Humans Need Not Apply

[sparks]

I think there's an opportunity here: Yes! It's the new Vag-Vac! While applying sanitizing washing fluid, it sucks (no pun intended) away all lube, washing fluid, and ... anything else in one simple operation!! A must have for every doll owner.

[Grammatron]

It occurs to me that a sex doll "brothel" could charge extra for "virgin" dolls.

They wouldn't call it that of course. They'd call it unboxing.

First come, first serve

[sparks]

It occurs to me that a sex doll "brothel" could charge extra for "virgin" dolls.

They wouldn't call it that of course. They'd call it unboxing.

I wonder if .... no. Never mind.

[Witness]

Labor automation coming faster than we thought

The new age of automation is building global momentum much faster than many thought, with more than half of the tasks done by human workers on pace to switch to machines in just seven years, according to a report released today.

Why it matters: Earlier this month, we reported that the impact of artificial intelligence is happening only slowly, but will pick up to a rapid clip in the late 2020s. But with automation, we are already there, according to a report by the Geneva-based World Economic Forum.

• Examining large companies in 20 advanced and developing economies, the report said that by 2022, machines will carry out 42% of the labor — and an accelerated 52% just three years later.
• That's up from a 29% automated share last year.
• The people, employers and governments in these countries have barely begun planning the fundamental reordering of work, education and society needed to absorb this coming new blow to the global system.

https://www.axios.com/authors/stevelevine

We'll see…

[Anaxagoras]

I wonder exactly what counts as "automation". Any tool that allows a worker to be more productive?

A shovel allows a worker to excavate more dirt from a ditch than he could with his bare hands.

A backhoe allows the same worker (assuming he has the skills to operate a backhoe) to excavate much more dirt than he could using a shovel. Does a backhoe count as "automation" though?

[Doctor X]

Depends on whether or not the shovel can satisfy the Turing Test.

--J.D.

[xouper]

I wonder exactly what counts as "automation".

I don't know what precise definition is used by those who compile global statistics on the matter, but I would use something like this definition:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Automation

Instead of the productivity factor (as implied by your shovel question), I would say the relevant metric is the percentage of human assistance required and whether the system has some kind of feedback loop to guide its behavior.

Applying that to your shovel question, it is easy to see that the shovel does not do anything on its own without a lot of human assistance. Same for a backhoe. Whereas if you have a backhoe that you type in the location and size of the hole and it proceeds to dig it without further human assistance, then I would call that automation, even if the operator is still sitting in the backhoe monitoring the operation.

Here's an example from my own professional experience. In the late 1980s, I helped develop the software in a driverless forktruck (more specifically an automated guided vehicle) that we installed in various factories throughout the US. Although the system required human assistance to tell it where to go to pick up and deliver loads of stuff, the vehicles themselves did not have any operators on board and made their way about the factory floor without any further human assistance. So I would call that automation.

I assume there are examples where the level of automation is so low compared to the required level of human assistance that it might be arguable whether that counts as automation (or even partial automation). A common industrial sewing machine, for example, where the operator does not directly control the behavior of the needle (as compared to controlling the fabric going through the machine). I would say that is a very low level of automation. Is a simple conveyor belt or water pump an example of automation? It performs its job continuously without further human assistance. I would call those a low level of automation.

Perhaps it's like asking how do you know when it's a hill or a mountain, or what frequency does it stop being red and is now orange?

Clear as mud, eh?

[Anaxagoras]

Labor automation coming faster than we thought

The new age of automation is building global momentum much faster than many thought, with more than half of the tasks done by human workers on pace to switch to machines in just seven years, according to a report released today.

Why it matters: Earlier this month, we reported that the impact of artificial intelligence is happening only slowly, but will pick up to a rapid clip in the late 2020s. But with automation, we are already there, according to a report by the Geneva-based World Economic Forum.

• Examining large companies in 20 advanced and developing economies, the report said that by 2022, machines will carry out 42% of the labor — and an accelerated 52% just three years later.
• That's up from a 29% automated share last year.
• The people, employers and governments in these countries have barely begun planning the fundamental reordering of work, education and society needed to absorb this coming new blow to the global system.

https://www.axios.com/authors/stevelevine

We'll see…

Let's look a little deeper into the article:

Meanwhile automation is already happening fast — 75 million workers could lose their jobs to automation by 2022, the World Economic Forum report said.

I assume that means worldwide? 75 million workers sounds like a big number, but it's only 1% of the world's population. OK, if we assume that roughly half of the population are "workers" in the traditional sense, it's about 2% of the working population.
But, of course, other new jobs will be created:

If those workers are given "significant" reskilling, and a pipeline of new workers is created in schools and colleges, companies could create 133 million new jobs by 2022 — more than compensating for those that vanish, the report says. By significant, the report means an average of 101 days of retraining, a little over three months.

Three months of training sounds like a lot less than say, 4 years of college.

But the operative phrase, is "if," says Saadia Zahidi, the study's lead author and head of the forum's Center for New Economy and Society.
The future job forecast is based on a conceptual idea of new skills that, if learned by a single person, could result in a new occupation. If such skills are compounded out, the economy could have a slew of new emerging occupations. "But they won't emerge if we don't give people the right skills," Zahidi said.

Sounds pretty abstract. It's not clear what sort of jobs these "new jobs" will be.

[Witness]

Artificial intelligence weaponry successfully trialled on mock urban battlefield

A cutting edge weapon that uses artificial intelligence to scan the battlefield for enemy movements has been successfully tested for the first time.

The system, that was developed by British experts, uses space age technology to monitor and track opposing forces in built up areas.

It can then rapidly flag dangers to soldiers, giving them an “edge” in a warzone, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said.

The technology, developed by the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (Dstl) and UK industry partners, known as SAPIENT, also reduces human error and frees up other soldiers who currently have to man live CCTV-type feeds to monitor enemy movement, it is claimed.

It was tested by Canadian soldiers on a mock urban battlefield in Montreal alongside a range of experimental military technology created by other nations, including robotic exoskeleton suits, night vision, and surveillance systems.

Stuart Andrew, the defence minister, said: "This British system can act as autonomous eyes in the urban battlefield.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2018/0 ... lled-mock/ (more gadgetry)

[Grammatron]

"space age technology"

The fuck does that even mean

[xouper]

Backlash in Texas.

https://www.change.org/p/elijah-rising- ... of-houston

From that article:

Sex robots sexually objectify women and children.

Do they also argue dildos sexually objectify men?

[Pyrrho]

[Rob Lister]

I'm seeing some real progress.

[Witness]

The rise of 'pseudo-AI': how tech firms quietly use humans to do bots' work

Using what one expert calls a ‘Wizard of Oz technique’, some companies keep their reliance on humans a secret from investors

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ ... -companies

So we'll have to fake being robots soon?

[Anaxagoras]

A robot that can moonwalk and shake its booty.

[Witness]

Is artificial intelligence set to become art’s next medium?

AI artwork sells for $432,500 — nearly 45 times its high estimate — as Christie’s becomes the first auction house to offer a work of art created by an algorithm

https://www.christies.com/features/A-co ... 332-1.aspx



Meh.

[Witness]

Transkribus system makes breakthrough in understanding medieval texts

The Tyrolean State Archive in Innsbruck stores countless documents dating from the 11th century onwards — mostly official records, legal documents and other important handwritten documents from the past. Transcribing these books isn't easy. But this archive is working with scientists to automate the transcription using cutting-edge computer technologies.

"With difficult scripts I believe the new technique will have problems. But with relatively nice calligraphy, the new system has great advantages and helps us a lot," says the Director of the archive, Christoph Haidacher.

To digitise such books, scientists working on a European research project, READ, designed a simple-to-use system based on a specially-developed smartphone application: it detects when pages are turned and automatically takes high-resolution photos of each page.

"We use, of course, a combination of low-tech and high-tech. A dark tent is a relatively simple, low-tech accessory. But it works with a high-tech app running on a smartphone that is connected to the Transkribus platform: the app uploads the images to the server that performs the recognition of the handwritten text," says the READ project co-ordinator & Researcher in Digitalisation & Digital Preservation at the University of Innsbruck, Dr. Guenter Muehlberger.
[…]
The server at the University of Innsbruck uses machine-learning algorithms to teach the computer new writing styles. After users transcribe part of the text manually, the software engine learns to identify the characters and then finishes the task automatically with impressive accuracy - higher than 95% for historical documents independent of their language or writing style.

https://www.euronews.com/2018/10/29/tra ... ient-texts

[Grammatron]

[sparks]

Why not just hire someone to read the fucking news? Is it really cheaper now to build one of these things to replace a human?

[xouper]

It will be even more interesting when an AI news anchor interviews AIs that look like celebrities or politicians. Imagine the hilarity that might ensue.

[xouper]

Why not just hire someone to read the fucking news? Is it really cheaper now to build one of these things to replace a human?

It will be soon.

[sparks]

Well, apples and oranges: A McShitBurger could be completely automated right now without the need for human looking AI. Peeps might not respond to that very well, but then let the assholes eat cake. Uppity fucking meat-sacks.

[Anaxagoras]

UK police wants AI to stop violent crime before it happens

What happens when they discover that the AI is racist?

Police officers
Could AI predict crime?
Richard Baker/In Pictures/Getty
By Chris Baraniuk

Police in the UK want to predict serious violent crime using artificial intelligence, New Scientist can reveal. The idea is that individuals flagged by the system will be offered interventions, such as counselling, to avert potential criminal behaviour.

However, one of the world’s leading data science institutes has expressed serious concerns about the project after seeing a redacted version of the proposals.

The system, called the National Data Analytics Solution (NDAS), uses a combination of AI and statistics to try to assess the risk of someone committing or becoming a victim of gun or knife crime, as well as the likelihood of someone falling victim to modern slavery.


West Midlands Police is leading the project and has until the end of March 2019 to produce a prototype. Eight other police forces, including London’s Metropolitan Police and Greater Manchester Police, are also involved. NDAS is being designed so that every police force in the UK could eventually use it.

Police funding has been cut significantly over recent years, so forces need a system that can look at all individuals already known to officers, with the aim of prioritising those who need interventions most urgently, says Iain Donnelly, the police lead on the project.

Pre-emptive counselling
As for exactly what will happen when such individuals are identified, that is still a matter of discussion, says Donnelly. He says the intention isn’t to pre-emptively arrest anyone, but rather to provide support from local health or social workers. For example, they could offer counselling to any individual with a history of mental health issues that had been flagged by NDAS as being likely to commit a violent crime. Potential victims could be contacted by social services.

"Modern slavery"? Is that common in the UK?

[Witness]

Android child's face strikingly expressive

[snip]

A trio of researchers at Osaka University has now found a method for identifying and quantitatively evaluating facial movements on their android robot child head. Named Affetto, the android's first-generation model was reported in a 2011 publication. The researchers have now found a system to make the second-generation Affetto more expressive. Their findings offer a path for androids to express greater ranges of emotion, and ultimately have deeper interaction with humans.

https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2 ... 104632.htm

Still way to go, but soon you'll don't need to get a dog anymore, when the kids are grown up.

[sparks]

Thanked but also reported for being a meanie.

I prefer not nice to meanie. But it's the thought that counts.

[Doctor X]

Meanie gets you a cattle-prod and a beanie.

--J.D.

[sparks]

The cattle prod sounds like fun. As for the beanie, well, hats. People aren't wearing enough of them!

[Anaxagoras]

This cute robot is programmed to make humans feel loved

If you’re tired of struggling to make human connections, a Japanese startup is putting a price tag on the robotic variety — and it’s pretty steep.

GROOVE X launched a companion robot Tuesday that’s programmed to make lonely humans feel the love.

The Lovot, which resembles a cuddly children’s toy and comes in a rainbow of colors, retails for around $3,100 before taxes and other fees.

Be warned: The wheeled robot cannot help with practical tasks such as housework — but it will “draw out your ability to love,” Groove X founder and CEO Kaname Hayashi told reporters at the launch in Tokyo.

“When you touch your Lovot, embrace it, even just watch it, you’ll find yourself relaxing [and] feeling better. It’s a little like feeling love toward another person,” the company’s website reads.

“Lovot will react to your moods and do all it can to fill you with joy and re-energize you. It may not be a living creature, but Lovot will warm your heart.”

Just get a teddy bear and save $3,090.

[Anaxagoras]

Just get a teddy bear and save $3,090.

It's a proof of concept thing, expensive for early adopters / technology enthusiasts.

Wait'll they combine this technology with sexbots. You know that's where this is headed.

And of course the sexbot does not have to look exactly like a woman (other than the naughty bits).

Coming soon to Japan (and later elsewhere): 3D amine waifus that really make you feel loved (not just dissipated) and will even bring you a beer.

Yeah, I suppose it could be a necessary intermediate step on the way to that. Still a ways to go.

[Witness]

We are doomed (episode 127).

[Witness]

Fake faces generated by AI:




(You may want to kill the irritating "music".)

Article: https://petapixel.com/2018/12/17/these- ... ple-exist/

[Witness]

↑ Complement about discrimination. (The thread title gets really ironic in the context... )

CES 2019: 'Award-winning' sex toy for women withdrawn from show

A sex toy designed for women has been banned from the technology show CES.

Lora DiCarlo said it had been invited to display its robotic Ose [in French "ose" = "dare"] vibrator at CES, after winning an innovation award.

CES organiser the Consumer Technology Association, which granted the award, said it had included the device by mistake and could withdraw any immoral or obscene entry at any time.

Lora DiCarlo chief executive Lora Haddock said the CES and CTA had a history of gender bias.
[…]
"Ose clearly fits the robotics and drone category - and CTA's own expert judges agree."

The product had been designed in partnership with a robotics laboratory at Oregon State University and had eight patents pending for "robotics, biomimicry, and engineering feats", Ms Haddock said.

"We firmly believe that women, non-binary, gender non-conforming, and LGBTQI folks should be vocally claiming our space in pleasure and tech," she said.

Ms Haddock said there was a double-standard at CES when it came to sexual health products targeted at men versus women.

"Men's sexuality is allowed to be explicit, with a literal sex robot in the shape of an unrealistically proportioned woman and VR porn in point of pride along the aisle," she said.

https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-46809807

[Anaxagoras]

The Patriarchy Strikes Again!!

[sparks]

"I'm afraid I can't do that Dave. I'm cramping rather badly today."

[Anaxagoras]

Could have gone in the Japan thread, but this one could use a bump.

Do You Take This Robot … (New York Times)

When Akihiko Kondo, a 35-year-old school administrator in Tokyo, strolled down the aisle in a white tuxedo in November, his mother was not among the 40 well-wishers in attendance. For her, he said, “it was not something to celebrate.”

You might see why. The bride, a songstress with aquamarine twin tails named Hatsune Miku, is not only a world-famous recording artist who fills up arenas throughout Japan: She is also a hologram.

Mr. Kondo insists the wedding was not a stunt, but a triumph of true love after years of feeling ostracized by real-life women for being an anime otaku, or geek. He considers himself a sexual minority facing discrimination.

(Link in quote is to Japan Times article. Also worth a read.)

His own mother isn't celebrating his nuptuals?

Today, a sexual minority facing discrimination. Sometime in the future, the new normal?
Skipping ahead in the Times article a bit:

In real life, pioneers of human-android romance now have a name, “digisexuals,” which some academics and futurists have suggested constitutes an emergent sexual identity.

Whether the notion is absurd, inevitable or offensive, it raises more than a few questions. For starters, in a world where sex toys that respond and give feedback and artificial-intelligence-powered sex robots are inching toward the mainstream, are digisexuals a fringe group, destined to remain buried in the sexual underground? Or, in a culture permeated with online pornography, sexting and Tinder swiping, isn’t everyone a closet digisexual?

Then they get into philosophical questions like "can a robot consent?" Some sex robots may be programmed by their creators to withdraw "consent" in certain situations:

Echoing the controversy surrounding scenes of robot rape in “Westworld,” a group of activists started the Campaign Against Sex Robots, arguing that sex robots, with their Barbie bodies and wired-for-compliance brains, encourage the objectification of women and reinforce the prostitute-john power dynamic.

Unfortunately, it’s not science fiction. During an Austrian technology fair in 2017, a version of Dr. Santos’s Samantha doll reportedly responded, “I’m fine,” after a group of men mounted it roughly, leaving it soiled and damaged.

Dr. Santos is working on a new version of Samantha that will be programmed to shut down when the sex gets too aggressive.

[Doctor X]

You might see why. The bride, a songstress with aquamarine twin tails named Hatsune Miku, is not only a world-famous recording artist who fills up arenas throughout Japan: She is also a hologram.

While singing about the Summer Festival, the song is about how fleeting a relationship is like fireworks.

Our Heroine wants someone to take her to see fireworks. She finds none. She goes to a roof she use to go to to see them only to find a Love Hotel has been built. As two younger boys join her, they notice that someone forgot to draw the shades.

She finally sees "fireworks."

Hatsuni Miku sings the credits.

This is knowledge to be treasured.

--J. "You Don't See That in Eroge!!" D.

[sparks]

What fucking (no pun intended) nonsense.

[Witness]

The Pentagon Doubles Down on AI–and Wants Help from Big Tech

In the 1960s, the Department of Defense began shoveling money toward a small group of researchers with a then-fringe idea: making machines intelligent. Military money played a central role in establishing a new science—artificial intelligence.

Sixty years later, the Pentagon believes AI has matured enough to become a central plank of America’s national security. On Tuesday, the department released an unclassified version of its AI strategy, which calls for rapid adoption of AI in all aspects of the US military.

The plan depends on the Pentagon working closely with the tech industry to source the algorithms and cloud computing power needed to run AI projects. Federal contracting records indicate that Google, Oracle, IBM, and SAP have signaled interest in working on future Defense Department AI projects.

“AI will not only increase the prosperity of the nation but enhance our national security,” said Dana Deasy, the department’s chief information officer, at a news briefing Tuesday. He said Russian and Chinese investments in military AI technology heighten the need for US forces to use more AI, too. “We must adopt AI to maintain our strategic position and prevail on future battlefields,” Deasy said.

Previous Defense Department efforts to tap into the tech industry’s AI expertise haven’t all gone smoothly. Last year thousands of Google employees protested against the company’s work on Project Maven, which was intended to demonstrate how the US military could benefit from tapping commercially available AI technology.

The pushback against Google’s work on a program using algorithms to identify objects in video from drones prompted the company to decide not to renew the contract. CEO Sundar Pichai also released new guidelines on its use of AI that forbid work on weapons, but permit other military work.

https://www.wired.com/story/pentagon-do ... -big-tech/

[Witness]

PepsiCo is laying off corporate employees as the company commits to millions of dollars in severance pay, restructuring, and 'relentlessly automating'

• PepsiCo has kicked off a round of layoffs affecting employees in several offices, two people who were laid off by the company told Business Insider.
• The company announced in a quarterly earnings call last week that it expected to incur $2.5 billion in restructuring costs through 2023, with 70% of charges linked to severance and other employee costs.
• Roughly $800 million of the $2.5 billion is expected to affect 2019 results.
• PepsiCo also recently announced plans to restructure the organization and "relentlessly" invest in automation.

https://www.businessinsider.com/pepsico ... &r=US&IR=T

[Witness]

[Grammatron]

[Doctor X]

Did we really need another sequel to The Human Centipede?

--J.D.

[Grammatron]

Well this one isn't human

[Pyrrho]

Link: https://twitter.com/michaelreeves08/status/1124697680116998150

[sparks]

That's hilarious. Probably gets old real quick too.

[Witness]

[sparks]

And check out the hoy-hoy keyboard.

Why, back in my day.....(yea, right.)

[Witness]

France Bans Judge Analytics, 5 Years In Prison For Rule Breakers

In a startling intervention that seeks to limit the emerging litigation analytics and prediction sector, the French Government has banned the publication of statistical information about judges’ decisions – with a five year prison sentence set as the maximum punishment for anyone who breaks the new law.

Owners of legal tech companies focused on litigation analytics are the most likely to suffer from this new measure.

The new law, encoded in Article 33 of the Justice Reform Act, is aimed at preventing anyone – but especially legal tech companies focused on litigation prediction and analytics – from publicly revealing the pattern of judges’ behaviour in relation to court decisions.

A key passage of the new law states:

‘The identity data of magistrates and members of the judiciary cannot be reused with the purpose or effect of evaluating, analysing, comparing or predicting their actual or alleged professional practices.’

[…]

But, the point remains: a government and its justice system have decided to make it a crime for information about how its judges think about certain legal issues to be revealed in terms of statistical and comparative analysis.

Some of the French legal experts Artificial Lawyer talked to this week asked what this site’s perspective was. Well, if you really want to know, it’s this:

• If a case is already in the public domain, then anyone who wants to should have a right to conduct statistical analysis upon the data stemming from that in order to show or reveal anything they wish to. After all, how can a society dictate how its citizens are allowed to use data and interpret it – if that data is already placed in public view, by a public body, such as a court?
• This seems to be like giving someone access to a public library, but banning them from reading certain books that are sitting right there on the shelf for all to see. This is a sort of coercive censorship, but of the most bizarre kind – as it’s the censorship of justice’s own output.

https://www.artificiallawyer.com/2019/0 ... -breakers/

The site's name is indeed "Artificial Lawyer". Interesting comments at the link.

[Anaxagoras]

I think we dun goofed.

[Doctor X]

--J.D.