What Exactly Can Neuralink Do?
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Intuitive Surgical Dominates Robotic Surgery
So how does Neuralink connect to our current brain layers? Neuralink bypasses the long timeline of evolutionary biology in which brain layers take millions of years to develop and gives us a fourth layer – a cyborg layer. A surgical robot implants a “Link” inside your skull and threads thousands of wires that can sense when neurons are communicating with each other through electrochemical signals.
The Link picks up these signals from neurons and utilizes machine learning to decode and encode new signals that will communicate with other neurons, directly influencing brain function by affecting the messages these neurons send and receive.
With a programmable cyborg layer, the applications are almost endless. The most immediate use case is in the medical field. Paralyzed patients can use their Link to wirelessly send signals to their limbs to bypass their injured spine. Patients with permanent blindness can use artificial retinas that send light information directly to the Link. ...
With access to the internet, the Link can begin to transmit, store, and process information at inconceivable speeds. Imagine a world where you never forget anything because all of your thoughts are backed up to the cloud. Instead of phoning your friend, you can just beam your thoughts to them. You can now describe to someone the exact taste and texture of Parisian foie gras without a single word. ...
...this poses a series of existential issues. How does an economy function when almost all jobs are done better by robots that continually improve themselves? How do we compete with a “species” that can evolve in a matter of minutes compared to our million-year long feedback loop? And what do we do if they decide that we are in the way?
Neuralink’s thesis is that by creating a pathway with enough bandwidth to communicate with algorithms, we can hope to form a symbiotic relationship with AI. ...
See the full story here: https://www.rebellionresearch.com/what-exactly-can-neuralink-do
Grunt of the litter: scientists use AI to decode pig calls
... Scientists believe that the AI pig translator – which turns oinks, snuffles, grunts and squeals into emotions – could be used to automatically monitor animal wellbeing and pave the way for better livestock treatment on farms and elsewhere.
“We have trained the algorithm to decode pig grunts,” said Dr Elodie Briefer, an expert in animal communication who co-led the work at the University of Copenhagen. “Now we need someone who wants to develop the algorithm into an app that farmers can use to improve the welfare of their animals.” ...
See the full story here: https://www.theguardian.com/science/2022/mar/07/scientists-use-ai-to-decode-pig-calls
Towards Artificial General Intelligence
... Recent work conducted in my own lab [7] with colleagues in Belgium has suggested that a new approach of functional contextualism (which differs from current forms of cognitivism — e.g., of memory, attention, and reasoning through logic) may be the solution to progress AI into the generalized form of AGI, where the system learns and understands concepts and how these relate to other concepts (through something called relational frames), and the context in which cues within the environment influence functions and the meaning or uses of such concepts. For example, the function of a chair is to sit on in the context of a classroom, and maybe very different in another context, such as an art exhibition in the context of when it is broken — i.e., it is the environmental context which defines the function of the concept at any one point in time, and not some predefined definition one may have stored in memory.
This functional contextual approach allows for concepts to be understood through a relational network, for instance an equivalence class can be established within this relational network, whereby, for example, knife and fork are contained within the equivalence class (or category) of cutlery. ...
Perhaps the greatest chances of producing ethical AI would mean that the AGI would be able to derive relations of empathy towards others, and the functional contextual approach allows for these relations to emerge (called perspective-taking relations) as one relationally frames themselves (‘I’) in the context of the perspective of the other ('YOU'). Therefore, this functional contextual approach will also likely bring about more ethically orientated AI agents. These are both exciting and thought-provoking times.
See the full story here: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/psychology-in-society/202203/towards-artificial-general-intelligence-agi
Bendy robotic arm twisted into shape with help of augmented reality
Instead of being constrained by rigid limbs and firm joints, the versatile arm is readily bendable into a wide variety of shapes. In practice, people working alongside the robot would manually bend the arm into the precise shape needed for each task, a level of flexibility made possible by the slippery layers of mylar sheets inside, which slide over one another and can lock into place. However, configuring the robot into specific shapes without guidance has proven to be difficult for users.
To enhance the robot’s user-friendliness, researchers at Imperial’s REDS (Robotic manipulation: Engineering, Design, and Science) Lab have designed a system for users to see in AR how to configure their robot. Wearing mixed reality smart glasses and through motion tracking cameras, users see templates and designs in front of them superimposed onto their real-world environment. They then adjust the robotic arm until it matches the template, which turns green on successful configuration so that the robot can be locked into place. ...
See the full story here: https://www.imperial.ac.uk/news/234362/bendy-robotic-twisted-into-shape-with/
British Museum to offer visitors augmented-reality games
The British Museum is to offer visitors a tablet-based games app featuring augmented reality to help tell the story of some its most significant exhibits.
The program, which will run on a set of Samsung devices owned by the museum, is intended for use by children aged 7-14 who are visiting the museum on school trips. Pupils will use the app in groups of two or three, the museum said.
The technology will provide guided tours of between 30 and 45 minutes – featuring “tasks and minigames incorporated within a wider overarching story” – and covering three of the attraction’s most popular galleries dedicated to: the Parthenon; the Roman Empire; and the Sutton Hoo archaeological site. ...
See the full story here: https://www.publictechnology.net/articles/news/british-museum-offer-visitors-augmented-reality-games
Marketers Explore Metaverse Worlds
... Decentraland said it has about 600,000 users a month. In October, it hosted the Metaverse Festival, a four-day music event with performances by Deadmau5 and Paris Hilton. ...
... “Decentraland’s open standards means that anyone can build an experience with no need for permission, and companies own their [intellectual property] on our platform,” said Sam Hamilton, creative director of the nonprofit Decentraland Foundation, which builds tools for the platform and handles its marketing. ...
The Sandbox, which is a subsidiary of Animoca Brands Corp., is still in a testing phase, scheduled to open to the public for six temporary stretches this year, the company said. Its first temporary opening, held last year from Nov. 29 to Dec. 20, drew more than 200,000 users, the company said. The Sandbox said it raised $93 million in November in a Series B funding round led by SoftBank GroupCorp.
The Sandbox is popular with celebrities and entertainment brands, with musical artists Snoop Dogg and Deadmau5 owning parcels of land there. Other landowners include Gucci and the organization behind Bored Ape Yacht Club, a popular NFT depicting cartoon apes. ...
See the full story here: https://www.wsj.com/articles/marketers-explore-metaverse-worlds-11646218800
Europe Is in Danger of Using the Wrong Definition of AI
Some intelligent systems are at risk of being excluded from oversight in the EU's proposed legislation. This is bad for both businesses and citizens.
... we should only be particularly worried about “self-learning” systems, because they are harder to predict due to their “self-optimizing” nature. Therefore, all regulatory and enforcement resources should be thrown at them. ...
For the purposes of digital governance instruments like the AIA, it makes more sense to use a well-established definition of intelligence, dating back to scientists’ first explorations of the evolutionary origins of the human trait by looking at other species: the capacity to act effectively in response to changing contexts. Rocks aren’t intelligent at all, plants are a little intelligent, bees more so, monkeys more so again. Intelligence by this definition is evidently a computational process: the conversion of information about the world into some action. This definition is generally useful because it reminds (or explains to) people that intelligence is not some supernatural property, or just “human-likeness,” but rather a physical process we find throughout nature to varying degrees. It reminds us that AI requires physical as well as legal infrastructure. ...
The challenge is that a single mistake made in development may be repeated millions of times by automation without further thought. This is what happened with the British Post Office system. Twenty years ago, Fujitsu wrote new software for the British Post Office; immediately, bugs were reported. But those reports were ignored, not least because the British had passed a law saying that software is reliable. Therefore, the software accounts were believed and the post office workers were not. Even if they had years of good service, post office workers were forced to privately make up enormous “financial discrepancies.” Lives were ruined, families were bankrupted, people were jailed, deaths, including suicides, occurred. Twenty years later the case of these workers is only now being heard. This is why we need good oversight for any “high risk” digital system—the systems that change lives.
Yet the opportunity of digitizing government services is that we can have a wider-spread understanding and more open discussions of government procedures that were previously obscure. We can now, with minimal cost, make government and other processes like banking or real estate more transparent and more accessible. ...
If we choose the simple, broad definition of intelligence I’m advocating here, then we motivate people to use the clearest, most explainable and maintainable version of AI they can, or even just ordinary software. That benefits everyone—corporations and developers just as much as citizens, residents, and activists. ...
See the full story here: https://www.wired.com/story/artificial-intelligence-regulation-european-union/
