The power of the internet is monumentally impressive. Just look what can be achieved in one minute. Big data and data analytics will be playing a significant role. Why wouldn’t they? The Internet of Things has grown enormously over the last few years along with artificial intelligence. Are we making the most of it? Doesn’t it look like we have an awe inspiring capacity to connect, consume and engage through the ether? Doesn’t it look like there is so much processing power there in terms of social connection, ideas sharing and participation to solve all our world’s problems? Is this vast array of internet use just about income or could it be used for outcome too? Use all that power to conceive the world differently?
Vogue broke new ground and put itself out there by creating an AI bot interview with American singer/songwriter Billie Eilish. It’s more of an oral questionnaire because there is very little conversation. Ms. Eilish is 18 years old and totally comfortable with this AI medium for an interview. She is calm, thoughtful and discusses the ideas provoked by the questions in a detailed way. She genuinely responds to them . Would everyone? Is it an age group thing or would the novelty of it encourage others to be more open? It does show that AI doesn’t dominate or manipulate the interview in any way. The person in the interview is centre stage and it is all about them. One of the points which Ms. Eilish makes is that AI is non judgemental. People who are interviewed probably appreciate impartiality. The AI Bot has created a Dada version of her lyrics and she quite likes it .
It is different. Is it the future? Would we do more of this ? If it is someone you want to hear then it is a good way to allow them to share their ideas. It is more like a performance than an interaction but not in any way lacking in humanity.
Christopher Barnatt is the consummate professional when it comes to making instructional videos about the Raspberry Pi. Everything is presented carefully and in an organised fashion and the visual aspect of his videos has been honed to perfection. This video is clear, instructive and easy to follow. Christopher Barnatt is a professional futurist and is very comfortable in a changing world which relies on technology development. He wants us to be too and as a consequence he gives us ideas to work on which we can follow. Alexa AI 10, 000 skills available now. Tech Republic has a quick overview of what Alexa AI can do . The video shows you how to set up Alexa AI on a Raspberry Pi 3. I haven’t done it yet and even though I have the recommended wifi dongle for the Pi 2 I may not have sufficient processing power. I might try it and then work out whether I really need a Raspberry Pi 3. Nice little project for a rainy day.
No single post could hope to cover all the new innovations with AI. It will , however , give you an orientation to what is being done and what already exists that you can readily identify with. We have voice synthesisers, text to voice synthesisers, we have robotics in car manufacture, mining, hospitals and Japan even has hotels where the check ins are managed by robots. Artificial talking heads are popping up over the Net and have their uses. Professor of AI Nello Cristianini of Bristol University is world renowned in the field of artificial intelligence. The video explains the sorts of things we are already accustomed to but he has other videos on YouTube which look at the implications of this. Data mining and labelling is critical to optimally functioning AI and so we do have vast quantities of data being kept and sorted through. TechRepublic looks at the top 10 things IBM is doing in AI because machine learning is becoming increasingly important so we can manage the huge amounts of data we have. It has to be sorted , labelled and categorised so we can create the information architecture of tomorrow. If you are interested in AI you can keep up to date with developments with Science Daily. Wired also runs articles on AI developments.
Open Wonderland , formerly known as Project Wonderland is open source software for designing virtual worlds where you can collaborate with others. The video I have shown here is linked to other videos which explain how it works and what its capabilities are. You can also watch the 30 minute video by Nick Moore who explains it from a real world perspective and is someone who knows what he is talking about because he understands its uses, implications and application from experience. His Agile in Wonderland: Open Source in the Enterprise World was an osdc (open source development conference) presentation and so subject to peer review. Wikipedia describes Open Wonderland as :
The vision for Open Wonderland is to provide an environment that is robust enough in terms of security, scalability, reliability, and functionality that organizations can rely on it as a place to conduct real business. Organizations should be able to use Open Wonderland to create a virtual presence to better communicate with customers, partners, and employees. Individuals should be able to do their real work within a virtual world, eliminating the need for a separate collaboration tool when they wish to work together with others. Individuals should also be able to tailor portions of the world to adapt to their work needs and to express their personal style. The types of collaborations that can happen within the space include audio communication, live desktop applications of all kinds, and eventually collaborative creation of world content (both graphical and procedural).
There are problems with the entry as is explained at the top but it does help orientate your brain as to how Open Wonderland might be of use to you. Nicole Yankelovich has a slideshare presentation which explains its educational uses . There is also a very detailed academic review of it Virtual World Learning with Open Wonderland by David Parsons and there is another comprehensive analysis of its educational use here by Michael Gardner et al It is a serious and well established platform for health.
Can you download it? Apparently not. The project has appeared to have been killed and there are no obvious links to any sites where the development may be continuing. The Google group has had no posts since 2015. openwonderland.org doesn’t exist any longer nor its blog. Why has the world made such an important and useful project vanish? All that knowledge. All that potential and no indication of where it has transferred. Just lost in the ether.
The power of the internet is monumentally impressive. Just look what can be achieved in one minute. Big data and data analytics will be playing a significant role. Why wouldn’t they? The Internet of Things has grown enormously over the last few years along with artificial intelligence. Are we making the most of it? Doesn’t it look like we have an awe inspiring capacity to connect, consume and engage through the ether? Doesn’t it look like there is so much processing power there in terms of social connection, ideas sharing and participation to solve all our world’s problems? Is this vast array of internet use just about income or could it be used for outcome too? Use all that power to conceive the world differently?
E-WOT 