Tag: technology

What Artificial Intelligence May Mean For All of Us

Physicist Stephen Hawking forecasts accelerating development of artificial intelligence (AI) that could potentially destroy us all. He describes it as like hearing from an alien species that it will reach Earth in several decades and the Earth leaders replying, “OK. Call us when you get here. We’ll leave the lights on.” http://www.theregister.co.uk/2014/05/02/stephen_hawking_ai/

Most of us have no access to or idea about how developing AI and related systems have advanced and seem to be accelerating in their integration of divergent technologies. The few voices for generalists who ponder that larger, existential view rarely speak in ways that the majority can comprehend or care about, say analysts at HamiltonFinanceServices.com. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philosophy_of_artificial_intelligence

What do others of those big picture AI thinkers say? How should all of us prepare for coming AI? Is keeping our figurative head down and watching each step not wise? Or, is it inescapable? How should we think, communicate, and act better to prepare for coming AI? What do you think?

ICANN Foundation Foments Future Flux

NSA cyber spying fallout that pushed China and Russia proposals to take over Internet foundations now performed through the US Department of Commerce’s contract with the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN) has fomented further discussion. Public Broadcasting Services (PBS) news anchor Judy Woodward interviewed present and former ICANN leaders to discuss coming changes. http://www.pbs.org/newshour/bb/who-should-oversee-the-web/

HFS initiated this conversation in a recent article, and now attention to the subject has reached higher levels. From the New York Times discussion to the Washington Post arguments, across the US pundits have raised an alarm. This week Woodward started with a quote from former US president, Bill Clinton, who opines predictably that other governments want to gag the Internet, and quickly moved to more substantive discussions from the current and the former leaders of ICANN, Fadi Chehade and Vint Cerf, along with Randolph May, founder of a free-market-oriented think tank called the Free State Foundation. In essence, they repeated the HFS report from last week, that China, Russia, and Iran want to take control of the Internet through a UN committee, and the US resists that plan, but from a weakened position as the NSA spy scandal has unfolded and continues to unfold. ICANN itself has kept the conversation alive through its website at this link: http://www.icann.org/en/news/announcements/announcement-11jan14-en.htm

Numerous other sites have offered additional opinions, but the central point remains that no one knows the future of the Internet except that the US shot itself in the foot with its NSA scandal, which will probably cause the Internet to change…somehow. No one has any clear thoughts about just how to make the Internet better for everyone else.

What do you think?

A. I. Is Coming, Like it or Not

Can ICANN keep control?