Marvin Minsky, Pioneer in Artificial Intelligence, Dies at 88

Marvin Minsky
Marvin Minsky

Marvin Minsky, who combined a scientist’s thirst for knowledge with a philosopher’s quest for truth as a pioneering explorer of artificial intelligence, work that helped inspire the creation of the personal computer and the Internet, died on Sunday night in Boston. He was 88.

Well before the advent of the microprocessor and the supercomputer, Professor Minsky, a revered computer science educator at M.I.T., laid the foundation for the field of artificial intelligence by demonstrating the possibilities of imparting common-sense reasoning to computers.

You can read more on Minsky in this New York Times article.

 

Preface for the World Economic Forum’s session “What if Robots go to War”

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You can follow the debate on automated weapons and killer machines in the session What if: Robots go to War? from Davos 2016 program.

The moral and legal dilemmas of using autonomous systems in armed conflict are of the outmost importance and a worthy subject for the World Economic Forum, which took place last weekend in Davos, Switzerland.

Is it morally justifiable to leave life and death decisions to a machine? Are soldiers and commanders able to meet the complex demands of moral and legal conduct in war by using tele-operated system in battle, and furthermore will these machine become capable of complying with these rules themselves? Continue reading Preface for the World Economic Forum’s session “What if Robots go to War”

Master and Servant

 

Screen Shot 2015-12-08 at 10.51.30 AMAn interview with IIIM director, Kristinn R. Thórisson, in Iceland Review. He met journalist Mica Allan to talk about the rapid technological enhancements in AI and how IIIM seeks to brings together leading forces in academia and industry to foster the exchange of ideas and inventions and thus built a bridge between academia and industry, which are interdependent. He also speaks of IIIM’s unique stand when it comes to ethical matters by refusing to use military funding for their research and development and the futuristic idea of artificial intelligence taking over the world.

Read the Article

Catalyzing innovation and high-technology research in Iceland