Recently the concept of transformative AI(TAI) has begun to receive attention in the AI policy space. TAI is often framed as an alternative formulation to notions of strong AI (e.g. artificial general intelligence or superintelligence) and reflects increasing consensus that advanced AI which does not fit these definitions may nonetheless have extreme and long-lasting impacts on society. However, the term TAI is poorly defined and often used ambiguously. Some use the notion of TAI to describe levels of societal transformation associated with previous ‘general purpose technologies’ (GPTs) such as electricity or the internal combustion engine. Others use the term to refer to more drastic levels of trans-formation comparable to the agricultural or industrial revolutions. The notion has also been used much more loosely, with some implying that current AI systems are already having a transformative impact on society.
This paper unpacks and analyses the notion of TAI, pro-posing a distinction between TAI and radically transformative AI(RTAI), roughly corresponding to societal change on the level of the agricultural or industrial revolutions. We describe some relevant dimensions associated with each and discuss what kinds of advances in capabilities they might require. We further consider the relationship between TAI and RTAI and whether we should necessarily expect a period of TAI to precede the emergence of RTAI. This analysis is important as it can help guide discussions among AI policy researchers about how to allocate resources towards mitigating the most extreme impacts of AI and it can bring attention to negative TAI scenarios that are currently neglected. Read More
Daily Archives: June 4, 2020
Facial recognition firms are scrambling to see around face masks
In the age of the coronavirus, face masks have become a part of normal life. They’re a safety requirement in many places, and for some people, a fashion statement. But for facial recognition technology, they pose a major challenge.
… don a mask and stare at your iPhone or Android device to unlock it, and you quickly see the problem for facial recognition.
… Some companies assert that their technology isn’t affected by masks, and that artificial intelligence can still detect and identify people with a high accuracy rate, even when half the face is covered. Read More
Using AI to Decentralize Organizations
Operating a company with no managers, where everyone chooses their work, salary, and holiday entitlement may sound like chaos. But Daniel Hulme, CEO of Satalia, and his team of 250 people are making it productive. Daniel joins Azeem Azhar to discuss what a company that runs as a decentralize swarm looks like in practice.
They discuss:
— The role of artificial intelligence and open innovation in a swarm organization.
— How a decentralized business creates accountability to ensure strong output.
— The potential for the model to scale to larger organizations, and even countries.
Read More
Artificial Intelligence (AI) strategy: 8 counterintuitive tips
To successfully implement AI into your business processes, rethink traditional IT approaches and some common wisdom. Consider these tips
Artificial intelligence (AI) has officially entered the enterprise, quickly evolving from a pipe dream to reality. Indeed, the majority of organizations (85 percent) are either adopting or evaluating AI, according to a recent O’Reilly survey, with more than half using AI in production or for analysis. Read More
Artificial Intelligence at Core of Marine Officers’ ‘Big Ideas’ for Future of Force
A team of 10 Marines is mulling how to take major technology developments and apply them to the combat missions, as part of a Naval Postgraduate School-hosted series of online TED talk-styled presentations.
Artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning, virtual reality and other technological advances are at the center of the “Big Ideas Exchange.” The goal is moving the most promising idea from the theoretical to the practical as quickly as possible.
Several students said they drew inspiration for their thinking about the “future character of naval warfare” from Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger’s 2019 guidance to the Marine Corps. Read More
Shortcut Learning in Deep Neural Networks
Deep learning has triggered the current rise of artificial intelligence and is the work horse of today’s machine intelligence. Numerous success stories have rapidly spread all over science, industry and society, but its limitations have only recently come into focus. In this perspective we seek to distil how many of deep learning’s problem can be seen as different symptoms of the same underlying problem:shortcut learning. Shortcuts are decision rules that perform well on standard benchmarks but fail to transfer to more challenging testing conditions, such as real-world scenarios. Related issues are known in Comparative Psychology, Education and Linguistics, suggesting that shortcut learning may be a common characteristic of learning systems, biological and artificial alike. Based on these observations, we develop a set of recommendations for model interpretation and benchmarking,highlighting recent advances in machine learning to improve robustness and transfer ability from the lab to real-world applications. Read More
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