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AI may be default ‘kingmaker’ this year in biggest-ever worldwide elections
By Ben Armour | Jun 13, 2024
While AI’s presence in elections has some benefits, such as connecting with voters, these are vastly outweighed by drawbacks such as widespread disinformation. Governments and AI companies are also not doing enough to combat the problem, argues The Yuan’s contributor Ben Armour.
Japanese anime, manga offer hints as to ‘apocalyptic’ AI, robots
Western films and cartoons tend to play up apocalyptic fears in their portrayals of AI, robotics, and other advanced tech, but Japanese anime and manga show how these might just end up blending in and becoming part of people’s everyday lives, argues AI ethicist Tomoko Mitsuoka.
Will AI one day become conscious or sentient? Nicholas Humphrey weighs in
The Yuan and the London Futurist recently sat down with Nicholas Humphrey, Emeritus Professor of Psychology at the London School of Economics and Bye Fellow at Darwin College, Cambridge. His latest book, Sentience: The Invention of Consciousness explores the emergence and role of consciousness from various perspectives.
The world must navigate, embrace technological innovation, peer review
Plenty of scientific papers and patents are being published, but more disruption, greater creativity, and more high-risk, high-reward research are needed. Understanding the peer review paradox may hold the key to unlocking this, argues Adnexus Biotechnologies Inc CEO Dr Gaurav Chandra.
Innovation and Collaboration Take Center Stage at Reuters Pharma Conference 2024
The Reuters pharma conference is a central platform for pharma executives, patient advocacy groups, and other healthcare experts to share insights, exchange ideas, and be informed about evolving trends within the pharma industry, reports The Yuan contributor Oladimeji Ewumi.
Companies should do more to encourage employees to be excited about AI
As AI continues driving wholesale change, ordinary employees and others who might lose out naturally resist such upheaval. The situation is not all bad, however, and perceptions might change if workers became more aware of reasons to be excited, argues strategy Prof Timo Vuori.
Stay tuned for The Yuan’s brain science themed webinar this July!The Yuan recently ran a three-week series of articles from April 1 to April 19, with topics examining the intersection of neuroscience and AI. The series was a great success and will be followed up in July by a webinar featuring some of the series’ outstanding contributors.
Genome of Greece is a paradigm for large-scale genomic medicine projectsThe integration of genomics is crucial for healthcare to become more personalized, and the Genome of Greece initiative is helping do just that, writes Pharmacogenomics and Pharmaceutical Biotech Prof George P. Patrinos, of the University of Patras, Greece.
Prof Robert Skidelsky shares thoughts on Keynes, AI, and the future of work
The Yuan recently sat down with Robert Skidelsky, a member of the British House of Lords and Professor Emeritus of Political Economy at Warwick University, for his thoughts on some of the world’s most pressing issues, including the future of AI, work, government policy, and more.
Who needs governments? AI prompts the question already on the minds of many
The world is seriously underachieving, and countries everywhere must now redouble their efforts to attract FDI, make full use of their entrepreneurs and other talents, and take advantage of the opportunities AI provides. Naseem Javed, an expert on new ways of thinking, weighs in.
How a public-private consortium could lead to democratic global AI governance
An open and democratic public-private consortium for AI would sustain growth, transparency, and competition, while averting an over-concentration of power and AI safety risks, argues Trustless Computing Association founder and President Rufo Guerreschi.
The Yuan favorites
Cognition
Companies should do more to encourage employees to be excited about AI
As AI continues driving wholesale change, ordinary employees and others who might lose out naturally resist such upheaval. The situation is not all bad, however, and perceptions might change if workers became more aware of reasons to be excited, argues strategy Prof Timo Vuori.
Cognition
An AI apocalypse may seem inevitable, but can still be prevented
Fears of being rendered obsolete by machines or other new tech have lurked for hundreds of years, but are now resurfacing as AI becomes ever more sophisticated. Such jitters proved overblown in the past, but could this time be different? Prof Robert Skidelsky weighs in.
Cognition
Creator tweaks LLM ‘Hallucination Detector’ to better flag confabulations
A ‘Hallucination Detector’ is 60% spot-on at flagging LLM phantasms, says AI and ML researcher Lloyd Watts, PhD, founder, CEO, and Chief Scientist at Neocortix and Audience, who is redoubling his efforts to fine tune the program (republished with permission from a LinkedIn post).
Cognition
Looking ahead, OpenAI’s got 9.9 problems, and Twitch ain’t one
While late 2022 and 2023 were heady times for ChatGPT’s creator OpenAI, the AI darling faces many serious challenges in 2024 as its momentum slows and cracks in its business model become more apparent, argues best-selling AI author, entrepreneur, and professor Gary Marcus.
Post-pandemic
How different countries leveraged the power of AI to navigate COVID-19
This first part of a series explores how AI helped the world weather COVID-19 and at least partially cushion its impact. While the pandemic exposed many shortcomings, it also shed light on future improvements. Biomedical engineer and med-tech innovator Anjali Rajan presents a glimpse into popular AI applications in pandemic management deployed by five countries.
Post-pandemic
Lessons learned during the pandemic must never be forgotten
As the COVID-19 pandemic fades into the past, people are eager to put it behind them and move on with their lives. However, the lessons taught by the pandemic must be remembered to prevent such a disaster from happening again.
Post-pandemic
Deep learning is a great tool for automatically detecting COVID-19
Intelligent methods help medical professionals detect and diagnose COVID-19 more quickly and so expedite treatment for patients suffering from severe cases, as ear, nose, and throat specialist Dr Mehrnaz Ataei and genetic and healthcare ML developer Dr Sara Moein succinctly explain.
Post-pandemic
A viable path out of the pandemic is crucial
Most people now act as if COVID-19 is over, yet the virus remains active and dangerous. The limited ability of current vaccines and drugs to prevent infection or treat long-COVID means much more must be done before the threat posed by this pathogen is truly a thing of the past.
Game-changers
Japanese anime, manga offer hints as to ‘apocalyptic’ AI, robots
Western films and cartoons tend to play up apocalyptic fears in their portrayals of AI, robotics, and other advanced tech, but Japanese anime and manga show how these might just end up blending in and becoming part of people’s everyday lives, argues AI ethicist Tomoko Mitsuoka.
Game-changers
Will AI one day become conscious or sentient? Nicholas Humphrey weighs in
The Yuan and the London Futurist recently sat down with Nicholas Humphrey, Emeritus Professor of Psychology at the London School of Economics and Bye Fellow at Darwin College, Cambridge. His latest book, Sentience: The Invention of Consciousness explores the emergence and role of consciousness from various perspectives.
Game-changers
The world must navigate, embrace technological innovation, peer review
Plenty of scientific papers and patents are being published, but more disruption, greater creativity, and more high-risk, high-reward research are needed. Understanding the peer review paradox may hold the key to unlocking this, argues Adnexus Biotechnologies Inc CEO Dr Gaurav Chandra.
Game-changers
VR, geolocation in 3D Earth metaverses upend gaming, education, commerce
The surge of VR and metaverses has recently ebbed, but the tideline separating virtual worlds from the real one is blurring as new tech allows users to experience our planet, gaming and other areas of endeavor in novel ways, writes thought leader Alina Tudorache.
Emerging markets
Innovation and Collaboration Take Center Stage at Reuters Pharma Conference 2024
The Reuters pharma conference is a central platform for pharma executives, patient advocacy groups, and other healthcare experts to share insights, exchange ideas, and be informed about evolving trends within the pharma industry, reports The Yuan contributor Oladimeji Ewumi.
Emerging markets
Warren Buffett strikes a gloomy note over AI at his company’s annual confab
Warren Buffett, the éminence grise of investment, took the occasion of his company shareholders’ meeting to air his views on AI - part upbeat and part desponding. Though concededly no AI maven, Buffet’s remarks made waves nonetheless as he voiced his hopes and fears for the tech.
Emerging markets
Market power is permanent even with intense technological competition
Contrary to what one might think, the competition and ceaseless innovation that are hallmarks of today’s globalized, digital, hyperconnected world are actually increasing and entrenching market power for large, established players, argues Stanford economics prof Mordecai Kurz.
Emerging markets
AI octopus flexes its tentacles to entrench Big Tech’s hegemony
No end looms in sight to Big Tech companies’ chokehold on the digital economy, and AI’s steady rise bids fair to buttress this trend based on these corporate leviathans’ access to data and knowledge of consumer and business behavior, argues author and Law Prof Eric Posner.
Domain knowledge
Tim O’Reilly on AI development, regulation, copyright lawsuits, and more
Tech entrepreneur, professor, and author Tim O’Reilly - a major influencer in the world of AI and the driving force behind open source and Web 2.0 - recently sat down with The Yuan to give his thoughts regarding the most pressing tech-related issues facing the world today.
Domain knowledge
Can AI deliver long-awaited breakthroughs in assessing stroke risk?
Medical professionals toil hard to gauge stroke risk among aging populations earlier and more accurately. Incremental improvements have come, but big breakthroughs remain elusive as lack of access to care and AI jitters thwart efforts, as Harvard Med Fellow Rohit Agrawal, MD, MPH explains.
Domain knowledge
5G-driven AI, ML forecast traffic snarls within an ever-expanding range
AI, ML, and 5G are allying to achieve breakthroughs in traffic pattern management, easing congestion, and making highways everywhere safer, smarter, and more efficient. Purva Joshi, a PhD candidate in Healthtech at the University of Pisa, gives the green light to future mobility.
Domain knowledge
AI is advancing preventive medicine, promoting better health
AI draws much attention for transforming areas of healthcare such as cancer treatments and surgery, but its greatest impact lies in keeping more people healthy so they do not need such intervention, argues Ahmed Zahlan, a Fulbright Scholar doing his PhD on AI healthcare startups.
Generic
When, why is AI to hang in public, and what will then ensue?
With buzzwords like AI whizzing around and pundits everywhere predicting humanity’s imminent demise, it is easy to forget that many other trends have come and gone. The world should instead take a deep breath and put things in perspective, argues thought leader Naseem Javed.
Generic
Characters, data, stable power may give China the edge over US in AI stakes
China and the US are locked head-to-head in a struggle for primacy in global AI. Many factors will come to bear in deciding the outcome, but China’s intrinsic advantages in data, energy, and the nature of the Chinese language itself may prove decisive, two The Yuan editors argue.
Generic
AI might seem like HR’s savior, but it can also be a saboteur
Companies increasingly rely on AI to recruit and hire new talent, and the tech might soon be used to decide which employees to fire too. At first glance, this seems good because it reduces workloads for HR employees, but it is also controversial, writes Prof Koen Dewettinck.
Generic
AI WWI raging in Ukraine will by no means be the last
The use of AI is burgeoning in armed conflicts great and small all around the world, but most notably nowadays in Ukraine. Although still subject to technical limits, the tech looks set to soon transcend these, as warfare once again proves to be the real ‘mother of invention.’
Delta dialog
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Special reports
Can ‘AI’ outsmart humans? That depends on how one defines ‘smart’
Whether machines will ever outsmart humans is a question of the use of language and the inadequacy of programming because, on their own, machines are not clever, says Nigel Morris-Cotterill, author of The Yuan’s ‘Imaginary Friends’ series, on day 14 of The Yuan’s voyage of intelligent discovery.
Assumptions underlying AI outsmarting humans are flawed
Day six of The Yuan’s voyage of intelligent discovery makes landfall at Massachusetts Bay. Boston was founded in 1630 by Puritan settlers fleeing religious persecution in England and named for a town in the east of the mother country from which many hailed. The Pilgrim Fathers hoped to create a ‘city on a hill’ - a radiant model of a godly society for the world. They saw their flight as a fight between good and evil. ‘Good AI’ may one day ally with humanity to combat ‘evil AI,’ in the view of David H. Freedman, an award-winning science journalist covering health and technology, contributor to Scientific American and Forbes, and author of a book on AI, who calls into question the very assumptions underpinning a time when AI outwits humans.
Purpose and intent: AI predictions, prescriptions, and causation in medicine
This is an introduction of a nine-part series on predictive and prescriptive AI and ML models in medicine. It introduces key terminology, shows how analytics are used, and the differing levels of human intervention needed, and highlights how clinicians working with AI and ML achieve optimal results, as data science expert and It’s All Analytics founder Scott Burk expounds.
The Yuan fetes the second anniversary of its founding, razes its paywall
As The Yuan celebrates our second anniversary, our Chief Editor Wang Shifeng briefly reviews AI developments over the past two years, and announces that our paywall has ended, as we are shifting from a paid subscription model, to a voluntary contribution plan to defray our costs.
Digital longevity will mean retiring to the Cloud to live forever
Humans’ physical bodies wear out and break down over time. Many ongoing studies seek to slow or even reverse aging, and while these may eventually bear fruit, preserving one’s digital self might be more easily achievable, writes Phil Newman, CEO and founder of Longevity Technology.
Imaginary Friends 6: The circles of an imaginary mind
As our four imaginary friends feted the New Year, they end this series by spreading cheer with examples of AI’s failures that may have ruined or caused lives to be lost. Their moral is blunt: Never unloose AI unless it is under adult supervision and subject to actual intelligence.
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