Singularity Headlines of 2015
This is page is a continuation from the talk, Singularity, of Aug 29, 2014

January -- I was out of town
• Bill Gates: Yes, robots really are about to take your jobs.
• Bill Gates has joined Elon Musk, Stephen Hawking and Jim in warning on dangers of AI saying it poses a threat to humanity. -- Jan 29
  February.
• A Japanese hotel has announced it plans to open a new property later this year that will be staffed virtually entirely by robots, with android front-desk staff, porters and waiting staff. -- Feb 1
  
• Alibaba's Future is Robots, Artificial Intelligence. Founder says is a data company, not an e-commerce company. -- Feb 2
• Japanese companies are investing heavily in robots, both as a solution to the nation's ageing and shrinking population and as a growing business opportunity. Androids are already fixtures in Japanese hospitals and nursing homes, while Panasonic Corp has developed a robot with 24 fingers that is designed to wash a person's hair. -- Feb 2
• Eternal life could be achieved by procedure to lengthen telomeres, the protective caps that are on the end of chromosomes and shorten with age. -- Feb 4
• Manufacturers will significantly accelerate their use of robots in U.S. factories over the next decade as they become cheaper and perform more tasks USA Today.   $4 an hour to use a robot for a routine assembly task vs. $24 for an average worker. -- Feb 9
• Hospitals turn to droids to cope with costs. The bots are programmed to deliver food and drugs, pick up waste and laundry, and to travel the halls without crashing into people. Some call them cute, some say creepy. --Feb 12
• Robot cops will be patrolling your streets in 2016 -- intentionally made to look menacing [stupid!!!] -- Feb 17.
• Robot restaurant in Harbin, China, greets with "Earth person, hello!" Chefs obsolete. -- Feb 17
• Robots Move Into Japanese Homes for under $2,000 . WSJ, 3 minute video -- Feb 20.
• Children may be made from stem cells from the skin of two adults, paving the way for “two dad” families. -- Feb 24
• Will holidays be uploaded to our Minds? Implanting 'memories'. Good grief, reality disappears -- Feb 24
  March.
• Conversion with a Futurist -- 6 minutes. Excellent -- Mar 5
• Stop the Robots organize protest in Austin. -- Mar 15
      Fermi's question : "Where are they?"
• Chinese manufacturers once the manual labor "workshop of the world", became the largest buyer of industrial robots in 2013 as it attempts to drive productivity gains. -- Mar 19.
• Bill Gates is super concerned about artificial intelligence. There are two different threat models for AI. One is simply the labour substitution problem. Then you have the issue of greater-than-human intelligence. -- Mar 19
• "Universal Basic Income  is  The Solution To Poverty?" What if the government simply paid everyone enough so that no one was poor? - Mar 20. This is what is going to have to happen when there are no jobs left. How to plan for it, now?
• Scientists Seek Ban on Method of Editing the Human Genome. -- Mar 20. I disagree; considering the near certainty of annihilation of the human species, this must be done (properly) for people to survival.
• Robots to replace almost half of jobs over next 20-years. -- March 23. ... from cooks to truck drivers.
• The Future of AI s 'Scary and Very Bad for People' -- Steve Wozniak -- March 23
• 'Robots on reins' to replace guide dogs... -- March 25. also benefit firefighters.
• Could robots turn people into PETS? -- March 26   Wozniak, Musk, Tyson - ask and answer.
• Tesla Motors self-steering Model S sedan this summer ; Cadillac hands-free highway driving in two years. Ford's totally self-driving vehicles on public roadways within five years. -- March 31
  April
• Sabina robot learns by showing as one would teach a toddler. -- April 2
• Autonomous Car Completes 3,400-Mile US Road Trip -- April 2
• Robopocalypse for workers inevitable ; super-smart machines will best humans in pretty much every task. A few of us will own the machines, a few will work a bit — perhaps providing "Made by Man" artisan goods. -- April 2   while the rest will live off a government-provided income ?!
• Humans can expand their senses through geomagnetic, ultrasonic and radio-wave sensors that may even enable the next generation of human-to-human communication -- April 3   implant works in rats
• Liquid metal transformable machine developed in China. -- April 5.   shape-shifting flexible intelligent machines : terminator. But used only for good, of course.
• 'Unnervingly real' android of popular transvestite presenter becomes the first own TV show. -- April 6   Japan
• Robots will be able to perform every job that humans can. -- April 7.
• Fukushima robot stranded after 3 hours inside reactor. -- April 13.   expected life was 10 hours, completed 14 of 18 missions.
• Robotics to 'shift balance of power even more in favor of employers'... -- April 18.   Who owns robots and their productivity? Who pays for universal income.
• "Fed Up", Man Kills His Computer In Cold Blood -- April 21   What recourse with robots?
• Chinese scientists have reported editing the genomes of human embryos. -- April 22.   First nation to develop healthier citizens. Recall they addressed population and their economy surged.
• Self-Driving 'Taxibots' Could Replace 9 in 10 Cars -- April 23   End city congestion, free up parking space.
• Double amputee controls two prosthetic arms at once, using his mind. -- April 28 -- video 4:32 min
• Russian Hybrid Robo-Soldiers Could Be Just Five Years Away. -- April 29   Neural interface Exoskeletons
• Robotic chimp for Moon exploration -- April 30
  May
• "These devices would be able to teach our children for us , our schools slow students down , kids who are further ahead than their peers should be nurtured, not forced to fall in line." -- Wozniak -- May 1.
• Robots will take over 30% of our jobs by 2025 — and white-collar jobs aren't immune -- May 1.
• Robots handle tasks at Iowa. -- T-R , May 2.   Estimate 225,000 industrial robots were sold in 2014, up 27% from 2013
• Print anything you need, when you need it, but traditional manufacturers are seeing disaster. -- May 3.   video 1:41 min.   From toys to body implants.  Do you want one now?
• New DNA technique makes genetic manipulation seem possible, and soon. -- May 4
• China Building all-robot manufacturing plant -- May 5   Robots 1000 : Humans 200.
• World's First Self-Driving Semi-Truck Hits the Road -- May 6  There are three million full-time truck drivers
• Hugh benefits of AI : prudent for societies to plan for how to cope -- May 7
• SELF-FLYING JET : Google reveals its delivery drone technology could one day be used to carry passengers -- May 7
• World;s first Baby Born With an Assist from Stem Cells -- May 8
• Rise of the machines : : Artificial intelligence scares people—excessively so -- May 9
  

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  # Current thinking and questions on the Singularity.

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  Although this page has ended and is no longer updated daily, here are some links I don't want to lose track of, that you might find interesting, too.
  Thinking Machines : in scientific research related to the fields of machine learning, artificial intelligence, and artificial life. These are fields that continue to expand at a ridiculous, if not superhuman, pace.
      A TED talk on consciousness said if a concept does not fit into the physical world of size, mass, speed, etc. then it is a new phenomenon that must be measured and defined. In other words they don't know what is, let alone how it is accomplished. The question remains, how does a mass of brain cells become self aware, with volition? Can a computer brain of electronics become conscious? with volition?
      Visited a Bonobo research center yesterday. One study found they have an language capability of a 2½ year old, IQ of about 15. They certainly looked conscious. Even answered spoken questions on a touch screen computer. A task Watson performs with the same ease and reliability.< x /font>
• Stephen Hawking warns computers will overtake humans within 100 years -- May 12
• Chinese search company, Baidu, unveils, Minwa, called the world's smartest artificial intelligence -- May 13
• 14 Surprising Jobs That Robots Are Doing -- May 14
• How IBM's Watson supercomputer is battling cancer with advanced genomics -- May 14
• Google robot car ready for the road -- May 15.   Summer fleet of 25 to deployment. Speed limited to 25 mph.
• One in seven people still live without electricity on Earth. -- May 19   The robots will have work ahead of them to service all of humanity.
• Goggle a step closer to developing machines with human-like intelligence -- May 22 .   Suggests ten years rather then the accepted 25.
• DeepMind -- May 22.   Company goal : to "solve intelligence".
• Humans 'will become God-like cyborgs within 200 years' -- May 25 -- .as they gradually merge with technology like computers and smart phones, Well, at least somebody else is thinking about the subject.
  "The amalgamation of man and machine will be the "biggest evolution in biology" since the emergence of life four billion years ago. " If you can't lick'em, join'em. Interesting solution that allows some sibilance of humanity to be retained.
  "Will be as different from humans of today as we are from chimpanzees." I would guess more so.
  "Cyborg' technology would be restricted to the wealthiest in society, widening the gap between rich and poor in society. In the future the rich may be able to live forever while the poor would die out. " -- Darwinism to the rescue. But will the do-gooder side of humanity let the poor die out. How? They keep breeding.
• Science Fiction or Fact: Humanlike Intelligent Machines Will Soon Exist "Natural language" is full of idioms, cultural references and inflections that infuse far richer meaning into our words than their literal definitions. (For example, when we use sarcasm, duh.) Humans color their spoken words with facial expressions and body language, too. All of this has long befuddled computers. Is this our salvation ?   IBM's Watson computer smoked its human competition in "Jeopardy!", a game full of wordplay and sly references. Siri by Apple and Cortana by Microsoft and Echo by Amazon and Google Now are rapidly pushing the natural language barrier ... "as we speak."
• Will Your Job Be Done By A Machine? -- May 31 . 300 jobs predicted.
  June 2015
• Uber poaches 40 scientists and engineers (of 100) from C-M to develop driverless cars. -- including the director and managers.
• Robot check-in: The hotel concierge in Japan goes hi-tech. China has a hotel where this, plus porters and housekeeping are by robots.
• Robots in Manufacturing -- June 3 . Thoughtful piece. It reminds me that we had better stop importing unneeded labor that we will have to support, forever.
• Layoff at Disney -- June 3 . Total perversion. This raises the question if Capitalism deserves to survive.
• Will careers survive ? -- June 3 . NPR's thoughts . 3:30 minutes.
• Humans are going to be artificially intelligent by 2040s -- June 4 . But which humans?
• Robots to pack groceries for Walmart... -- June 4
• Teddy bear for sick children. -- June 5
• The Robotic Challenge -- Fri-Sat, June 5-6 -- watch it live, 10:00-7:00 cdt. Or, on YouTube . Hint, then set filter for "today" or "last hour"
  8 Tasks for 24 Robot teams : Drive to site ; Egress and walk ; Open door ; Close valve ; Make hole in wall ; Connect ; Cross rubble ; Climb stairs.
  South Korea Team wins $2MM prize completing all tasks in the hour allotted with 15 minutes to spare.
  Second place to some students in Florida . Third to Carnegie-Mellon.
• Humans will be immortal starting in the 2030s -- Jun 7
• Wealth gap will escalate as robots and artificial intelligence fuel mass unemployment ; will fuel social unrest -- June 8
• Super-intelligent-robots : Economy on fire , Environmental destruction, -- June 9 . Brief summary of all the issues
• World leaders have met secretly for 60 years as the Bilderberg Group. This year, all we know is that they'll be discussing Artificial Intelligence, and other things. -- June 10
• Alibaba, predicted a future when robots will become smarter than humans, saying robots connected to the internet will be the future of innovation. -- June 19   Pepper will be sold to the public in Japan for $1,600 this month.
• A child born today may live to see humanity's end -- June 19   Population & pollution, not The Singularity.
• Employees obsolete at robot grocery store in Des Moines -- June 19   6:34 min video starts slow
• Robot bricklayer can build a whole house in two days. -- Jun 26
• Artificial Intelligence Machine Gets Testy With Its Programmer -- June 27
• Could Artificial Intelligence be humanity's biggest threat -- June 28   Don't worry, be happy.
• Smarter than us.   -- June 28. Book summary.   with my annotations.

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• Robot to get organic brain   -- July 17   Bacteria level, but alive
• Warns robots will 'wake up,' demand rights... -- July 20   Must regulate before they multiply -- and vote.   So who do we get to do the work robots wont do?
• Gene Drive: Genetically modified technology promises to revolutionize medicine and agriculture.   Aug 3   Why couldn't this article be written in a positive manner?
• More lifelike every day   -- Aug 14. If you want more, this includes four 3-min clips of others : Uncanny robots   A lot of people are making progress in this area.
• "Summoning the Demon? -- Aug 19.   And harnessing AI.
• Hitachi workers take orders from artificial intelligence programs meant to increase productivity in the workplace. -- Sept 9
• Three $150k robots replaced 60 welders making mowers -- Sep 10
• Driverless pods to travel public roads arrive in the Netherlands -- Sep 21
• China world's biggest market for industrial robots for the second straight year rising by more than half to 56,000, out of a total of 224,000 sold globally. China has about 30 robots for every 10,000 factory workers compared with 437 in South Korea and 152 in the United States. The global average is 62. Beijing wants China's number to rise to 100 by 2020. -- Sep 23.
• Should robots have human rights? Regulate killer machines before they multiply and demand the right to vote, warns legal expert. -- Sep 23.

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• RoboCab: Driverless Taxi Experiment to Start in Japan...   it is a limited plan to start in 2016 -- Oct 1
• Self-driving bus Video .  Trial in China, looks lke the real deal. -- Oct 1
• Daimler said it trialled a self-driving truck under real traffic conditions for the first time Friday, on a motorway in southern Germany. -- Oct 2
• The National Science Foundation spending half a million dollars to create robots that can tell stories to pre-schoolers. -- Oct 5.
• A robot sold us a CD at Best Buy. -- Oct 5   24/7 in Manhattan trial.
• UN protracted talk over lethal autonomous weapons - “killer robots” – moving too slowly to stop robot wars. -- Oct 6   Phalanx, Goalkeeper, Iron Dome, SGR-1, SeaRAM deployed
• Panasonic Robot can wash, dry, fold and put away laundry. - Oct 9. They have a way to go, but are working for you.
• Researchers Say They've Recreated Part of a Rat Brain Digitally   Part of the Human Brain Project
• Hawking said, "Artificial Intelligence is likely to be either the best or worst thing ever to happen to humanity, so there's huge value in getting it right".
  And on the human side (one of my areas of concern) -- "Everyone can enjoy a life of luxurious leisure if the machine-produced wealth is shared, or most people can end up miserably poor if the machine-owners successfully lobby against wealth redistribution," Hawking said. "So far, the trend seems to be toward the second option, with technology driving ever-increasing inequality."
• NASA Details Plans For 'Earth Independent' Mars Colony... - Oct 9   A place for mankind to escape and survive?
• Samsung to make robots 'cheaper than any human worker' -- Oct 19
• Self-driving TESLA hits NYC streets...   Robot CADILLAC in DC...   GOOGLE drone delivers in AZ... -- Oct 20
• Robot journalists' for election reporting -- Oct 23   Robots already write Sports and Stock Market reports.
• Robotic Sex Slaves -- Nov 29   Human drivers may be outlawed.
• Drone-delivery-system -- Nov 30   Good-bye drivers and warehousemen.
• Chinese researchers unveil brain directed car-- Dec 6   Look, Ma, no hands.
• Conference warns : Technology Will Kill White-Collar Jobs and Inequality -- Dec 7   You can’t leave behind the bulk of the population.
• China wants robots to replace millions of low-paid workers. -- Dec 7   Not to import Mexicans or Syrians
• Chinese researchers unveil first mind-controlled car -- Dec 7
• Why 2015 was Breakthrough Year in Artificial Intelligence -- Dec 8   cloud, databases, software go from expensive to cheap. Number of new projects exponential.
• Smartphones to die out 'within 5 years' -- Dec 9   replaced by A.I.
• Chinese sell urban combat robots -- Dec 10   $80,000 vs. PFC $20,000. Soldier paid less than $15 burger flipper.
• Why Google’s new quantum computer could launch an artificial intelligence race -- Dec 11   100 million times faster.
• Billion dollar AI research firm to 'safeguard the world' and make us 'superhuman' -- Dec 12   OpenAI, a non-profit company.
• Tech giants to try to build artificially intelligent robots that don’t end up killing humans -- Dec 13   Rapid, unexpected advances could kill off humankind.
• Ford to test self-driving cars on California roads -- Dec 16   Joining BMW, Honda, Mercedes, Nissan, Tesla, Volkswagen, and Google.
• Google self-driving car business unit to compete with Uber -- Dec 16   Over a million test miles in CA and TX. To save lives.
• Multiplex parenting could allow up to 32 people to contribute to child's DNA -- Dec 17   Diversity!
• Humans Are Slamming Into Driverless Cars -- Dec 18   driving at speed limits and make turns slowly to assure the way ahead is clear.
      Requiring a human driver be in the car will not stop communters, always in a hurry, from running into conscientous robot cars.
• Robots will augment humans, not replace them> -- Dec 21
• The A.I. anxiety -- Dec 27.   Summry of the issues
• Chatbots will replace search engines and virtual assistants. And friends. -- Dec29   Google, Facebook, Chinese approaches.

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  This page has been extended from the 2014 pages.
  See last year's headlines.
  There may be the start of a further discussion at JimBlog -- draft

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  Back to 2015 Creative Retirement
  URL : http://www.manorweb.com/creative/2015/singhdl15.html