Tuesday, May 26, 2015
Sunday, May 24, 2015
New ‘deep learning’ technique enables robot mastery of skills via trial and error
http://newscenter.berkeley.edu/2015/05/21/deep-learning-robot-masters-skills-via-trial-and-error/
It's interesting how the process is more like how a human fumbles with something than the precision we associate with robots.
It's interesting how the process is more like how a human fumbles with something than the precision we associate with robots.
A concept for a thermal space solar power satellite
Too vulnerable to terrorism and space debris, I think, but an interesting addition to the options for replacing fossil fuels:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-Lrj35HcbQ&feature=youtu.be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q-Lrj35HcbQ&feature=youtu.be
Thursday, May 21, 2015
Monday, May 18, 2015
Google plans to test its new self-driving vehicle prototypes on Mt. View roads
Friday, May 15, 2015
System designed to label visual scenes according to type turns out to detect particular objects, too
http://newsoffice.mit.edu/2015/visual-scenes-object-recognition-0508
The most fascinating section to me:
“Deep learning works very well, but it’s very hard to understand why it works — what is the internal representation that the network is building,” says Antonio Torralba, an associate professor of computer science and engineering at MIT and a senior author on the new paper. “It could be that the representations for scenes are parts of scenes that don’t make any sense, like corners or pieces of objects. But it could be that it’s objects: To know that something is a bedroom, you need to see the bed; to know that something is a conference room, you need to see a table and chairs. That’s what we found, that the network is really finding these objects.”
I suspect the road to full general A.I. will be littered with many such "we don't know how it's doing this" sentiments.
The most fascinating section to me:
“Deep learning works very well, but it’s very hard to understand why it works — what is the internal representation that the network is building,” says Antonio Torralba, an associate professor of computer science and engineering at MIT and a senior author on the new paper. “It could be that the representations for scenes are parts of scenes that don’t make any sense, like corners or pieces of objects. But it could be that it’s objects: To know that something is a bedroom, you need to see the bed; to know that something is a conference room, you need to see a table and chairs. That’s what we found, that the network is really finding these objects.”
I suspect the road to full general A.I. will be littered with many such "we don't know how it's doing this" sentiments.
Thursday, May 14, 2015
Tuesday, May 12, 2015
Solar power is booming. But is it booming fast enough?
http://www.csmonitor.com/Environment/Energy/2015/0505/Solar-power-is-booming.-But-is-it-booming-fast-enough
We can only hope that as prices drop, people will demand it faster and faster until there's simply no upside to fossil fuel plants.
We can only hope that as prices drop, people will demand it faster and faster until there's simply no upside to fossil fuel plants.
Google Blames Humans for Accidents Involving Its Self-Driving Cars
http://time.com/3854528/google-self-driving-cars-accidents/?xid=newsletter-brief
Over 700 thousand driverless test miles in California and Nevada, and 1.7 million total miles so far, with only 11 minor accidents, apparently all caused by human error. Not bad. Now if they can just make the price of a robot car affordable to all....
Over 700 thousand driverless test miles in California and Nevada, and 1.7 million total miles so far, with only 11 minor accidents, apparently all caused by human error. Not bad. Now if they can just make the price of a robot car affordable to all....
Thursday, May 7, 2015
Wednesday, May 6, 2015
Tuesday, May 5, 2015
Sunday, May 3, 2015
Saturday, May 2, 2015
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)