Lifeboat Foundation

Ubiquitous, mobile supercomputing. Artificially-intelligent robots. Self-driving cars. Neuro-technological brain enhancements. Genetic editing. The evidence of dramatic change is all around us and it’s happening at exponential speed.

Previous industrial revolutions liberated humankind from animal power, made mass production possible and brought digital capabilities to billions of people. This Fourth Industrial Revolution is, however, fundamentally different. It is characterized by a range of new technologies that are fusing the physical, digital and biological worlds, impacting all disciplines, economies and industries, and even challenging ideas about what it means to be human.

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An Israeli medical imaging company has signed a deal with a Utah-based healthcare provider that could change the way we diagnose certain conditions. Zebra Medical Imaging is teaming up with Intermountain to work on a neural network that will compare fresh X-rays with the “millions” stored in its own database. The eventual aim of the project is to offer up suggestions to radiographers and other medical professionals and eliminate costly misdiagnoses.

For instance, let’s imagine that you’ve gone to hospital for some unknown condition and you get an X-ray. Rather than handing the slide to a doctor, who could miss a small shadow or other minor clue, the image would be handed to the computer. It would use deep learning to trawl an anonymized patient database looking for any anomalies that you might be suffering from. The current system will work on bone health, cardiovascular analysis and lung conditions, although who knows where the possibilities will end.

As deep learning technology gets more powerful, smaller and significantly cheaper, the potential for AI to assist doctors becomes more realistic. IBM has spent the last few years pushing Watson, its homegrown supercomputer, as a system to aid decision making for patients. At the same time, companies like LG are trying to shrink medical imaging technology to end the days of bulky hospital equipment being available for a chosen few. All in all, the idea of a medical tricorder is going from fantastical to plausible in less time than you’d expect.

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https://youtube.com/watch?v=jf7D8snlsnQ

IBM Research has announced that effective Wednesday May 4, it is making quantum computing available free to members of the public, who can access and run experiments on IBM’s quantum processor, via the IBM Cloud, from any desktop or mobile device.

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QC meets Blockchaining; nice.

CoinFac Limited, a technology company, has recently introduced the next generation quantum computing technology into cryptocurrency mining, allowing current Bitcoin and Altcoin miners to enjoy a 4,000 times speed increase.

Quantum computing is being perceived as the next generation of supercomputers capable of processing dense digital information and generating multi-sequential algorithmic solutions 100,000 times faster than conventional computers. With each quantum computing server costing at an exorbitant price tag of $5 Million — $10 Million, this revolutionary concoction comprising advanced technological servers with a new wave of currency systems, brings about the most uprising event in the cryptocurrency ecosystem.

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Michio Kaku.

The 69-year-old bestselling author, theoretical physicist and futurist takes a longer, more pragmatic view, calling AI an end-of-the-century problem. He adds that even then, if humanity’s come up with no better methods to constrain rogue AI, it’ll be a matter of putting ‘a chip in [artificially intelligent robot] brains to shut them off.’

Artificial intelligence (AI) will end us, save us or—less jazzy-sounding but the more probable intersection of both—eventually obsolete us. From humbling chess grandmaster losses at the hands of mathematically brilliant supercomputers to semantic networks with the linguistic grasp of a four-year-old, one thing seems certain: AI is coming.

Continue reading “The World’s Smartest People Speak on Artificial Intelligence” »

It seems that the D-Wave Computer does work, and the theory is that the hardware is 3,600 times faster than other supercomputers. It is the nearest we have to quantum computing, and there have been two tests leading to the announcement that it was far more quickly than simulated annealing which is a copy of quantum computation carried out on a standard computer chip.

Eventually it will be in everything tech. This version by IBM; is not for the masses. However, don’t worry; it’s coming.

Users will eventually be able to contribute and review results in the coming community, which will be hosted on the IBM Quantum Experience. So kudos to IBM for properly managing expectations.

The researchers at IBM have created a quantum processor, made up of five superconducting quantum bits (qubits).

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Hmmm; my verdict is out for now.

IBM Quantum Computing Scientist Jay Gambetta uses a tablet to interact with the IBM Quantum Experience, the world’s first quantum computing platform delivered via the IBM Cloud at IBM’s T. J. Watson Research Center in Yorktown, NY.

On Wednesday, May 4, for the first time ever, IBM is making quantum computing available via the cloud to anyone interested in hands-on access to an IBM quantum processor, making it easier for researchers and the scientific community to accelerate innovations, and help discover new applications for this technology. This is the beginning of the quantum age of computing and the latest advance from IBM towards building a universal quantum computer. A universal quantum computer, once built, will represent one of the greatest milestones in the history of information technology and has the potential to solve certain problems we couldn’t solve, and will never be able to solve, with today’s classical computers. (Jon Simon/Feature Photo Service for IBM)

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I am totally jealous right now!

Australia opened a new quantum computing lab at the University of New South Wales (UNSW).

This follows the government’s $26-million investment in the Centre of Excellence for Quantum Computation & Communication Technology (CQC2T) as part of the National Innovation and Science Agenda. The government’s investment is supported by $10 million each from Telstra and the Commonwealth Bank of Australia (CBA).

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