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 – A message from The White House we see the U.S. Administration’s report on AI, Obama lending his opinion, Expedia stepping up, and a discussion on ethics.

The (U.S.) Administration’s Report on the Future of Artificial Intelligence

oday, to ready the United States for a future in which Artificial Intelligence (AI) plays a growing role, the White House is releasing a report on future directions and considerations for AI called Preparing for the Future of Artificial Intelligence. This report surveys the current state of AI, its existing and potential applications, and the questions that progress in AI raise for society and public policy. The report also makes recommendations for specific further actions. A companion National Artificial Intelligence Research and Development Strategic Plan is also being released, laying out a strategic plan for Federally-funded research and development in AI.
Preparing for the Future of Artificial Intelligence details several policy opportunities raised by AI, including how the technology can be used to advance social good and improve government operations; how to adapt regulations that affect AI technologies, such as automated vehicles, in a way that encourages innovation while protecting the public; how to ensure that AI applications are fair, safe, and governable; and how to develop a skilled and diverse AI workforce.
Read more at Whitehouse.gov

Barack Obama Talks AI, Robo-Cars, and the Future of the World

IT’S HARD TO think of a single technology that will shape our world more in the next 50 years than artificial intelligence. As machine learning enables our computers to teach themselves, a wealth of breakthroughs emerge, ranging from medical diagnostics to cars that drive themselves. A whole lot of worry emerges as well. Who controls this technology? Will it take over our jobs? Is it dangerous? President Obama was eager to address these concerns. The person he wanted to talk to most about them? Entrepreneur and MIT Media Lab director Joi Ito. So I sat down with them in the White House to sort through the hope, the hype, and the fear around AI. That and maybe just one quick question about Star Trek.
Read more at WIRED

Expedia Plans to Use Artificial Intelligence for Customer Service

How does one of the largest players in global travel view the burgeoning field of artificial intelligence?
As the tech world salivates over its game-changing potential, Expedia Inc. CEO Dara Khosrowshahi said the company plans to first use artificial intelligence for customer service rather than for something like trip-planning.
“For me to be able to message Expedia on [Facebook] Messenger or text … ‘cancel my hotel booking in New York next week,’ it is a much more delightful experience than calling or even my getting on the website etc.,” Khosrowshahi said at Skift Global Forum in New York City last month.
While leisure travelers might take on average perhaps just one or two vacations annually, artificial intelligence isn’t practical at this point for travel research and planning because artificial intelligence needs huge amounts of data to work, Khosrowshahi argued.
“We are going to take it on the service side,” Khosrowshahi told the audience last month in a session with online travel founders. “I think the planning experience and build for AI [artificial intelligence] has a real challenge because you are going to get a lot of null results. The AI isn’t going to understand what you say.”
Read more at Skift

The ethics of our AI-enabled future

AI routines running under the hood of various digital services and products, and on personal computing devices—think Apple’s Siri and Microsoft’s Cortana—have been commonplace for a few years now. But Google Assistant, along with its predecessor and rival Amazon’s Alexa, is taking aim at something larger.
It’s a seductive vision—ubiquitous environmental AI able to respond to voice input anywhere in the house, sophisticated enough to understand natural language and context and carry on a conversation with the user in the process of offering information and performing tasks such as scheduling appointments or locking the door. The hubs currently take the form of small speakers—Google Home and Amazon Echo, powered by Assistant and Alexa, respectively—but this is the embryonic stage. Google’s ambition is to have multiple hubs or portals in the house. As the Internet of Things inches towards realization, every networked component in the environment—from televisions to refrigerators—could be part of this ecosystem. And others will follow suit; rumour has it Apple is working on its own offering.
Read more at Livemint

Nikolas Badminton, Futurist: Artificial Intelligence Keynote

Nikolas Badminton, Futurist talks about Artificial Intelligence, it’s history, it’s evolution, and how it can be practically applied in today’s world. Nikolas’ keynote was supported by COMMUNITECH and held in a packed house at the Tech Leadership Summit in 2016.

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Nikolas Badminton is a world-respected futurist speaker that researches, speaks, and writes about the future of work, how technology is affecting the workplace, how workers are adapting, the sharing economy, and how the world is evolving. He appears at conferences in Canada, USA, UK, and Europe. Email him to book him for your radio, TV show, or conference.