artificial intelligence

What’s it like to be the world Jeopardy champion and lose to a computer? Ken Jennings can tell you, and he does in this engaging TED talk. From his unique perspective, he suggests that we can—and must—make a choice about the kind of future we want to have. Which world do you want to live in?

 

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IBM’s Watson, the famous artificial-intelligence system that became a quiz show champ, is now poised to transform the fields of medicine, finance, education, and more. In some ways Watson is an industrial-strength version of Siri, the personal assistant built into iPhones. Is Watson leading us into a whole new era of cognitive computing? This fascinating Fast Company article puts Watson in the context of today’s data-driven world and speculates on a future that’s much bigger than talking smart phones.

fastcompany.com/3001739/ibms-watson-learning-its-way-saving-lives

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forbes.com/sites/parmyolson/2012/06/14/cyber-security-and-the-rise-of-the-silicon-based-life-form

If we think of digital technology as another life form, how does that change the way we think about, and interact with, that technology? This Forbes editorial suggests that it might improve the way we handle computer security.

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http://www.radiolab.org/blogs/radiolab-blog/2012/mar/19/turing-problem/

It’s hard to overstate the importance of Alan Turing. The man who invented artificial intelligence before computers existed also created a machine that helped the Allies win World War II, saving thousands of innocent lives from the scourges of war and totalitarianism. But instead of being honored for his monumental achievements, Turing was persecuted and driven to suicide because his private life didn’t conform to British norms. This moving 20-minute Radiolab podcast shines a light on Turing and examines the central question of his work.

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Giving Ten Seconds to World Literacy (Without Knowing It)

January 3, 2012

www.ted.com/talks/luis_von_ahn_massive_scale_online_collaboration.html If you use the web, you’re almost certainly part of a global team that’s digitizing the world’s books, one word at a time. How are you helping digitize one hundred million words each day? In this entertaining, mind-expanding TED talk, Luis von Ahn explains how a group of researchers created reCAPTCHA and turned one [...]

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Skilled labor joins the Race Against the Machine

November 9, 2011
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Here’s a quote from the first edition of Digital Planet (then called Computer Currents), written almost two decades ago: “It seems likely that, at some time in the future, machines will be able to do most of the jobs people do today. We may face a future of jobless growth–a time when productivity increases, not [...]

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What Is Watson?

June 8, 2011
Smartest machine on earth

This year Watson, an IBM computer, beat two champions on TV’s Jeopardy. This PBS Nova program goes behind the scenes and explains how Watson’s creators pulled it off.

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Conversations with Robots

June 6, 2011

Be careful–you may be falling in love with a software robot. This episode of Radiolab—NPR’s clever and entertaining broadcast/podcast—explores many ways people talk to machines, including those alluring bots that populate online dating sites. Eliza, Furbie, Clever Bot, Bina—they’re all talking to us, and we’re listening. Radiolab puts it all in perspective in this fascinating [...]

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Google’s Driverless Car—A TED Presentation by Sebastian Thrun

May 18, 2011

Robotic cars aren’t just science fiction fantasies anymore. This short presentation takes you on a road trip in Google’s amazing driverless car as it navigates through crowded city streets and curvy mountain roads. Sebastian Thrun suggests that our roads will be much safer when we let machines do the driving. What do you think? [ted [...]

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