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 – Creating Beer and Harry Potter we see stories about AI creating new Harry Potter chapters, beer, Eurpean privacy clashes, and stopping a second Dallas from happening.

Harry Potter and the Artificial Intelligence

Max Deutsch trained a neural network using the first four Harry Potter books and then asked it to write its own chapter.

“The Malfoys!” said Hermione.
Harry was watching him. He looked like Madame Maxime. When she strode up the wrong staircase to visit himself.
“I’m afraid I’ve definitely been suspended from power, no chance – indeed?” said Snape. He put his head back behind them and read groups as they crossed a corner and fluttered down onto their ink lamp, and picked up his spoon. The doorbell rang. It was a lot cleaner down in London.
Hermione yelled. The party must be thrown by Krum, of course.
Harry collected fingers once more, with Malfoy. “Why, didn’t she never tell me. …” She vanished. And then, Ron, Harry noticed, was nearly right.
“Now, be off,” said Sirius, “I can’t trace a new voice.”

Rowling, your job is safe for now. Deutsch did the same thing with the Hamilton soundtrack…the result is not particularly good but that last line!
Read more at Kottke.org

Artificial Intelligence Is Setting Up the Internet for a Huge Clash With Europe

In April, the EU laid down new regulations for the collection, storage, and use of personal data, including online data. Ten years in the making and set to take affect in 2018, the General Data Protection Regulation guards the data of EU citizens even when collected by companies based in other parts of the world. It codifies the “right to be forgotten”, which lets citizens request that certain links not appear when their name is typed into Internet search engines. And it gives EU authorities the power to fine companies an enormous 20 million euro—or four percent of their global revenue—if they infringe.
But that’s not all. With a few paragraphs buried in the measure’s reams of bureaucrat-speak, the GDPR also restricts what the EU calls “automated individual decision-making.” And for the world’s biggest tech companies, that’s a potential problem. “Automated individual decision-making” is what neural networks do. “They’re talking about machine learning,” says Bryce Goodman, a philosophy and social science researcher at Oxford University who, together with a fellow Oxford researcher, recently published a paper exploring the potential effects of these new regulations.
Read more at WIRED

Startup Sells First Beer Brewed Via AI

The beers have already been through eleven iterations and have made it onto the market via the UBrew store in Bermondsey, London. There are currently four varieties on sale:

1. Golden AI – the origins are from a classic British golden ale recipe featuring Styrian Golding hops
2. Amber AI – derived from a British bitter, which has a darker appearance and stronger flavour, with a hint of grapefruit for a fresh taste of summer
3. Pale AI – derived from an American pale ale, this beer uses significant quantities of Cascade hops to give a uniquely hoppy taste
4. Black AI – a real marmite beer. Originally derived from a classic porter recipe, this beer has an incredibly strong smokey flavor that some people love and others hate…

“Contrary to popular belief, we don’t believe A.I. is going to take everyone’s jobs,”the founders say. “We believe the future is a place where A.I. augments humans’ skills. In this case we’re using A.I. to give our brewer superhuman skills, enabling them to test and receive feedback on our beer more quickly than ever before. This means we can respond to consumers’ changing tastes faster than traditional brewers.”

Read more at The Huffington Post

How artificial intelligence could help warn us of another Dallas

Go here and check it out.
Read more at Washington Post

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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.