Time and again, leading scientists, technologists, and philosophers have made spectacularly terrible guesses about the direction of innovation. Even Einstein was not immune, claiming, “There is not the slightest indication that nuclear energy will ever be obtainable,” just ten years before Enrico Fermi completed construction of the first fission reactor in Chicago. Shortly thereafter, the consensus switched to fears […] … learn more→

This past June, the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration announced a probe into Tesla’s autopilot software. Data gathered from 16 crashes raised concerns over the possibility that Tesla’s AI may be programmed to quit when a crash is imminent. This way, the car’s driver, not the manufacturer, would be legally liable at the moment of […] … learn more→

In his autobiography, Miles Davis complained that classical musicians were like robots. He spoke from experience – he’d studied classical music at Juilliard and recorded with classical musicians even after becoming a world-renowned jazz artist. As a music professor at the University of Florida, which is transforming itself into an “AI university,” I often think […] … learn more→

The ripple effect of AlphaGo’s triumph in 2016 has been growing ever since. The comprehensive defeat of world Go champion Lee Sedol by Google DeepMind’s artificial intelligence application signified that the promise of AI – first widely publicised by DeepBlue’s defeat of then world chess champion Garry Kasparov two decades earlier – was set to […] … learn more→

Technology arising out of artificial intelligence has untold potential to benefit humanity and to generate wealth and employment. It also offers exciting new ways to explore most academic disciplines. Moreover, if a technology company cannot learn from the innovative work done in higher education, it will probably fail to find a platform for sustainable growth. […] … learn more→

Imagine a world where humans co-existed with beings who, like us, had minds, thoughts, feelings, self-conscious awareness and the capacity to perform purposeful actions – but, unlike us, these beings had artificial mechanical bodies that could be switched on and off. That brave new world would throw up many issues as we came to terms with […] … learn more→

I have been doing research on intelligence for 30 years. Like most of my colleagues, I did not get involved in the field with the aim of producing technological objects, but because I have an interest in the the abstract nature of the notion of intelligence. I wanted to understand intelligence. That’s what science is: […] … learn more→

Just last year Google DeepMind’s AlphaGo took the world of Artificial Intelligence (AI) by storm, showing that a computer program could beat the world’s best human Go players. But in a demonstration of the feverish rate of progress in modern AI, details of a new milestone reached by an improved version called AlphaGo Zero were published this week in Nature. Using […] … learn more→

While some of my esteemed colleagues are heralding the imminent arrival of robot teachers, stating that current advances will bring “the greatest revolution in education since the printing press”, I have to disagree. This is not because I am a latent technophobe. Regent’s University London, for example, is currently investigating the very latest assistive technologies, including how […] … learn more→