Mind Matters Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis

Monthly Archive January 2020

An internet email symbol and a group of people are separated by a red prohibitory symbol No. restrictions on access to the global Internet. Censorship. Information control, society isolation policy
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post
Author
Heather Zeiger
Date
January 18, 2020
Categorized
Global Technology, Social Media, Surveillance
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Can a Totalitarian State Be an Information Society?

Beijing’s clumsy social media campaigns against democracy in Hong Kong and Taiwan have failed but attempts to control local media are ramping up
Heather Zeiger
January 18, 2020
11
Global Technology, Social Media, Surveillance

Xi believes that the Western values of a free press, free speech, and separation of powers contributed to the fall of the Soviet Union and that China must avoid them so as not to succumb to the same fate. But the Soviet Union fell just before the internet became today’s information superhighway.

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Man typing on keyboard with heart symbol hologram
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post
Author
Adam Nieri
Date
January 18, 2020
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture
Tagged
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Her (2013): If You Created Her, Is It Real Love?

In this retrospective Mind Matters movie review, Adam Nieri ponders the questions raised by a thoughtful AI film
Adam Nieri
January 18, 2020
11
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture

Unlike Catherine, Samantha is exactly what Theodore was looking for. No surprise there; Samantha is, literally, adjusted and updated according to Theodore’s preferences from when he initially began speaking to her. She exists only to be Theodore’s soulmate. Is that enough?

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Photo by Bret Kavanaugh
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post
Author
Michael Egnor
Date
January 17, 2020
Categorized
Medicine and Health, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind
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Yes, Split Brains Are Weird, But Not the Way You Think

Scientists who dismiss consciousness and free will ignore the fact that the higher faculties of the mind cannot be split even by splitting the brain in half
Michael Egnor
January 17, 2020
5
Medicine and Health, Neuroscience, Philosophy of Mind

Patients after split-brain surgery are not split people. They feel the same, act the same, and think the same, for all intents and purposes. Materialists like Jerry Coyne focus on subtle differences and distort the big picture.

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Photo by Clem Onojeghuo
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post
Author
Brendan Dixon
Date
January 16, 2020
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Ethics, Work
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Can We Outsource Hiring Decisions to AI and Go for Coffee Now?

I would have fired any of my hiring managers who demonstrated characteristic AI traits immediately. So why do we tolerate it coming from a machine?
Brendan Dixon
January 16, 2020
5
Artificial Intelligence, Ethics, Work

With historically low unemployment, employers are tempted to reduce costs and speed up the process using artificial intelligence (AI) systems. These systems might help but, for best results, let’s have a look at the problems they can’t solve and some that they might create.

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Soldiers are Using Drone for Scouting During Military Operation in the Desert.
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post
Author
News
Date
January 16, 2020
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Ethics, Military
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Book at a Glance: Robert J. Marks’s Killer Robots

What if ambitious nations such as China and Iran develop lethal AI military technology but the United States does not?
News
January 16, 2020
4
Artificial Intelligence, Ethics, Military

Artificial intelligence expert Robert J. Marks tackles the contentious subject of military drones in his just-published book, The Case for Killer Robots: Why America’s Military Needs to Continue Development of Lethal AI. Many sources (30 countries, 110+ NGOs, 4500 AI experts, the UN Secretary General, the EU, and 26 Nobel Laureates) have called for these lethal AI weapons to be banned. Dr. Marks, a Distinguished Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Baylor University, disagrees. What if ambitious nations such as China and Iran develop lethal AI military technology but the United States does not? Nations that wish to maintain independence (sovereignty), he argues, must remain competitive in military AI. (“Advanced technology not only wins wars but gives pause to Read More ›

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post
Author
News
Date
January 15, 2020
Categorized
Philosophy of Mind, Religion
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Scientific American Explores Panpsychism… Respectfully

This is a major change. At one time, a science mag would merely ridicule the idea of a conscious universe
News
January 15, 2020
5
Philosophy of Mind, Religion

Make no mistake, panpsychism—as Goff elucidates it—is a purely naturalist view (“nothing supernatural or spiritual”). But, unlike the village atheist, he goes on to ask, but then what is nature? Matter is all there is? But what is matter? It turns out, no one really knows.

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Robotic filmmaking. Talented robots shoots television movie or motion picture. Creative filmmakers robotic crew director, assistant with spotlight and cameraman behind the scene. Automated process of creating video content. Red wall studio background.
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post
Author
Analysis
Date
January 15, 2020
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Business and Finance
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Can AI Help Hollywood Predict the Next Big Hit?

AI analysis sifts the past finely. But how well does the past predict the future?
Analysis
January 15, 2020
6
Artificial Intelligence, Arts & Culture, Business and Finance

AI does pose at least one threat to filmmaking. It could intensify the very tone-deafness that studios hope it can fix: Too much reliance on ever more finely grained analysis of the patterns in past data could blind decision makers to the real risks, volatility, and opportunities in the future. That’s a recipe for losing money and inflicting “Oh, not that again!” on audiences.

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Photo by Wherda Arsianto
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post
Author
Heather Zeiger
Date
January 14, 2020
Categorized
Surveillance
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Serious Media In China Have Gone Strangely Silent

With a compulsory new app, the government can potentially access journalists’ phones, both for surveillance and capturing data
Heather Zeiger
January 14, 2020
9
Surveillance

Liu Hu sums up the scene in a few words: “Outside of China, journalists are fired for writing false reports… Inside China, they are fired for telling the truth.”

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Photo by Austin Distel
Type
post
Author
Jonathan Bartlett
Date
January 12, 2020
Categorized
Business and Finance
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EVERYONE Can Beat the Market!

We’ve all heard: “No one can beat the market.” Is that true? Let’s look a little deeper
Jonathan Bartlett
January 12, 2020
6
Business and Finance

Using your talents to identify and invest in high-quality assets and pull money away from low-quality assets is a benefit to everyone involved in the market and, on the larger scale, the market’s future. If you invest in this way, you will beat the market.

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Photo by Jeremy Bishop
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post
Author
Adam Nieri
Date
January 11, 2020
Categorized
Arts & Culture, Business and Finance
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AI Goes to Hollywood

Warner Bros. hopes Cinelytic's AI will save time while making more reasonable financial estimates, thus forestalling expensive box office blunders
Adam Nieri
January 11, 2020
5
Arts & Culture, Business and Finance

Cinelytic’s AI does is what every AI does at its most basic level. It collects and sifts large amounts of data to find patterns that can be used to make predictions. AI excels at pattern recognition because that is its only purpose. Humans aren’t so linear or predictable.

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Pleasant girl and robot working in the office
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post
Author
News
Date
January 9, 2020
Categorized
Business and Finance, Work
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Robots Move? Tax Them!

Some policymakers see robots as a direct threat to jobs and hope taxes will slow them down
News
January 9, 2020
5
Business and Finance, Work

Jay Richards asks: Just imagine if our government had taxed earlier technological innovations because they threatened jobs. Does anyone think a targeted “tractor tax” would have been a good idea in the early twentieth century?

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Futuristic Robot Arm Touches Human Hand in Humanity and Artificial Intelligence Unifying Gesture. Conscious Technology Meets Humanity. Concept Inspired by Michelangelo's Creation of Adam
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post
Author
News
Date
January 7, 2020
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind
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Can Machines Be Given Consciousness?

A prominent researcher in consciousness studies offers reasons for doubt
News
January 7, 2020
4
Artificial Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind

Two theories of human consciousness are about to be tested in a historic contest. Integrated Information Theory (IIT) of consciousness and rival Global Workspace Theory (GWT) have sharply different implications for consciousness in machines.

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Big Data Technology for Business Finance Analytic Concept. Modern graphic interface shows massive information of business sale report, profit chart and stock market trends analysis on screen monitor.
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post
Author
Gary Smith
Date
January 6, 2020
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance
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Serious Investors Should Embrace the Stock Market Algos!

We can use computers’ inability to distinguish meaning from noise in data to our advantage
Gary Smith
January 6, 2020
6
Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance

Computer algorithms are much, much better than humans at discovering statistical patterns but much, much worse than humans at discerning whether the patterns are meaningful. Wise investors can use the resulting blips to their advantage.

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Breast cancer histology: Lobular carcinoma in situ (LCIS) is seen in the lower left with invasive (infiltrating) lobular carcinoma in the upper right. Screening mammography can detect early tumors.
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post
Author
Brendan Dixon
Date
January 6, 2020
Tagged
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How AI Can Help Us Fight Cancer

Breast cancer is an excellent example of how AI can speed up early detection
Brendan Dixon
January 6, 2020
5

AI catches things doctor miss, and doctors catch things AI misses. Using the AI to highlight what may be cancer tissue helps the radiologist focus on ambiguous situations, reducing the chance of missing early cancers.

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black mathematics board with formulas
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post
Author
Daniel Andrés Díaz-Pachón
Date
January 5, 2020
Categorized
Mathematics
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Faith Is the Most Fundamental of the Mathematical Tools

An early twentieth century clash of giants showed that even mathematics depends on some unprovable assumptions
Daniel Andrés Díaz-Pachón
January 5, 2020
13
Mathematics

David Hilbert wanted all mathematics to be proved by logical steps. Kurt Gödel showed that no axiomatic system could be complete and consistent at the same time.

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Man caressing a tame black fox
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post
Author
Denyse O'Leary
Date
January 4, 2020
Categorized
Natural Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind
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Tame Animals, Not Wild Ones, Are Mysterious

A recent discovery about tame foxes sheds some light but deepens the larger mystery
Denyse O'Leary
January 4, 2020
7
Natural Intelligence, Philosophy of Mind

New research puts us back where we started. The foxes are tame. But why are they tame? Other foxes are decidedly not tame. Why is it so easy to “tame” dogs and cats but not wolves and bobcats? 

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GPS navigator in desert
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post
Author
Brendan Dixon
Date
January 4, 2020
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance, Medicine and Health
Tagged

AI Should Mean Thinking Smarter, Not Less

We should be all the more engaged when we use technology
Brendan Dixon
January 4, 2020
3
Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance, Medicine and Health

Tim Harford points to the Sanchez tragedy to raise an important question: How do we know when a given technology is really helping us? And when we are taking too great a risk or paying too high a price?

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Lost-in-Space-Publicity-Still-IMDB
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post
Author
Adam Nieri
Date
January 4, 2020
Categorized
Arts & Culture
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Lost in Space, A Mind Matters TV Series Review

I was skeptical at first, based on Netflix's track record, but was pleasantly surprised
Adam Nieri
January 4, 2020
7
Arts & Culture

If I could rewind time a week and add a piece of 2019 sci-fi to my list of the year’s Best and Worst Sci-Fi TV, I would add Netflix’s Lost in Space, Season 2—which came out just after I had published. Let's fix that now.

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Group Of Businesspeople Identified By AI System
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post
Author
News
Date
January 2, 2020
Categorized
Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance, Global Technology, Work
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How To Fool Facial Recognition

Changing a couple of pixels here and there can stump a computer
News
January 2, 2020
8
Artificial Intelligence, Business and Finance, Global Technology, Work

Both computers and humans can be fooled by patterns that appear significant but really aren’t. But the bigger the computer, the more random patterns it can find in the vast swathes of data processed.

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Robot Predicting Future With Crystal Ball
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post
Author
News
Date
January 2, 2020
Categorized
Business and Finance, Ethics, Global Technology, Work
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Five AI Predictions to Watch in 2020

We'll check on these a year from now
News
January 2, 2020
4
Business and Finance, Ethics, Global Technology, Work

Some problems experts hope AI can help with may be outside AI's capacities. Some people may simply want to believe doctored images and deepfakes, for example.

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