MESSAGE
DATE | 2009-07-26 |
FROM | swd
|
SUBJECT | RE: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] Building a Better Mouse Trap
|
From lestw-hangout-at-mrbrklyn.com Sun Jul 26 14:38:12 2009 Received: from www2.mrbrklyn.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by www2.mrbrklyn.com (8.13.1/8.13.1/SuSE Linux 0.7) with ESMTP id n6QIcA9o020066 for ; Sun, 26 Jul 2009 14:38:12 -0400 Received: (from majordomo-at-localhost) by www2.mrbrklyn.com (8.13.1/8.13.1/Submit) id n6QIc9jO020065 for hangout-outgoings; Sun, 26 Jul 2009 14:38:09 -0400 X-Authentication-Warning: www2.mrbrklyn.com: majordomo set sender to lestw-hangout-at-nylxs.com using -f Received: from mta5.srv.hcvlny.cv.net (mta5.srv.hcvlny.cv.net [167.206.4.200]) by www2.mrbrklyn.com (8.13.1/8.13.1/SuSE Linux 0.7) with ESMTP id n6QIc75p020062 for ; Sun, 26 Jul 2009 14:38:09 -0400 Received: from DerrickPC (ool-18b90ae9.dyn.optonline.net [24.185.10.233]) by mta5.srv.hcvlny.cv.net (Sun Java System Messaging Server 6.2-8.04 (built Feb 28 2007)) with ESMTP id <0KNE00AVTJRERR60-at-mta5.srv.hcvlny.cv.net> for hangout-at-mrbrklyn.com; Sun, 26 Jul 2009 14:38:04 -0400 (EDT) Date: Sun, 26 Jul 2009 14:37:32 -0400 From: swd Subject: RE: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] Building a Better Mouse Trap In-reply-to: To: hangout-at-mrbrklyn.com Message-id: MIME-version: 1.0 X-MIMEOLE: Produced By Microsoft MimeOLE V6.0.6001.18049 X-Mailer: Microsoft Office Outlook 11 Content-type: multipart/alternative; boundary="Boundary_(ID_syTkxvXQT2UwNLHmKduM6w)" Thread-index: AcoN7RodXGIfqxiaQ+WV3Eps8C5jogAMv1QA References: <20090724232909.GA12545-at-panix.com> <20090726030031.GA10490-at-panix.com> Sender: lestw-hangout-at-mrbrklyn.com Precedence: bulk Reply-To: hangout-at-mrbrklyn.com
This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
--Boundary_(ID_syTkxvXQT2UwNLHmKduM6w) Content-type: text/plain; charset=windows-1257 Content-transfer-encoding: quoted-printable
Sunday New York Times
=20
_____ =20
From: lestw-hangout-at-mrbrklyn.com [mailto:lestw-hangout-at-mrbrklyn.com] On Behalf Of Simon Fondrie-Teitler Sent: Sunday, July 26, 2009 8:23 AM To: hangout-at-mrbrklyn.com Subject: Re: [NYLXS - HANGOUT] Building a Better Mouse Trap
=20
Out of curiosity, what is the source for this? Thanks.=20 -------------------------------------------------- Simon Fondrie-Teitler --------------------------------------------------
On Sat, Jul 25, 2009 at 11:00 PM, Ruben Safir = wrote:
uly 26, 2009 Scientists Worry Machines May Outsmart Man By JOHN MARKOFF
A robot that can open doors and find electrical outlets to recharge itself. Computer viruses that no one can stop. Predator drones, which, though still controlled remotely by humans, come close to a machine that can kill autonomously.
Impressed and alarmed by advances in artificial intelligence, a group of computer scientists is debating whether there should be limits on research that might lead to loss of human control over computer-based systems that carry a growing share of society=E2s workload, from waging war to chatting with customers on the phone.
Their concern is that further advances could create profound social disruptions and even have dangerous consequences.
As examples, the scientists pointed to a number of technologies as diverse as experimental medical systems that interact with patients to simulate empathy, and computer worms and viruses that defy extermination and could thus be said to have reached a =E2cockroach=E2 stage of machine intelligence.
While the computer scientists agreed that we are a long way from Hal, the computer that took over the spaceship in =E22001: A Space Odyssey,=E2 they said there was legitimate concern that technological progress would transform the work force by destroying a widening range of jobs, as well as force humans to learn to live with machines that increasingly copy human behaviors.
The researchers =E2 leading computer scientists, artificial intelligence researchers and roboticists who met at the Asilomar Conference Grounds on Monterey Bay in California =E2 generally discounted the possibility of highly centralized superintelligences and the idea that intelligence might spring spontaneously from the Internet. But they agreed that robots that can kill autonomously are either already here or will be soon.
They focused particular attention on the specter that criminals could exploit artificial intelligence systems as soon as they were developed. What could a criminal do with a speech synthesis system that could masquerade as a human being? What happens if artificial intelligence technology is used to mine personal information from smart phones?
The researchers also discussed possible threats to human jobs, like self-driving cars, software-based personal assistants and service robots in the home. Just last month, a service robot developed by Willow Garage in Silicon Valley proved it could navigate the real world.
A report from the conference, which took place in private on Feb. 25, is to be issued later this year. Some attendees discussed the meeting for the first time with other scientists this month and in interviews.
The conference was organized by the Association for the Advancement of Artificial Intelligence, and in choosing Asilomar for the discussions, the group purposefully evoked a landmark event in the history of science. In 1975, the world=E2s leading biologists also met at Asilomar to discuss the new ability to reshape life by swapping genetic material among organisms. Concerned about possible biohazards and ethical questions, scientists had halted certain experiments. The conference led to guidelines for recombinant DNA research, enabling experimentation to continue.
The meeting on the future of artificial intelligence was organized by Eric Horvitz, a Microsoft researcher who is now president of the association.
Dr. Horvitz said he believed computer scientists must respond to the notions of superintelligent machines and artificial intelligence systems run amok.
The idea of an =E2intelligence explosion=E2 in which smart machines would design even more intelligent machines was proposed by the mathematician I. J. Good in 1965. Later, in lectures and science fiction novels, the computer scientist Vernor Vinge popularized the notion of a moment when humans will create smarter-than-human machines, causing such rapid change that the =E2human era will be ended.=E2 He called this shift the Singularity.
This vision, embraced in movies and literature, is seen as plausible and unnerving by some scientists like William Joy, co-founder of Sun Microsystems. Other technologists, notably Raymond Kurzweil, have extolled the coming of ultrasmart machines, saying they will offer huge advances in life extension and wealth creation.
=E2Something new has taken place in the past five to eight years,=E2 Dr. Horvitz said. =E2Technologists are replacing religion, and their ideas are resonating in some ways with the same idea of the Rapture.=E2
The Kurzweil version of technological utopia has captured imaginations in Silicon Valley. This summer an organization called the Singularity University began offering courses to prepare a =E2cadre=E2 to shape the advances and help society cope with the ramifications.
=E2My sense was that sooner or later we would have to make some sort of statement or assessment, given the rising voice of the technorati and people very concerned about the rise of intelligent machines,=E2 Dr. Horvitz said.
The A.A.A.I. report will try to assess the possibility of =E2the loss of human control of computer-based intelligences.=E2 It will also grapple, Dr. Horvitz said, with socioeconomic, legal and ethical issues, as well as probable changes in human-computer relationships. How would it be, for example, to relate to a machine that is as intelligent as your spouse?
Dr. Horvitz said the panel was looking for ways to guide research so that technology improved society rather than moved it toward a technological catastrophe. Some research might, for instance, be conducted in a high-security laboratory.
The meeting on artificial intelligence could be pivotal to the future of the field. Paul Berg, who was the organizer of the 1975 Asilomar meeting and received a Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1980, said it was important for scientific communities to engage the public before alarm and opposition becomes unshakable.
=E2If you wait too long and the sides become entrenched like with G.M.O.,=E2 he said, referring to genetically modified foods, =E2then it is very difficult. It=E2s too complex, and people talk right past each other.=E2
Tom Mitchell, a professor of artificial intelligence and machine learning at Carnegie Mellon University, said the February meeting had changed his thinking. =E2I went in very optimistic about the future of A.I. and thinking that Bill Joy and Ray Kurzweil were far off in their predictions,=E2 he said. But, he added, =E2The meeting made me want to be more outspoken about these issues and in particular be outspoken about the vast amounts of data collected about our personal lives.=E2
Despite his concerns, Dr. Horvitz said he was hopeful that artificial intelligence research would benefit humans, and perhaps even compensate for human failings. He recently demonstrated a voice-based system that he designed to ask patients about their symptoms and to respond with empathy. When a mother said her child was having diarrhea, the face on the screen said, =E2Oh no, sorry to hear that.=E2
A physician told him afterward that it was wonderful that the system responded to human emotion. =E2That=E2s a great idea,=E2 Dr. Horvitz = said he was told. =E2I have no time for that.=E2
Ken Conley/Willow Garage
=20
--Boundary_(ID_syTkxvXQT2UwNLHmKduM6w) Content-type: text/html; charset=windows-1257 Content-transfer-encoding: quoted-printable
charset=3Dwindows-1257"> xmlns:o=3D"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" = xmlns:w=3D"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:word" = xmlns:st1=3D"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" = xmlns=3D"http://www.w3.org/TR/REC-html40">
namespaceuri=3D"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" = name=3D"State"/> namespaceuri=3D"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name=3D"PlaceType"/> namespaceuri=3D"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name=3D"PlaceName"/> namespaceuri=3D"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name=3D"place"/> namespaceuri=3D"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" name=3D"PersonName"/>
style=3D'font-size: 10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'>Sunday New York = Times style=3D'font-size: 10.0pt;font-family:Arial;color:navy'> size=3D3 face=3D"Times New Roman">
style=3D'font-size:10.0pt; font-family:Tahoma;font-weight:bold'>From:size=3D2 face=3DTahoma> = lestw-w:st=3D"on">hangout-at-mrbrklyn.com = [mailto:lestw-w:st=3D"on">hangout-at-mrbrklyn.com] style=3D'font-weight: bold'>On Behalf Of Simon Fondrie-Teitler
Sent: Sunday, July 26, = 2009 8:23 AM
To: w:st=3D"on">hangout-at-mrbrklyn.com
Subject: Re: [NYLXS - = HANGOUT] Building a Better Mouse Trap style=3D'font-size: 12.0pt'> face=3D"Times New Roman">Out of = curiosity, what is the source for this? Thanks.
--------------------------------------------------
Simon Fondrie-Teitler
--------------------------------------------------
style=3D'font-size: 12.0pt'>On Sat, Jul 25, 2009 at 11:00 PM, Ruben Safir <href=3D"mailto:mrbrklyn-at-panix.com">mrbrklyn-at-panix.com> = wrote: style=3D'font-size: 12.0pt'>uly 26, 2009 Scientists Worry Machines May Outsmart Man By = JOHN
MARKOFF
A robot that can open doors and find electrical outlets to recharge
itself. Computer viruses that no one can stop. Predator drones,
which, though still controlled remotely by humans, come close to
a machine that can kill autonomously.
Impressed and alarmed by advances in artificial intelligence, a
group of computer scientists is debating whether there should be
limits on research that might lead to loss of human control over
computer-based systems that carry a growing share of society=E2s
workload, from waging war to chatting with customers on the phone.
Their concern is that further advances could create profound social
disruptions and even have dangerous consequences.
As examples, the scientists pointed to a number of technologies as
diverse as experimental medical systems that interact with patients
to simulate empathy, and computer worms and viruses that defy
extermination and could thus be said to have reached a = =E2cockroach=E2
stage of machine intelligence.
While the computer scientists agreed that we are a long way from
Hal, the computer that took over the spaceship in =E22001: A Space
Odyssey,=E2 they said there was legitimate concern that = technological
progress would transform the work force by destroying a widening
range of jobs, as well as force humans to learn to live with = machines
that increasingly copy human behaviors.
The researchers =E2 leading computer scientists, artificial = intelligence
researchers and roboticists who met at the Asilomar Conference
Grounds on Monterey = w:st=3D"on">Bay in w:st=3D"on">California =E2 generally discounted the
possibility of highly centralized superintelligences and the idea
that intelligence might spring spontaneously from the Internet.
But they agreed that robots that can kill autonomously are either
already here or will be soon.
They focused particular attention on the specter that criminals
could exploit artificial intelligence systems as soon as they were
developed. What could a criminal do with a speech synthesis system
that could masquerade as a human being? What happens if artificial
intelligence technology is used to mine personal information from
smart phones?
The researchers also discussed possible threats to human jobs, like
self-driving cars, software-based personal assistants and service
robots in the home. Just last month, a service robot developed by
Willow Garage in Silicon Valley = proved it could navigate the real
world.
A report from the conference, which took place in private on Feb.
25, is to be issued later this year. Some attendees discussed the
meeting for the first time with other scientists this month and in
interviews.
The conference was organized by the Association for the Advancement
of Artificial Intelligence, and in choosing Asilomar for the
discussions, the group purposefully evoked a landmark event in the
history of science. In 1975, the world=E2s leading biologists also
met at Asilomar to discuss the new ability to reshape life by
swapping genetic material among organisms. Concerned about possible
biohazards and ethical questions, scientists had halted certain
experiments. The conference led to guidelines for recombinant DNA
research, enabling experimentation to continue.
The meeting on the future of artificial intelligence was organized
by Eric Horvitz, a Microsoft researcher who is now president of
the association.
Dr. Horvitz said he believed computer scientists must respond to
the notions of superintelligent machines and artificial intelligence
systems run amok.
The idea of an =E2intelligence explosion=E2 in which smart machines
would design even more intelligent machines was proposed by the
mathematician I. J. Good in 1965. Later, in lectures and science
fiction novels, the computer scientist Vernor Vinge popularized
the notion of a moment when humans will create smarter-than-human
machines, causing such rapid change that the =E2human era will be
ended.=E2 He called this shift the Singularity.
This vision, embraced in movies and literature, is seen as plausible
and unnerving by some scientists like William Joy, co-founder of
Sun Microsystems. Other technologists, notably Raymond Kurzweil,
have extolled the coming of ultrasmart machines, saying they will
offer huge advances in life extension and wealth creation.
=E2Something new has taken place in the past five to eight years,=E2
Dr. Horvitz said. =E2Technologists are replacing religion, and their
ideas are resonating in some ways with the same idea of the = Rapture.=E2
The Kurzweil version of technological utopia has captured = imaginations
in Silicon Valley. This summer an = organization called the Singularity
University began offering courses to prepare a =E2cadre=E2 to shape
the advances and help society cope with the ramifications.
=E2My sense was that sooner or later we would have to make some sort
of statement or assessment, given the rising voice of the technorati
and people very concerned about the rise of intelligent machines,=E2
Dr. Horvitz said.
The A.A.A.I. report will try to assess the possibility of =E2the = loss
of human control of computer-based intelligences.=E2 It will also
grapple, Dr. Horvitz said, with socioeconomic, legal and ethical
issues, as well as probable changes in human-computer relationships.
How would it be, for example, to relate to a machine that is as
intelligent as your spouse?
Dr. Horvitz said the panel was looking for ways to guide research
so that technology improved society rather than moved it toward a
technological catastrophe. Some research might, for instance, be
conducted in a high-security laboratory.
The meeting on artificial intelligence could be pivotal to the
future of the field. Paul Berg, who was the organizer of the 1975
Asilomar meeting and received a Nobel Prize for chemistry in 1980,
said it was important for scientific communities to engage the
public before alarm and opposition becomes unshakable.
=E2If you wait too long and the sides become entrenched like with
G.M.O.,=E2 he said, referring to genetically modified foods, =E2then
it is very difficult. It=E2s too complex, and people talk right past
each other.=E2
Tom Mitchell, a professor of artificial intelligence and machine
learning at w:st=3D"on">Carnegie Mellon w:st=3D"on">University, said the February meeting
had changed his thinking. =E2I went in very optimistic about the
future of A.I. and thinking that Bill Joy and Ray Kurzweil were
far off in their predictions,=E2 he said. But, he added, =E2The = meeting
made me want to be more outspoken about these issues and in = particular
be outspoken about the vast amounts of data collected about our
personal lives.=E2
Despite his concerns, Dr. Horvitz said he was hopeful that = artificial
intelligence research would benefit humans, and perhaps even
compensate for human failings. He recently demonstrated a = voice-based
system that he designed to ask patients about their symptoms and
to respond with empathy. When a mother said her child was having
diarrhea, the face on the screen said, =E2Oh no, sorry to hear = that.=E2
A physician told him afterward that it was wonderful that the system
responded to human emotion. =E2That=E2s a great idea,=E2 Dr. Horvitz = said
he was told. =E2I have no time for that.=E2
Ken Conley/Willow Garage style=3D'font-size: 12.0pt'>
--Boundary_(ID_syTkxvXQT2UwNLHmKduM6w)--
|
|