Future Technology Headlines

The Most Interesting Articles, Web Sites, Pictures, and Videos of The Week

September 19, 2016

Original image credit: By ÁWá (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons

AI To The Rescue?

A blog post in The Huffington Post from James Canton, former Apple executive, caught my attention because I have been viewing artificial intelligence increasingly as a technology that, at first, will help boost corporate profits by replacing humans at almost every job level and sector, and later, will surpass human intelligence--and I'm not looking forward to that day either.

Can A.I. be helpful to humanity? Of course, but only if we develop it to do so. My human intuition suggests that the most powerful A.I. programs are being developed for profit, and to outthink the enemy. So, it is great that I am reminded that there is good possibilities out there. Check out: The AI Dividend: Shaping the Future of Civilization.

Just like artificial Intelligence, virtual reality (VR) has the potential to be a real game changer, offering benefit and bane to humankind, depending on how we choose to use it. The state of the technology today allows you to watch a live sporting event or visit an art museum you would otherwise never get the chance to see. And, as shown in technology news this week, it will also let you go on a virtual reality date, and make inapproriate advances to a VR mannequin. Hmmm... I wonder where this technology is headed?