Tag Archives: Artificial Intelligence

Cyborgs and I

Professor Kevin Warwick’s main research areas are artificial intelligence, biomedical systems, robotics and cyborgs. Due to his research as a self-experimenter he is frequently referred to as the world’s first Cyborg. His experiments into implant technology led to him being featured as the cover story on the US magazine, ‘Wired’. He achieved the world’s first direct electronic communication between two human nervous systems, the basis for thought communication. Another project extended human sensory input to include ultrasonics. He also linked his nervous system with the internet in order to control a robot hand directly from his neural signals, across the Atlantic Ocean. In this exclusive interview he discusses his ideas and work on AI, robotics and the future of humans ‘plugging’ into technology.

‘Machine folk’ music composed by AI shows technology’s creative side

Bob Sturm is a Lecturer in Digital Media at the School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science, Queen Mary University of London, specialising in audio and music signal processing, machine listening, and evaluation. Oded Ben-Tal is a composer with complementary research interests at the intersection of Music, Cognition, and Computing. His compositions range from instrumental works to interactive pieces combining live performers with electronics, and include multimedia collaborations with artist from other domains such as video, dance, and visual design.

AI and Neurography

Mario Klingemann is an artist working with algorithms, data and artificial neural networks. He investigates the possibilities that machine learning and artificial intelligence offer in understanding how creativity, culture and their perception work. He has worked part-time as an artist in residence at Google Arts and Culture since early 2016 and is a prominent member of a new school of artists who are turning neural network technology inside out. In this exclusive interview he discusses his ideas and work.

AI and Consciousness

Keith Frankish is a philosopher and writer. He is an Honorary Reader in Philosophy at the University of Sheffield, a Visiting Research Fellow (formerly Senior Lecturer) at The Open University, and an Adjunct Professor with the Brain and Mind Program in Neurosciences at the University of Crete. His interests lie mainly in philosophy of mind, and he is well known for defending an illusionist view of phenomenal consciousness and a two-level theory of the human mind. In this exclusive interview he discusses his ideas on the relationship between Artificial Intelligence and Consciousness.

Creativity in the Age of Machines

Arthur I. Miller is fascinated by the nature of creative thinking – the mind’s ability to transform information from everyday experiences into the most sublime works of art, literature, music and science. Professor Emeritus at University College London, he is currently completing a book on AI and creativity in art, literature and music, ‘Mozart’s Flute: Genius and Creativity in the Age of Machines’.

Portraits of Imaginary People

Mike Tyka studied Biochemistry and Biotechnology at the University of Bristol. He obtained his PhD in Biophysics in 2007 and went on to work as a research fellow at the University of Washington and has been studying the structure and dynamics of protein molecules. Since 2015 he has also begun working with artificial neural networks as an artistic medium and tool. His latest generative portraits series “Portraits of Imaginary People” has been shown at ARS Electronica in Linz, OutOfSight 2017 and at the New Musueum in Karuizawa, Japan. Mike currently works on machine learning at Google in Seattle.

Creating Artificial Consciousness

Ryota Kanai PhD is a neuroscientist working on the computational principles underlying consciousness and the brain, and the founder and CEO of an AI startup, Araya, Inc. in Tokyo. His goal is to create artificial consciousness using intrinsic motivation, deep neural networks, and integrated information while taking inspirations from neuroscience. He formerly led a cognitive neuroscience lab at Sackler Centre for Consciousness Science at the University of Sussex. In this exclusive interview he discusses his ideas and work in trying to understand consciousness by creating it.

AI and the idea of the human: myth, metaphor and agency

AI challenges fundamental concepts such as the human and the machine. Myth, metaphor, and generally the languages of art and literature as well as philosophy can be helpful in thinking through the challenges of AI when the languages of science, technology and commerce fail. The paper examines the enduring value of Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein in considering the questions of AI. The impact of AI upon human agency is also discussed. Without ways of thinking about, and grappling with a phenomenon as far reaching and transformative as AI, humans risk unintended, unforseen and perhaps unwelcome consequences of their technologies.