The rise of the machines (aka AI everything) is like fire. In that it's awesome and dangerous. Particularly dangerous in that it (like fire) is seductive - indeed, more literally seductive than fire. AI generated girls and boys paired with AI generated conversational (manipulation) skills can give you everything you want, all of the time, … Continue reading Don’t Sleep With The Fire
Tag: AI
We have been harmonised
We Have Been Harmonised by Kai Strittmatter makes for uncomfortable reading. The book details the seemingly unstoppable slide towards the total surveillance state (or the 360 degree, 4D WiFi curtain, as I like to call our emerging omniscient open air prison reality), not just in the Communist Party of China's China, but all over the … Continue reading We have been harmonised
Trend retrospective, a decade in the rearview mirror
At the end of last year, I was asked to write a few thoughts on the most important, most disruptive technological milestones for each year of the last decade that will continue to have an impact in the future of the decade to come. Here follows the original version of that article, before it was edited … Continue reading Trend retrospective, a decade in the rearview mirror
Never trust a machine to do a human’s job.
Many tasks could (and should) be automated to free humanity of drudgery and accelerate our prosperity. However, some things are still really best left to flesh and blood people. Love letters, for example. These neural network-generated candy-heart slogans are a wonderfully bad reminder of the value of human empathy and EQ - even in todays … Continue reading Never trust a machine to do a human’s job.
New Gods for a New Age – Losing Our Religion and Finding it Again in (Unlikely) Places
“Belief sloshes around in the firmament like lumps of clay spiralling into a potter's wheel. That's how gods get created, for example. They clearly must be created by their own believers, because a brief resume of the lives of most gods suggests that their origins certainly couldn't be divine. They tend to do exactly the … Continue reading New Gods for a New Age – Losing Our Religion and Finding it Again in (Unlikely) Places
Zero to One
"A great company is a conspiracy to change the world." "Darwinism may be a fine theory in other contexts, but in startups, intelligent design works best." "Computers are compliments for humans, not substitutes. The most valuable businesses of coming decades will be built by entrepreneurs who seek to empower people rather than try to make … Continue reading Zero to One
The WIFI Curtain: Dystopia Now? – The Future of Digital Dictatorships and Totalitarian Technocracies
There is no doubt in my mind that we will all shortly by ruled by machines in some variation or the other. I am not talking about robo-cops and terminators (just yet), but rather about technology-powered governments with increasing, omnipotence, omnipresence, and omniscience over their subjects - building and enforcing some form of a WIFI curtain … Continue reading The WIFI Curtain: Dystopia Now? – The Future of Digital Dictatorships and Totalitarian Technocracies
Artificial Art
Creativity is a sign of intelligence, and artificial intelligence is getting creative. In 2016, a novel authored by an algorithm nearly won a prestigious Japanese literary prize. (The novel was, creatively, titled The Day a Computer Writes a Novel.) AI has only got more creative (although, perhaps, not more talented depending on your definition of artistic … Continue reading Artificial Art
With robot rights, come robot responsibilities
Person or Property? - That is the Question... “From a legal perspective, this is a complicated area, as the algorithms of an AI act as a “black box” — even the creator of the artificial intelligence is not always sure why the algorithm made a certain decision," ~ Marten Kaevats, Adviser of the Strategy Unit of the Government … Continue reading With robot rights, come robot responsibilities
Sophia the Robot’s getting upstaged by a younger hotter fembot (just like a real woman)
Shame. It looks like Sophia the Robot's five minutes of fame as the world's favourite fembot drawing to a close, as a younger, sexier, humanoid fembot, who goes by the name of Ms. Erica Aoi, takes center stage. Erica, who is fully humanoid, just landed a plum job as a news anchor at Nippon Television Network … Continue reading Sophia the Robot’s getting upstaged by a younger hotter fembot (just like a real woman)