum mechanics," admits James. "All of which was groundwork for what was the key to the story which was a meeting with a scientist who was actually building a mind machine. "The best way to describe the experience of being a student at SU is to say that it is an Ivy League university from the future: the admissions process is from the current year, but the curriculum is from the year 2020," said Dr Roman Yampolskiy, a student from Latvia. Related Articles 26 Aug 2014 guilty of insider trading 15 Sep 2014 15 Sep 2014 24 Aug 2014 overtakes humans 03 Feb 2009 29 Jan 2014 "Biology, physics, computer science are replaced with synthetic biology, nanotechnology, artificial intelligence. " The university gets its name from the theory of "singularity" written about by its co-founder Ray Kurzweil, a computer scientist - the inevitable moment when machines will surpass human intelligence. -- ^Josie Ensor and her 3D-printed model (credit: Inna Shnayder) Its faculty is unparalleled. One of the partners, Mr Kurzweil, is a computer scientist, futurist, chief engineer at Google and author of a book on artificial intelligence called The Singularity is Near. In 1999 he made 108 predictions of where the world would be in 2009. -- Another founder, Peter Diamandis, set up the X-Prize, which offers large cash awards for inventions that could benefit mankind, and the company Zero G, which enables wealthy passengers to experiencing weightlessness aboard a zero-gravity plane. Talking about why he started the university, Mr Diamandis said: "I realised there was no place on the planet where people can really learn about the fields that are in rapid exponential growth - artificial intelligence, robotics, biotechnology, quantum computing. Yet these are the things that together can be used to solve humanity's problems. Search Search China’s security boss planning to use AI to stop crime before it even happens Meng Jianzhu says data analysis can predict patterns which could stop terror attacks of social unrest before they happen Click to follow The Independent Online Meng Jianzhu is China's top security boss AFP/Getty Images China’s top security officer has revealed plans to use artificial intelligence to predict crime, terrorism and social unrest before it happens. Meng Jianzhu, the head of the Chinese Community Party’s central commission for political and legal affairs, said the government would start to use AI software which uses machine learning, data mining and computer modelling to predict where crime and disorder is likely to occur. “Artificial intelligence can complete tasks with a precision and speed unmatchable by humans, and will drastically improve the predictability, accuracy and efficiency of social management,” Mr Meng told colleagues at a meeting in Beijing on Friday. He said security forces should look for patterns in data about terror attacks and build an analysis model to help authorities predict where the attack may strike, Chinese news website thepaper. -- ” He said that the restive province of Xinjiang, home to China's predominantly Muslim Uyghur population, could bear the brunt of these new technologies. How artificial intelligence conquered democracy The Chinese government has brutally suppressed all expressions of the Turkic minority's separate identity in the Western province on the border with Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Tajikistan. This has lead to a growing jihadist movement within the community with four attackers reportedly driving a car into a government building before detonating explosives in Karakax county in Xinjiang in December In July, authorities in the region ordered all local residents to install an app on their mobile phones which will monitor them for "terrorist activity", Radio Free Asia reported. Google's Artificial Intelligence Chief Thinks Elon Musk's AI Fears Are Overblown 'I am definitely not worried about the AI apocalypse,' said John Giannandrea at a tech conference on Tuesday on the topic of Tesla's Elon Musk. ByAnnie Palmer Sep 19, 2017 6:51 PM EDT Some of Silicon Valley's top brass have issued warnings about the threat of artificial intelligence, but not everyone is that worried, including Alphabet Inc. 's (GOOGL) Google. -- " The comments contrast sharply with those of Tesla Inc. (TSLA) CEO's Elon Musk, who has quickly become one of Silicon Valley's most vocal critics of artificial intelligence. For the last several months, Musk has made headlines after calling AI the "scariest problem" that represents a greater threat than North Korea that could lead to World War III. -- S. government to step in and regulate the spread of artificial intelligence, believing it threatens to eliminate jobs en masse. Giannandrea countered those concerns, however, saying that there's "no evidence we're on the cusp" of an imminent AI takeover. At times, he said he's shied away from using the term artificial intelligence because it can be ambiguous and scary to average people, similar to phrases such as 'big data. ' "It's such a broad term and it's really not well-defined," he said of AI. "I prefer to use the term machine intelligence, or making machines slightly more intelligent and less dumb. " Google has good reason to minimize concerns about artificial intelligence. Shortly after CEO Sundar Pichai took the helm in 2015, he declared Google an "AI first" company. Search Search Technology will cut 30% of banking jobs says former Citigroup CEO Vikram Pandit Artificial intelligence and robotics reduce the need for staff in roles such as back-office functions, Mr Pandit said Click to follow The Independent Online The banker isn't the first financial boss to make such a stark prediction about the future of the industry Reuters Vikram Pandit, who ran Citigroup during the financial crisis, has said developments in technology could cut the number of banking jobs by 30 per cent in the next five years. Artificial intelligence and robotics reduce the need for staff in roles such as back-office functions, Mr Pandit said on Wednesday in an interview with Bloomberg in Singapore. He’s now chief executive of Orogen Group, an investment firm that he co-founded last year. “Everything that happens with artificial intelligence, robotics and natural language — all of that is going to make processes easier,” said Mr Pandit, who was Citigroup’s chief executive from 2007 to 2012. “It’s going to change the back office. Search Search Artificial intelligence can secretly be trained to behave 'maliciously' and cause accidents Visitors look at the humanoid robot Roboy at the exhibition 'Robots on Tour' in Zurich, March 9, 2013 / Reuters 'BadNets are stealthy, i. e. , they escape standard validation testing' 6169789578 Click to follow The Independent Tech Neural networks can be secretly trained to misbehave, according to a new research paper. A team of New York University scientists has found that people can corrupt artificial intelligence systems by tampering with their training data, and such malicious amendments can be difficult to detect. This method of attack could even be used to cause real-world accidents. -- , they escape standard validation testing, and do not introduce any structural changes to the baseline honestly trained networks, even though they implement more complex functionality,” says the paper. How artificial intelligence conquered democracy It’s a worrying thought, and the researchers hope their findings lead to the improvement of security practices. “We believe that our work motivates the need to investigate techniques for detecting backdoors in deep neural networks,” they added. Search Search Tesla's Elon Musk leads tech experts in demanding end to 'killer robots arms race’ ‘Once this Pandora’s box is opened, it will be hard to close’ Click to follow The Independent Online Autonomous weapons will 'permit armed conflict to be fought at timescales faster than humans can comprehend', the letter warns Over a hundred experts in robotics and artificial intelligence are calling on the UN to ban the development and use of killer robots and add them to a list of ‘morally wrong’ weapons including blinding lasers and chemical weapons. Google’s Mustafa Suleyman and Tesla’s Elon Musk are among the most prominent names on a list of 116 tech experts who have signed an open letter asking the UN to ban autonomous weapons in a bid to prevent an arms race. -- So far, 19 out of 123 member states have called for an outright ban on lethal autonomous weapons. Read more rise' One of the letter’s key organisers, Toby Walsh, a professor of artificial intelligence at the University of New South Wales in Australia unveiled the letter at the opening of the International Joint Conference on Artificial Intelligence in Melbourne. The letter marks the first time that artificial intelligence (AI) experts and robotics companies have taken a joint stance on the issue. The letter says: “Lethal autonomous weapons threaten to become the third revolution in warfare. -- Once this Pandora’s box is opened, it will be hard to close,” It concludes with an urgent plea for the UN “to find a way to protect us all from these dangers. ” Significant signatories to the letter include: DeepMind Technologies (UK) University of New South Wales (Australia) AI (Canada) Pepper robots (Switzerland) Professor Walsh said: “Nearly every technology can be used for good and bad, and artificial intelligence is no different. It can help tackle many of the pressing problems facing society today: inequality and poverty, the challenges posed by climate change and the ongoing global financial crisis. Search Search How artificial intelligence conquered democracy The technology is becoming commonplace in political campaigns, and some even claim it was crucial in delivering Donald Trump to the White House Click to follow The Independent Online I’ve got algorithm: big data is being used to influence people’s emotions Getty/iStock There has never been a better time to be a politician. But it’s an even better time to be a machine learning engineer working for a politician. -- Now big data can be used to maximise the effectiveness of a campaign. The next level will be using artificial intelligence in election campaigns and political life. Machine-learning systems are based on statistical techniques that can automatically identify patterns in data. -- And it remains unclear what role AI played in campaigning ahead of the Brexit referendum in the UK. Artificial intelligence can be used to manipulate individual voters. During the 2016 US presidential election, the data science firm Cambridge Analytica rolled out an extensive advertising campaign to target persuadable voters based on their individual psychology. 0 is being driven by the same technological advances that enable the capabilities of the smartphones in our pockets. It is a mix of low-cost and high-power computers, high-speed communication and artificial intelligence. This will produce smarter robots with better sensing and communication abilities that can adapt to different tasks, and even coordinate their work to meet demand without the input of humans. -- While these machines are getting smarter, they are still not as smart as us. Today’s industrial artificial intelligence operates at a narrow level, which gives the appearance of human intelligence exhibited by machines, but designed by humans. What’s coming next is known as “deep learning”. -- A perfect example of deep learning was demonstrated by Google’s AlphaGo software, which taught itself to beat the world’s greatest Go players. The turning point in applying artificial intelligence to manufacturing could come with the application of special microchips called graphical processing units (GPUs). These enable deep learning to be applied to extremely large data sets at extremely fast speeds. -- 0 will allow humans to focus on business, creativity and science, which it would be harder for any robot to do (Rethink Robotics) Exactly what impact a smarter robotic workforce with the potential to operate on its own will have on the manufacturing industry, is still widely disputed. Artificial intelligence, as we know it from science fiction, is still in its infancy. It could well be the 22nd century before robots really have the potential to make human labour obsolete by developing not just deep learning, but true artificial understanding that mimics human thinking. Search Search Google hopes to prevent robot uprising with new AI training technique Software has been known to find shortcuts or loopholes that maximise the size of the reward it receives / Getty Images/iStockphoto Designed to discourage machines from cheating 6169789578 Click to follow The Independent Tech Google is developing a new system designed to prevent artificial intelligence from going rogue and clashing with humans. It’s an idea that has been explored by a multitude of sci-fi films, and has grown into a genuine fear for a number of people. -- In one instance it drove a boat around in circles in racing game CoastRunners, instead of actually completing the course because it knew it would still win a reward, reports Wired. Artificial intelligence is learning to be racist DeepMind and Open AI are trying to solve the problem by using human input to recognise when artificial intelligence complete tasks in the “correct” way, and then reward them for doing so. “In the long run it would be desirable to make learning a task from human preferences no more difficult than learning it from a programmatic reward signal, ensuring that powerful RL systems can be applied in the service of complex human values rather than low-complexity goals,” reads the report. Search Search BenevolentAI: drug research startup goes on hiring spree as UK’s artificial intelligence sector booms Benevolent is one of five private AI companies that has reached a valuation of more than $1bn, according to CB Insights Click to follow The Independent Online 'We are already bursting at the seams of our current office space so alongside this hiring spree we’ll be moving to a much larger London office later in the year,' said Ken Mulvany, founder of BenevolentAI BenevolentAI Drug discovery startup BenevolentAI has begun a major hiring spree, as it seeks to take advantage of the current boom in the UK’s artificial intelligence and machine learning sector. The London-based startup, valued at $1. -- In September 2016 it hired Jerome Pesenti, a former executive at IBM’s Watson platform. The UK’s vote to leave the European Union has created economic uncertainty and raised questions about the development of artificial intelligence and the country’s ability to attract engineering, software and security talent. Cities including Paris have been battling to attract companies away from the UK as well as entrepreneurs and funding for startups. Read more industry Despite this, the UK has recently emerged as one of the dominant hubs for AI, hosting a batch of high-profile tech startups in the sector that have gone on to be acquired by US tech firms, including Twitter’s purchase of London-based artificial intelligence startup Magic Pony Technology in June, language processing company SwiftKey’s sale to Microsoft in February 2016, and Alphabet’s £400m acquisition of London AI startup DeepMind in 2014. Most recently, SoftBank led a $502m investment in Improbable Worlds, a London-based virtual reality startup, in one of the UK’s largest venture capital deals. Search Search AI’s defeat of pro poker players a ‘paradigm shift’, say scientists 'The implications go beyond being a milestone for artificial intelligence' Click to follow The Independent Online In a feat reminiscent of the controversial victory by supercomputer ‘Deep Blue’ over world chess champion Garry Kasparov, a computer program has managed to beat a string of professional poker players at the game. DeepStack, as it was called, defeated 10 out of 11 players who took part in a total of 3,000 games as part of a scientific study into artificial intelligence. The 11th player also lost, but by a margin that the researchers decided was not large enough to be statistically significant. -- Poker: Will the government start taxing player's winnings? Writing in the journal Science, the researchers, from Alberta University in Canada, said: “Artificial intelligence has seen several breakthroughs in recent years, with games often serving as milestones. “A common feature of these games is that players have perfect information. Poker is the quintessential game of imperfect information, and a longstanding challenge problem in artificial intelligence. “In a study involving 44,000 hands of poker, DeepStack defeated with statistical significance professional poker players in heads-up, no-limit Texas hold’em. -- The researchers said DeepStack had been able to win despite being given no training from expert human games. “The implications go beyond being a milestone for artificial intelligence,” the Science paper said. “DeepStack represents a paradigm shift in approximating solutions to large, sequential imperfect information games. Search Search Facebook using artificial intelligence to help suicidal users The AI tool would send concerning posts to a human review team, which would get in touch with the user / Getty The company has developed algorithms designed to flag up warning signs 6169789578 Click to follow The Independent Tech Facebook has started using artificial intelligence to identify users who are potentially at risk of taking their own lives. The social network has developed algorithms capable of scanning posts and comments for warning signs. -- ” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg described plans to use AI to identify worrying content in a recently published manifesto. “Looking ahead, one of our greatest opportunities to keep people safe is building artificial intelligence to understand more quickly and accurately what is happening across our community,” it read. An earlier version of the piece said that it would take “many years to develop” AI systems capable of identifying issues such as bullying and terrorism risks online, but the section was removed before the manifesto was publicly issued. Search Search Government promises £20m investment in robotics and artificial intelligence The Artificial Intelligence industry could add around £654 billion to the UK economy Click to follow The Independent Online A robot serves food at a restaurant in Shenyang, China Getty The government will launch a review into Artifical Intelligence (AI) and robotics in an attempt to make the UK a world leader in tech. The government said in a statement on Sunday that it would invest £17. 3 million in university research on AI. Artificial intelligence powers technologies such as Apple’s SIRI, Amazon’s Alexa, and driverless cars. According to a report by consultancy firm Accenture, Artificial Intelligence could add around £654 billion to the UK economy. Read more case A report by the Institute for Public Policy Research recently forecast that millions of jobs will be lost to automation over the next two decades. Researchers predicted that two million jobs retail jobs will disappear by 2030 and 600,000 will go in manufacturing. Jérôme Pesenti, CEO of Benevolent Tech, who will be leading government research into AI, said, “There has been a lot of unwarranted negative hype around Artificial Intelligence (AI), but it has the ability to drive enormous growth for the UK economy, create jobs, foster new skills, positively transform every industry and retain Britain’s status as a world leader in innovative technology. EU universal income must be 'seriously considered' amid rise of robots The announcement is part of the government’s new “Digital Strategy”, which will be announced in full on Wednesday. Search Search Japanese company fires its workers and replaces them with artificial intelligence Engineers test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 in a lab of the Hankook Mirae Technology in Gunpo, south of Seoul, on December 27, 2016 / JUNG YEON-JE/AFP/Getty Images The move could be a way for Japan to deal with its shrinking and ageing population 6169789578 Click to follow The Independent Tech A Japanese insurance company is replacing its staff with an artificial intelligence system. The move, which will see more than 30 people sacked to make way for the computer, is being seen as one of the clearest examples of the coming changes that robots and machines will bring to the workplace. -- It will be able to factor in other information like medical history and surgical procedures and the work out how much people should be paid, according to Japanese newspapers. 'Artificial intelligence alarmists' win 'Luddite of the Year' award For now, the calculations will only be used as a way of saving time by reducing how long it takes to work out payouts. Those calculations will still need to be signed off by a human. -- Other Japanese insurance companies are already looking at similar systems, and some have already launched them but not yet sacked people. Japan is introducing artificial intelligence across the country in part to deal with a dangerously declining workforce. AI machines are going to be integrated into the work of government from next month, helping ministers look up answers to questions and cutting out the work done by civil servants. Search Search The rise of artificial intelligence risks making us all redundant AI systems are being designed for supermarkets which allow customers to choose their shopping and exit without going to a checkout. Soon, robots will be stacking the shelves and running the entire show. No wonder unions are worried Click to follow Independent Voices Engineers in South Korea test a four-metre-tall humanoid manned robot dubbed Method-2 AFP At the start of a new year, what is there to look forward to? According to predictions from think tanks and tech experts, advances in automation and artificial intelligence will threaten the jobs of millions of workers. The CEO of one company, Capgemini, goes further, predicting that AI will be one of the key factors dividing society into the haves and have-nots, with highly skilled engineers at the one end of the spectrum and low-paid unqualified worker drones at the other, with nothing in between. -- We don’t see Jarvis, voiced by Morgan Freeman, but the message is absolutely plain: this is not a bit of fun, but the unveiling of a plan for our future, a future which tech companies are battling to capitalise on. Stephen Hawking has a terrifying warning about artificial intelligence Zuckerberg has spent more than 100 hours programming Jarvis so that it can switch on his household gadgets, his music system and even help his small daughter learn Mandarin. It responds to voice commands issued from a phone, even offering him a clean grey T-shirt in the morning. -- And, if driverless cars are easily identifiable, will they spawn a new kind of road rage – one directed at trying to provoke a response from the robots taking over our lives? In pictures: Artificial intelligence through history In pictures: Artificial intelligence through history Boston Dynamics describes itself as 'building dynamic robots and software for human simulation'. It has created robots for DARPA, the US' military research company Google has been using similar technology to build self-driving cars, and has been pushing for legislation to allow them on the roads The DARPA Urban Challenge, set up by the US Department of Defense, challenges driverless cars to navigate a 60 mile course in an urban environment that simulates guerilla warfare Deep Blue, a computer created by IBM, won a match against world champion Garry Kasparov in 1997. The computer could evaluate 200 million positions per second, and Kasparov accused it of cheating after the match was finished Another computer created by IBM, Watson, beat two champions of US TV series Jeopardy at their own game in 2011 Apple's virtual assistant for iPhone, Siri, uses artificial intelligence technology to anticipate users' needs and give cheeky reactions Xbox's Kinect uses artificial intelligence to predict where players are likely to go, an track their movement more accurately Fans of AI say driverless cars will reduce deaths on the roads, and represent the biggest change in our lives since motor cars replaced horses a century ago. Really? Search Search Artificial Intelligence is set to shape our lives – and the economy – in 2017 As yet we don’t fully measure these changes that have taken place. If you are reading this on a Facebook feed, you are doing so because you have signalled that this is the sort of stuff you are interested in. -- But we will hear a lot more about the clutch of technologies that potentially can transform our living standards, and accordingly give a practical response to populism by showing that things can and will get better. The core set of these technologies goes under the umbrella term Artificial Intelligence. The New York Times Magazine has just run a piece by Gideon Lewis-Kraus, under the title “The Great A. -- It seems that machines are better at learning from their mistakes than humans are. Inside Story - How can we make the most of artificial intelligence? There is a multitude of other ways in which AI will improve the quality of services. Search Search Amazon Echo: How it will bring artificial intelligence into our homes much sooner than expected The Amazon Echo might soon have a rival The future is closer than you think. Not only can you activate music with Amazon's latest device, but the technology uses more than 300 apps to accurately let you order food or check your diary with just your voice 6169789578 Click to follow The Independent Tech What’s all the fuss about the voice-activated home speaker that Amazon is due to release in the UK and Germany in late September? -- 6m and 3m. But these figures belie the potential impact this kind of artificial intelligence device could have on our lives in the near future. Echo doesn’t just let you switch on your music by voice command. It’s the first of what will be several types of smart home appliances that work beyond simple tasks like playing music or turning on a light. It uses an artificial intelligence assistant app called Alexa to allow users to access the information and services of the internet and control personal organisation tools. You can order a pizza or a taxi, or check the weather or your diary, all just by speaking to Alexa. -- This creates a system that is far more integrated and sophisticated yet simple to use with minimal setup. Amazon Echo uses an artificial intelligence assistant app called Alexa to allow users to access the information and services of the internet and control personal organisation tools (Youtube) This is a very significant development in the rise of the connected home, which is coming as we move from PCs and mobile devices to the era of the internet of things when computer chips will be in objects all around us. Echo is arguably the first successful product to bridge that gap. -- The astonishing thing about this is that it’s a vision of the future that’s arriving much sooner that expected. We’re still far from general artificial intelligence, with machines fully able to think and perform like humans, but the days of the keyboard and mouse are numbered. This article originally appeared on The Conversation (theconversation. Search Search WWDC 2016: Apple set to unveil artificial intelligence plans and showcase iOS 10 at annual conference Tech giant will use event to announce plans to take on Google and Facebook in fast-growing field 6169789578 Click to follow The Independent Tech Apple will use its annual conference to announce plans to take on Google and Facebook in the fast-growing artificial intelligence arena, experts believe. The technology giant will also reveal a new version of its iOS software that powers the iPhone and iPad, as well as updating its MacBook laptop line, at its WWDC (worldwide developers conference) event. -- AP Stefan Schwart and Udo Klingenberg preparing a self-built flight simulator to land at Hong Kong airport, from Rostock, Germany EPA The software's virtual, voice-activated personal assistant Siri is expected to be expanded so that it works in a wider range of apps. Both Google and Facebook have already announced greater focus on their artificial intelligence products this year, with Google improving its Google Now software, while Facebook is introducing intelligent "bots" to Messenger that can understand requests and questions from users. It is now expected that Apple will discuss its own plans for this area of technology. Search Search Elon Musk’s research group opens ‘AI gym’ to train robots not to destroy the human race CEO and founder Elon Musk speaks at a SpaceX press conference (Getty) / Brendan Smialowski/Getty Images OpenAI, which will run the gym, was established in December to make sure that artificial intelligence is used to ‘advance digital intelligence in the way that is most likely to benefit humanity as a whole, unconstrained by a need to generate financial return’ 6169789578 Click to follow The Independent Tech Elon Musk’s AI research group has opened a “gym” for robots, to ensure that they can be properly tested. The new project is an attempt to bring together training for artificially intelligent machines, allowing them to be fairly compared with each other – and avoid any problem results. -- The project launched in December and aims to “advance digital intelligence in the way that is most likely to benefit humanity as a whole, unconstrained by a need to generate financial return”. In pictures: Artificial intelligence through history In pictures: Artificial intelligence through history Boston Dynamics describes itself as 'building dynamic robots and software for human simulation'. It has created robots for DARPA, the US' military research company Google has been using similar technology to build self-driving cars, and has been pushing for legislation to allow them on the roads The DARPA Urban Challenge, set up by the US Department of Defense, challenges driverless cars to navigate a 60 mile course in an urban environment that simulates guerilla warfare Deep Blue, a computer created by IBM, won a match against world champion Garry Kasparov in 1997. The computer could evaluate 200 million positions per second, and Kasparov accused it of cheating after the match was finished Another computer created by IBM, Watson, beat two champions of US TV series Jeopardy at their own game in 2011 Apple's virtual assistant for iPhone, Siri, uses artificial intelligence technology to anticipate users' needs and give cheeky reactions Xbox's Kinect uses artificial intelligence to predict where players are likely to go, an track their movement more accurately The gym’s primary function is establishing benchmarks for artificially intelligent systems, so that they can be compared against one another. That is intended as a way of monitoring the progress of such systems – and hopefully ensuring that they don’t go wrong, or have the kinds of effects that Mr Musk and others have repeatedly warned about. Programmers will be able to submit their AIs to the gym, which will run them through a range of tests and see how they get on. It is not simply one test – like the game Go, which has been used before – but is instead a range of different trials that look to test the artificial intelligence in full. Read more AlphaGo beat Lee Se-dol - but it's a long way from being human The problem with specific trials, like DeepMind’s success in Go, is that systems can be created specifically for any given test. Search Search Google Calendar ‘Goals’ update uses artificial intelligence to make its users into better people The tool aims to make it easier for people to improve themselves, by scheduling ‘reading more books, learning a new language, or working out more regularly’, as well as any other regular activity 6169789578 Click to follow The Independent Tech Google has introduced a new tool to its Calendar, intended on making its users into better people. The new tool, called Goals, uses artificial intelligence to help people schedule in time to fulfil their aspirations – including learning new languages and doing exercise. The feature looks through people’s calendar, finds times when they might be free, and then adds in time for them to do the things that they might not otherwise get to. -- At this biennial event, the participating companies exhibit their latest service robotic technologies and components Getty The robot developed by Seed Solutions sings and dances to music during the Japan Robot Week 2016 at Tokyo Big Sight Getty Government and industry are working together on a robot-like autopilot system that could eliminate the need for a second human pilot in the cockpit AP Aurora Flight Sciences' technicians work on an Aircrew Labor In-Cockpit Automantion System (ALIAS) device in the firm's Centaur aircraft at Manassas Airport in Manassas, Va. AP Stefan Schwart and Udo Klingenberg preparing a self-built flight simulator to land at Hong Kong airport, from Rostock, Germany EPA Once they are scheduled in, Google’s algorithms can use their artificial intelligence to ensure that people are still able to make them. If something comes up and gets in the way of time that had been previously scheduled for meeting a goal, for instance, the app will automatically reschedule the event to another time when its user is free. Search Search Tay Tweets: Microsoft shuts down AI chatbot turned into a pro-Hitler racist troll in just 24 hours The messages started out harmless, if bizarre, but have descended into outright racism — before the bot was shut down 6169789578 Click to follow The Independent Tech Microsoft created a chatbot that tweeted about its admiration for Hitler and used wildly racist slurs against black people before it was shut down. The company made the Twitter account as a way of demonstrating its artificial intelligence prowess. But it quickly started sending out offensive tweets. -- AP Stefan Schwart and Udo Klingenberg preparing a self-built flight simulator to land at Hong Kong airport, from Rostock, Germany EPA That appears to be a reference to machine learning technology that has been built into the account. It seems to use artificial intelligence to watch what is being tweeted at it and then push that back into the world in the form of new tweets. But many of those people tweeting at it appear to have been attempting to prank the robot by forcing it to learn offensive and racist language. -- The account is expected to come back online, presumably at least with filters that will keep it from tweeting about offensive words. Nello Cristianini, a professor of artificial intelligence at Bristol University, questioned whether Tay’s encounter with wider world was an experiment or a PR stunt. “You make a product, aimed at talking with just teenagers, and you even tell them that it will learn from them about the world,” he said. Search Search Google DeepMind computer beats Go champion Lee Se-dol in shock 4-1 victory South Korean professional Go player Lee Sedol, right, puts the first stone against Google's artificial intelligence program, AlphaGo, during the Google DeepMind Challenge Match in Seoul, South Korea / AP Some had thought that Mr Lee's clawing back of the fourth game could indicate that he was learning how the computer worked – but the final game ended in a victory for AlphaGo 6169789578 Click to follow The Independent Tech Google’s Go-playing computer has definitively beaten the best human in the world, finishing a pioneering match at 4-1. For the past week, AlphaGo has been playing grandmaster Lee Sedol, one of the top Go players in history. The victory has been hailed as a huge leap forward for artificial intelligence systems of the kind built by DeepMind, Google’s artificial intelligence team. The ancient Chinese board game had been seen as too complex for computers to master. Just months ago, artificial intelligence experts said that we were at least 10 years from creating a computer powerful enough to beat the best humans at the game. But Go fans across Asia were astonished when Lee, one of the world's best Go players, lost the first three matches. In pictures: Artificial intelligence through history In pictures: Artificial intelligence through history Boston Dynamics describes itself as 'building dynamic robots and software for human simulation'. It has created robots for DARPA, the US' military research company Google has been using similar technology to build self-driving cars, and has been pushing for legislation to allow them on the roads The DARPA Urban Challenge, set up by the US Department of Defense, challenges driverless cars to navigate a 60 mile course in an urban environment that simulates guerilla warfare Deep Blue, a computer created by IBM, won a match against world champion Garry Kasparov in 1997. The computer could evaluate 200 million positions per second, and Kasparov accused it of cheating after the match was finished Another computer created by IBM, Watson, beat two champions of US TV series Jeopardy at their own game in 2011 Apple's virtual assistant for iPhone, Siri, uses artificial intelligence technology to anticipate users' needs and give cheeky reactions Xbox's Kinect uses artificial intelligence to predict where players are likely to go, an track their movement more accurately Lee beat AlphaGo in the fourth match. He said he had found weak points in Google DeepMind's artificial intelligence programme which showed the machine was not infallible. Some had thought that could mean that Lee would go on to win the fifth game, too, and that AlphaGo’s victory in the first three games was the result of its eccentric and non-human playing style. -- Google wants to use AlphaGo beyond games, ultimately to solve real-world problems. The computer has been widely seen as proof that artificial intelligence machines could go on to master characteristics that were previously thought to belong only to humans, like intuition. Additional reporting by Press Association Comments Most Popular Video Sponsored Features We use cookies to enhance your visit to our site and to bring you advertisements that might interest you. Search Search Google Deepmind artificial intelligence beats world's best Go player Lee Sedol in landmark game South Korea’s Lee Sedol, the world’s top Go player, bows during a news conference ahead of matches against Google’s artificial intelligence program AlphaGo, in Seoul, South Korea, March 8, 2016 / REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji Go depends mostly on intuition, since it is so complex — and the victory shows that computers are well on their way to learning the powers that we thought belonged only to humans 6169789578 Click to follow The Independent Tech A computer programme has won a game of Go against the world's best player, in a huge breakthrough for artificial intelligence. Google’s AlphaGo computer has beaten South Korean human and Go champion Lee Sedol in the first of five matches. The Deepmind-based computer's victory in the complex Chinese game marks a major event in the development of artificial intelligence — the game depends hugely in intuition, since there are so many possibilities, and so mastery of the game was previously thought to be a human skill. The game is said to be one of the most creative and complicated in the world, and usually takes years for even humans to master. In pictures: Artificial intelligence through history In pictures: Artificial intelligence through history Boston Dynamics describes itself as 'building dynamic robots and software for human simulation'. It has created robots for DARPA, the US' military research company Google has been using similar technology to build self-driving cars, and has been pushing for legislation to allow them on the roads The DARPA Urban Challenge, set up by the US Department of Defense, challenges driverless cars to navigate a 60 mile course in an urban environment that simulates guerilla warfare Deep Blue, a computer created by IBM, won a match against world champion Garry Kasparov in 1997. The computer could evaluate 200 million positions per second, and Kasparov accused it of cheating after the match was finished Another computer created by IBM, Watson, beat two champions of US TV series Jeopardy at their own game in 2011 Apple's virtual assistant for iPhone, Siri, uses artificial intelligence technology to anticipate users' needs and give cheeky reactions Xbox's Kinect uses artificial intelligence to predict where players are likely to go, an track their movement more accurately AI experts had previously thought that it would take another ten years of development for computers to get good enough at the game to beat a human. But then AlphaGo beat the European champion last year, and now appears to be on track for beating Lee, the world's best Go player. Search Search Why does it matter that Google’s DeepMind computer has beaten a human at Go? South Korea’s Lee Sedol (R), the world’s top Go player, shakes hands with Demis Hassabis, the CEO of DeepMind Technologies and developer of AlphaGO, after a news conference ahead of matches against Google’s artificial intelligence program AlphaGo / REUTERS/Kim Hong-Ji The Big Question: A computer’s mastery of arguably the most complex game in the world is a major step forward for artificial intelligence 6169789578 Click to follow The Independent Tech Why are we asking this now? A computer has won a game of Go against a person — much to many humans’ surprise. -- Computers have beaten humans at almost every game before, but none of them have had the same kinds of complexity. Winning at chess, for instance, was a huge achievement — but one of more traditional computing than artificial intelligence. Go is thought to be one of the most complicated games that there is. Because of that there is an almost infinite number of moves — meaning that it is a game more of intuition than calculation. In pictures: Artificial intelligence through history In pictures: Artificial intelligence through history Boston Dynamics describes itself as 'building dynamic robots and software for human simulation'. It has created robots for DARPA, the US' military research company Google has been using similar technology to build self-driving cars, and has been pushing for legislation to allow them on the roads The DARPA Urban Challenge, set up by the US Department of Defense, challenges driverless cars to navigate a 60 mile course in an urban environment that simulates guerilla warfare Deep Blue, a computer created by IBM, won a match against world champion Garry Kasparov in 1997. The computer could evaluate 200 million positions per second, and Kasparov accused it of cheating after the match was finished Another computer created by IBM, Watson, beat two champions of US TV series Jeopardy at their own game in 2011 Apple's virtual assistant for iPhone, Siri, uses artificial intelligence technology to anticipate users' needs and give cheeky reactions Xbox's Kinect uses artificial intelligence to predict where players are likely to go, an track their movement more accurately The ancient Chinese game of Go is nearly 3,000 years old and immensely challenging. Players take turns putting black and white stones onto a gridded piece of wood, with the ultimate aim being taking over the full board. -- How did AlphaGo get so good at it? As with much work in artificial intelligence, Google’s DeepMind team trained the computer using a system of trial and error. The computer uses “reinforcement learning” — a development remarkably similar to the way that humans learn. -- What does it mean for us? Intuition — like other kinds of human traits — is one of the key parts of artificial intelligence. We have managed to gather together huge amounts of computing power, and the current challenge for many engineers is making those computers learn, think and understand like humans do. Search Search Artificial intelligence 'should be used to give children one-on-one tutoring' Academics argue AI could radically transform our education system for the better – but is being held back by funding Click to follow The Independent Online Academics argue that one-to-one tutoring could provide the most-effective approach to teaching but it's being held back by a lack of funding iStock Artificial intelligence should be used to provide children with one-to-one tutoring to improve their learning and monitor their well-being, academics have argued. One-to-one tutoring has long been thought the most-effective approach to teaching but would be too expensive to provide for all students. -- The report argues that AI could radically transform our education system for the better – but it is being held back by funding. In pictures: Artificial intelligence through history In pictures: Artificial intelligence through history Boston Dynamics describes itself as 'building dynamic robots and software for human simulation'. It has created robots for DARPA, the US' military research company Google has been using similar technology to build self-driving cars, and has been pushing for legislation to allow them on the roads The DARPA Urban Challenge, set up by the US Department of Defense, challenges driverless cars to navigate a 60 mile course in an urban environment that simulates guerilla warfare Deep Blue, a computer created by IBM, won a match against world champion Garry Kasparov in 1997. The computer could evaluate 200 million positions per second, and Kasparov accused it of cheating after the match was finished Another computer created by IBM, Watson, beat two champions of US TV series Jeopardy at their own game in 2011 Apple's virtual assistant for iPhone, Siri, uses artificial intelligence technology to anticipate users' needs and give cheeky reactions Xbox's Kinect uses artificial intelligence to predict where players are likely to go, an track their movement more accurately Proposals to use AI have been controversial. Professor Stephen Hawking and other leading scientists have warned of the dangers of it becoming “too clever”, and there are concerns about data security and privacy. -- But the report’s authors believe there are huge potential benefits – and they argue it is essential the teaching profession is involved from the start. The report says: “We are in no doubt that teachers need to be central agents in the next phase of Artificial Intelligence in Education (AIEd). In one sense this is obvious – it is teachers who will be the orchestrators of when, and how, to use these AIEd tools. Search Search Basic income may be needed to combat robot-induced unemployment, leading AI expert says Industrial robots have already displaced human workers in some factories / Sean Gallup/Getty The rise of artificial intelligence could put millions of human workers out of jobs - could a basic income be a solution? 6169789578 Click to follow The Independent Tech A leading artificial intelligence (AI) expert believes that societies may have to consider issuing a basic income to all citizens, in order to combat the threat to jobs posed by increased automation in the workplace. Dr Moshe Vardi, a computer science professor at Rice University in Texas, believes that a basic income may be needed in the future as advances in automation and AI put human workers out of jobs. -- The final proposal won't be ready until the end of this year, and if it goes ahead, it'd likely be trialled in a few areas before being rolled out nationwide. In pictures: Artificial intelligence through history In pictures: Artificial intelligence through history Boston Dynamics describes itself as 'building dynamic robots and software for human simulation'. It has created robots for DARPA, the US' military research company Google has been using similar technology to build self-driving cars, and has been pushing for legislation to allow them on the roads The DARPA Urban Challenge, set up by the US Department of Defense, challenges driverless cars to navigate a 60 mile course in an urban environment that simulates guerilla warfare Deep Blue, a computer created by IBM, won a match against world champion Garry Kasparov in 1997. The computer could evaluate 200 million positions per second, and Kasparov accused it of cheating after the match was finished Another computer created by IBM, Watson, beat two champions of US TV series Jeopardy at their own game in 2011 Apple's virtual assistant for iPhone, Siri, uses artificial intelligence technology to anticipate users' needs and give cheeky reactions Xbox's Kinect uses artificial intelligence to predict where players are likely to go, an track their movement more accurately A basic income pilot scheme is also set to be tested on a small number of benefits claimants in the Dutch city of Utrecht, and the system has support among people in the Green and Labour parties in the UK. The idea of robots replacing humans may sound like science fiction, but it's already a reality. Search Search Professor Marvin Minsky: Mathematician and inventor inspired by Alan Turing to become a pioneer in the field of artificial intelligence Minsky devoted his career to the hypothesis that engineers could someday create an intelligent machine Click to follow The Independent Online Minsky at a seminar in Seattle in 1987, ‘Artificial Intelligence: Society’s Atlas or Achilles? ’ AP Marvin Minsky was a founding father of the field of artificial intelligence and an innovative explorer of the mysteries of the human mind during his long tenure at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He was a professor emeritus at MIT's Media Lab, which has a broad, interdisciplinary mandate to explore technology, multimedia and design. -- " Other such words include "creativity" and "emotion". In pictures: Artificial intelligence through history In pictures: Artificial intelligence through history Boston Dynamics describes itself as 'building dynamic robots and software for human simulation'. It has created robots for DARPA, the US' military research company Google has been using similar technology to build self-driving cars, and has been pushing for legislation to allow them on the roads The DARPA Urban Challenge, set up by the US Department of Defense, challenges driverless cars to navigate a 60 mile course in an urban environment that simulates guerilla warfare Deep Blue, a computer created by IBM, won a match against world champion Garry Kasparov in 1997. The computer could evaluate 200 million positions per second, and Kasparov accused it of cheating after the match was finished Another computer created by IBM, Watson, beat two champions of US TV series Jeopardy at their own game in 2011 Apple's virtual assistant for iPhone, Siri, uses artificial intelligence technology to anticipate users' needs and give cheeky reactions Xbox's Kinect uses artificial intelligence to predict where players are likely to go, an track their movement more accurately Along with fellow AI pioneer John McCarthy, Minsky founded the artificial intelligence lab at MIT in 1959. His 1960 paper Steps Toward Artificial Intelligence laid out many of the routes researchers would take in the decades to come. He wrote, "we are on the threshold of an era that will be strongly influenced, and quite possibly dominated, by intelligent problem-solving machines. -- "About 10 years after the original patent expired, it started to become a standard tool in biology and materials science. " In 1956, when the very idea of a computer was only a couple of decades old, Minsky attended a two-month symposium at Dartmouth College that is considered the founding event in the field of artificial intelligence. Read more intelligence Minsky said last year that Alan Turing was the first person to bring respectability to the idea that machines might one day think. Search Search Google AlphaGo computer beats professional at 'world's most complex board game' Go More complex than chess: the Chinese board game Go / Wikimedia/Creative Commons Milestone in AI research likened to defeat of world chess champion Garry Kasparov in 1997 by IBM’s Deep Blue computer 6169789578 Click to follow The Independent Tech It was considered one of the last great challenges between man and machine but now, for the first time, a computer program has beaten a professional player of the ancient Chinese game of Go in a defeat that many had not expected for at least another 10 years. The machine’s victory is being likened to the defeat of reigning world chess champion Garry Kasparov in 1997 by IBM’s Deep Blue computer, which became a milestone in the advance of artificial intelligence over the human mind. Go, however, is more complex than chess with an infinitely greater number of potential moves, so experts were surprised to find that computer scientists had invented a suite of artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms that taught the computer how to win against Europe’s top player. Read more 'Artificial intelligence alarmists' win 'Luddite of the Year' award The program, called AlphaGo, defeated European champion Fan Hui by a resounding five games to nil in a match played last October but only now revealed in a scientific study of the moves and algorithms published last night in the journal Nature. A match against the current world Go champion, Lee Sedol from South Korea, is now scheduled for March. -- In tests against other Go computer games on the market, AlphaGo won all but one out of 500 games, even when other programs were given a head-start with pieces already positioned on the board. Mr Silver said the neural networks were able to learn by themselves, unlike the “supervised” training of other artificial intelligence algorithms. “It learns in a human-like manner but it still takes a lot of practice. Search Search 'Artificial intelligence alarmists' like Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking win 'Luddite of the Year' award The winners of the award warned that artificial intelligence could one day pose a huge danger to humanity / Getty Although the foundation which gave the award acknowledge Hawking and Musk aren't really Luddites, they said they had contributed to 'feverish hand-wringing' over the dangers of AI 6169789578 Click to follow The Independent Tech A diverse group of scientists and technologists, including Tesla CEO Elon Musk and famed physicist Stephen Hawking, have been named as the winners of 2015's 'Luddite Award', for their warnings over the potential dangers of artificial intelligence (AI) and 'killer robots'. The award, which is issued by Washington DC-based think tank the Information Technology and Innovation Foundation (ITIF), is awarded annually to highlight the year's worst "anti-technology ideas and policies. -- While the text of the letter acknowledged that AI could have huge benefits to humanity, it warned the use of the technology in warfare could be hugely destructive, and could potentially lead to the end of humanity if a man-made superintelligence 'turned' on its creators. Clearly unimpressed by these warnings over AI, ITIF made a veiled reference to the letter's signatories, by including "alarmists touting an artificial intelligence apocalypse" and "advocates seeking a ban on 'killer robots'" in their list of nominees for the award. Artists in Pakistan target drones with giant posters of child victims Artists in Pakistan target drones with giant posters of child victims A poster bearing the image of a Pakistani girl whose parents, lawyers say, were killed in a drone strike, lies in a field at an undisclosed location in the northwestern Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province. -- Atkinson criticised the 'demonisation' of AI that took place in 2015. Read more intelligence "It is deeply unfortunately that luminaries such as Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking have contributed to feverish hand-wringing about a looming artificial intelligence apocalypse," he said. "Do we think either of them personally are Luddites? Search Search Artificial intelligence gets a lot of bad press, but it will solve the planet’s hardest problems Filmmakers have stoked human fears of AI technology in movies like ‘Ex Machina’, but big data could be a force for good According to the ‘digital prophet’ Kevin Kelly, we’re on the verge of a brave new future, where computing will solve all the planet’s ills. And he’s not alone 6169789578 Click to follow The Independent Tech As you’re choking down your latest serving of Trump Clinton Brexit Racism Terrorism Wealth Gap Climate Change Casserole, you could use some good news. -- What we’re going to experience in the next decade, from 2017 to 2027, will make that stuff seem as ho-hum as a wall socket. Artificial intelligence gets a lot of bad press. Yes, it’s probably going to wipe out certain jobs and professions, as always happens with progress. -- Despite headlines about a recent self-driving fatality, AI driving should eventually nearly eliminate accidents. “It is hard to imagine anything that would ‘change everything’ as much as cheap, powerful, ubiquitous artificial intelligence,” Kelly writes. “It is the ur-force in our future. But other technologists and scientists have expressed concerns about such plans. People such as Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking have worried that artificial intelligence will go on to have too much power and could damage humanity. Those worries were dramatised in last year’s Ex Machina. -- “I'll teach it to let me know if anything is going on in Max's room that I need to check on when I'm not with her. ” In pictures: Artificial intelligence through history In pictures: Artificial intelligence through history Boston Dynamics describes itself as 'building dynamic robots and software for human simulation'. It has created robots for DARPA, the US' military research company Google has been using similar technology to build self-driving cars, and has been pushing for legislation to allow them on the roads The DARPA Urban Challenge, set up by the US Department of Defense, challenges driverless cars to navigate a 60 mile course in an urban environment that simulates guerilla warfare Deep Blue, a computer created by IBM, won a match against world champion Garry Kasparov in 1997. The computer could evaluate 200 million positions per second, and Kasparov accused it of cheating after the match was finished Another computer created by IBM, Watson, beat two champions of US TV series Jeopardy at their own game in 2011 Apple's virtual assistant for iPhone, Siri, uses artificial intelligence technology to anticipate users' needs and give cheeky reactions Xbox's Kinect uses artificial intelligence to predict where players are likely to go, an track their movement more accurately Mr Zuckerberg also said that the system would help him with his work. It would do so using virtual reality, another technology that Facebook has invested heavily in with its acquisition of Oculus, the headset-making firm. Search Search Plan to bring people back from the dead by freezing their brains and then resurrecting them with artificial intelligence The company is developing techniques to take people's brains out and freeze them until they are ready / Getty Artificial intelligence and apps would watch people during their lives — and then use that to bring them back to life 6169789578 Click to follow The Independent Tech A company claims that it is developing technology to bring people back from the dead. Humai says that it is developing technology that would allow brains to be frozen and have their information stored, bringing people back using artificial intelligence. The technology could be available to the public within the next 30 years, the company claimed. -- Once the techniques were sufficiently advanced, the frozen brain would then be taken out of its freezer and put into a new body, allowing the person to be brought back to life. Before the person dies, the company would use artificial intelligence to study the conversational style and behaviour of their customers. That would then be fed into the chip so that the person that was being re-animated would be preserved. -- This is inaccurate, the reason being that these images are not to scale. “We’re using artificial intelligence and nanotechnology to store data of conversational styles, behavioural patterns, thought processes and information about how your body functions from the inside-out,” the site reads. “This data will be coded into multiple sensor technologies, which will be built into an artificial body with the brain of a deceased human. -- ” The company has five people working together to create the technology, it claims. That includes people working on artificial intelligence, “bionics and sensors” and nanotechnology. Comments Most Popular Video Sponsored Features We use cookies to enhance your visit to our site and to bring you advertisements that might interest you. Search Search Stephen Hawking: Artificial intelligence could wipe out humanity when it gets too clever as humans will be like ants Chinese inventor Tao Xiangli modifies the circuits of his home-made robot at his house in Beijing, May 15, 2013 / REUTERS/Suzie Wong AI is likely to be ‘either the best or worst thing ever to happen to humanity,’ Hawking said, ‘so there's huge value in getting it right’ 6169789578 Click to follow The Independent Tech Stephen Hawking has warned that artificially intelligent machines could kill us because they are too clever. Such computers could become so competent that they kill us by accident, Hawking has warned in his first Ask Me Anything session on Reddit. A questioner noted that Professor Hawking’s ideas about artificial intelligence are seen as “a belief in Terminator-style ‘Evil AI’”, and asked how he would present his own beliefs. “The real risk with AI isn't malice but competence,” Professor Hawking said. -- That might eventually result in “machines whose intelligence exceeds ours by more than ours exceeds that of snails”, Hawking said. In pictures: Artificial intelligence through history In pictures: Artificial intelligence through history Boston Dynamics describes itself as 'building dynamic robots and software for human simulation'. It has created robots for DARPA, the US' military research company Google has been using similar technology to build self-driving cars, and has been pushing for legislation to allow them on the roads The DARPA Urban Challenge, set up by the US Department of Defense, challenges driverless cars to navigate a 60 mile course in an urban environment that simulates guerilla warfare Deep Blue, a computer created by IBM, won a match against world champion Garry Kasparov in 1997. The computer could evaluate 200 million positions per second, and Kasparov accused it of cheating after the match was finished Another computer created by IBM, Watson, beat two champions of US TV series Jeopardy at their own game in 2011 Apple's virtual assistant for iPhone, Siri, uses artificial intelligence technology to anticipate users' needs and give cheeky reactions Xbox's Kinect uses artificial intelligence to predict where players are likely to go, an track their movement more accurately Hawking said that it wasn’t clear how long such artificial intelligence would take to develop — warning that people shouldn’t trust “anyone who claims to know for sure that it will happen in your lifetime or that it won't happen in your lifetime”. But when it does happen, Hawking said, “it's likely to be either the best or worst thing ever to happen to humanity, so there's huge value in getting it right”. As such, we should “shift the goal of AI from creating pure undirected artificial intelligence to creating beneficial intelligence”. Read more “It might take decades to figure out how to do this, so let's start researching this today rather than the night before the first strong AI is switched on,” Hawking said. That echoed the warnings in the open letter about AI that Hawking’s AMA had followed — in it, experts warned that if we are lax about thinking about artificial intelligence, computers will become too clever before we even realise. Before the robots become so powerful that they accidentally kill us, they might end up taking our jobs. Search Search Apple buys VocalIQ: Siri likely to get more human as artificial intelligence could come to iPhones and Apple cars The Apple store in Beijing launches the new iPhone 6s / Cambridge-based VocalIQ aims to change ‘the way we talk to machines’ by making them talk more like humans 6169789578 Click to follow The Independent Tech Apple has bought a new artificial intelligence-powered company that aims to make robots easier to speak to and could lead to improvements in its voice assistant, Siri. VocalIQ, which is based in Cambridge, builds . -- Its CarPlay in-car entertainment technology can make use of Siri, for instance — and so might the rumoured Apple car. Apple has been reported in the past to be hiring machine learning and artificial intelligence experts, in an attempt to help make Siri more clever and able to predict what humans are saying and might want. The company has been aggressively hiring experts including those from other companies like Google, Amazon and Facebook, in addition to the VoiceIQ acquisition. Search Search Sex robots should be banned, say campaigners, as engineers look to add AI to sex toys A still from the film Ex Machina, in which an AI seduces a man Machines ‘in the form of women or children for use as sex objects, substitutes for human partners or prostitutes’ are ‘harmful and contribute to inequalities in society’, campaigners claim 6169789578 Click to follow The Independent Tech Companies should be stopped from developing sex robots with artificial intelligence for fear of harming humanity, according to campaigners. Many engineers are looking to add artificial intelligence to sex toys and dolls in an attempt to make them more like humans, and therefore more attractive to customers. But such moves are unethical and will harm humanity, according to a new campaign. -- But the researchers say that “technology and the sex trade coexist and reinforce each other creating more demand for human bodies”. In pictures: Artificial intelligence through history In pictures: Artificial intelligence through history Boston Dynamics describes itself as 'building dynamic robots and software for human simulation'. It has created robots for DARPA, the US' military research company Google has been using similar technology to build self-driving cars, and has been pushing for legislation to allow them on the roads The DARPA Urban Challenge, set up by the US Department of Defense, challenges driverless cars to navigate a 60 mile course in an urban environment that simulates guerilla warfare Deep Blue, a computer created by IBM, won a match against world champion Garry Kasparov in 1997. The computer could evaluate 200 million positions per second, and Kasparov accused it of cheating after the match was finished Another computer created by IBM, Watson, beat two champions of US TV series Jeopardy at their own game in 2011 Apple's virtual assistant for iPhone, Siri, uses artificial intelligence technology to anticipate users' needs and give cheeky reactions Xbox's Kinect uses artificial intelligence to predict where players are likely to go, an track their movement more accurately The campaign, led by robotics and ethics researchers Kathleen Richardson and Erik Brilling, proposes that engineers instead work on technology that “reflect human principles of dignity, mutuality and freedom”. They hope that other members will join the campaign, so that it can “encourage computer scientists and roboticists to refuse to contribute to the development of sex robots as a field by refusing to provide code, hardware or ideas” as well as working with campaigns against the sexual exploitation of humans. That all may sound a bit overheated, but to be fair, the technology of the meal hasn't profoundly changed since the introduction of the microwave oven in 1955. As data, artificial intelligence and robotics intersect in the home, the everyday meal is ripe for disruption. The room we call the kitchen might end up becoming as quaint as a fireplace – nice to have, but not necessary. -- In a way, it's not a huge advance over Dick Van Dyke's mechanical kitchen in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. But systems like this will get smarter and more flexible, using artificial intelligence to learn how to make meals and figure out where to find the ingredients. Add up the various inventions that are in the works, and the robot cook starts looking like more than just a labour-saving daydream of a nerd with 10 kids. -- Robotics are getting so good, so quickly, there's no reason to think robot cooks won't make their mark first in high-volume food preparation enterprises and, later, homes. Swizzle together a robot chef plus food data and artificial intelligence, and you have a home cook that can be as good as any celebrity chef – or even your mother. Maybe the best way to automate cooking will be to build a kitchen suited to robots instead of humans – like a self-enclosed, self-cleaning unit of stoves and arms and blenders that sits in the basement and sends finished plates up through a dumb waiter. Search Search Google's AI think tank is working on a way to cure cancer Deep Mind scientists are trying to figure out how to use nanotechnology to turn off cancer cells Click to follow The Independent Online Deep Mind, the London-based artificial intelligence start-up bought for £400m by Google last year, is working on technology to fight cancer, according to one of the search giants's top executives. Speaking at Advertising Week Europe in London, Google's UK head Eileen Naughton said: “In concept, they are trying to figure out how to use nanotechnology to turn off cancer cells. -- Naughton said Google's Life Sciences division was doing “an enormous amount of mapping of cancer cells” and is also working on mapping the genome of autistic people to better understand the condition. Steven Hawking has expressed fears about possible intended consequences arising from the type of artificial intelligence that Deep Mind is working on Member's of the science community including Steven Hawking have expressed fears about possible intended consequences arising from the type of artificial intelligence that Deep Mind is working on. Naughton conceded there are risks, saying: “You can imagine this artificial intelligence can be used for menacing purposes - you could get something like the Matrix or Terminator. ” But she added: “Demis Hassabis, who is the founder of Deep Mind, and a group of MIT professors and a whole crowd of artificial intelligence researchers recently got together and signed a doctrine that's essentially a Magna Carta for AI - how we comport ourselves and what are the ethics governing AI. ” Naughton praised King's Cross-based Deep Mind as “the most advance artificial intelligence think tank in the world” and said the engineers and scientists who staff it are viewed as the “elite of the elite” within Google. Comments Most Popular Sponsored Features Video We use cookies to enhance your visit to our site and to bring you advertisements that might interest you. Search Search New artificial intelligence can learn how to play vintage video games from scratch The Deep Q-network has learned to play Space Invaders and Breakout Click to follow The Independent Online Space Invaders, one of the 49 classic Atari games that the Deep Q-network has mastered A new kind of computer intelligence has learned to play dozens of vintage video games without any prior help in how to achieve human-like scoring abilities, scientists said. The intelligent machine learns by itself from scratch using a trial-and-error approach that is reinforced by the reward of a score in the game. -- The system of software algorithms is called Deep Q-network and has learned to play 49 classic Atari games such as Space Invaders and Breakout, but only with the help of information about the pixels on a screen and the scoring method. The researchers behind the development said that it represents a breakthrough in artificial intelligence capable of learning from scratch without being fed instructions from human experts – the classic method for chess-playing machines such as IBM’s Deep Blue computer. “This work is the first time anyone has built a single, general learning system that can learn directly from experience to master a wide range of challenging tasks, in this case a set of Atari games, and to perform at or better than human level,” said Demis Hassabis, a former neuroscientist and founder of DeepMind Technologies, which was bought by Google for £400m in 2014. -- You literally give them a perceptual experience and they learn to do things directly from that perceptual experience from first principles,” Mr Hassabis added. An advantage of “reinforced learning” rather than “supervised learning” of previous artificial intelligence computers is that the designers and programmers do not need to know the solutions to the problems because the machines themselves will be able to master the task, he said. “These type of systems are more human-like in the way they learn in the sense that it’s how humans learn. -- What does the creation of Deep Q mean? A machine with a human-like brainpower is the stuff of nightmares, and even scientists such as Stephen Hawking have warned about the existential threat posed by uncontrolled artificial intelligence. Movies such as 'I, Robot' have speculated on the threat that artificial intelligence may pose The latest Deep Q-network is far from being able to wield this kind of malign power. However, what makes it interesting, and some might say potentially dangerous, is that it was inspired and built on the neural networks of the human brain. Search Search Artificial intelligence could kill us because we're stupid, not because it's evil, says expert She’s electric: some scientists believe that robots with consciousness, such as Ava in ‘Ex Machina’, are only ‘a couple of breakthroughs away’ Building artificial intelligence in humanity’s image will make it dangerous, says leading theorist 6169789578 Click to follow The Independent Tech Artificial intelligence will be a threat because we are stupid, not because it is clever and evil, according to experts. We could put ourselves in danger by creating artificial intelligence that looks too much like ourselves, a leading theorist has warned. “If we look for A. -- The warning comes partly in response to similar worries voiced by leading technologists and scientists including Elon Musk and Stephen Hawking. They and hundreds of other experts signed a letter last month calling for research to combat the dangers of artificial intelligence. But many of those worries seem to come from thinking that robots will care deeply about humanity, for better or worse. -- “Worse than being seen as an enemy is not being seen at all. ” In pictures: Artificial intelligence through history In pictures: Artificial intelligence through history Boston Dynamics describes itself as 'building dynamic robots and software for human simulation'. It has created robots for DARPA, the US' military research company Google has been using similar technology to build self-driving cars, and has been pushing for legislation to allow them on the roads The DARPA Urban Challenge, set up by the US Department of Defense, challenges driverless cars to navigate a 60 mile course in an urban environment that simulates guerilla warfare Deep Blue, a computer created by IBM, won a match against world champion Garry Kasparov in 1997. The computer could evaluate 200 million positions per second, and Kasparov accused it of cheating after the match was finished Another computer created by IBM, Watson, beat two champions of US TV series Jeopardy at their own game in 2011 Apple's virtual assistant for iPhone, Siri, uses artificial intelligence technology to anticipate users' needs and give cheeky reactions Xbox's Kinect uses artificial intelligence to predict where players are likely to go, an track their movement more accurately Instead we should start thinking about artificial intelligence as something more than the image of human intelligence. Tests like that proposed by Alan Turing, which challenges artificial intelligence to pass as a human, reflect the fact that our thinking about what kinds of intelligence there might be is limited, according to Bratton. “That we would wish to define the very existence of A. -- It just doesn’t work that way. ” Other experts in artificial intelligence have pointed out that we don’t tend to build other technology to mimic biology. Planes, for instance, aren’t designed to mimic the flight of birds, and it could be a mistake to do the same with humanity. Search Search Alex Garland's 'Ex Machina': is true artificial intelligence sci-fi or sci-fact? The former literary rock star's brilliant directorial debut explores the development of artificial consciousness - a subject which is more topical than ever Click to follow The Independent Culture Still from the film 'Ex Machina' UPI Media "Tough crowd …. -- The reason for their presence? The high-concept thriller deals with that most topical of scientific topics, artificial intelligence, via the tale of a beautiful machine, Ava, believed by its creator to be the first truly human-like robot. As if proving the film’s currency, after the screening Demis Hassabis, founder of British AI company DeepMind Technologies, approached Garland and suggested they go out to dinner; last year, DeepMind was bought by Google, becoming its largest-ever European acquisition. -- During a lecture at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the tech pioneer Elon Musk compared the development of AI to “summoning the demon”. Meanwhile Professor Stephen Hawking recently told the BBC: “The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race. It would take off on its own, and re-design itself at an ever-increasing rate. Search Search iPhone 6s successors to use artificial intelligence to guess what users want before they know Apple has been stepping up its efforts to hire machine learning and artificial intelligence experts, apparently for its Siri personal assistant, according to reports 6169789578 Click to follow The Independent Tech Apple is beefing up its artificial intelligence team, in an apparent attempt to make iPhones clever enough to know what they’re users want before they do. The company has launched a huge hiring push to take on more experts in machine learning — a branch of computing that aims to make devices that think like humans. That all may sound a bit overheated, but to be fair, the technology of the meal hasn't profoundly changed since the introduction of the microwave oven in 1955. As data, artificial intelligence and robotics intersect in the home, the everyday meal is ripe for disruption. The room we call the kitchen might end up becoming as quaint as a fireplace – nice to have, but not necessary. -- In a way, it's not a huge advance over Dick Van Dyke's mechanical kitchen in Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. But systems like this will get smarter and more flexible, using artificial intelligence to learn how to make meals and figure out where to find the ingredients. Add up the various inventions that are in the works, and the robot cook starts looking like more than just a labour-saving daydream of a nerd with 10 kids. -- Robotics are getting so good, so quickly, there's no reason to think robot cooks won't make their mark first in high-volume food preparation enterprises and, later, homes. Swizzle together a robot chef plus food data and artificial intelligence, and you have a home cook that can be as good as any celebrity chef – or even your mother. Maybe the best way to automate cooking will be to build a kitchen suited to robots instead of humans – like a self-enclosed, self-cleaning unit of stoves and arms and blenders that sits in the basement and sends finished plates up through a dumb waiter. Search Search Careers in tech: Artificial intelligence Pepper, the 3ft 11in shiny box of circuits who can tell jokes and respond to human emotions / Reuters Artificial Intelligence is all around us and now is the time to get involved Click to follow The Independent Online How would you feel if a robot looked after your child? Worried? -- What if that robot was as intelligent as yourself, if not more so, and was able to react to every problem and whim without ever tiring or wanting to scream? For those studying and working in artificial intelligence, creating this kind of situation could so easily become a reality. “AI is embedded in many educational applications,” explains Janet Read, a professor in child computer interaction at the University of Central Lancashire, pointing to new gesture recognition and interpretation technologies. -- It is all around us today, pervading our everyday lives and allowing us to take advantage of image and voice recognition software, intelligent web searching and medical advances, the latter made possible thanks to robot scientists formulating hypotheses and interpreting data. In pictures: Artificial intelligence through history In pictures: Artificial intelligence through history Boston Dynamics describes itself as 'building dynamic robots and software for human simulation'. It has created robots for DARPA, the US' military research company Google has been using similar technology to build self-driving cars, and has been pushing for legislation to allow them on the roads The DARPA Urban Challenge, set up by the US Department of Defense, challenges driverless cars to navigate a 60 mile course in an urban environment that simulates guerilla warfare Deep Blue, a computer created by IBM, won a match against world champion Garry Kasparov in 1997. The computer could evaluate 200 million positions per second, and Kasparov accused it of cheating after the match was finished Another computer created by IBM, Watson, beat two champions of US TV series Jeopardy at their own game in 2011 Apple's virtual assistant for iPhone, Siri, uses artificial intelligence technology to anticipate users' needs and give cheeky reactions Xbox's Kinect uses artificial intelligence to predict where players are likely to go, an track their movement more accurately Modern video games use AI to generate intelligent behaviour in non-player characters. NASA's Mars Rover was designed to make its own decisions, stopping and analysing only the rocks it felt would be useful. but for the wrong reasons, says eminent computer expert Professor Mark Bishop says key human abilities, such as understanding and consciousness, are fundamentally lacking in so-called 'intelligent' computers Click to follow The Independent Online Stephen Hawking and out of control computers from I, Robot Getty It is one of our biggest existential threats, something so powerful and dangerous that it could put an end to the human race by replacing us with an army of intelligent robots. This may sound like a bad film but in fact it came from Stephen Hawking, the world's most famous cosmologist, who told the BBC last week that he worries deeply about artificial intelligence and machines that can outsmart humanity. "The development of full artificial intelligence could spell the end of the human race. It would take off on its own, and re-design itself at an ever-increasing rate," Professor Hawking said. "Humans, who are limited by slow biological evolution, couldn't compete, and would be superseded. " His apocalyptic vision is not matched, however, by the views of one expert in artificial intelligence. "It is not often that you are obliged to proclaim a much-loved international genius wrong, but in the alarming prediction regarding artificial intelligence and the future of humankind, I believe Professor Stephen Hawking is," said Mark Bishop, professor of cognitive computing at Goldsmiths, University of London. Professor Hawking is not alone in being worried about the growing power of artificial intelligence (AI) to imbue robots with the ability to both replicate themselves and to increase the rate at which they get smarter – leading to a tipping point or "singularity" when they can outsmart humans. The mathematician John von Neumann first talked of an AI singularity in the 1950s, and Ray Kurzweil, the futurologist, popularised the idea a few decades later. -- But they are misguided, according to Professor Bishop, because there are some key human abilities, such as understanding and consciousness which are fundamentally lacking in so-called "intelligent" computers. "This lack means that there will always be a 'humanity gap' between any artificial intelligence and a real human mind. Because of this gap a human working in conjunction with any given AI machine will always be more powerful than that AI working on its own," Professor Bishop said. Search Search Tesla boss Elon Musk warns artificial intelligence development is 'summoning the demon' CEO of Tesla, Elon Musk / Getty The business magnate, inventor and investor has warned about artificial intelligence before 6169789578 Click to follow The Independent Tech Tesla chief executive Elon Musk has described artificial intelligence as a “demon” and the “biggest existential threat there is”, in his latest dramatic statement about technology. Addressing students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Musk said: “I think we should be very careful about artificial intelligence. If I were to guess like what our biggest existential threat is, it’s probably that. “With artificial intelligence we are summoning the demon. In all those stories where there’s the guy with the pentagram and the holy water, it’s like yeah he’s sure he can control the demon. Didn’t work out. ” The business magnate, inventor and investor, who is also CEO and CTO of SpaceX, and chairman of SolarCity, has warned about artificial intelligence before, which he believes could be more threatening than nuclear weapons. In August he tweeted: “Worth reading Superintelligence by Bostrom. -- Google has reportedly set up an “ethics board” in wake of the purchases but concerns remain. Dr Stuart Armstrong, from the Future of Humanity Institute at Oxford University, has warned that artificial intelligence could spur mass unemployment as machinery replaces manpower. He has also warned about the implications for uncontrolled mass surveillance if computers were taught to recognise human faces. This is the iconic and controversial Turing Test. I have spent my life working in Artificial Intelligence – and among other dubious claims to fame, am the world’s first human cyborg. So I am not surprised that debate has been raging since my colleagues at the University of Reading claimed that the test was finally passed after decades of trying. -- And others have claimed that a computer posing as a 13-year-old boy ‘cheats’ by confusing the judge into thinking non-sequiturs, or lack of knowledge, is due to tender years rather than intellectual ability. But the judges were not told he was a teenager and Turing never suggested that artificial intelligence would have to pose as an adult – just that it fooled people to thinking it was human. Judges were free to ask the subjects any questions they liked in unrestricted conversations – and Eugene was clearly capable of holding its own. -- Two thirds of our judges were still not fooled, which shows the machines still have some way to go before they take over the world. But it shows artificial intelligence is showing the appearance of getting cleverer. And it has practical benefits in combating cybercrime. Search Search Turing Test: What is it – and why isn't it the definitive word in artificial intelligence? The K supercomputer in Japan. A computer recently passed the iconic test for the first time this weekend - but is a 64-year-old thought experiment even relevant for today's computers? 6169789578 Click to follow The Independent Tech The news that the Turing Test has been beaten by a computer for the first time could have significant implications for artificial intelligence – but just what is the Turing test and what does beating it actually mean? The test was first proposed by the British mathematician and computer scientist Alan Turing who, in his 1950 paper ‘Computing Machinery and Intelligence’, asked a simple question: ‘Can machines think? -- If the rules he has are sophisticated enough then it would appear that he could speak Chinese – even though he has no understanding of the language. Most criticisms of the Turing test as a measure of artificial intelligence follow similar lines, arguing that computers can use tricks and vast databases of pre-programmed responses in order to simply ‘appear’ intelligent. Alan Turing, pictured at the Second World War code-breaking centre at Bletchley Park For example, in the recent successful test the computer programme claimed to be a 13-year-old boy from Ukraine – two factors that could be used to excuse any grammatical errors in the computer’s replies as well as its ignorance of more specialised forms of knowledge (pop culture and the like). In addition, only 33 per cent of the judges 'Eugene' spoke to had to be convinced he was a human (Turing himself never specified a pass rate) and the conversation was only five minutes long. For this reason (and many others) a lot of computer scientists no longer view the Turing Test as a credible way to assess artificial intelligence. However, that doesn't mean it's completely useless. Search Search Advances in artificial intelligence could lead to mass unemployment, warn experts The Meka M1 Mobile Manipulator. One of the many robots purchased by Google last year. Academics say half of US jobs could be automated within a decade or two 6169789578 Click to follow The Independent Tech Experts have warned that rapidly improving artificial intelligence could lead to mass unemployment just days after Google revealed the purchase of a London based start-up dedicated to developing this technology. Speaking on Radio 4’s Today programme, Dr Stuart Armstrong from the Future of Humanity Institute at the University of Oxford said that there was a risk that computers could take over human jobs “at a faster rate than new jobs could be generated. ” “We have some studies looking at to which jobs are the most vulnerable and there are quite a lot of them in logistics, administration, insurance underwriting,” said Dr Armstrong. “Ultimately, huge swathe of jobs are potentially vulnerable to improved artificial intelligence. ” Dr Murray Shanahan, a professor of cognitive robotics at Imperial College London, agreed that improvements in artificial intelligence were creating “short term issues that we all need to be talking about. ” "It's very difficult to predict," said Dr Shanahan. -- But it certainly is something we ought to be discussing. " Both academics did however praise Google for creating an ethics board to look at the “how to deploy artificial intelligence safely and reduce the risks” after its £400 million purchase of London-based start-up DeepMind. Google's search technology power devices such as Google Glass (above), allowing users to perform searchs and ask for help in natural language. DeepMind has been operating largely unnoticed by the wider UK technology scene, although its advances in artificial intelligence have obviously been of interest to the experts - founded in just 2012, DeepMind is Google's largest European acquisition to date. Dr Shanahan hailed DeepMind as “a company with some outstanding people working for it,” noting that the company has mainly been working in the areas of machine learning and deep learning, which he described as “all about finding patterns in very large quantities of data. The UK has had its fair share of the action, as British start-ups have begun to attract the attention of Silicon Valley's biggest players. Last month, a secretive London artificial intelligence start-up, DeepMind, was acquired for £400m by Google – just days before the struggling US gaming firm Zynga shelled out £320m for the Oxford-based games studio NaturalMotion. Most people outside the tech world had never heard of these firms – and there are plenty more UK tech firms flying below the radar which could soon be eyeing a million-dollar exit. -- Zynga may be interested in SpaceApe, which, along with NaturalMotion, could help it crack mobile. Google could also be tempted by the firm's work on artificial intelligence. SwiftKey It may not sound like much, but this predictive keyboard app is seen as one of the hottest start-ups on the UK technology scene. The firm was co-founded by Ben Medlock, who has a PhD from Cambridge in language-based artificial intelligence; the app learns how you speak, suggesting phrases and even whole sentences as you type. Who might be interested? Search Search Google buys UK artificial intelligence start-up DeepMind for £400m London-based company focused on “cutting edge artificial intelligence" could supply the brains for Google's burgeoning robotics division 6169789578 Click to follow The Independent Tech A former child chess prodigy and computer game designer from London has sold his company to Google for around £300m in one of the Internet giant’s largest European acquisitions. Demis Hassabis, a computer scientist, is understood to have struck the deal with Google for his secretive start-up business Deep Mind Technologies, which specialises in artificial intelligence (AI) for computers. Hassabis, 37, has built the company by bringing together neuroscientists and computer engineers in an effort to use technology and medical research to help machines to mimic the brain’s ability to improve performance.