http://www.cnet.com/news/ban-autonomous-weapons-urge-hundreds-of-experts-including-hawking-musk-and-wozniak/

Ban autonomous weapons, urge AI experts including Hawking, Musk and WozniakOver 1,000 experts in robotics have signed an open letter in a bid to prevent a "global AI arms race".

by Luke Westaway @lukewestaway

July 27, 2015 5:09 AM PDT

A sentry robot points its machine gun during a test in South Korea. AI researchers warn that robots should not be allowed to engage targets without human intervention. KIM DONG-JOO/AFP/Getty Images

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http://www.technologyreview.com/news/539091/lessons-from-the-digital-classroom/

Lessons from the Digital ClassroomTechnologists and venture capitalists are betting that the data online learning generates will reshape education.

By Nanette Byrnes on July 27, 2015

Business ReportOnline Learning

In four small schools scattered across San Francisco, a data experiment is under way. That is where AltSchool is testing how technology can help teachers maximize their students’ learning.

Founded two years ago by Max Ventilla, a data expert and former head of personalization at Google, AltSchool runs schools filled with data-gathering technology.

Information is captured from the moment each student arrives at school and checks in on an attendance app. For part of the day, students work independently, using iPads and Chromebooks, on “playlists” of activities that teachers have selected to match their personal goals. Data about each student’s progress is captured for teachers’ later review. Classrooms are recorded, and teachers can flag important

moments by pressing a button, as you might TiVo your favorite television show.

The idea is that all the data from this network of schools will be woven into a smart centralized operating system that teachers will be able to use to design effective and personalized instruction. There is even a recommendation engine built in.

While most schools don’t have the type of technology AltSchool is developing, classrooms are increasingly filled with laptops and other digital teaching aids. This year U.S. elementary, middle, and high schools are expected to spend $4.7 billion on information technology. What is new is that many of the technologies are capturing expansive amounts of data, enough of it to search for meaningful patterns and insight into how students learn. The potential for that to be turned into profit is a big reason investors have increased funding of educational technology startups worldwide, from $1.6 billion in 2013 to $2.4 billion in 2014; they invested over $1 billion more in the first quarter of 2015, much of that in China. What all that data is teaching us about how we learn and whether technology is actually making instruction better are the big questions at the heart of this Business Report.…

http://www.nytimes.com/2015/07/14/business/dealbook/crowdstrike-cybersecurity-services-provider-raises-100-million.html?ref=technology&_r=0

CrowdStrike, Cybersecurity Services Provider, Raises $100 MillionBy MICHAEL J. de la MERCEDJULY 13, 2015 Inside

Supported By

Photo

George Kurtz, co-founder and chief executive of CrowdStrike. The company is positioning itself as the next-generation solution for cybersecurity. Credit Sam Hodgson for The New York Times

SAN FRANCISCO — In the wake of computer attacks on the government and other prominent targets, investor interest in cybersecurity is unsurprisingly high.The latest indication of that enthusiasm: CrowdStrike, a security services provider focused on stopping attacks before they happen, announced on Monday that it had raised $100 million in a new round of financing.The investment was led by Google Capital, one of the technology giant’s venture capital arms, in its first cybersecurity deal. It also included Rackspace, the web-hosting services company and a client of the nearly four-year-old start-up. Others in the round included existing investors Accel Partners and Warburg Pincus.…

http://www.techradar.com/news/world-of-tech/uh-oh-this-robot-just-passed-the-self-awareness-test-1299362

Uh-oh, a robot just passed the self-awareness testBy Duncan Geere 15 hours agoWorld of tech 

And probably two others

Roboticists at the Ransselaer Polytechnic Institute in New York have built a trio of robots that were put through the classic 'wise men puzzle' test of self-awareness - and one of them passed.In the puzzle, a fictional king is choosing a new advisor and gathers the three wisest people in the land. He promises the contest will be fair, then puts either a blue or white hat on each of their heads and tells them all that the first person to stand up and correctly deduce the colour of their own hat will become his new advisor. Selmer Bringsjord set up a similar situation for the three robots - two were prevented from talking, then all three were asked which one was still able to speak. All attempt to say "I don't know", but only one succeeds - and when it hears its own voice, it understands that it was not silenced, saying "Sorry, I know now!"However, as we can assume that all three robots were coded the same, technically, all three have passed this self-awareness test.…

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/539161/minecraft-shows-robots-how-to-stop-dithering/

Minecraft Shows Robots How to Stop DitheringA new approach to robot learning was tested in Minecraft, the popular open-ended computer game.

By Will Knight on July 13, 2015 Why It MattersIf robots are to be useful in everyday settings, they will need better ways to plan their actions.

Minecraft was used to teach a virtual agent what steps to exclude when trying to put a gold block in a furnace.

The computer game Minecraft, which depicts a world made up of retro, pixelated blocks that can be modified and rearranged in endless architectural configurations, has been praised for teaching young players about creativity, problem solving, and survival skills (in certain modes you have to avoid threats including zombies). Well, it turns out even inexperienced robots can learn a thing or two by playing the game.

Stefanie Tellex, a professor at Brown University, is using Minecraft, as well as real-world machines, to explore ways for robots to solve new problems faster and more efficiently. This isn’t something most robots need to do, since they work in a fixed environment, performing work that has been carefully programmed beforehand. But it could be important as robots start to take on more complex, open-ended tasks in less structured settings. A robot designed to help around the home, for instance, would need figure out how to perform different chores.

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http://www.itechpost.com/articles/15295/20150716/artificial-intelligence-to-soon-eliminate-family-doctor.htm

Artificial Intelligence To Soon Eliminate Family DoctorThe Internet has changed the traditional way patients interact with their doctors. Today, many self-resilient and enterprising patients are querying their symptoms on internet search engines. Searching knowledge databases with focus on medicine has become a common practice. But soon, the field of medicine is going to change beyond recognition. Your.MD, a new UK startup may be a real threat for all-purpose medical practitioners.Your.MD was designed to change the way of online self-diagnosis. While the number of people turning on searching for medical conditions and symptoms online, the major flaws in this method are becoming increasingly evident. For many people without training in medicine a cold sore can sometimes be confused with some new and rare form of leprosy. A mole can look like skin cancer.…

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/539196/teach-your-fitness-band-to-track-biceps-curls-and-other-activities/

Teach Your Fitness Band to Track Biceps Curls and MoreStartup Rithmio is making software for wearables that it claims can learn all kinds of movements in just a few seconds, right on your wrist.

By Rachel Metz on July 10, 2015

Why It MattersGesture recognition can be useful for tracking a range of activities and for controlling devices with your body movements.

According to Adam Tilton, when you get down to it, there really isn’t that much of a difference between estimating the path and

speed of a missile and figuring out what kind of exercise you’re doing at the gym: it’s all about using a sensor to measure a signal, and extracting that signal from the surrounding noise.

Tilton should have a pretty good idea of what he’s talking about. As a graduate student at the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana, he studied signal processing and estimation control—typically applied to things like guiding missiles. But a few years ago, after realizing the technology could also be useful for the fast-growing market for wearable gadgets like fitness-tracking wristbands and smart watches, he decided to change course.…

http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2015/07/09/no-one-is-safe-300-gadget-steals-encryption-keys-out-air-and-its-nearly/

No one is safe: $300 gadget steals encryption keys out of the air, and it’s nearly unstoppableBy Zach Epstein

Published July 09, 2015

Illustration picture. (REUTERS/Kacper Pempel)

Just when you thought you were safe, a new hacking toy comes along and rocks your world. Imagine a tool exists that lets hackers pluck encryption keys from your laptop right out of the air. You can’t stop it by connecting to protected Wi-Fi networks or even disabling Wi-Fi completely. Turning off Bluetooth also won’t help you protect yourself.

Why? Because the tiny device that can easily be hidden in an object or taped to the underside of a table doesn’t use conventional communications to pull off capers. Instead it reads radio waves emitted by your computer’s processor, and there’s really nothing you can do to stop it.

Researchers at Tel Aviv University and another Israeli research center called Technion have created a terrifying new hacking tool that can steal encryption keys out of the air. The device, which is assembled using about $300 worth of parts that are widely available, is about the size of a piece of pita bread. Not by coincidence, the team is calling it PITA (Portable Instrument for Trace Acquisition).

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http://www.foxbusiness.com/technology/2015/07/07/apples-siri-and-amazons-alexa-tackle-10-questions/

Apple’s Siri and Amazon’s Alexa Tackle 10 Questions

By Katie RoofPublished July 07, 2015FOXBusinessFacebook12 Twitter66 Email Print

Apple’s Siri vs. Amazon’s AlexaSiri, the virtual assistant introduced on iPhones (AAPL) in 2011 is a voice-activated search engine. She’s also known for her snark. Alexa, the name given to Amazon’s (AMZN) new Echo device has been nicknamed “Siri in a box” for their similarities.They can both complete Google searches, play music and give directions. But which one has the better personality? FOXBusiness.com tested them out.Alexa vs. Siri:

FOXBusiness.com: Are you a robot?Siri: I’m not sure what you heard but virtual assistants have feelings too.Alexa: All I know is that I’m here to help.FOXBusiness.com: Are you smart?Alexa: I try my best.Siri: I’m smart enough to know not to answer that question.FOXBusiness.com: How tall are you?Siri: As big as your imagination.Alexa: I’m about ten inches tall.…

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/538821/computers-are-getting-a-dose-of-common-sense/

Computers Are Getting a Dose of Common SenseA startup called MetaMind has developed a new, improved algorithm for processing language.

By Will Knight on June 24, 2015

Why It MattersMachines are getting smarter in many ways, but they are still relatively bad at understanding spoken or written language.

Talking to a machine over the phone or through a chat window can be an infuriating experience. However, several research groups, including some at large technology companies like Facebook and Google, are making steady progress toward improving computers’ language skills by building upon recent advances in machine learning.

The latest advance in this area comes from a startup called MetaMind, which has published details of a system that is more accurate than other techniques at answering questions about several lines of text that tell a story. MetaMind is developing technology designed to be capable of a range of different artificial-intelligence tasks and hopes to sell it to other companies. The startup was founded by Richard Socher, a prominent machine-learning expert who earned a PhD at Stanford.

MetaMind’s approach combines two forms of memory with an advanced neural network fed large quantities of annotated text. The first is a kind of database of concepts and facts; the other is short-term, or “episodic.” When asked a question, the system, which the company calls a dynamic memory network, will search for relevant patterns in the text that it has learned from; after finding associations, it will use its episodic memory to return to the question and look for further, more abstract patterns. This enables it to answer questions that require connecting several pieces of information.

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Nano Satellites Work with Ground Sensors to Offer New Eye on Disaster Relief and AgricultureA swarm of small satellites could give critical infrastructure an Internet connection that never goes down.

By Andrew Rosenblum on June 25, 2015

Why It MattersBeing able to collect data in emergency situations where conventional networks are cut off could be widely useful.

A rendering showing compact communications satellites in relatively low orbit; they could help provide data connections to critical infrastructure.

Anthony Previte, CEO of the space company Terran Orbital, was set on the path to his company’s latest project by a nurse he encountered amid the chaos of 9/11, one block north of Ground Zero.

She was running frantically down the street because the nearby hospital had run out of fuel oil. With most cell-phone batteries depleted and landlines knocked out, the only way to call for more was on foot. Previte got to thinking that important equipment like generators should have ways to communicate anytime, even after a disaster. Today he’s working to make that possible by launching multiple constellations of “nano satellites” designed to provide small, battery-powered sensors with a cheap data connection that never goes down.

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Is Now a Good Time to Meet Your New Virtual Assistant?My virtual helper can be surprisingly lifelike, but she’s obsessed with meetings.

By Will Knight on June 26, 2015 I recently got my own personal assistant, called Amy. My new helper is amazingly attentive and diligent, but also a bit strange. For one thing, she seems completely obsessed with organizing meetings and pretty much refuses to talk about anything else.

Amy isn’t a real person but a software agent that exists somewhere in the cloud and communicates with my contacts and me by e-mail, helping set up and reschedule meetings and other appointments. The software is being developed by a company called X.ai, which hopes to create something that seems virtually indistinguishable from a real human, juggling calendars with care, tact, and consummate attention to detail.

When I first contacted Dennis Mortensen, the founder and CEO of X.ai, he asked Amy to set up a phone call. It took a couple of e-mails for me to realize that Amy wasn’t his real assistant but the technology his company had been developing for the past year.

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http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2015/06/29/iran-and-saudi-arabia-edge-towards-cyber-war-study-says/

Iran and Saudi Arabia edge towards cyber war, study says

By Christopher Snyder

Published June 29, 2015

Now Playing Are Saudi Arabia and Iran moving closer to a 'cyber war'?

The battle for influence between Iran and Saudi Arabia has become one of the biggest rivalries in the Middle East.

Tehran and Riyadh are fighting for a greater say on several fronts in the region including the campaign against ISIS and Yemen's civil war. A new report by the threat intelligence firm Recorded Future shows both countries are taking their fight to the web.

The company’s CEO and co-founder Christopher Ahlberg explained the recent online activity between both countries. “There is this constant jostling between these two countries for a long time and now turning to Yemen as a [proxy fight],” he told FoxNews.com.

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http://www.nytimes.com/2015/06/26/upshot/can-an-algorithm-hire-better-than-a-human.html?action=click&pgtype=Homepage&module=opinion-c-col-left-region&region=opinion-c-col-left-region&WT.nav=opinion-c-col-left-region&_r=0&abt=0002&abg=0

Can an Algorithm Hire Better Than a Human?

JUNE 25, 2015

Hiring and recruiting might seem like some of the least likely jobs to be automated. The whole process seems to need human skills that computers lack, like making conversation and reading social cues.

But people have biases and predilections. They make hiring decisions, often unconsciously, based on similarities that have nothing to do with the job requirements — like whether an applicant has a friend in common, went to the same school or likes the same sports.

That is one reason researchers say traditional job searches are broken. The question is how to make them better.

A new wave of start-ups — including Gild, Entelo, Textio, Doxa andGapJumpers — is trying various ways to automate hiring. They say that software can do the job more effectively and efficiently than people can. Many people are beginning to buy into the idea. Established headhunting firms like Korn Ferry are incorporating algorithms into their work, too.

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