Future Current

At the AGI-08 Conference on Artificial General Intelligence, Ben Goertzel presented on a paper by the speaker and Cassio Pennachin, in which series of hypotheses is proposed, connecting neural structures and dynamics with the formal structures and processes of probabilistic logic. In this framework, Hebbian learning at the synaptic level would be expected to have the implicit consequence of probabilistic deduction at the logical statement level.

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At AGI-08: The First Conference on Artificial General Intelligence, Ronald Arkin presented the second of three talks on the theory and formalisms for the implementation of an ethical control and reasoning system potentially suitable for constraining lethal actions in an autonomous robotic system. These controls are implemented so that they fall within the bounds prescribed by the Laws of War and Rules of Engagement, based upon extensions to existing deliberative/reactive autonomous robotic architectures. Part two of the series focused on Formalization of Ethical Control.

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Aubrey de Grey is the Chair and Chief Science Officer of the Methuselah Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to combating the aging process. In this talk presented at the February Silicon Valley transhumanist meetup, he outlined the several most notable developments in funding and research taking place at the Methuselah Foundation in late 2007 and early 2008.

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There are a wide variety of approaches to artificial intelligence. Yet interestingly we find that these can all be grouped into four broad categories: Silver Bullets, Core Values, Emergence, and Emulation. At AGI-08: The First Conference on Artificial General Intelligence, Jonathan Connell and Kenneth Livingston explained the methodological underpinnings of these categories and give examples of the type of work being pursued in each–understanding this spectrum of approaches can help defuse arguments between practitioners as well as elucidate common themes.

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Understanding why the original project of Artificial Intelligence is widely regarded as a failure and has been abandoned even by most of contemporary AI research itself may prove crucial to achieving synthetic intelligence. Here, Joscha Bach of the Institute for Cognitive Science, University of Osnabrück, Germany took a brief look at some principles that we might consider to be lessons from the past five decades of AI. The author’s own AI architecture, MicroPsi attempts to contribute to that discussion.

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