All posts by Hrafn

Aldin Interviewed About Virtual Reality in Morgunbladid

Screen Shot 2014-11-05 at 11.17.20IIIM spin-off company Aldin Dynamics has been working in the field of virtual reality for over a year now, haven most recently announced that they are working on a game for Gear VR — a mobile head-mounted display that Samsung is creating in collaboration with Oculus VR, LLC.

Recently Aldin’s founders, Hrafn Thorisson and Gunnar Valgardsson, were interviewed by the Icelandic medium Morgunbladid. The video interview can be watched here (in Icelandic), in which they discuss Aldin’s progress so far.

Continue reading Aldin Interviewed About Virtual Reality in Morgunbladid

Stephen Hawking Follows in the Footsteps of IIIM Intern Tobbi Kristjáns

tobbi
Thorbjorn Kristjansson.

On February 17th this year the Icelandic newspaper DV published an interview with IIIM intern Thorbjorn (Tobbi) Kristjansson with the heading “Could mean the end of humanity if we don’t play it right”. The interview was about Mr. Kristjansson’s warning about the pitfalls of artificial intelligence (AI) technology. Following in his footsteps (metaphorically speaking, of course), last week the famed scienctist Stephen Hawking authored an article in The Independent asking us whether we are taking AI seriously enough. His article was triggered by the movie Transcendence, in which Johny Depp plays an AI researcher intent on creating “real AI” – machines that can really think and can rival humans in their intelligence. Like Tobbi, he warns that while real AI could be the most amazing thing humanity has ever accomplished, “it could also be the last.”  Continue reading Stephen Hawking Follows in the Footsteps of IIIM Intern Tobbi Kristjáns

Kurzweil 2012 Awards Interview

Kristinn R. Thórisson, IIIM Managing Director, and his collaborators Helgi Páll Helgason and Eric Nivel, received the 2012 Kurzweil Award for Best AGI Idea at this year’s AGI conference at Oxford University in Cambridge. We interviewed two of the paper’s authors, Helgi Páll Helgason and Kristinn R. Thórisson, regarding the award and what the next steps in their research will entail.

On Attention Mechanisms for AGI Architectures

Helgi Pall photograph
Helgi Páll Helgason.

The paper, titled “On Attention Mechanisms for AGI Architectures: A Design Proposal” (download from Mindmakers.org), presents arguments for super-intelligent artificial agents needing what we generally think of “attention”, and presents a blueprint for how to achieve the design and implementation of such attention mechanisms.

What significance does this award have for your future research?
Helgi: This is an invaluable validation of our work up to this point and strong motivation to further pursue research on control mechanisms and resource allocation for AGI’s. Our chances of getting our voices heard in the scientific community, finding funding for future research as well as new collaborators are also positively impacted by the award. Continue reading Kurzweil 2012 Awards Interview

IIIM Director and RU scientists Receive 2012 Kurzweil Award

Oxford AGI 2012
Oxford University.

Kristinn R. Thórisson, IIIM Managing Director, and his collaborators Helgi Páll Helgason and Eric Nivel, have received the 2012 Kurzweil Award for Best AGI Idea. The prize was awarded for their research on attention mechanisms, and to one other paper, at this year’s AGI conference at Oxford University in Cambridge. The award was founded by the author and inventor Ray Kurzweil, who was recently appointed Google’s Director of Engineering, and is sponsored by KurzweilAI.net. Continue reading IIIM Director and RU scientists Receive 2012 Kurzweil Award