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21
Oct

Stanford AI Ethics Class Talk

Jerry Kaplan’s fascinating Stanford course on “Artificial Intelligence – Philosophy, Ethics, and Impact” will be discussing Steve Omohundro’s paper “Autonomous Technology and the Greater Human Good” on Oct. 23, 2014 and Steve will present to the class on Oct. 28.

Here are the slides as a pdf file.

9
Oct

Video of Xerox PARC Forum talk on “AI and Robotics at an Inflection Point”

On September 18, 2014, Steve Omohundro did the Xerox PARC Forum presentation on “AI and Robotics at an Inflection Point”. There was a great turnout with about 300 people attending and lots of excellent questions and discussion afterwards. The talk was filmed and edited and was just uploaded to the PARC site:
One of the goals was to present both the exciting possibilities of these technologies and the potential dangers while describing concrete steps we can take today to ensure a positive outcome. Participants have said they came away with that perspective.
5
Oct

Person of Interest DVD: Discussion of the Future of AI

I was thrilled to discuss the future of AI with Jonathan Nolan and Greg Plageman, the creator and producer of the excellent TV show “Person of Interest”. The discussion is a special feature on the Season 3 DVD:

http://www.amazon.com/Person-Interest-Season-Jim-Caviezel/dp/B00FEVZH8K/ref=pd_bxgy_mov_text_z

and a short clip is available here:

http://www.cbs.com/shows/person_of_interest/video/BFB503C1-948C-717B-A064-1904D8294578/person-of-interest-the-future-of-a-i-/

The show beautifully explores a number of important ethical issues regarding privacy, security, and AI. The third season and the coming fourth season focus on the consequences of intelligent systems developing agency and coming into conflict with one another.

5
Oct

Comment for Defense One on Navy Autonomous Swarmboats

http://www.defenseone.com/technology/2014/10/inside-navys-secret-swarm-robot-experiment/95813/

The Office of Naval Research just announced the demonstration of a highly autonomous swarm of 13 guard boats to defend a larger ship. We commented on this development for Defense One:

“Other AI experts take a more nuanced view. Building more autonomy into weaponized robotics can be dangerous, according to computer scientist and entrepreneur Steven Omohundro. But the dangers can be mitigated through proper design.

“There is a competition to develop systems which are faster, smarter and more unpredictable than an adversary’s. As this puts pressure toward more autonomous decision-making, it will be critical to ensure that these systems behave in alignment with our ethical principles. The security of these systems is also of critical importance because hackers, criminals, or enemies who take control of autonomous attack systems could wreak enormous havoc,” said Omohundro.”