Natural and Artificial Intelligence

Center for Natural and Artificial Intelligence

Woman and man in social distancing sitting on bench
Woman and man in social distancing sitting on bench in park
Woman and man in social distancing sitting on bench in park
Licensed from Adobe Stock

Five Surprising Changes To Watch for from COVID-19

There are the Spanish police drones flying around, enforcing lockdown orders. And Singapore’s robotic police dogs, enforcing social distance. Will they go away? Read More ›
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Vitamin D gelcaps.
Photo by Michele Blackwell at Unsplash

Vitamin D and COVID-19: Is It Data or Noise?

Random data shows geographic clusters. Thus some locations will inevitably have higher COVID-19 rates than others. As my example shows, associating these clusters with personal characteristics after the fact is not convincing scientific evidence. That’s where randomized, controlled trials are needed. Read More ›
People on railway station and man in face mask using on phone while epidemic and covid19. Coronavirus and travel and public transport.

Top Consumer Trends COVID-19 Will Change Long Term

According to analysts, robotic devices are becoming more popular for a reason few would have guessed earlier; they reduce the need for physical human contact. Recycling, however, has taken a hit and weaning consumers from disposables post-COVID may prove a challenge. Huge firms are riding the storm, however, and Gen Z is spending the lockdown improving its career chances. Meanwhile, consumers surveyed around the globe say they plan to travel less. Read More ›
Young woman using smart phone,Social media concept.

Is Contact Tracing a Simple Answer to COVID Lockdowns?

The conventional science fiction fear of a superintelligent AI taking over the planet and ridding it of pesky humans distracts our attention from a much more realistic threat: Artificial intelligence (AI) makes both government and corporate surveillance much easier, cheaper, and more useful—whether it is in average citizens’ interests or not. If we are lucky, this will be the decade when we address the implications of that fact.

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Robot studies a coronavirus with magnifier,nano robot with bacterium,3d render.
The robot studies a coronavirus with magnifier,nano robot with bacterium,3d render.

Can AI Save Us from COVID-19? An Expert Is Skeptical

Experts list various problems, including the fact that AI is vulnerable to failure due to unforeseen problems, including problems with data (too sparse, too noisy, too many outliers, etc.). It also doesn’t learn as well from experience as humans do. Read More ›
AI artificial intelligence and ML machine learning abstract concept, CPU GPU computing core with information streams. Data deep learning computer machine. 3D render

Coronavirus: Is Data Mining Failing Its First Really Big Test?

If Alphabet’s Deep Mind or Microsoft had successfully data mined the 29,000 papers and found useful coronavirus information, that would be pretty impressive. But they appear to be giving others a chance to try instead, raising issues once again about the value of data mining in medicine. Read More ›
science-scientism-society-isi-large

ISI Webinar on Science, Scientism, and Society

From artificial intelligence to mandatory stay-at-home orders and everything in-between, what role should scientists — and their modern approach to scientific investigation — play in the critical decisions that we must make on such controversial issues? Read More ›
Mother and child doing homeschooling, e-learning at home because of the corona virus pandemic covid-19 quarantine

Five Ways COVID-19 Is Changing Education for Good

Recently, a Harvard prof chose to launch an attack on homeschoolers, portraying them as driven by narrow religious concerns. Given how many parents COVID-19 has forced to homeschool, the attack was, at best, poorly timed. But it usefully focused attention on the ways education needs to change in an online world. Read More ›