Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Optimism as Artificial Intelligence Pioneers Reunite



Just a short link to an article of the New York Times about AI.

In 1978, Dr. McCarthy wrote, “human-level A.I. might require 1.7 Einsteins, 2 Maxwells, 5 Faradays and .3 Manhattan Projects.”

I think we probably have the genius scientists around, but not so sure about the 0.3 Manhattan Projects!

Update: You might also want to read latest Shane Legg's predictions about human level artificial intelligence.

Monday, December 7, 2009

TEDx Geneva

Today I assisted to the first edition of TEDx Geneva. This was a locally-organized event following the same spirit of the original TED talks: "ideas worth spreading".
I think the program was really good, because in this region there are some many incredible organizations. He could listen to people from CERN, EPFL, the United Nations, the Red Cross and some independent Swiss adventurers and entrepreneurs. We also had the opportunity to (re)watch some videos of the most popular TED talks recorded in the US.
All the speakers spoke in English, which in my opinion degraded the level of their presentations, simply because it's not their native language. Even if one is relatively fluent, it's always harder to make jokes and be entertaining. The event was also a bit too long, covering the full day.

Still, I greatly appreciated the experience and recommend it to others!