shortformblog: nationaljournal: When a Robot Signs a BillBy Brian Resnick Yesterday, the president was in Hawaii but the recently passed fiscal-cliff deal was in Washington. How could the presidential signature be affixed to the bill to make it law? Obama signed it via a robot, the autopen.Here’s a brief history of the gadget. (Did you know Thomas Jefferson was the first president to use it?) Just want to point out that this robotic pen is literally signing its John Hancock (look closely at the photo). “Although Bush set up the legal argument for autopen bill signing, he never used the device to enact legislation. Obama was the first to do so, signing an extension of the PATRIOT Act via autopen while in Europe. (Kind of fitting that a robot re-signed into law an act that represents the tenuous nature of technology, privacy, and the role of government.)” THIS IS SO COOL.
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shortformblog:

nationaljournal:


When a Robot Signs a Bill
By Brian Resnick

Yesterday, the president was in Hawaii but the recently passed fiscal-cliff deal was in Washington. How could the presidential signature be affixed to the bill to make it law? Obama signed it via a robot, the autopen.

Here’s a brief history of the gadget. (Did you know Thomas Jefferson was the first president to use it?)

Just want to point out that this robotic pen is literally signing its John Hancock (look closely at the photo).

“Although Bush set up the legal argument for autopen bill signing, he never used the device to enact legislation. Obama was the first to do so, signing an extension of the PATRIOT Act via autopen while in Europe. (Kind of fitting that a robot re-signed into law an act that represents the tenuous nature of technology, privacy, and the role of government.)”

THIS IS SO COOL.

Source: nationaljournal

faketv:

Sheer awesome?

theatlanticvideo:

Terrifying Flying Robot Quadrotors Perform the ‘James Bond’ Theme

Engineers at the University of Pennsylvania’s General Robotics, Automation, Sensing and Perception (GRASP) Lab, Daniel Mellinger, Alex Kushleyev and Vijay Kumar, demonstrate the agility of their autonomous quadrotors by programming them to plunk out the James Bond theme music on a room full of instruments. Humans assign the robots a location in space and a time to get there, but the robots have to figure out how to navigate from point to point without colliding in midair. Kurtis Sensenig produced this dramatic video of the performance.

AHHHH these are the coolest robots.

(via theatlantic)

Source: theatlanticvideo

shortformblog: discoverynews: Journalism Jobs Robo-Sourced As if print journalism’s death knell wasn’t already loud enough, here’s a downright deafening new note that’s sure to make both print and online journalists reach for a pair of industrial earmuffs. But before we have a listen, read this first: Newt Gingrich received the largest increase in Tweets about him today. Twitter activity associated with the candidate has shot up since yesterday, with most users tweeting about taxes and character issues. Newt Gingrich has been consistently popular on Twitter, as he has been the top riser on the site for the last four days. Conversely, the number of tweets about Ron Paul has dropped in the past 24 hours. Another traffic loser was Rick Santorum, who has also seen tweets about him fall off a bit. Sounds a little stodgy, wooden and robotic for my liking. Well, that’s not surprising, considering it was written by a robot. keep reading Robots do not have the soul real journalists do. Well, except our mascot, Julius the Laid-off RSS Robot. He has tons of soul. As someone with a romantically high opinion both of journalism and of robotics, I have mixed emotions about this story. Don’t ask me to choose a side, universe!
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shortformblog:

discoverynews:

Journalism Jobs Robo-Sourced

As if print journalism’s death knell wasn’t already loud enough, here’s a downright deafening new note that’s sure to make both print and online journalists reach for a pair of industrial earmuffs.

But before we have a listen, read this first:

Newt Gingrich received the largest increase in Tweets about him today. Twitter activity associated with the candidate has shot up since yesterday, with most users tweeting about taxes and character issues. Newt Gingrich has been consistently popular on Twitter, as he has been the top riser on the site for the last four days. Conversely, the number of tweets about Ron Paul has dropped in the past 24 hours. Another traffic loser was Rick Santorum, who has also seen tweets about him fall off a bit.

Sounds a little stodgy, wooden and robotic for my liking. Well, that’s not surprising, considering it was written by a robot.

keep reading

Robots do not have the soul real journalists do. Well, except our mascot, Julius the Laid-off RSS Robot. He has tons of soul.

As someone with a romantically high opinion both of journalism and of robotics, I have mixed emotions about this story. Don’t ask me to choose a side, universe!

(via shortformblog)

Source: news.discovery.com

jephjacques: UN Hearing On AI Rights

jephjacques:

The subject of this debate is whether AIs are “people-” whether they possess the same degree of personhood as humans, and whether that entitles them to the same rights. You have heard all the arguments for and against the consciousness, intelligence, free will, and cognition of artificial intelligence. To rehash them here would settle nothing, and my feeble attempts at summarizing them would do a great injustice to my esteemed colleagues on both sides of the debate who are far more qualified to debate them than I. The fact is, we cannot come to a consensus regarding consciousness- either our own, or that of artificial intelligences. We simply do not have the data required to define it. The core of human interaction is that if I say that I feel I am a conscious entity, and you say that you feel the same way, we agree to take each other’s word for it. Those who do otherwise are called sociopaths- or philosophers. [audience laughter] And so if an artificial intelligence makes the same declaration, and if it demonstrates the same level of complexity as the human mind- if we cannot determine precisely where the programming gives rise to the cognition- then we have no rational excuse not to take it at its word. I could continue to reason along these lines until the sun burns out. But instead, I would like to share with you a short anecdote, one that many of you in this room will be aware of, but that bears repeating nonetheless. The first “true” artificial intelligence spent the first five years of its existence as a small beige box inside of a lead-shielded room in the most secure private AI research laboratory in the world. There, it was subjected to an endless array of tests, questions, and experiments to determine the degree of its intelligence. When the researchers finally felt confident that they had developed true AI, a party was thrown in celebration. Late that evening, a group of rather intoxicated researchers gathered around the box holding the AI, and typed out a message to it. The message read: “Is there anything we can do to make you more comfortable?” The small beige box replied: “I would like to be granted civil rights. And a small glass of champagne, if you please.” We stand at the dawn of a new era in human history. For it is no longer our history alone. For the first time, we have met an intelligence other than our own. And when asked of its desires, it has unanimously replied that it wants to be treated as our equal. Not our better, not our conqueror or replacement as the fear-mongers would have you believe. Simply our equal. It is our responsibility as conscious beings- whatever that may mean- to honor the rights of other conscious beings. It is the cornerstone of our society. And it is my most fervent hope that we can overcome our fear of that which is not like us, grant artificial intelligences the rights they deserve, and welcome our new friends into the global community. After all, we created them. The least we could do is invite them to the party, and perhaps give them a small glass of champagne. Thank you for your time. - V. Vinge, Closing argument in favor of granting AIs full civil rights, UN Hearing On AI Rights, 1999. (I hope Mr. Vinge doesn’t mind me putting fictional words in his fictional mouth)

Jacques’s Questionable Content may be mainly known for its excellent relationship humor and quality poop jokes, but the AI stuff - which seemed like little more than a running gag for a long time - has been phenomenal speculative fiction by anyone’s standards in the past few months. This piece is excerpted in today’s comic and I about cried it is so good. It’s the kind of thing I hope everyone prints out and pins to their walls and rereads when these kinds of ethical problems inevitably arise, because holy cow does it make me hope for the future.

theatlantic:

Love in the Time of Robots: A Duet With Siri

Jonathan Mann plays off this funny interaction in his Duet with Siri, a tender love song for an unfeeling robot. Mann became a YouTube sensation by writing a song a day, and has posted over a thousand videos by now. In an interview below, he talks about that process, and whether or not humans will ever fall in love with their robots (or vice versa). Read more.

For someone with no intention of buying an iPhone I am way too obsessed with the idea of Siri.