Category Archives: Artificial Intelligence

Japans embrace of modern technology has never been fully comfortable or all-encompassing. Robot animals keep nonagenarians company in nursing homes, even as banking remains firmly stuck in the past. Robot dinosaurs tend to guests at a hotel, while fax is still a widely used form of communication.

The world of shogi, Japans answer to chess and Go, is now grappling with the rise of the robots. Last year, the country was shaken by an alleged cheating scandal when a top-ranked shogi player, Hiroyuki Miura, was accused by other players of cheating after he won a tournament in October. His opponents raised suspicions because Miura had repeatedly left the room during a matchinsinuating that he went to use his phone to check what the best moves were. Miura, who denied wrongdoing, was suspended by the Japan Shogi Association (JSA) as they investigated the claims.

Miura was eventually cleared of wrongdoing after an investigation, and the head of the JSA stepped down in November as a result. But the ugly episode exposed deep-seated fears that computers are finally challenging in a serious way one of Japans most sacred art forms, on a par with traditions such as sumo wrestling and flower arrangement (ikebana). Shogi professionals, who wear traditional Japanese dress during title matches, are popularly known and celebrated. Newspapers (link in Japanese) and television stations (link in Japanese) dedicate coverage to games, and games are also streamed live online.

The trepidation is reminiscent of what happened when Googles AlphaGo beat the worlds top Go player, Lee Sedol, last March in Seoul. Many had believed then that AI would not be able to beat a top Go player for at least another decade.

Shogi players are very respected in Japan. There is a real fear that their status in Japan could be threatened by AI, said Noboru Kosaku, a shogi player and a researcher on the amusement industry at the Osaka University of Commerce.

Kosaku explained that Japans reverence for shogi dates back to the Heian period (794 to 1185), when it was played by monks and samurai alike, and was a symbol of intelligence that was also loved by commoners. There is something profound, he said, in shogi cultures emphasis on respect for ones opponents, whether one wins or loses.

An article in Japanese publication Toyo Keizai (link in Japanese) on Jan. 4 described the near-scandal and the rise of AI as an unprecedented crisis for the shogi world, and warned that the fear of AI was creating feelings of doubt and suspicion among the shogi community. The Asahi Shimbun, one of Japans biggest newspapers, warned of the artificial monster of AI.

How will pro shogi players recover their trust in one another, not to mention the trust of shogi fans? the newspaper asked.

While Deep Blue managed to beat chess master Garry Kasparov in 1997, it wasnt until 2012 that a computer vanquished a retired shogi pro. An active pro fell the following year. Shortly after that, AI programs won in a series of high-level matches, known as the Den-onsen.

The human defeat in Den-onsen made most Japanese people aware for the first time of the hard reality that, through continued development, AI was beginning to drag humans down from the leading role in intellectual activities, according to a paper written by Matake Kamiya, a professor of international relations at the National Defense Academy of Japan, and Sato Yasumitsu, chairman of the Professional Shogi Players Association. One of the defeated players was Miurathe player at the center of last years brouhahawho with typical Japanese contriteness apologized for failing to fulfill his duty to beat the computer.

Shogi is seen to be a more difficult game than chess because once players capture an opponents piece, they can use that piece as their ownmeaning that while chess games on the whole get simpler as fewer pieces are left on the board, shogi gets more complex, a shogi professional told the New York Times (paywall) in 1999. Shogi is played on a 99 grid with an average game length of 110 moves, and chess on a 88 grid with an average game length of 80 moves. There are about 10120 possible moves in chess, compared to 10220 for shogithe number one followed by 220 zeros.

Koji Tanagawa, the JSA chairman who resigned after last years incident, later said the situation could have been avoided if the association had taken steps to change the rules to prevent any misconduct. The World Chess Federation, or FIDE, banned players from bringing mobile phones or similar devices into the gaming venue in 2014, as well as from leaving the playing venue without permission from the arbiter.

But as a testament to Japans reverence for shogi players, such rules were not drawn up until last years uproar. As of last December (link in Japanese), contestants are no longer allowed to bring smartphones and other devices into matches, or leave the shogi hall while a match is in process. Previously, players could look at their smartphones when they went for breaks. Now their gadgets must be kept in lockers.

At its root, shogi relies on seizensetsu, or the belief that humans are fundamentally good. Yoshiharu Habu, a professional shogi player, told the Sankei newspaper (link in Japanese) last year after the new regulations were announced: Seizensetsu is fundamental to the world of shogi, but I suppose we may be entering an era where we can no longer just stick to that.

The new head of the JSA, Yatsumitsu Sato, who was appointed earlier this month, vowed in his first speech (link in Japanese) in the role to bring shogi up-to-date with the times, while at the same time safeguarding the honor and tradition of one of the worlds most intelligent games.

Growing fears of the power of AI in shogi are also apparent in popular culture. A recently released comic book translated as The Eternal Hand (link in Japanese) predicts that the shogi world will begin to be destroyed by computers in 2030, with human players plummeting in popularity and eventually succumbing to work with computers, the new masters of the game.

Late last year, a film about shogi player Satoshi Murayama called Satoshi no Seishun hit Japanese cinemas. It shows Murayama, who died at 29 in 1997, delivering one of his most famous proclamations: The day will never come when a computer defeats a pro shogi player.

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Artificial intelligence has brought doubt and suspicion to the ancient world of Japanese chess - Quartz

TECH billionaire Elon Musk believes artificial intelligence could be catastrophic for humanity who are set to become a cyborg race which will have to grapple with 15 per cent of the global work force being without a job.

The creative genius added a universal income would have to be introduced for the global population because robots will do everything.

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Speaking at the World Government Summit in Dubai, the entrepreneur also told the 4000 strong conference he saw space flights to the far reaches of the solar system being as common as a plane ride in 50 years.

And self-driven cars were just 10 years away from usurping human driven vehicles completely.

The business magnate, who was being interviewed by Mohammad Abdulla Alergawi, the Minister of Cabinet Affairs and the Future for the UAE, told the slightly perplexed crowd: One of the most troubling questions is artificial intelligence. I dont mean narrow A.I deep artificial intelligence, where you can have AI which is much smarter than the smartest human on earth. This is a dangerous situation.

He also warned world governments: "Pay close attention to the development of artificial intelligence.

"Make sure researchers dont get carried away scientists get so engrossed in their work they dont realise what they are doing."

When asked if he thought A.I was a good or a bad thing Musk said: "I think it is both.

"One way to think of it is imagine you were very confident we were going to be visited by super intelligent aliens in 10 years or 20 years at the most.

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"Digital super intelligence will be like an alien."

He then joked: "It seems probable. But this is one of the great questions in physics and philosophy where are the aliens?

"Maybe they are among us I dont know. Some people think I am an alien. Not true. "Of course I would say that though wouldnt I?"

He went on: "If there are super intelligent aliens out there they are probably already observing us.

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The minister introduced Musk by comparing him in brilliance to Albert Einstein but the billionaire revealed that while many may admire his genius, he wasnt that comfortable with it: "I think that they probably shouldnt want to be me it sounds better than it is.

"It is not as much fun as you think. It could be worse for sure (but) I am not sure I want to be me."

Musk also discussed how he saw human beings as already being cyborgs as we become more and more dependent on technology.

To muted laughter from the crowd he explained: "To some degree we are already a cyborg - you think of all the digital tools that you have - your phone, your computer. "The applications that you have. The fact that you can ask a question and instantly get an answer from Google and other things.

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"You already have a digital tertiary layer. Think of the limbic system the animal brain and the cortex as the thinking part of the brain, and your digital self as a third layer.

"If you die your digital ghost is still around. All of their emails, and social media, that still lives if they die.

"Over time we will see a closer merger of biological intelligence and digital intelligence. It is all about the band width of the brain.

"The digital extension of yourself. Output if anything is getting worse. We do most of our output through our thumbs which is very slow.

"Some high band width interface to the brain will be something which helps achieve symbiosis between human and machine intelligence, which solves a control and usefulness problem."

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Musk went on to say autonomous cars would be a great convenience, but also a game changer for society, adding he saw the advances in technology causing mass unemployment.

This would result in huge swathes of the population losing their direction and purpose: "I think (driving) might be the single largest employer in various forms.

"We need to figure out new roles what do those people do? It will be very disruptive and very quick."

Estimating there are nearly two and half billion cars and trucks in the world, he added: "The point at which we see full autonomy appear, will not be the point where we see mass upheaval.

"We are just not smart enough to realise it. Any advanced alien civilization that was at all interested in populating the galaxy, even without exceeding the speed of light, at say 10 or 20 per cent of the speed of light, you could populate the entire galaxy in 20 million years max.

"That is nothing in the grand scheme of things."

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"That disruption will take place over 20 years. But 20 years to have 12 15 per cent of the work force unemployed is a short time."

His solution was unemployment benefit for the masses: "What to do about mass employment this is going to be a big challenge.

"We will need to have some kind of universal basic income I dont think there will be a choice.

"There will be fewer and fewer jobs that a robot cannot do better.

"These are things that I wish would happen, these are things probably will happen.

"I think some kind of universal income will be necessary.

"The harder challenge is how do people then have meaning because a lot of people derive their meaning from their employment.

"If you are not needed, if there is not a need for your labour. Whats the meaning? "Do you have meaning, are you useless? That is a much harder problem to deal with."

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The business magnate also his plans for space flight revealing he would like to see travel to different planets and solar systems as a common occurrence in as little as 50 years: "I hope we are out there on Mars, and maybe beyond, the moons of Jupiter. I hope we are travelling frequently outside the solar system and nearby star systems.

"I believe all of this will be possible in 50 years."

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Tech billionaire issues stark warning saying artificial intellgence could DESTROY human race which is already 'part ... - The Sun

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Artificial Intelligence Is Becoming A Major Disruptive Force In Banks' Finance Departments Forbes A combination of elements including massive distributed computing power, the decreasing cost of data storage, and the rise of open source frameworks is helping to accelerate the application of artificial intelligence (AI). Our own research indicates ... Will Big Data Influence Artificial Intelligence as a Major Disruption?insideBIGDATA These Companies Are Banking on AI to Raise ProductivityEntrepreneur all 3 news articles »

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Artificial Intelligence Is Becoming A Major Disruptive Force In Banks' Finance Departments - Forbes

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What impact will artificial intelligence (AI) have on the workforce? Will smart machines really replace a large number of people in a variety of jobs?

10 types of enterprise deployments

As businesses continue to experiment with the Internet of Things, interesting use cases are emerging. Here are some of the most common ways IoT is deployed in the enterprise.

These questions have been on the minds of a lot of people of late -- especially as AI becomes even more advanced. Clearly the technology will take away the need for some functions that are now performed by humans. But there's good reason to believe that AI will actually create a lot of new jobs as well -- at least in some areas of the economy.

"For information workers, the near-term opportunity is to leverage machine learning and natural language processing to make sense of a disconnected and cacophonic set of information sources, so people can focus on what matters most to them," said David Lavenda, vice president of product strategy at mobile-enterprise collaboration company Harmon.ie, who does academic research on information overload in organizations.

AI automation now is best geared toward specific, highly-contextual tasks, Lavenda said. "In the consumer world, we are seeing things like customer service bots," he said. "But information workers typically operate in a broad range of tasks and responsibilities. Without a definite context, AI will struggle to make decisions independently."

For example, IBM is focusing Watson's AI capabilities on highly-contextual business cases such as evaluating health studies and helping doctors make decisions.

Still, organizations and individuals need to prepare for the growing role of AI in the workplace.

"The trick is to make it easier for workers to consume the increasing amount of disconnected information, not make them learn new skills," Lavenda said. "People want to focus on the business, not on learning new technology. If anything, the promise of AI is that people won't have to know more IT skills to be effective."

The focus on AI in the enterprise should be on making workers' lives simpler, not more difficult, Lavenda said. "People are already inundated by continuous new software and gadgets," he said. "They just can't keep up. The future lies in hiding complexity, not introducing new complexity."

Some industries are feeling the impact of AI sooner than others. For instance, healthcare is already seeing an impact from IBM's AI-based Watson technology, Lavenda said. "Since AI is a horizontal technology, it will appear first in industries where suppliers identify key use cases," he said.

One promising use case Lavenda cites is helping salespeople close more business by connecting disconnected information from sources such as Salesforce, Zendesk, SharePoint, email, Yammer, and Chatter into one coherent picture of what's happening with their business. "Without having to learn any new skills or install new apps, AI-based solutions can present this information in a coherent fashion right within email or within a document window, so that salespeople can focus on closing business, not using technology," he said.

Long term, there is no doubt that AI will impact jobs. "Like in the past, all new technology displaces professions," Lavenda said. "We don't have many telegraph or telephone operators today, to say nothing of keypunch data entry clerks. Yet new technologies bring new opportunities, and at least so far the new technologies increase the number of job opportunities, not lessen them."

How artificial intelligence is changing the data center:

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Artificial intelligence doesn't have to be a job killer - ZDNet

As organizations plan their customer strategies they foresee an onslaught of customer interactions coming their way. The fallacy of believing that adding self-service options will decrease customer requests is now known. When your organization opens channels for customer to interact with you, even with self-service options, customers will interact with you more. This engagement is a good thing. But the only way to handle all of your volume in an effective manner without adding more staff is by leveraging Artificial Intelligence.

Listening to John Pisarek of Interactionsat Call Center Week Winterthe scenario of about projecting more customer interaction volume and not getting additional staff to handle it is a common reality for many contact center leaders.

And its a worry and issue across the industry. In the 2016 Global Contact Center Benchmark Report by Dimension Data67.8% of contact center leaders project an increase in overall interaction volume. How many of those 67.8% do you think have been provided an increase in staffing in order to handle that increased volume?

Even though a lot of that increased volume is coming via digital channels, an increase in staffing levels in often needed to handle customer interactions that opt into different channels whether its another digital channel or voice channel.

This is where Artificial Intelligence (AI) could greatly assist in this common dilemma. But not all AI is built alike. Learning and understanding your needs is the best way to determine the solution you seek.

Watch John Pisarek of Interactions talk Artificial Intelligence at Call Center Week Winter with Jim Rembach Click to Tweet

Interactions is a leading provider of speech and natural language technology that enables businesses and consumers to engage in productive conversations. With flexible products and solutions designed to meet the growing demand for unified, multichannel customer care, Interactions is delivering significant cost savings and unprecedented customer experience for some of the largest brands in the world. Founded in 2004, Interactions is headquartered in Franklin, Massachusetts with additional offices in Indiana, Texas, New Jersey and New York. Source: http://www.interactions.com.

Total disruption and massive job losses are headed for the contact center industry. The robo agent will take over customer service and the call center agent will be a relic from the past just like rotary dial telephone.

Thats a bunch of foolishness, dont fall victim to that type of hysteria. What will happen as we continue with advances in AI and natural language capabilities is a shifting in the work conducted by agents.

As the lower level requests are handled by better technology the more complex requests will make their way to the live agent queue. A Frost & Sullivan study claims that by 2022 the number of high-skilled outsourcing jobs could almost double. You can probably expect the same for non-outsourced agent jobs.

The global economy continues to grow. As economies grow there is most often and increase in the need for jobs. Global growth in in 2017 is projected to rise to 2.7 percent according to World Bank. And the world population is on the rise. More people more (customer) service required.

As we see this shift in the work of the contact center agent, we should also see a shift in the work of quality assurance. What types of channels do you support?:

What else? Are you measuring quality in each of these channels? We know that customers may opt out into your agent assisted channel from another channel. But you cant just measure the quality of the voice interaction and expect improvements in the customer experience.

Its actually an unjust burden to put on agents to only quality monitor their interactions. Agent assisted or not, the quality in each channel is vital to understand your risk of losing a customer and controlling your costs.

Visibility into the quality of your Artificial Intelligence solutions (as well as your other channels) must be part of your strategic planning process. If its not your expected savings in staffing wont be real either.

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Call Center Coach | Fast Leader Show

Jim Rembach is a twenty-year contact center veteran, SVP forCustomer Relationship Metrics, Principal forBeyond Moraleand Board Chair for Call Center Coach. His past experience in operations builds the credibility that follows. Jim is a Certified Emotional Intelligence Practitioner, Certified Contact Center Auditor, and is a CX Expert Emeritus for the Customer Experience Professionals Association (CXPA).

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John Pisarek Talks Artificial Intelligence - Customer Think

Predicting earthquakes is the holy grail of seismology. After all, quakes are deadly precisely because theyre erraticstriking without warning, triggering fires and tsunamis, and sometimes killing hundreds of thousands of people. If scientists could warn the public weeks or months in advance that a large temblor is coming, evacuation and other preparations could save countless lives.

So far, no one has found a reliable way to forecast earthquakes, even though many scientists have tried. Some experts consider it a hopeless endeavor. Youre viewed as a nutcase if you say you think youre going to make progress on predicting earthquakes, says Paul Johnson, a geophysicist at Los Alamos National Laboratory. But he is trying anyway, using a powerful tool he thinks could potentially solve this impossible puzzle: artificial intelligence.

Researchers around the world have spent decades studying various phenomena they thought might reliably predict earthquakes: foreshocks, electromagnetic disturbances, changes in groundwater chemistryeven unusual animal behavior. But none of these has consistently worked. Mathematicians and physicists even tried applying machine learning to quake prediction in the 1980s and 90s, to no avail. The whole topic is kind of in limbo, says Chris Scholz, a seismologist at Columbia Universitys LamontDoherty Earth Observatory.

But advances in technologyimproved machine-learning algorithms and supercomputers as well as the ability to store and work with vastly greater amounts of datamay now give Johnsons team a new edge in using artificial intelligence. If we had tried this 10 years ago, we would not have been able to do it, says Johnson, who is collaborating with researchers from several institutions. Along with more sophisticated computing, he and his team are trying something in the lab no one else has done before: They are feeding machinesraw datamassive sets of measurements taken continuously before, during and after lab-simulated earthquake events. They then allow the algorithm to sift through the data to look for patterns that reliably signal when an artificial quake will happen. In addition to lab simulations, the team has also begun doing the same type of machine-learning analysis using raw seismic data from real temblors.

This is different from how scientists have attempted quake prediction in the pastthey typically used processed seismic data, called earthquake catalogues, to look for predictive clues. These data sets contain only earthquake magnitudes, locations and times, and leave out the rest of the information. By using raw data instead, Johnsons machine algorithm may be able to pick up on important predictive markers.

Johnson and collaborator Chris Marone, a geophysicist at The Pennsylvania State University, have already run lab experiments using the schools earthquake simulator. The simulator produces quakes randomly and generates data for an open-source machine-learning algorithmand the system has achieved some surprising results. The researchers found the computer algorithm picked up on a reliable signal in acoustical datacreaking and grinding noises that continuously occur as the lab-simulated tectonic plates move over time. The algorithm revealed these noises change in a very specific way as the artificial tectonic system gets closer to a simulated earthquakewhich means Johnson can look at this acoustical signal at any point in time, and put tight bounds on when a quake might strike.

For example, if an artificial quake was going to hit in 20 seconds, the researchers could analyze the signal to accurately predict the event to within a second. Not only could the algorithm tell us when an event might take place within very fine time boundsit actually told us about physics of the system that we were not paying attention to, Johnson explains. In retrospect it was obvious, but we had managed to overlook it for years because we were focused on the processed data. In their lab experiments the team looked at the acoustic signals and predicted quake events retroactively. But Johnson says the forecasting should work in real time as well.

Of course natural temblors are far more complex than lab-generated ones, so what works in the lab may not hold true in the real world. For instance, seismologists have not yet observed in natural seismic systems the creaking and grinding noises the algorithm detected throughout the lab simulations (although Johnson thinks the sounds may exist, and his team is looking into this). Unsurprisingly, many seismologists are skeptical that machine learning will provide a breakthroughperhaps in part because they have been burned by so many failed past attempts. Its exciting research, and I think well learn a lot of physics from [Johnsons] work, but there are a lot of problems in implementing this with real earthquakes, Scholz says.

Johnson is also cautiousso much so that he hesitates to call what he is doing earthquake prediction. We recognize that you have to be careful about credibility if you claim something that no one believes you can do, he says. Johnson also notes he is currently only pursuing a method for estimating the timing of temblors, not the magnitudehe says predicting the size of a quake is an even tougher problem.

But Scholz and other experts not affiliated with this research still think Johnson should continue exploring this approach. Theres a possibility it could be really great, explains David Lockner, a research geophysicist at the U.S. Geological Survey. The power of machine learning is that you can throw everything in the pot, and the useful parameters naturally fall out of it. So even if the noise signals from Johnsons lab experiments do not pan out, he and other scientists may still be able to apply machine learning to natural earthquake data and shake out other signals that do work.

Johnson has already started to apply his technique to real-world datathe machine-learning algorithm will be analyzing earthquake measurements gathered by scientists in France, at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory and from other sources. If this method succeeds, he thinks it is possible experts could predict quakes months or even years ahead of time. This is just the beginning, he says. I predict, within the next five to 10 years machine learning will transform the way we do science.

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Can Artificial Intelligence Predict Earthquakes? - Scientific American

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Artificial Intelligence Enters The Classroom News One For example, in flipped classrooms, teachers assign students homework that utilizes artificial intelligence technology. The software can send the instructor a detailed analysis of students' comprehension of the assignment. That can enable the teacher ...

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Artificial Intelligence Enters The Classroom - News One

Artificial intelligence expert and RPI professor Selmer Bringsjord will lecture Wednesday on the concepts behind the HBO series Westworld.

Artificial intelligence expert and RPI professor Selmer Bringsjord will lecture Wednesday on the concepts behind the HBO series Westworld.

RPI artificial intelligence expert looks at Westworld

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Fans of the innovative HBO series "Westworld" a futuristic tale of life-like robots mixing with guests of a Wild West-styled adult theme park can hear Wednesday about how close such technology is from a Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute professor involved in artificial intelligence research for the U.S. military.

"'Westworld' is an HBO series that deals with the 'big questions' of artificial intelligence (AI) in an undeniably vivid and timely way," said Selmer Bringsjord, director of the RPI Artificial Intelligence and Reasoning Lab. "The real world will ineluctably move toward giving experiences to humans in environments that are at once immersive and populated with sophisticated AIs and robots."

Currently, Bringsjord is working on a multi-million dollar AI development project with support from the U.S. Office of Naval Research, which wants to advance military robotics for logistics and other missions. His work focuses on how to program a form of moral sense into AI, so that a robot not under continuous human control can make appropriate choices such as not harming innocent humans or causing unnecessary damage when faced with unexpected circumstances.

In "Westworld," robots are residents (called "hosts") of a corporate-owned Wild West theme park where they meet paying human guests who seek adventures including violence and sex, all while overseen by human staff. The first season was the highest-rated for an initial season in the history of HBO and the schedule for the second season has yet to be announced.

While all the technology necessary for such robotics does not exist today, much of it is rapidly developing, said Bringsjord, who also heads the RPI Department of Cognitive Science. His lecture: Is "Westworld" Our (Near) Future? is set for noon Wednesday on campus in Room 4101 of the Russell Sage Building on campus.

His research relies on the development of increasing levels of AI in computer systems, and then using that computing power to contain and employ concepts of morality, expressed as algorithms in programming language. What humans can choose through free will, and have developed through experience, philosophy and religious strictures, machines will have to grasp through mathematics and logic.

While the physical aspects and appearance of lifelike robots are now very possible, one of the biggest challenges facing AI today is creating a robot that can react, empathize and improvise when dealing with humans and its other surroundings.

The challenge is how to write computer code that can make "story-based entertainment and, for that matter, art engaging, and at the same time new and improvisational," said Bringsjord. "'Macbeth' is great, yes; but the witches give us the same ghoulish deal in every run, and Lady Macbeth has her way with her man in every run as well."

Such a repetitive, static experience at a robotic theme park would soon become tiresome to a human guest. "'Westworld' is based on the dream of allowing humans to enter stories in immersive environments in which new narrative is created on the fly by AIs themselves, drawing humans in," he said.

Currently, there is no known method to impart such improvisational ability to AI, as is possessed by human actors and authors. Some theme parks with robotic attractions have tried to work around this issue by also deploying human actors, so that some characters' reactions to visitors can be spontaneous, he said.

bnearing@timesunion.com 518-454-5094 @Bnearing10

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RPI artificial intelligence expert looks at Westworld - Albany Times Union

Google's DeepMind is one of the most famous examples of artificial intelligence.

Last year it famously defeated the world's best Go player at the tricky Chinese board game. It's also being used at Moorfields Eye Hospital to recognise eye diseases from scans.

But new research shows that DeepMind reacts to social situations in a similar way to a human. Notably, it started to act in an "aggressive manner" when put under pressure.

Google's computer scientists ran 40 million different turns of Gathering a fruit-gathering video game that asked two different DeepMind participants to compete against each other to collect the most apples.

When there were enough apples to share, the two computer combatants were fine - efficiently collecting the virtual fruit. But as soon as the resources became scarce, the two agents became aggressive and tried to knock each other out of the game and steal the apples.

The video below shows the process - with the DeepMind "gamers" represented in red and blue while the apples are green. The laser beams are yellow - and while the combatants don't get any reward for a hit, it does knock the opponent out of the game for a set period of time.

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"We characterize how learned behavior in each domain changes as a function of environmental factors including resource abundance," the team wrote in a paper explaining their results.

"Our experiments show how conflict can emerge from competition over shared resources and shed light on how the sequential nature of real world social dilemmas affects cooperation.

"We noted that the policies learned in environments with low abundance or high conflict-cost were highly aggressive while the policies learned with high abundance or low conflict cost were less aggressive. That is, the Gathering game predicts that conflict may emerge from competition for scarce resources, but is less likely to emerge when resources are plentiful."

The results are interesting in that they show computers are able to adapt to situations and modify their behaviour accordingly.

Many experts have warned of the dangers of true artificial intelligence in machines. Elon Musk singled out DeepMind in particular as one to keep an eye on.

"The pace of progress in artificial intelligence (I'm not referring to narrow AI) is incredibly fast. Unless you have direct exposure to groups like DeepMind, you have no idea how fast it is growing at a pace close to exponential," he wrote in 2014.

"I am not alone in thinking we should be worried."

"The leading AI companies have taken great steps to ensure safety. They recognize the danger, but believe that they can shape and control the digital superintelligences and prevent bad ones from escaping into the Internet. That remains to be seen..."

So while Google's super-smart computers may be content to beat each other up in a race to collect virtual apples, the prospects for the future could be worrying. Especially if your name's Sarah Connor.

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Google's DeepMind artificial intelligence becomes 'highly aggressive' when stressed. Skynet, anyone? - Mirror.co.uk

Science and tech

DeepMind's AI recently acted aggressively when threatened in a computer game.

Click through to see the top science and tech predictions for 2017

DeepMind's AI recently acted aggressively when threatened in a computer game.

Click through to see the top science and tech predictions for 2017

LIST: The biggest science and tech predictions for 2017

The first baby with three parents will be born

A new fertility technique allows doctors to replace defective DNA found within a mother's egg with the DNA from another female donor. The result is a baby born with the DNA of two mothers. The first three-parent baby may potentially be born around Christmas of 2017.

Source: The Telegraph

LIST: The biggest science and tech predictions for 2017

The first baby with three parents will be born

A new fertility technique allows doctors to replace defective DNA found within a mother's egg with the DNA

Scientists will discover the truth behind "dark matter"

Dark matter, a mysterious type of matter that makes up a little more than a quarter of the universe, is several experiments away from being detected.Dr. Katherine Freese, an expert in the field of dark matter, says 2017 may be the year "the 80-year-old dark matter puzzle will finally be solved."

Source: NBC

Scientists will discover the truth behind "dark matter"

Dark matter, a mysterious type of matter that makes up a little more than a quarter of the universe, is several experiments away from being

The first "artificial pancreas" for people withtype 1 diabetes will hit the market

The "MiniMed 670G," an FDA-approved artificial pancreas, will monitor blood sugar and deliver insulin doses. It is set to be available by Spring 2017.

Source: CBS News

The first "artificial pancreas" for people withtype 1 diabetes will hit the market

The "MiniMed 670G," an FDA-approved artificial pancreas, will monitor blood sugar and deliver insulin doses. It is set to be

Genetically modified mosquitoes might be released to fight Zika in the U.S.

A company that creates genetically modified mosquitoes that have their offspring die when they mate with wild female mosquitos, may begin trials in Florida in 2017.

Source: NPR

Genetically modified mosquitoes might be released to fight Zika in the U.S.

A company that creates genetically modified mosquitoes that have their offspring die when they mate with wild female mosquitos, may

Costumer service will depend on social media more

"Social messaging channels such as Facebook Messenger and Twitter Direct Message are becoming increasingly important tools for brand engagement and customer service resolution. Big brands are already seeing a major shift from public posts to private messages."

Source: Inc

Costumer service will depend on social media more

"Social messaging channels such as Facebook Messenger and Twitter Direct Message are becoming increasingly important tools for brand engagement and customer

The first "human head transplant" may occur

Sergio Canavero, an Italian neuroscientist, is preparing to perform the first human head transplant. The surgery is slated for 2017.

Source: CBS News

The first "human head transplant" may occur

Sergio Canavero, an Italian neuroscientist, is preparing to perform the first human head transplant. The surgery is slated for 2017.

Source: CBS News

A new space race

Buzz Aldrin, the second human on the moon, told NBC and Americans to "get ready for intense competition in the development of human spaceflight systems." He said the space race will lead to "technical and business innovations we don't yet appreciate or understand."

Source: NBC

A new space race

Buzz Aldrin, the second human on the moon, told NBC and Americans to "get ready for intense competition in the development of human spaceflight systems." He said the space race will lead to

Robot chefs will cook our food

Moley Robotics, a company that is building a robot chef capable of cooking 2,000 recipes, will begin selling in early 2017.

Source: Time

Robot chefs will cook our food

Moley Robotics, a company that is building a robot chef capable of cooking 2,000 recipes, will begin selling in early 2017.

Source: Time

For the first time in a century, the U.S. will experience a "total solar eclipse."

Source: Wall Street Journal

For the first time in a century, the U.S. will experience a "total solar eclipse."

Source: Wall Street Journal

The Cassini spacecraft's 20-year mission will come to an end

Since arriving at Saturn in 2004, Cassini has provided scientists with valuable data and images. NASA said the Cassini mission will end on September 15, 2017, when the spacecraft plunges into Saturn's atmosphere to burn.

Source: NASA

The Cassini spacecraft's 20-year mission will come to an end

Since arriving at Saturn in 2004, Cassini has provided scientists with valuable data and images. NASA said the Cassini mission will end on September

2017 will be less hot than 2016

While 2017 is still expected to be one of the hottest years on record because of climate change, it won't be as hot as 2016 due to the absence ofEl Nio and the warming conditions it creates. Forecasters predict a 1.13F drop in average temperatures.

Source: Climatecentral.org

2017 will be less hot than 2016

While 2017 is still expected to be one of the hottest years on record because of climate change, it won't be as hot as 2016 due to the absence ofEl Nio and the warming

Hackers will useartificial intelligence

James R. Clapper, the director of National Intelligence, said artificial intelligence will make life easier for everyone, even hackers.

Source: New York Times

Hackers will useartificial intelligence

James R. Clapper, the director of National Intelligence, said artificial intelligence will make life easier for everyone, even hackers.

Source: New York Times

The first HIV vaccine

"PRO 140," a drug currently undergoing trials, will have "expected commercialization in 2017.

Source: HIVequal.org

The first HIV vaccine

"PRO 140," a drug currently undergoing trials, will have "expected commercialization in 2017.

Source: HIVequal.org

More laptops will be able to double as tablets

"Its becoming increasingly difficult to innovate on a traditional clamshell laptop design. Consequently, PC makers are putting most of their attention on innovating around what the industry calls 2-in-1s, which feature a tablet-style design with an attachable keyboard."

Source: Time

More laptops will be able to double as tablets

"Its becoming increasingly difficult to innovate on a traditional clamshell laptop design. Consequently, PC makers are putting most of their attention on

China's lunar mission will bring back moon samples for the first time in 40 years

China has scheduled an unmanned moon sample-return mission, known as Chang'e 5, for 2017.

Source: Space.com

China's lunar mission will bring back moon samples for the first time in 40 years

China has scheduled an unmanned moon sample-return mission, known as Chang'e 5, for 2017.

Source: Space.com

Investments into artificial intelligence (AI) start ups will explode, but it might be a bust

"[Venture capitalist] will swarm startups in these spaces like sharks smelling chum in the water... Most of these startups will crash and burn without ever turning a profit. That said, a select few will drive truly deep innovation, and in doing so, reshape the world."

Source:Inc

Investments into artificial intelligence (AI) start ups will explode, but it might be a bust

"[Venture capitalist] will swarm startups in these spaces like sharks smelling chum in the water... Most of these

The first (real) images of the Milk Way's super-massive black hole

A network of nine telescopes around the globe are adding the finishing touches to their project: In early 2017, the telescopes will snap the first images ofSagittarius A*, the black hole at the center of the Milky Way.

Source: BBC

The first (real) images of the Milk Way's super-massive black hole

A network of nine telescopes around the globe are adding the finishing touches to their project: In early 2017, the telescopes will snap the

Terrifyingly, Google's Artificial Intelligence acts aggressive when cornered

Being a sore loser is not an admired quality; especially when it's a sophisticated piece of artificial intelligence that's lashing out.

Researchers at DeepMind, Google's artificial intelligence lab, recently performed a number of tests by having its most complex AI play a series of a games with a version of itself.

In the first game, two AI agents, one red and one blue, scramble to see who can collect the most apples, or green squares.

Link:

Terrifyingly, Google's Artificial Intelligence acts aggressive when cornered - Chron.com