The Future of Employment in the Age of Artificial Intelligence
Faculty Director Gary Marchant will today give a lecture at the Chautauqua Institution, followed by a three day Master Course, on the future of artificial intelligence (AI) and work. His talk – (When) Will a Robot Steal Your Job? – addresses concerns about AI in the workforce and what should be done about it. Artificial intelligence and advanced […]
Worldwide Web Watch
On the lighter side of things today, how about an article titled AI engineer builds and marries his robot wife? The wedding ceremony was, apparently, informal. First, however, the wife will have to learn how to walk (what were the engineer’s priorities?). Then she is scheduled to learn how to do “some household chores.”
Tuesday Triple Trivia for March 10, 2015
3 Questions. 3 Hints. 3 Answers. Every Tuesday. 1. What is being touted as the biggest future job creator? Hint: Answer: according to at least one writer, John Tamny, “[r]obots will be the biggest job creators in history.” He claims that “abundant job creation is always and everywhere the happy result of technological advances.” Given […]
Triple Trivia Tuesday for February 10, 2015
3 Questions. 3 Hints. 3 Answers. Every Tuesday. 1. Bad resume? What resume? Lazy worker? Not a people player? Never worked a day in your life? Do not fear, if you need a job, go here: Hint: Answer: buyer (as in employer) beware: employee background checks require more than they used to. While they attempt […]
Robot Criminality & Morality?
Two news stories with a common theme arrived on the scene this weekend. The first highlights a bot programmed for online shopping who irresponsibly purchased a handful of ecstasy pills and a falsified Hungarian passport. While the question of who should be held accountable when robots break the law is not novel, this case, not […]
Wednesday Web Watch for September 3, 2014
Don’t discount the value and need for human workers in years to come, says David Hummels, an economics professor at Purdue University. According to Hummels, in an article by Steve Talley, published in R&D, humans possess unique advantages that robots may not be able to mirror as a result of benefits associated with human evolution […]
Tuesday Triple Trivia Tease for February 4, 2014
3 Questions. 3 Hints. 3 Answers. Every Tuesday. 1. What extraordinary approach is being taken by one pharmaceutical company to help the ordinary? Hint: Answer: UCB, a Belgian company has established a contest to locate physically “gifted” people to assist scientists with the development of medicines for ordinary people. UCB hopes to identify and study […]
Rewiring Legal Rights?
The term most commonly used to define a robot is “machine.” That puts a robot in the same category as a smartphone, remote control, vacuum, or a drill. Or does it? Robots are currently being developed with all kinds of bells & whistles, making them more and more human-like. However, being human-like is not the same as […]
Tuesday Triple Trivia Tease for November 19, 2013
3 questions. 3 hints. 3 answers. Every Tuesday. Question: what technology is changing the way physicians deliver medical services? Hint: “Beam me up, Scotty!” Answer: telepresence robots, otherwise described as mobile video-conferencing machines, allow a doctor to attend a patient’s bedside despite the two being hundreds of miles apart. The telemedicine robots permit doctors to “beam” into […]
For The Love of Robots
A human life lost in combat is usually grieved, memorialized and recognized – as it should be, for service provided to a country and its people. However, what if what is lost in battle is not a sentient being, rather, an entity composed of things like sensors, hardware, solenoids, actuators, wiring, webcams, synthetic brains, hexapods, […]