One of the main arguments the Israeli historian Yuval Noah Harari makes in Sapiens: A Brief History of Humankind is that mankind differs from other species because we can cooperate flexibly in large numbers, united in cause and spirit not by anything real, but by the fictions of our collective imagination. Examples of these fictions include gods, nations, money, and human … [Read more...] about Five Distractions For Artificial Intelligence
Society
5 Secrets Your Tweets Reveal About You
Big data firms like Cambridge Analytica made headlines when they claimed to sway Election 2016 results by deducing personality traits from social media profiles and third-party data firms and serving highly manipulative ads to sway public opinion. Leveraging a trove of data points - such as your shopping habits, magazine subscriptions, Facebook likes, and up to 5000 other … [Read more...] about 5 Secrets Your Tweets Reveal About You
The Opportunities & Challenges of AI In Healthcare
When we asked dozens of venture capitalists where they see the most potential for applied artificial intelligence, they unanimously agreed on healthcare. Technology has already been used to incrementally improve patient medical records, care delivery, diagnostic accuracy, and drug development, but with A.I. we could achieve exponential breakthroughs. Deep learning first … [Read more...] about The Opportunities & Challenges of AI In Healthcare
6 Historic Jobs Machines Have Taken Over
Technology disrupts the economy, alters everyone’s daily routine, and creates unexpected patterns of behavior. Some changes would have been unimaginable only a few years before. No one before 2006 had to worry about a nasty tweet (what’s a tweet?), much less agonize on how to bit back with a curt but witty comeback. Rapid advances in automation technology and … [Read more...] about 6 Historic Jobs Machines Have Taken Over
Can Bots Manipulate Public Opinion?
Crazy things happen when armies of chatbots execute algorithms designed to re-program your mind. Truth and reason lose their importance, internet trolls take on epic proportions, people get sucked into mindless discourse. Public opinion gets skewed, elections get rigged, and you wonder who’s really programming who. Consider this: AI has already beaten the very best … [Read more...] about Can Bots Manipulate Public Opinion?
How Realistic Chatbots Dupe Humans
We humans are narcissistic. We create in our own image, project human qualities on animals and inanimate objects, and fall head-over-heels with the ones that best reflect our humanity back to ourselves. From the classical tale of Pygmalion, a sculptor who falls in love with a statue, to the futurist film Ex Machina where an intelligent robot successfully tricks an entire … [Read more...] about How Realistic Chatbots Dupe Humans
5 Ways Humanitarian Bots Can Save The World
Fifteen year old Sarafina, a female student in the capital city of Liberia, had a distressing problem at school: Her math teacher refused to give her a report card unless she had sex with him. Every day at school, he would request sexual favors and touch her inappropriately. Embarrassed, Sarafina kept the issue hidden from everyone, even her parents, until her … [Read more...] about 5 Ways Humanitarian Bots Can Save The World
Conversational Bots Transform How You Learn Languages
Language enables us to understand a message, articulate a plan, and get things done. We need our words to order espresso from the corner cafe, cheer up a friend who’s having a bad day, and quip back against a colleague’s snarky comments. But we can do all of that only if we speak the same language as the person we are communicating with. Otherwise, far worse things … [Read more...] about Conversational Bots Transform How You Learn Languages
50 Innovative Ways Brands Use Chatbots
Chatbots & messaging are the future of marketing. MIT’s ELIZA pioneered the revolution in the 1960s and Siri took the trend mainstream in 2011. Now chatbots are used by brands in every industry to go beyond passive advertisements and engage customers with interactive conversations. What are chatbots, exactly? A chatbot is a conversational computer program that customers … [Read more...] about 50 Innovative Ways Brands Use Chatbots
The Art Of Conversational Luxury
Conversational commerce is the buzz word du jour of Silicon Valley, Madison Avenue, and Wall Street, but the concept is as ancient as mankind. We have traded with each other since Homo Sapiens emerged as a species approximately 200,000 years ago. My harvest for your game. My loyalty for your protection. How were these exchanges conducted? By conversation. While spoken … [Read more...] about The Art Of Conversational Luxury