24 Aug What is artificial general intelligence (AGI)? Can we build machines that are as smart as humans?

An Artificial General Intelligence (AGI) would be a machine capable of understanding the world as well as any human, and with the same capacity to learn how to carry out a huge range of tasks.

AGI doesn’t exist yet, but has featured in science-fiction stories for more than a century, and been popularized in modern times by films such as 2001: A Space Odyssey. Fictional depictions of AGI vary widely, although tend more towards the dystopian vision of intelligent machines eradicating or enslaving humanity, as seen in films like The Matrix or The Terminator. In such stories, AGI is often cast as either indifferent to human suffering or even bent on mankind’s destruction.

In contrast, utopian imaginings, such as Iain M Banks’ Culture civilization novels, cast AGI as benevolent custodians, running egalitarian societies free of suffering, where inhabitants can pursue their passions and technology advances at a breathless pace. Whether these ideas would bear any resemblance to real-world AGI is unknowable since nothing of the sort has been created, or, according to many working in the field of AI, is even close to being created.

Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.zdnet.com

17 Aug South Korea: Inside the Very Big, Very Controversial Business of Dog Cloning

Barbra Streisand is not alone. At a South Korean laboratory, a once-disgraced doctor is replicating hundreds of deceased pets for the rich and famous. It’s made for more than a few questions of bioethics.

The surgeon is a showman. Scrubbed in and surrounded by his surgical team, a lavalier mike clipped to his mask, he gestures broadly as he describes the C-section he is about to perform to a handful of rapt students watching from behind a plexiglass wall. Still narrating, he steps over to a steel operating table where the expectant mother is stretched out, fully anesthetized. All but her lower stomach is discreetly covered by a crisp green cloth. The surgeon makes a quick incision in her belly. His assistants tug gingerly on clamps that pull back the flaps of tissue on either side of the cut. The surgeon slips two gloved fingers inside the widening hole, then his entire hand. An EKG monitor shows the mother’s heart beating in steady pulses. Just like that the baby’s head pops out, followed by its tiny body. Nurses soak up fluids filling its mouth so the tyke can breathe. The surgeon cuts the umbilical cord. After some tender shaking, the little one moves his head and starts to cry. Looking triumphant, the surgeon holds up the newborn for the students to see—a baby boy that isn’t given a name but a number: That’s because he is a clone. One of many.

Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.vanityfair.com

17 Aug Laziness led to extinction of Homo erectus

An archaeological excavation of ancient human populations in the Arabian Peninsula during the Early Stone Age, found that Homo erectus used ‘least-effort strategies’ for tool making and collecting resources. This ‘laziness’ paired with an inability to adapt to a changing climate likely played a role in the species going extinct, according to lead researcher Dr. Ceri Shipton of the ANU School of Culture, History and Language. "They really don’t seem to have been pushing themselves," Dr. Shipton said. "I don’t get the sense they were explorers looking over the horizon. They didn’t have that same sense of wonder that we have."

Sourced through Scoop.it from: phys.org

13 Aug From Airbus and Audi to Uber and Ehang: 10 flying car firms are competing for first-to-market dominance1

Flying cars are being developed by companies spanning from new startups like Ehang and Pal-V, to industry giants like Airbus and Rolls-Royce.

Sourced through Scoop.it from: www.gearbrain.com

10 Aug Scientists Finally Solved the Mystery of Antarctica’s Blood Falls

Blood Falls is an aptly named feature in Antarctica. The 100-foot stream of water running down the side of a glacier is a deep, rich, blood red.

Though we’ve known for decades what causes the red color, it took more than 100 years for scientists to discover the source of Blood Falls: a secret, ancient, underground lake.

Blood Falls were first discovered by Australian explorer Griffith Taylor during an expedition in 1911. At the time, he and other explorers guessed that the red color might be caused by algae living in the water.

Sourced through Scoop.it from: motherboard.vice.com