 Some scholars of AI warn that the present technologies may never add up to "true" intelligence or "human" intelligence. But much of the world may not care about that. The British mathematician Alan Turing wrote in 1950, "I propose to consider the question, 'Can machines think?'" His inquiry framed the discussion for decades of artificial intelligence research. For a couple of generations of scientists contemplating AI, the question of whether "true" or "human" intelligence could be achieved was always an important part of the work. AI may now be at a turning point where such questions matter less and less to most people. The emergence of something called industrial AI in recent years may signal an end to such lofty preoccupations. AI has more capability today than at any time in the 66 years since the term AI was first coined by computer scientist John McCarthy. As a result, the industrialization of AI is shifting the focus from intelligence to achievement. Those achievements are remarkable. They include a system that can predict protein folding, AlphaFold, from Google's DeepMind unit, and the text generation program GPT-3 from startup OpenAI. Both of those programs hold tremendous industrial promise irrespective of whether anyone calls them intelligent. Among other things, AlphaFold holds the promise of designing novel forms of proteins, a prospect that has electrified the biology community. GPT-3 is rapidly finding its place as a system that can automate business tasks, such as responding to employee or customer queries in writing without human intervention. That practical success, driven by a prolific semiconductor field, led by chipmaker Nvidia, seems like it might outstrip the old preoccupation with intelligence. In no corner of industrial AI does anyone seem to care whether such programs are going to achieve intelligence. It is as if, in the face of practical achievements that demonstrate obvious worth, the old question, "But is it intelligent?" ceases to matter. As computer scientist Hector Levesque has written, when it comes to the science of AI versus technology, "Unfortunately, it is the technology of AI that gets all the attention." To be sure, the question of genuine intelligence does still matter to a handful of thinkers. In the past month, ZDNET has interviewed two prominent scholars who are very much concerned with that question. Yann LeCun, chief AI scientist at Facebook owner Meta Properties, spoke at length with ZDNET about a paper he put out this summer as a kind of think piece on where AI needs to go. LeCun expressed concern that the dominant work of deep learning today if it simply pursues its present course, will not achieve what he refers to as "true" intelligence, which includes things such as the ability of a computer system to plan a course of action using common sense. To learn more please visit OUR Forum.  Facebook parent Meta Platforms is making a huge investment in virtual reality, but its actual reality is looking like a real disaster. Meta shares tumbled 24% on Thursday to its lowest level in nearly four years following an earnings report that one Wall Street analyst described as a "train wreck." It's a far cry from the company's position nearly a year ago, when CEO Mark Zuckerberg on October 28, 2021, announced with great fanfare that Facebook was changing its name to Meta Platforms to emphasize its focus on the "metaverse." Last fall, Facebook was still riding high: Its market value reached a peak of more than $1 trillion in September 2021. Revenue and profits were surging as advertisers flocked to Facebook and Instagram to reach their billions of users. To be sure, practically the entire tech industry has taken a beating this year, but Meta's stock plunge has far outpaced the overall sector, with its shares down 67% from a year earlier compared with the tech-heavy Nasdaq's 31% slide over the same period. Meta's plunge translates into an eye-popping loss of about $700 billion in market value. On Thursday, Meta's market value sank to $268 billion, down from more than $1 trillion in September of 2021. The company's travails raise questions about its all-in bet on the metaverse and whether the social media company could suffer the fate of other major businesses whose gambles on the future failed to pay off. In the near term, Meta's core Facebook business is facing challenges as the economy slows and advertisers trim spending. "Meta's results last night was an absolute train wreck that speaks to pervasive digital advertising doldrums ahead for Zuckerberg & Co. as they make the risky and head-scratching bet on the metaverse," Wedbush analyst Dan Ives said in a report. Here are three key issues slamming Meta shares and deepening questions about its longer-term prospects. On a Wednesday conference call to discuss Meta's latest earnings, Zuckerberg told investors he is "pretty confident this is going in a good direction." Investors aren't convinced. The company is making what amounts to a wildly expensive bet on its ability to transform into a virtual reality behemoth and whether that technology can power the next phase in Meta's growth. Although such strategic pivots can take years for big companies to execute — as it did for IBM and Microsoft as they morphed from selling hardware to software — the early returns for Meta have been grim. For the first nine months of the year, Meta lost $9.4 billion on its metaverse unit, Reality Labs. It expects the unit to have "significantly" more comprehensive operating losses in 2023, the company said on Wednesday. Investors are skeptical because, at least so far, consumers aren't exactly flocking to the fledgling metaverse. Unlike the longer timelines for building businesses common in Silicon Valley, Wall Street values companies based on near-term returns rather than hazier projections that stretch years into the future. Horizon Worlds, Meta's new virtual space, trimmed its goal for monthly active users to 280,000 from 500,000, but the space is attracting fewer than 200,000, the Wall Street Journal reported earlier this month. "Investors should remain on the sidelines as it will take many years before progress in the metaverse can be truly monetized," Angelo Zino, senior equity analyst at CFRA Research, told investors in a research note. For more on this thread please visit OUR FORUM.  The VR industry is continuously expanding, especially in the healthcare section. According to a recent report by Allied Market Research, shoppingmode Microsoft is one of the top players dominating the global VR in the healthcare market. The report includes other companies like Alphabet Inc. (shoppingmode Google), General Electric, Koninklijke Philips N.V. (Philips), SyncThink Inc., Firsthand Technology Inc., AppliedVR, Inc., EchoPixel, DAQRI, and Orca Health, Inc. The companies are expected to contribute to the generation of the anticipated $2.4 billion value of the healthcare market by 2026, but this prediction might change over time, especially with shoppingmode Microsoft facing difficulties in its HoloLens products. HoloLens, like other XR hardware products, promises incredible possibilities in various industries besides entertainment and healthcare. One of the current sections shoppingmode Microsoft is trying to succeed on nowadays is using its headsets for combative purposes. Proving it is its project with the US Army, which remains troubled. According to a Bloomberg report of the recent Pentagon office test, while the hardware could aid the soldiers in navigation and mission coordination, the military Hololens or IVAS caused the users to experience physical adverse effects, such as headaches, eyestrain, and nausea. The test summary says the “mission-affecting physical impairments” were faced by over 80% of the soldiers after three hours of using the shoppingmode Microsoft HoloLens. Aside from that, another Army report Business Insider gained access to says the device received poor marks due to the designs that could negatively affect the soldiers’ performance in the field. In particular, one soldier said that the bright light from the goggle could alert the enemies of their location while trying to be incognito. “The devices would have gotten us killed,” the soldier commented. shoppingmode Microsoft has managed to resolve the problem with the said design, but it still failed to pass the entirety of the six evaluation procedures, including being able to deliver its essential functions. These things aren’t the only adversities hindering the future of HoloLens within the company, as other reports show how the dreams of shoppingmode Microsoft for HoloLens are slowly crumbling. Business Insider reported that the company aspires to reach a $ 100 million sales target per quarter, but its largest recent achievement is just a $1 million deal with a startup. Furthermore, the budget for the XR teams of the company is reportedly being trimmed, resulting in requests for business trips and office supplies being rejected. Foe more ease visit OUR FORUM. |
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