In this edition, the top news starts with:  In another step towards getting AI onto the battlefield and to remove humanity from the loop (because that is, of course, a good thing), DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) is looking at AI systems that can be used to ‘get inside’ the heads of the enemy in gray zone conflicts… in a blindingly obvious gray area, this sort of logic will further ensure the coming machine overlords.

https://www.armytimes.com/news/your-army/2018/03/27/darpa-to-use-artificial-intelligence-to-help-commanders-in-gray-zone-conflicts/

It is becoming clear that AI cannot be treated in the trivial manner that most tech startups act… ‘fail fast’.  While wise generally, this does create AI fear mongering indirectly by suggesting startup companies should not follow conventional wisdom in their operations and planning and delivery when using AI.

https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/308925

In a recent post in Forbes, they pointed out that the top countries, in terms of AI research, include Mother Russia, the United States, China, Japan, Israel and even Canada and, amazingly enough, ‘Estonia’?  Talk about coming out of nowhere.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2017/12/05/these-seven-countries-are-in-a-race-to-rule-the-world-with-ai

Researchers at Purdue University found a clear polymer that conducts electricity.  Along with transparent aluminum, we are getting ever more interesting materials to build new and unique things.

https://newatlas.com/transparent-conductive-polymer

Nvidia is now building an AI supercomputer running at 2 petaflops.  This is based on GPU technology focused on AI applications.

https://mashable.com/2018/03/27/nvidia-unveils-ai-supercomputer

In another obvious point, an article from hackernoon points out that AI as most people know it won’t be conscious; but seem to confuse the machine learning guys and the AGI crowd and ignores real AGI cognitive architectures.

https://hackernoon.com/can-artificial-intelligence-be-conscious-e316c2ac4769

We frequently talk about or make fun of AI in one way or the other; but, keep in mind that it is helping improve lives. Recent JAMIA posts include the use of deep learning in spotting heart failure but, overall, there are so many improvements that have happened, or are coming, based on this sort of machine learning that it’s too much to mention.

https://www.futurity.org/deep-learning-heart-failure-1707242/

Watson and Intel still top Bing ads, both are first and third respectively on Google Ads.

Lastly, the Singularity Index or S.I. is up slightly at 945.08, even though the NASDAQ had been down.