Insights March 8th, 2017


Each week on a Wednesday Nikolas Badminton, Futurist highlights the top stories from the past week relating to the incredible rise of artificial intelligence and its application in society, the workplace, in cities, and in our lives.
In Artificial Intelligence Bulletin – Detecting Cancer we see Google’s AI detecting cancer more accurately than doctors, Baidu’s Andrew Ng on how they use AI, how AI will change everything, and should economists be scared of AI?

Google’s Artificial Intelligence Detects Cancer Faster Than Doctors

Google has found an unexpected use for one of its self-driving car technologies: tumor hunting. A statement from the tech titan claims that their detection software is significantly more thorough and accurate than an ordinary human doctor.

“Metastasis detection is currently performed by pathologists reviewing large expanses of biological tissues… This process requires highly skilled pathologists and is fairly time-consuming and error-prone,” wrote a team of Google scientists in a white paper detailing their findings. “Computer assisted detection of lymph node metastasis could increase the sensitivity, speed, and consistency of metastasis detection.”
The technology comes in the form of learning software that is taught to examine slides for the presence of tumors. “We present a framework to automatically detect and localise tumours as small as 100 ×100 pixels in gigapixel microscopy images sized 100,000×100,000 pixels,” the team wrote.

Read more at Sputnik International

How Artificial Intelligence Will Change Everything

Baidu’s Andrew Ng and Singularity’s Neil Jacobstein say this time, the hype about artificial intelligence is real.

Andrew Ng, chief scientist at Chinese internet giant Baidu Inc. and co-founder of education startup Coursera, and Neil Jacobstein, chair of the artificial intelligence and robotics department at Silicon Valley think tank Singularity University, sat down with The Wall Street Journal’s Scott Austin to discuss AI’s opportunities and challenges.

Read more at The Wall Street Journal

Should economists be scared about Artificial Intelligence?

Some economists have argued that, like past technical change, this will not create large-scale unemployment, as labour gets reallocated.
However, many technologists are less optimistic about the employment implications of AI. In this blog post we argue that the potential for simultaneous and rapid disruption, coupled with the breadth of human functions that AI might replicate, may have profound implications for labour markets.
We conclude that economists should seriously consider the possibility that millions of people may be at risk of unemployment, should these technologies be widely adopted.
Read more at Eyewitness News

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Futurist Keynote Speaker and Consultant - Nikolas Badminton

CEO of EXPONENTIAL MINDS and an award-winning Futurist Speaker, researcher and author. His expertise and thought leadership will guide you from complacency to thinking exponentially, planning for longevity, and encouraging a culture of innovation. You will then establish resiliency and abundance in your organization. Please reach out to discuss how he can help you, and read on to see what is happening in the world this week.

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