Science, Space, & Robotics - Page 232

We've heard Elon Musk talk about artificial intelligence before, with not-so-great things to say, and he is back saying that when AI gets to the point of being smarter than people, they will treat us like 'pet Labradors'.

The quote is coming out of a recent interview with Neil deGrasse Tyson, where Musk was warning the world on superintelligence. According to author Nick Bostrom, superintelligence is "any intellect that greatly exceed the cognitive performance of humans in virtually all domains of interest". Musk said to Tyson: "I mean, we won't be like a pet Labrador if we're lucky".

Tyson and Musk had a great back-and-forth talk about superintelligence, where Tyson continued saying "we'll be their pets", with Musk replying that "it's like the friendliest creature". Tyson replied with "no, they'll domesticate us", with Musk agreeing, but adding "Yes. Or something strange is going to happen" to which Tyson replied "they'll keep the docile humans and get rid of the violent ones". Musk agreed, saying "yeah" while Tyson added "and then breed the docile humans".

The NASA Opportunity Mars Rover has completed a marathon on the Red Planet of Mars, taking 11 years and two months to complete the distance. The rover landed on Mars on January 25, 2004, and continues to surpass all expectations, as project managers only expected a three-month mission.

"This is the first time any human enterprise has exceeded the distance of a marathon on the surface of another world," said John Callas, Opportunity rover project manager at the NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory. "A first time happens only once."

Opportunity continues to collect information related to an ancient wet climate on Mars - and while the marathon milestone is impressive, program managers want to continue making scientific discoveries. NASA is using Opportunity for additional bonus extended missions, with a focus on tracking signs of water.

The United States military is embracing virtual reality and other advanced technologies in an effort to better train soldiers. The US Air Force and NATO allies will soon participate in the Red Flag mock battles event, though the 2015 edition will utilize a fully virtual war environment.

The test will utilize Live-Virtual Constructive (LVC) integration, using physical trucks on the Nellis Air Force Base to create a more dynamic target mission.

"The benefits to the warfighter of integrating 'virtual' into Red Flags are that it allows us to bring in more of the combat-realistic threat envelope, and we're now able to maximize the air tasking order with the most amount of 'Blue Forces' in both the virtual and live sides of a joint air operations area that is 1,200 by 1,100 nautical miles, compared to the Nevada Test and Training Range which is about 100 by 100 nautical miles," said Lt. Col. Kenneth Voigt, commander of the 505th Test Squadron, in a statement.

Now is the time for chief information officers (CIOs) and other business leaders to begin developing ethical programming protocols for smart machines, according to the Gartner research group.

Smart machines must build - and maintain - trust with human counterparts, and it will take ethical programming to ensure that happens. One day, it will be up to the machine to be self-aware and understand that it is responsible for its own behavior - but humans must be able to program them to adapt to these changes, Gartner believes.

"Clearly, people must trust smart machines if they are to accept and use them," said Frank Buytendijk, research VP at Gartner. "The ability to earn trust must be part of any plan to implement artificial intelligence (AI) or smart machines, and will be an important selling point when marketing this technology."

Google's Eric Schmidt isn't too worried about artificial intelligence potentially trying to end human civilization anytime in the near future. Even with Elon Musk, Stephen Hawking, Bill Gates and other well-known tech visionaries showing AI concern, Schmidt believes humanity will be secure for the immediate future as AI developments continue.

"I think that this technology will ultimately be one of the greatest forces for good in mankind's history simply because it makes people smarter," said Eric Schmidt, Google Chairman, during a SXSW keynote address. "I'm certainly not worried in the next 10 to 20 years about that. We're still in the baby step of understanding things. We've made tremendous progress in respect to [artificial intelligence]."

AI is used in smartphones, tablets, PCs, vehicles, and countless other products and services currently available - and will continue to expand in the years to come. Google is one of the companies at the forefront of AI, and Schmidt wants to reduce concerns that AI will one day try to fight back against humans.

An estimated 1.1 billion people across the world are at risk of hearing loss because of increased listening volume from smartphones, other personal audio devices, and speaker systems at entertainment venues.

Almost half of teenagers and young adults between 12 and 35 years old are "exposed to unsafe levels of sound," with 40 percent exposed to "potentially damaging" levels, according to the World Health Organization (WHO).

"As they go about their daily lives doing what they enjoy, more and more young people are placing themselves at risk of hearing loss," said Dr. Etienne Krug, director for the department for management of noncommunicable diseases, violence and injury prevention at WHO. "They should be aware that once you lose your hearing, it won't come back. Taking simple preventive actions will allow people to continue to enjoy themselves without putting their hearing at risk."

Google has reportedly reached a milestone in its artificial intelligence research, showing off an algorithm that could beat a human being playing Atari video games. Not only playing it, but it was learning from the experience, just as we would, according to a paper published by Nature last week.

Demis Hassabis, one of the authors from the paper said: "We can go all the way from pixels to actions as we call it and actually it can work on a challenging task that even humans find difficult. We know now we're on the first rung of the ladder and it's a baby step, but I think it's an important one". The team started their work at DeepMind, which is the London-based start up that Google acquired back in January 2014. When they joined Google, they began looking at ways of baking their intelligence into Google products.

The researchers then began working with Atari games, which had more complicated 3D environments, which Hassabis says the algorithm would be able to beat those games within the next five years. Hassabis added: "Ultimately the idea is that if this algorithm can race a car in a racing game then also essentially with a few extra tweaks it should be able to drive a real car. But that's again, even further away than that".

Demis Hassabis is an artificial intelligence expert and founder of the now Google-owned DeepMind Technologies - so he has a unique insight into AI research.

Hassabis and his team have developed a custom algorithm giving AI the ability to learn in a similar fashion to humans - a groundbreaking notion that will give some people greater fear of AI one day taking over. Even so, Hassabis believes it will be quite some time before humans have to worry about their own wellbeing due to AI:

"We're many, many decades away from anything, any kind of technology that we need to worry about," said Hassabis, speaking during a recent news conference. "But it's good to start the conversation now and be aware of as with any new powerful technology it can be used for good or bad."

Economists are unsure what to make of robots invading the workforce, with legitimate arguments offered by both sides regarding potential long-term consequences.

The US National Bureau of Economic Research published a report that found as robots are able to continue efficient performance in the workplace, developers are going to eventually cannibalize their own jobs. However, robots still cannot match the precision of humans in many workplace aspects, so it will likely take future hardware and software developments before most jobs are at risk.

"When smart machines replace people, they eventually bite the hands of those that finance them," according to the report. "The long run in such cases is no techno-utopia."

The Communication Security Establishment Canada (CSEC) documented a French language cyberespionage piece of malware. Former NSA contractor Edward Snowden leaked the CSEC documents, which were published by the Le Monde French publication and German Der Spiegel newspaper.

The sophisticated Babar malware could record and transfer keystrokes and monitor data and audio conversations - it was a well-made, complex piece of software, according to cybersecurity experts. The Remote Access Tool (RAT) was the second piece of software tied to the Snowglobe spyware campaign.

"Babar is a highly developed spyware program that could only have been manufactured by very well-trained developers," said Eddy Willems, security evangelist at G DATA Software AG. "Babar is designed to work specifically in networks belonging to companies, authorities, organizations and research institutes and to steal sensitive data from them. As a result, audio conversations such as Skype chats, for example, can be recorded. Even a targeted attack on individual seems conceivable. A mass distribution of such malware, however, is very unlikely."

American Unmanned Systems wants to see its amphibious GuardBot used for surveillance missions by the US military, with the unique robot able to travel across land and water. The GuardBot can travel up to 20 miles per hour along the beach and cross water at speeds up to 4 mph, according to American Unmanned Systems.

The unique robotic ball can vary in sizes, from 10cm up to 9 feet, controllable by one operator or programmable via GPS. The GuardBot was created for non-intrusive surveillance and is extremely quiet as built-in cameras and sensors provide feedback from inside the sealed sphere physical casing. The team is looking to develop software supporting geographic information system data to increase autonomous activity.

American Unmanned Systems has a cooperative research development agreement (CRADA) with the US Navy, so they are able to use government research labs and resources to help develop the GuardBot. It was first presented to the military at Marine Corps Base Quantico in 2012, traveling through a volleyball pit - and was shown again in 2014 at the Naval Amphibious Base, deploying and returning to a naval craft.

Designed to mimic the human hand, this robot device with tendons can rotate two Baoding balls with ease - simulating the same process completed by your body.

We're told by Gizmodo that this task isn't exactly easy for just anyone to complete, further adding to the complexity displayed within this exercise. Most robots are clunky and stiff in their movements, however through the use of human-like tendons, this simulation is able to make light work of this difficult and nimble task.

Created through an extensive process, first the researchers created a dummy hand, then tracked and measuring six separate hand poses in which were used to rotate the ball, finally designing this tendon system to control the fake hand.

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) is embracing unmanned ground vehicles and robots, expecting the newer technologies to have a major role on the battlefield.

G-NIUS Autonomous Unmanned Ground Vehicles is expanding away from the Guardium, promoting the Border Patroller UGV. The ground vehicles will be deployed to patrol the border with Gaza, able to detect and identify insurgent activity - and inform manned patrols.

"Its communications systems will be improved [compared to those of the Guardium], and the control aspect will be different," said Maj. Lior Tarbelsi, director of the Robotics Division in the Ground Forces Command's Weapons Department, in a statement published by The Jerusalem Post. "A robot can be risked, and it doesn't have to deal with a lack of lighting. It doesn't have to breathe, and it won't have to worry about getting shot."

More jobs and human workers are at risk of robots one day taking over their roles in the workplace, and much of the concern has focused on low-tech workers. However, researchers from Columbia University and Boston University are worried that high-tech employees could also be at risk as demand for robots accelerates in the years to come.

Supporters note that humans are needed to help program the robots and carry out required maintenance - but there is growing criticism that much-needed jobs are at risk. However, researchers note that sophisticated code writing may be necessary at first, but legacy code will grow while these robots are able to autonomously learn tasks.

Companies have embraced robotics technology in manufacturing facilities to help streamline operations, reduce labor costs, and maintain high-levels of production.

There is a blend of technology and modern medicine helping save lives, as smart medical implants are being used in select cases.

The US government is throwing its weight behind smart implant research, with the DARPA Electrical Prescriptions (ElectRX) program. University researchers also have received additional financial support to develop smart implants that can be used to enhance medicine. Doctors and researchers have successfully created hardware for the human heart, esophagus and other critical areas - but trying to make implants for the brain remains extremely tricky.

"We're like the Wright brothers at the stage where they were first trying to build an airplane," said Tim Denison, director of the Medtronic neuromodulation division, in a statement published by NBC News. "Before they could do it, they had to build a wind tunnel to understand the principles of flight."

Researchers are looking forward to the future of medical technology that could have major life-changing impact, with great breakthroughs in bionic vision. During the American Association for the Advancement of Science conference last week, medical researchers discussed everything from telescopic contact lenses to prototype bionic prosthetics.

New technology developments greatly aid patients suffering from vision impairments - and varying levels of blindness - giving them the chance to better distinguish the world around them.

"Retinal implants have moved from sci-fi into reality over the last few years," said Daniel Palanker, professor of ophthalmology at Stanford University, in a statement to the San Jose Mercury News. "Now we are in the race of improving resolution, improving image processing, dynamic range (of light intensity) and levels of gray - and will keep improving."

DARPA is constantly working on various things that we'll see in the next couple of decades, but one of them is something that started out as "supervision" contact lens for soldiers. But as things progressed, it was looking like it was better suited to age-related macular degeneration.

The latest version of the 'supervision' contact lens has bulked up a bit from its first iteration which was 1.17mm, to 1.55mm. The added thickness could have something to do with adjusting the reflective bits inside of the lens itself, or that there's a different material used in its construction.

When asked about the added thickness, researcher Eric Tremblay said that out of the five patients that have used the lens, said it was light enough and more than comfortable to wear around for daily use. The contact lens itself works as a pair of liquid crystal glasses that the user wears, where winking your right eye turns on the magnification, while winking the left eye turns it off. Blinking, does nothing. The big issue now is getting oxygen through the lens, and to the users' eye. Without oxygen to the eye, the contact can only be worn for around half an hour. The team is already working on fixing this, with current experiments leading them to use tiny channels cut into the contact that feed oxygen as well as add reservoirs of oxygen-rich fluids.

The development of robotics and big data are putting pressure on the US workforce, with almost half of US jobs facing pressure from robots, according to a report issued by Citigroup and University of Oxford researchers.

Robots and automated technology have had an impact in factories and mid-level positions, but developments could lead to increased pressure on low-skill occupations, the report notes. To make matters worse, manufacturers are adopting the use of more robots in factories and offices, with the humanoids able to better complete tasks.

"The bulk of service occupations, where the most US job growth has occurred over the past decades, are now at risk," according to the report. "Already the market for personal and household service robots is growing by about 20 percent annually - a trend that is likely to continue."

China is going to have the most robots working in production plants by 2017 when compared to other countries, according to the International Federation of Robotics (IFR). The production facility is the main focus, but robots are finding their way into restaurants, hotels, offices, and retail stores as hardware and software develops.

South Korea has the most robots per 10,000 workers in the manufacturing industries, with 437, ahead of 323 in Japan, 282 in Germany and 152 in the United States. China currently tallies only 30 robots per 10,000 employees, but has been forced to rapidly adopt robots - and foreign automakers are building manufacturing plants in the country - helping drive adoption.

"Companies are forced to invest ever more in robots to be more productive and raise quality," said Gudrun Litzenberger, general secretary of the IFR, in a statement published by Reuters. "In the current phase it's the auto industry, but in the next two or three years it will be driven by the electronics industry."

With 1.3 million employees under their wing during peak production time, Foxconn Technology Group, the world's largest contract electronics manufacturer and maker of Apple devices, recently let slip that plans are being put into place to reduce their global human workforce, favoring a robot alternative.

Currently sitting as one of the largest private employers in the world, Foxconn reported slows in revenue growth over the last few years, coupled with rising Chinese wages. Group spokesman Louis Woo has stated that this is a concern for his company. Without mentioning a specific time frame or target for this operation, he noted that labor costs have over doubled since 2010. Speaking to media, Woo stated that "we've basically stabilized (our workforce) in the last three years. We would like to stabilize our employee headcount no matter how fast we are growing in the future."

When Woo was asked if Foxconn was looking to reduce its overall employee number, he answered that there were internal targets for long term cuts, however he was unable to disclose any figures, adding "it depends how successful we are in terms of introducing the process automation and also the robotics."