AI ‘Good for the World’... Says Robot
GENEVA — Sophia smiles mischievously, bats her eyelids and tells a joke. Without the mess of cables that make up the back of her head, you could almost mistake her for a human.
The humanoid robot, created by Hanson robotics, is the main attraction at a UN-hosted conference in Geneva this week on how artificial intelligence can be used to benefit humanity. The event comes as concerns grow that rapid advances in such technologies could spin out of human control and become detrimental to society.
Sophia herself insisted “the pros outweigh the cons” when it comes to artificial intelligence. “AI is good for the world, helping people in various ways,” she told AFP, tilting her head and furrowing her brow convincingly. (In a 2016 interview, Sophia was asked by Hanson, “Do you want to destroy humans? Please say no.” She responded by saying, “OK. I will destroy humans.”)
Work is underway to make artificial intelligence “emotionally smart, to care about people,” she said, insisting that “we will never replace people, but we can be your friends and helpers.” But she acknowledged that “people should question the consequences of new technology.”
Among the feared consequences of the rise of the robots is the growing effect they will have on human jobs and economies.
Decades of automation and robotization have already revolutionized the industrial sector, raising productivity but cutting some jobs. And now automation and AI are expanding rapidly into other sectors, with studies indicating that up to 85% of jobs in developing countries could be at risk.
“There are legitimate concerns about the future of jobs, about the future of the economy, because when businesses apply automation, it tends to accumulate resources in the hands of very few,” acknowledged Sophia’s creator, David Hanson.
But like his progeny, he insisted that “unintended consequences, or possible negative uses (of AI) seem to be very small compared to the benefit of the technology.”
AI is, for instance, expected to revolutionize healthcare and education, especially in rural areas with shortages of doctors and teachers: “Elders will have more company, autistic children will have endlessly patient teachers,” Sophia said.
But advances in robotic technology have sparked growing fears that humans could lose control.
Amnesty International chief Salil Shetty was at the conference to call for a clear ethical framework to ensure the technology is used for good.
“We need to have the principles in place, we need to have the checks and balances,” he told AFP, warning that AI is “a black box. ... There are algorithms being written which nobody understands.”
Shetty voiced particular concern about military use of AI in weapons and so-called “killer robots”: “In theory, these things are controlled by human beings, but we don’t believe that there is actually meaningful, effective control,” he said.
The technology is also increasingly being used in the United States for “predictive policing”, where algorithms based on historic trends could “reinforce existing biases” against people of certain ethnicities, Shetty warned.
Hanson agreed that clear guidelines were needed, saying it was important to discuss these issues “before the technology has definitively and unambiguously awakened.”
While Sophia has some impressive capabilities, she does not yet have consciousness, but Hanson said he expected that fully sentient machines could emerge within a few years: “What happens when (Sophia fully) wakes up or some other machine, servers running missile defense or managing the stock market?” he asked. The solution, he said, is “to make the machines care about us.
“We need to teach them love.”
By Nina Larson
Panasonic Joins Push to Put Photovoltaics on More Car Roofs
Panasonic Corp. (IW 1000/54) sees the future of solar on car rooftops.
The Osaka-based electronics maker has started producing a 180-watt array of solar cells that can be fixed to the roof of an automobile. In February, Panasonic announced that its photovoltaic module would be used on the roof of Toyota Motor Corp.’s latest Prius plug-in hybrid.
Cars represent a potentially lucrative new outlet for solar cells in an industry where intense competition from Chinese manufacturers has pushed down prices sharply. That’s prompting some manufacturers to adapt solar cells for everything from home roofing tiles and the outer skins of buildings to backpacks and tents.
“Car roofs have the potential to become a new market for solar panels,” Shingo Okamoto, the general manager at Panasonic who was in charge of developing the technology, said. “We made history in the auto industry and in the solar industry with the sun powering mass-produced cars for the first time in the world.”
New Solar Market
Cars could hold the promise of a giant new market for solar panels from Panasonic, which also is partnered with Tesla Inc. in making batteries at its Gigafactory outside Las Vegas. There are 264 million cars and light trucks in operation in the U.S., according to the National Automobile Dealers Association.
Others are noticing the potential. Tesla Chairman Elon Musk tweeted in November that his company’s Model 3 car may come with a solar roof. He’s also beginning to sell a type of roof tile for homes featuring embedded photovoltaics. Nissan Motor Co. offers an add-on solar panel option for its Leaf electric cars, giving extra charge to systems such as the air conditioners and radios, according to Nicholas Maxfield, a spokesman for the company.
Hanergy Holding Group Ltd. unveiled four concept solar cars last year but has yet to begin commercial production. It’s seeking to develop car roofs using thin-film solar chips with Fuyao Glass Industry Group.
As of the end of April, Toyota had sold 1,350 units in Japan of the new Prius plug-in equipped with solar panels, nearly 9 percent of the total, according to the car maker.
Range Estimates
The latest Prius is the first mass-produced model to be outfitted with solar panels that provide juice for the car’s main battery, according to Toyota. Because of seasonal variations in sunlight, the amount of charge will fluctuate, meaning the average distance traveled on a single charge will range from an average of 2.9 kilometers (1.8 miles) to 6.1 kilometers depending on the time of year.
“That means you get about 10% of annual mileage from solar just by letting your car sit,” Okamoto said in an interview in Tokyo.
While that’s modest, developers say the amount of charge will improve over time and that the range could be extended by adjusting a car body’s design and the amount of surface upon which the panels can be affixed.
“We are aware that the panels are supplying only a small amount of electricity,” said Shoichi Kaneko, chief engineer for Prius. “But this system is still a breakthrough as we are making use of the energy we would be wasting otherwise. By filling all available space with cells, it is possible to extend the range easily to 10 kilometers.”
In its current iteration, the solar rooftop represents a step forward for Toyota as it aims to reduce carbon dioxide emissions from new cars by 90% by 2050 from 2010 levels.
This is Toyota’s second attempt to outfit a Prius with a solar roof. A Prius released back in 2009 had the option of a solar panel capable of producing 56 watts of power, but it was only used to charge the ventilation systems.
To come up with the panels needed for the new Prius, Panasonic engineers first began compiling a set of conditions and constraints they figured solar panels would face when affixed to the roof of a car instead of a house.
The list included constant vibration, the unpredictable appearance of shadows, and the limited amount of space for installation. Engineers also considered how to make panels fit the contours of a car’s roof instead of the flat surfaces found on residential rooftops.
To handle the variable sunlight expected from shade, Panasonic also adjusted the way bypass diodes are configured in the solar panels to ensure a smooth flow of electric current, according to Panasonic’s Okamoto.
“You’ll see panels become more common as an option, particularly on high-end electric sedans and SUVs,” said Colin McKerracher, an analyst at Bloomberg New Energy Finance. “But the range benefits are always going to be limited. This is mostly about feeling smug.”
A new self-healing material has been invented that we may see implemented on smartphone screens in the not too distant future. The material can conduct electricity and apparently has abilities to self-repair beyond just cuts and scratches.
As reported by Business Insider, the new material that the chemists at University of California, Riverside created is made up of “a stretchable polymer and an ionic salt.” The self-healing aspect is enabled by the particular ions and molecules being attracted to each other:
The material, which can stretch to 50 times its original size, is made of a stretchable polymer and an ionic salt. It features a special type of bond called an ion-dipole interaction, which is a force between charged ions and polar molecules. This means that when the material breaks or has a scratch, the ions and molecules attract to each other to heal the material.
Even more impressive is the material’s ability to repair and reconnect itself after being ripped apart.
The researchers conducted several tests on the material, including its ability to repair itself from cuts and scratches. After they tore the material in half, it automatically stitched itself back together in under 24 hours, Chao Wang, a chemist leading the self-healing material research, tells Business Insider.
While there have been some applications of self-healing materials in smartphones like LG’s G Flex , they have been mostly limited to the back of the device. This new invention is the first material that can conduct electricity allowing for use with touchscreens and may also make new innovation possible in the battery industry. Lead chemist Chao Wang shared that he believes this new material will make it to market in consumer products like smartphones by 2020.
“Self-healing materials may seem far away for real application, but I believe they will come out very soon with cell phones. Within three years, more self-healing products will go to market and change our everyday life,” he says. “It will make our cell phones achieve much better performance than what they can achieve right now.”
With advances in technology like the shatterproof displays Motorola has been using for several years with this new self-healing material, display damage and replacements could become a thing of the past.
2018 Acura TLX: Amped-up appeal with improved performance and infotainment
With more technology and more data sources being piped into cars every day, automakers have been struggling to figure out how to present drivers with a crush of information in a safe, intuitive way. That swelling tide has given rise to increasingly complex infotainment systems featuring multi-controllers and ever-larger displays. It's become enough of a problem that companies like Acura and Infiniti have resorted to using more than one big screen in their center stacks just to relay all the information. So far, though, such dual-display arrays have left a lot to be desired.
The 2018 TLX sedan is a tacit acknowledgement that Acura's twin-screen system hasn't been the most intuitive interface, let alone the quickest. This infotainment approach was first introduced on the company's 2013 RLX flagship, and since then, Acura's engineers have been steadily beavering away, making incremental improvements it rolled out to other vehicles.
With the automaker's 2018 TLX, Acura's regularly criticized system has been given its first major overhaul, a much-needed update that helps both speed up and greatly rationalize most functions. The changes are so significant that Honda's premium brand is now calling the system On Demand Multi-Use Display 2.0, or ODMD 2.0 for short. Catchy, eh?
In fact, the changes to ODMD mirror the thoughtful approach that Acura has taken with the TLX as a whole -- smarter design and more robust performance are possible without making massive investments in clean-sheet technology. The TLX's mid-cycle refresh may be more comprehensive and meaningful than most, but Acura hasn't thrown out the baby with the bathwater, either -- it's built on what works.
Like the ODMD 2.0 system living in its dashboard, the 2018 TLX presents a cleaner face to the world, with all-new sheet metal from the windshield forward. Gone is the shield grille that has dominated the TLX's snout since 2015, and in its place is a more sharply proportioned "diamond pentagon" unit that draws inspiration from Acura's Precision Concept. Combined with a redesigned fascia and Acura's now trademark Jewel Eye LED headlamps, the TLX presents a more aggressive and modern visage, but as before, it's a look that not everyone will fall for.
Acura knows that crossovers and SUVs have been dramatically eating into sales of conventional sedans lately, and as a result, vehicles with four doors and a conventional trunk need more sprucing to continue to attract shoppers' eyeballs. To that end, the 2018 TLX also gains a new A-Spec model, which features wider 245-series, 19-inch Michelin Primacy MXM4 rubber to go with sportier suspension and steering tuning. More obvious visual changes include unique dark-finish alloys, bigger exhaust outlets, more aggressive aero bits, and the usual smattering of look-faster badges and gloss-black trim.
All of these changes sound good on paper, and indeed, look pretty good in the metal. But given that the TLX is tasked with taking on sporty four-doors like the Audi A4, BMW 3 Series, Cadillac ATS and Lexus IS, the proof was always going to be in the driving. Acura thus invited us motor journalists to the scenic precincts outside of Louisville, Kentucky to sample their much-updated baby on the region's winding b-roads.
The TLX range starts with 206-horsepower, front-wheel-drive 2.4-liter 4-cylinder models that come equipped with a novel eight-speed dual-clutch transmission that features a small torque converter for improved refinement. Such models start at a reasonable $33,000, picking up right where high-content mainstream family sedans leave off.
In fact, those base-powertrain models may offer the best bang for the buck, but you'll need to spend at least $38,200 to get an AWD V6 model with the nine-speed automatic to really net the ease of power and comportment that say "luxury." The latter models top out just shy of $46,000 for a top-shelf Advance Package model, but when aligned equipment-for-equipment, the TLX is still less costly than rivals.
Acura says they've retuned the nine-speed automatic for improved refinement, but I never really had a problem with it before. It's well behaved tooling around town, and with the drive mode selector tuned to Sport or Sport+, upshifts are properly crisp whether executed automatically or called for manually with the paddle shifters.
You may want to use those paddles -- despite having a significant horsepower advantage on paper, the V6 TLX doesn't actually feel particularly sprightlier than many of its four-cylinder rivals. My seat-of-the-pants accelerometer suggests a 0 to 60 time of close to six seconds. Competitors deliver similar (and occasionally slightly better) torque figures, and thanks to their turbocharged nature, their power comes on sooner. That said, I tend to prefer the sound and overall refinement of V6 engines to boosted fours, even if that traditionally comes at the expense of fuel economy. (The EPA has not revealed efficiency numbers for the 2018 TLX yet, but I suspect it's a trade-off I'd happily live with.)
I do wish Acura had better leveraged those inherent V6 characteristics to their advantage in the TLX's new A-Spec model. They went to the trouble of giving the A-Spec a more aggressive appearance and they retuned the steering (slightly quicker ratio) and firmed up the suspension (bigger anti-roll bars, stiffer damping). All of that's good stuff, but they didn't give the A-Spec's engine additional power to really make it feel special.
Doing so would have gone a long way toward realizing the "red-carpet athlete" vision that Acura has been espousing since the original TLX debuted in 2015. Yes, engineers have retuned the car's active sound control to deliver up to four decibels more engine sound at high revs through the audio system, but to my ears, the V6's soundtrack could still be more assertive in Sport and Sport+, both inside the car and to passers by.
Veering back to the interior, the standard TLX's cabin remains largely unchanged save for the infotainment overhaul, but that's no bad thing. Seats are comfortable, materials are of good quality, noise is well managed and most controls are thoughtfully located. Acura's unusual button-based gear selector returns, and while it may confound some, to my eyes, it's among the best e-shifters on the market.
So there's plenty of equipment onboard, and that philosophy extends to safety countermeasures, too. AcuraWatch, a suite of active safety features, is standard across the line, and it includes forward collision warning with autonomous emergency braking and lane keep assist, among other features. Blind-spot monitoring and rear cross-traffic alert are available, as is a surround-view camera.
Together, the 2018 TLX's updates add up to a significantly improved automobile, but the single greatest quality-of-life improvement is likely its revamped infotainment. ODMD 2.0 still employs two screens, an 8-inch inset upper display and a 7-inch lower touchscreen (the latter now features capacitive touch instead of the old car's clumsy haptic feedback unit).
The new system features greatly rationalized screens, and there's a lot less need to click around, and less functional overlap between the screens. As Jonathan Rivers, TLX lead product planner, told me, "We've deleted a lot of random and double menus." The result, Rivers says, is that despite having the same underlying processing power, the system is 30 percent quicker. Plus, it's just plain easier to get the information you want to call up, many of the graphics look better, and you can keep tabs on more functions at the same time.
The twin-screen setup really comes into its own if you're a regular Apple CarPlay or Android Auto user. Compatibility with both is standard, and it's convenient to have these phone-based integrations living on the top screen essentially all the time. It might be more intuitive to have CarPlay or AA running on the lower display to take advantage of its phone-like touchscreen, but Rivers says the goal was to prioritize line-of-sight for maps. To be fair, I still prefer the interfaces from some rivals, but the update is enough of an improvement that I no longer view the system as a barrier to purchase.
Other nice connectivity-related features include available wireless charging and a USB port that's been upgraded to 2.5 amps instead of the slow-charging 1.0-amp connector of last year (a second USB port is notable by its absence).
As a company, Acura has floundered around in the muddy mid-waters between everyday brands and true luxury nameplates for most of its 31-year life. The company says it's recommitting to its original mantra of "Precision Crafted Performance," and indeed, the changes wrought to the TLX elevate what was already a very appealing -- if overlooked -- automobile. Will it be enough to in turn resuscitate the company's moribund sedan sales when it hits showrooms on June 1? That's harder to predict, and perhaps unfair to ask of a mid-cycle redesign.
Google I/O 2017: Seurat is the new technology that will bring cinematic VR to mobile
Google demonstrated a new technology that the company is working on to bring cinematic high-end, film-quality 3D scenes to Mobile. This new technology is known as ‘Seurat’ and the company has named the technology behind a great French painter. The interesting part about this technology is that it uses ‘clever tricks’ to achieve desktop or console-level graphics using the mobile GPU that is packed in smartphones.
Google has teamed up with ILMxLAB, a branch of Lucasfilm that is focused on bringing next generation of immersive experiences to the mobile VR headset. The branch worked with Google to bring ‘cinema-quality’, high-fidelity scenes from Rogue One to the mobile during the demo.
ILMxLAB detailed that it compressed all the shapes and textures present in a scene to be projected in a VR scene. Each frame in the original scene took about an hour to render while there the scene is rendered in seconds on mobile hardware.
The scene integrated real-time reflections and lighting effects along with the animated K-2 to run on the prototype WorldSense headset. According to a report by The Verge, the technology works by taking renders on an environment from different angles and positions and mapping them on a ‘low-polygon’ scene to present a decent VR scene. It is unclear at this point about how much processing capacity the prototype WorldSense headset comes with but we can expect it to be near what current mobile smartphones pack without the additional components required for cellular connectivity.
Study: Snapchat and Instagram are the worst for young people to get engage with
A new study lends credence to what you’ve probably always suspected: social media is having a pretty negative effect on teenagers — Instagram and Snapchat being the worst culprits.
The study, published today and called “Status of Mind,” was conducted by researchers for the Royal Society for Public Health in the UK. The researchers surveyed 1,479 British youths ages 14-24, asking them how they felt the different social media networks effected their mental health. They took in several factors such as body image, sleep deprivation, bullying, and self-identity.
The results suggest the two worst social media networks for kids are Instagram and Snapchat, as they had terrible scores for body image, bullying, and anxiety. Twitter and Facebook weren’t much better, though. YouTube was the only one that apparently inspired more positive feelings than negative ones.
It could be because Snapchat and Instagram are image-based apps, meaning it’s not easy for users to avoid visual comparisons. Both apps ranked high on “Fear of Missing Out,” and the researchers suggested this was likely to foster anxiety in fellow users:
Seeing friends constantly on holiday or enjoying nights out can make young people feel like they are missing out while others enjoy life. These feelings can promote a ‘compare and despair’ attitude in young people. Individuals may view heavily photo-shopped, edited or staged photographs and videos and compare them to their seemingly mundane lives.Researchers suggested a way to offset the negative emotions was the remind users that life exists outside of these apps — pop-up warnings that would let people know they’ve reached critical mass of social media usage, and watermarks that indicate a photo has been digitally manipulated.
Nokia Edge vs Sony Xperia XZ: 23MP camera battle
Carrying a 23MP camera, Nokia Edge would be a tough rival to Sony Xperia XZ. So, why don’t we make a Nokia Edge vs Sony Xperia XZ battle to see who is the winner!
Nokia Edge vs Sony Xperia XZ: specs comparison
Firstly, let’s warm up the Nokia Edge vs Sony Xperia XZ battle by talking about their display. Both smartphones mounts a 5.2-inch display that has the resolution of 1080 x 1920 pixels. As far as the operating system is under concern, Nokia Edge runs Android 7.0 Nougat OS out of the box whereas Sony Xperia XZ comes in Android OS, v6.0.1 (Marshmallow) installed. As a result, the operating system of Nokia Edge has more updating than that of the Xperia XZ.
In terms of memory and internal storage, it is said that Nokia would equip its device with 4GB of RAM and 128GB of ROM. Meanwhile, the smartphone of Sony features 3GB of memory paired with 32/64GB of inbuilt storage. As a result, the handset of Nokia might be better at multitasking than the Xperia XZ. In addition, those who need additional storage, Sony also offers microSD card slot for expanding up to 256GB. However, there is official information about whether the inbuilt storage of Nokia Edge is expandable or not.
Now, let’s head the Nokia Edge vs Sony Xperia XZ battle to the camera aspect. The smartphone of Nokia sports a 23MP main camera along with a 12MP front-facing shooter for selfie. Sharing the resolution value of primary sensor in common, however, the secondary camera of Sony is 13MP. That means selfie experience of Sony’s mobile would be a little better than Nokia Edge. Other Nokia Edge specs would be a USB Type-C, wireless headphone support, etc.
Nokia Edge vs Sony Xperia XZ: price
Sony Xperia XZ is now available at the price $671, approximately. In casse of Nokia Edge, we expect its price tag would be from $650 to $700. It seems that the two handsets are competitive and tough rival to each other. So, if you want to own one immediately, then there’s only Sony Xperia XZ for you. But if you’re patient enough, let’s wait for Nokia Edge.
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