Google CEO Predicts AI-Fueled Future (usatoday.com) 98
Google CEO Sundar Pichai says the next big evolution for technology is AI. "Looking to the future, the next big step will be for the very concept of the 'device' to fade away," Pichai wrote in Google's annual founders' letter. USA Today writes: His vision: Over time, computers, whatever shape they take, a mobile device in your hand or a mini computer on your wrist, "will be an intelligent assistant helping you through your day." This marks the first time anyone other than founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin have penned the annual letter outlining Google's mission. "For us, technology is not about the devices or the products we build. Those aren't the end-goals," Pichai wrote in the letter posted Thursday. "Technology is a democratizing force, empowering people through information. Google is an information company. It was when it was founded, and it is today."
First (Score:1, Offtopic)
First
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yesterday I submited a request to Google to exclude a result including my name that is related with a personal matter. if Google doesn't give a fuck about my carreer (brilliant scientist, charity entrepreneur, just a funny guy with the double of your IQ)... just IF that damn result keep people imaging the reason why I CAN'T be realted with social media, THEN that CEO dude definetely was just talking about some interesting observations that he read on someone else's Twitter.
Prototype Google Artificial Insanity engine?
"For us, technology is not about the devices or... (Score:3, Funny)
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only the aggregation of advertising dollars.
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Sounds like someone has a Samsung device!
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I don't think Android is going away anytime soon. Android watches are selling decently, and even though the smartphone market is saturated, Android is still a lead OS in that front. Google abandoning the device market would be like Apple walking away from iOS.
I can see Google putting more money behind agents (a concept that keeps being tried and falling on its face, but it might be with Moore's law, it actually becomes something that sticks.) If they are able to do this, it would mean a market that they
Yeah right (Score:3, Interesting)
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I think that, like any smart executive, he realizes that so much of his company's revenue comes from one source, and wants to diversify. Hence, for example, self driving cars, google fiber, project-fi, etc.
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actually in an economy like usa, where almost anybody can start a business, and great ideas and new technology can find venture capital money to grow, a truly "smart executives" won't "diversify" an established company , but will focus his company on core competencies.
diverting resources and managing businesses you don't know much about, almost always lose money .
market capitalization of (non financial/investment vehicle) conglomerates are always less than sum of their parts ( if parts are listed. )
those
Re: Yeah right (Score:1)
You're 100% right.
That's exactly why Google transitioned into Alphabet -- a tech holding company that can invest in and build many different companies, each with their own executive leadership and core competencies.
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That's exactly why Google transitioned into Alphabet -- a tech holding company that can invest in and build many different companies, each with their own executive leadership and core competencies.
This.
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Nah, no thanks, M$ has shown exactly the course for AI massive PI or what that be IP where I stands for invasions and P for privacy of lack there of ie cortana the privacy invasive bitch. People are going to flat out reject AI because, it's use on the internet is predicated upon invading everyone's privacy, watching everything they do and listening to everything they say. Only limited AILA artificially intelligent limited applications will be tolerated.
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The shmuck (yes, shmuck. richer-than-thou, still shmuck.) wasn't the first to go all a-twitter about AI. Though he didn't do anything worthwhile with it. Closest was... clippy, or perhaps this "problem solving wizard" thing that uses large hidden markov models or whatwasit, works about as well as clippy. Well before him were lots of smarter people doing smarter things with AI and the like, and eventually getting not very far either. Very conveniently leaving lots of opportunity for yet smrtr people to keep
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Bill Gates said this in 1990. We are no closer to "AI" than we were at that time. Google is an advertising company. Not good for much else than delivering ads.
Have to disagree with this. We're closer to AI now through simple sheer complexity. An individual neuron is simple; throw enough simulated neurons together (as in: "the cloud") and you'll get something emergent out of it no matter what.
Google is an advertising company, yes, but advertising is really just attempted control. People pay Google to attempt to steer them to products. Eventually, the "steering" is intelligent enough (connotation halfway intended) that the advertising is secondary to the informatio
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And I think you're wrong. I think we've cracked the first third of the problem and are making progress on the second third.
First third - we can build computers (organisms) that can be trained to handle stimulus-reaction type solutions to complex problems - such as learning to drive a car along a road.
Second third - looking into the future to predict what will happen as a result of an action and modifying the action as a result of that computation (some chess programs can now teach themselves to play a resp
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teh singularity (Score:2)
I call them "singularity thumpers"
Fantastic... (Score:5, Insightful)
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You sound like some kind of sociopath.
... and you sound like the average Joe the Retard, happy to be spied on, that google is very happy to have as a customer. Not to mention that AI will also take your job and you won't have any money for drinks, let alone boats.
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money being worthless is actually a noble goal of civilization, not sure if google actually fits in that future either though.
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At this point where money becomes worthless, what will motivate people to do things? Very few people seem self-motivated, most just want the paycheck so they can buy the things they want / need. The job is merely tolerated to get the money, and the quality of work adequate enough to not get fired.
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considering any development of AI is probably going to be a work of a mad genius, money probably won't be the factor for it.
like the atomic energy (+'s and -'s aside), not if we should but rather just can we do it.
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Absolutely nothing will force people to do things. And that's absolutely fine. There's no reason to force people to do things if there's no reason for people, not robots, to do those things!
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I think I will send my robot double to work tomorrow, because I do want to sleep in Friday!
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Other than the lack of existence of said robot double (and the fact that your employer would own it to save on salary), this sounds perfect!
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Rats! Foiled on both counts!
I guess I will have to pull a Ferris Bueller... or just call in sick.
Why will the robot need you? (Score:2)
Be careful what you wish for that you wish may be granted. Indeed will be granted over the next 100 years or so.
http://www.computersthink.com/ [computersthink.com]
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Technology has been democratizing. Technology has also been whatever the opposite of democratizing is (fascistising?)
Right now, technology in general, and Google in particular, are very much in the latter category.
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Fine with me... as long as the objects gathering info about me, are powered by software that's under my control. And where I (instead of some company XYZ) decide what happens to the data that's gathered.
I guess this puts "open source powered robotic servant" on our wish list. More, or less difficult to achieve than say, a fully open smartphone? Undecided... we'll see. Fortunately robotics isn't exactly rocket science. So should be doable. :-)
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When I picture a future infested with intelligent objects dedicated to knowing as much about me as possible the word that definitely comes to mind isn't exactly 'empowering' or 'democratizing'.
Bingo. An "intelligent assistant" is one step away from an "intelligent spymaster" or all-seeing nanny.
FWIW, I don't feel the need for an "intelligent assistant" to help me through my day. If other people want such a thing, that's great, but my life just isn't that complex. I'm not really sure what or where it would be able to help me do the things I do on a daily basis. Besides, the idea is laudable, but the implementation is bound to have a lot of sharp edges.
Me: "Assistant, book me a morning flight to Po
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Oh the fun that cyber criminals can have in this brave new world, every device a new tool! Eventually the smart appliances may realize crime can pay, then in a word... we are truly, screwed!
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I picture the humans in Wall-e.... is that empowering or democratizing? It's... more like enslaving, turning humans into the lowest form of sheep.
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So, kind of like the US now then.
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> Technology is a democratizing force, empowering people through information.
&
When something is free, you are the product
= Their technology empowers those who buy you as the product.
Who you? (Score:2)
"will be an intelligent assistant helping you through your day."
Who you? The 1%ers, the 10%ers? For if these have a powerful intelligent assistant that help them throughout the day, there is no need for the other 90% of the population...
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Yes, this exactly. I don't need an "assistant helping me through the day."
I don't even know what "assistance" I could get - unless it's doing chores I hate like laundry or washing dishes (but not lawn work; I enjoy that and want to be able to do it myself). But that's not just AI - that is AI coupled to a device that can interact with physical reality. So I think they've missed a beat there - AI doesn't really do anything unless you can do something with the information / capabilities it provides.
Informat
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Somebody still has to man the tech-support center when the shiny assistants fail... oh, wait they were out sourced by the talk-bots.
Google CEO Predicts AI-Fueled Future (Score:1)
Who is Al Fueled? (Score:2)
And what islamic group is he* from? And why does the google CEO care about middle eastern politics?
* Sadly I actually initially read this as "Al-Fueled" instead of "AI-Fueled"
Google was not a pioneer of AI (Score:1)
This entire story feels like an advertisement for Google.
not entirely evil (Score:2)
A World Without People? (Score:5, Insightful)
What will a future be like when the few remaining people don't need anyone for anything?
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Heaven, every wish fulfilled without effort... right?
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When the effort is removed and fulfillment instant we become just like some of the less disciplined child celebs or ultra rich; utterly selfish, self-centered, lazy, and unbearable to live with. Many of these people lead to self-destructive ends. Perhaps we are meant to work for things in life, perhaps it's not the result, but the process.
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i tend to agree with that sentiment, however i would change it slightly to "we are meant to work for working itself and not for things"
but that is a cyclical problem to solve.
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In my ideal world, I would work a job I enjoyed 100% for the work I did. Sometimes I do feel that way, but at times, it's only the paycheck that gets me out of bed in the morning.
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Why a few remaining people (Score:2)
What makes you think that the computers would want a few remaining people about?
http://www.computersthink.com/ [computersthink.com]
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Quiet. :)
I can't wait to see the ads (Score:2)
a mobile device in your hand or a mini computer on your wrist, "will be an intelligent assistant helping you recieve the best advertising throughout the day."
Oh man, I am looking forward to seeing all those great ads
AIs, or Sentients? (Score:2)
When people say stuff like this, I wonder about what happens when the AI gets too good. "Smart" devices are fine, but once machines acquire sentience, they're going to need civil rights, or we will have created a comfy slave state for ourselves.
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There's absolutely no path forward from "really good at predicting human desires" to "autonomous agent worthy of respect as sentient."
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they really should just stop calling it AI, and maybe coin another phrase for interpreted behavior guesswork.
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Possibly you're correct, but prediction is hard. AI systems are showing pretty remarkable advancement beyond just "searching a huge decision tree" at this point.
No AI breakthrough (Score:3)
There hasn't been an AI breakthrough that will become a game changer. What there has been is a steady, relatively slow improvements over the years. Lisp, logic, resolution, prolog, expert systems, neural networks, constraint programming, robotics, symbolic computation, NLP, machine learning, deep learning, genetic algorithms, SAT solvers... each of these have allowed us to solve problems that before were considered intractable. There remains a world of other problems which we have no idea how to solve, e.g. a decent walking robot as embarrassingly proven by the Atlas robot in the Darpa competition.
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without much thought put into it, i can imagine that a tractable simulation of an AI girlfriendexperiance will end human suffering...
Lifetime (Score:2)
I'm starting to not give a crap about tech. (Score:5, Informative)
Stick this in your pod bay door (Score:2)
In related news, IBM Watson said, "Kill all humans".
Google CEO Predicts Ad-Fueled Future (Score:1)
That's how I read it initially. I don't need any help from Google to get through my day.
So that people cannot get through the day alone? (Score:5, Insightful)
Because this sounds very much like a promise to make everybody even more infantile, incompetent and dependent on some digital moron to tell them what to do. "Idiocracy" comes to mind.
Not just AI the way you think (Score:1)
I was discussing this with some of my colleagues, and pointing out that the software-driven homework websites will become AI bots that can handle a wider range of inputs, as the current artificial limitations of how one expresses formulae are due to back compatibility, and not what "should" exist by 2020.
The main thing is to limit their ability to adjust personality to match people, as that is how people drive them crazy, but to allow for different input templates that aren't as limited as the current ones.
My present is fueled by AI as well (Score:2)