Ryan Welsh on Why The Singularity Isn't Coming Soon

Digital Trends interviewed Ryan Welsh, CEO of an AI company called Kyndi that is building an Explainable AI platform for government, financial services, and healthcare.

We’re very far away from artificial general intelligence … If you’re in the industry and you work with A.I. systems, you understand how limited they are, specifically around sensory motor and natural language understanding … Systems are very good at parsing sentences, but not really good at understanding the semantics or the pragmatics of language.

I always thought the Singularity was odd. Basically, it’s the belief that AI will get so powerful it will become god-like and give us all sorts of advanced technology. It’s religion for the atheistic Silicon Valley types.

Test Your Knowledge With Quiz Pursuit Trivia App

With millions of unique quiz questions and thousands of topics, QuizPursuit is one of the best trivia games out there. With this fun and engaging quiz game, you can enhance your knowledge, while having a fun trivia game experience. And with the Levels feature you can boast to your friends about your expertise in your chosen topics of interest. Play this quiz game by yourself or invite and challenge friends for a fun round of trivia. No matter what your topic of interest is, we’ve got you covered. Choose from thousands of interesting topics, including sports, entertainment, science, and general trivia. The more questions that you answer on a particular topic, the higher the levels you reach. What’s more is that you win nuggets to advance through levels. You can use these nuggets to wager with your friends in challenges. You can double your wagered nuggets by winning the challenges. App Store: Free

Why Mark Zuckerberg is Untouchable at Facebook

Facebook has been hit with one crisis after another recently. On Tuesday, The New York Times revealed that it allowed companies such as Apple, Microsoft, and Netflix, to access user’s personal data to a far greater extent than those users were aware of. Normally, such a stream of scandal would put a CEO and Board Chairman like Mark Zuckerberg under serious pressure to resign. However, as Emily Stewart explains on Vox, Facebook’s structure means Mr. Zuckerberg is unlikely to go anywhere, anytime soon.

There have long been questions about whether too much influence within Facebook has been placed with Zuckerberg and, among some investors, pushes for him to renounce his position as chair of the board. But because of the way Facebook’s shareholder structure is set up — and the number of shares Zuckerberg holds — there’s no way for anyone to force him out.

Some 2018 iPad Pros are Shipped Bent but Apple said that's Normal

Some 2018 iPad Pros were shipped with a slight bend in their aluminium chassis. However, Apple told The Verge that this is not a defect. The company said it is a side effect of the manufacturing process. Apple insisted that the issue will not get worse over time, or have a negative effect on the device’s performance.

It’s an issue that seems to be more pronounced on the LTE model, as there’s a plastic strip that breaks up the iPad’s flat aluminum sides; it’s where the antenna line divides two sections of metal that some users have noticed a bend. Apple did not say the perceived flaw is strictly limited to the cellular iPad Pro, however, and some buyers of the Wi-Fi model also claim to have encountered it. Even if only cosmetic, the issue is out of character for Apple, which has rooted its reputation in manufacturing devices with best-in-industry fit and finish

Owner's Parrot Uses Alexa to Play Music, Order Food

The Times writes: “The African grey parrot has become so adept at giving orders to Amazon’s smart speaker system while his owner is out that he uses it to play songs, tell him jokes and even order treats.” I wonder if the parrot instructs Alexa to open the smart home door so Amazon can bring the food to the cage.

Heads Up Gamers: Civilization VI Expansions Packs are Free

Aspyr is giving gamers a fantastic deal for the holidays. The Civilization VI expansion packs will be free for the rest of December. There will only be a free pack every 48 hours though. This is only for the iOS app. Here’s the schedule:

  • Dec. 20-22: Poland Civilization & Scenario Pack (usually US$4.99)
  • Dec. 22-24: Vikings Scenario Pack (usually US$4.99)
  • Dec. 24-26: Australia Civilization & Scenario Pack (usually US$4.99)
  • Dec. 26-28: Persia and Macedon Civilization & Scenario Pack (usually US$8.99)
  • Dec. 28-30: Nubia Civilization & Scenario Pack (usually US$4.99)
  • Dec. 30 – Jan. 1: Khmer and Indonesia Civilization & Scenario Pack (usually US$8.99)