Kurzweil 2012 Awards Interview

Kristinn R. Thórisson, IIIM Managing Director, and his collaborators Helgi Páll Helgason and Eric Nivel, received the 2012 Kurzweil Award for Best AGI Idea at this year’s AGI conference at Oxford University in Cambridge. We interviewed two of the paper’s authors, Helgi Páll Helgason and Kristinn R. Thórisson, regarding the award and what the next steps in their research will entail.

On Attention Mechanisms for AGI Architectures

Helgi Pall photograph
Helgi Páll Helgason.

The paper, titled “On Attention Mechanisms for AGI Architectures: A Design Proposal” (download from Mindmakers.org), presents arguments for super-intelligent artificial agents needing what we generally think of “attention”, and presents a blueprint for how to achieve the design and implementation of such attention mechanisms.

What significance does this award have for your future research?
Helgi: This is an invaluable validation of our work up to this point and strong motivation to further pursue research on control mechanisms and resource allocation for AGI’s. Our chances of getting our voices heard in the scientific community, finding funding for future research as well as new collaborators are also positively impacted by the award. Continue reading Kurzweil 2012 Awards Interview

IIIM Director and RU scientists Receive 2012 Kurzweil Award

Oxford AGI 2012
Oxford University.

Kristinn R. Thórisson, IIIM Managing Director, and his collaborators Helgi Páll Helgason and Eric Nivel, have received the 2012 Kurzweil Award for Best AGI Idea. The prize was awarded for their research on attention mechanisms, and to one other paper, at this year’s AGI conference at Oxford University in Cambridge. The award was founded by the author and inventor Ray Kurzweil, who was recently appointed Google’s Director of Engineering, and is sponsored by KurzweilAI.net. Continue reading IIIM Director and RU scientists Receive 2012 Kurzweil Award

Rise of AI in Iceland: H+ Magazine Interview with the Thorisson Brothers who Helped Make it Happen

Recently, h+ Magazine published an article by Ben Goertzel titled “Land of Fire, Ice and Thinking Machines: The Recent Rise of AI in Iceland, and an Interview with the Thorisson Brothers who Helped Make it Happen”. In the article the author reviews the recent history of AI in Iceland and presents an interview with Kristinn R. Thórisson and Hrafn Thorri Thórisson. In this interview they go into some detail on their own backgrounds and ideas, as well as the rise of Icelandic AI. This article makes an interesting read for both those who are curious about AI and the connoisseurs of the field.  Continue reading Rise of AI in Iceland: H+ Magazine Interview with the Thorisson Brothers who Helped Make it Happen

Call for Papers – General Intelligence in Embodied Agents: Special Session in IEEE Symposium on Human-Level AI

A conference session on General Intelligence in Embodied Agents, as part of an IEEE Symposium on Human-Level AI will be held April 15-19, 2013 in Singapore.

Call for Papers: PAPER SUBMISSION DEADLINE: November 23, no extensions given.

Continue reading Call for Papers – General Intelligence in Embodied Agents: Special Session in IEEE Symposium on Human-Level AI

Catalyzing innovation and high-technology research in Iceland