Tag Archives: HUMANOBS

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

Rise of AI in Iceland: H+ Magazine Interview with the Thorisson Brothers who Helped Make it Happen

Recently, h+ Magazine published an article by Ben Goertzel titled “Land of Fire, Ice and Thinking Machines: The Recent Rise of AI in Iceland, and an Interview with the Thorisson Brothers who Helped Make it Happen”. In the article the author reviews the recent history of AI in Iceland and presents an interview with Kristinn R. Thórisson and Hrafn Thorri Thórisson. In this interview they go into some detail on their own backgrounds and ideas, as well as the rise of Icelandic AI. This article makes an interesting read for both those who are curious about AI and the connoisseurs of the field.  Continue reading Rise of AI in Iceland: H+ Magazine Interview with the Thorisson Brothers who Helped Make it Happen

Reykjavik University Program Explores Humanlike Intelligence in Computers

Vilhjalmur A. Kjartansson interviewed Dr. Kristinn R. Thorisson, Director of IIIM, for the Sunday edition of Morgunbladid (published on August 18th, 2012).

The interview focuses on the recently completed AGI & Constructivist AI Summer School and some of its featured topics. The summer school covered the role of Artificial General Intelligence and explored what defines intelligence as we know it.  You can read the interview here. (Note: The interview is in Icelandic).