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charlesdenault's comments

charlesdenault | 9 years ago | on: What’s Next for Artificial Intelligence

If we create machines that learn as well as our brains do, it’s easy to imagine them inheriting human-like qualities—and flaws. But a “Terminator”-style scenario is, in my view, immensely improbable. It would require a discrete, malevolent entity to specifically hard-wire malicious intent into intelligent machines, and no organization, let alone a single group or a person, will achieve human-level AI alone.

Isn't this incredibly shortsighted? Ignoring all the questions regarding the morals and ethics an intelligent machine may feel and affect the way it behaves... It used to take nations to build computers, then large corporations, then off-the-shelf parts by a kid in his garage.

The first strong AI will most likely be a multi-billion dollar project, but its creation will arguably usher in an era in which strong AI is ubiquitous.

charlesdenault | 10 years ago | on: New details about planet 2007 OR10, third largest dwarf planet in solar system

The massive distances between celestial objects is somewhat beyond human comprehension. The scale of these objects and their orbits is so very different from the scales we encounter on a daily basis. The fact that these bodies can still be discovered proves we know so little about our own cosmic backyard, let alone the intricacies of spacetime.

charlesdenault | 10 years ago | on: Hedge Funds Faced Choppy Waters in 2015, but Chiefs Cashed In

Yes. But correct me if I'm wrong, but the article says that the managers made money because their firms are so large. Thus, they earned their 2% management fee regardless of performance. Should they be regulated? Won't the market correct when investors pull their money from the fund if they continue the losses?

charlesdenault | 10 years ago | on: How Android gets to 100% market share

I believe the fragmentation issue is going to take a lot longer to solve than the author leads on. Android is rooted in its open nature, and it's what caused the proliferation of the OS in the first place. It's going to take much longer for OEMs to stop shipping bloatware on the devices, or Google will effectively fork the OS simply because the OEMs can't keep up. Look how long it's taken Microsoft to get their OEMs to comply (but I do believe Google is a different beast in this regard).

charlesdenault | 10 years ago | on: An AI First World

To me this seems like a poor analogy. It's the evolution of technology. Print first, terminal first, desktop first, web first, mobile first, AI first, quantum first, etc, etc. Mobile is exponentially easier than it was in 2007. Machine learning is, arguably, becoming exponentially easier than it was in 2012. I think most agree that strong AI is many years away, but the learning curve will pass just as it has for all previous technological breakthroughs and we'll collectively move on to the next.

charlesdenault | 10 years ago | on: Why I think Tesla is building throwaway cars

If Tesla's longterm business strategy is to build a fleet of autonomous cars that operate in fractional ownership/lease models, of course it makes sense to build a car that has a <10 year product life cycle. They can iterate quickly, release new versions, and not have legacy hardware on the market. If they use a buyback program similar to Apple's it might make sense for their particular demos.

Time will tell, and it will be interesting to see what the Model 3 has for a warranty, considering it's targeting a much broader market than the Model S/X.

charlesdenault | 10 years ago | on: Should we solar panel the Sahara desert?

A distributed system of solar arrays intelligently placed on top of every building in the world, back-feeding into the grid or powering on-site batteries (Tesla Powerwall, etc.).

Or massive array in one geographical region susceptible to natural disasters, politics, or terrorism.

I'll take the distributed system.

charlesdenault | 10 years ago | on: Nylas N1 – extensible open-source mail client

I'm super excited about this. I'd love to see a serious collection of apps/extensions for the platform. I love the ecosystem around gmail, but I despise using their web-ui. I'd love to have the flexibility baked into a modern app. I've tried every email app and none of them cut it. They start off promising, but quickly degrade into feature-bloat (Airmail) or development is discontinued (Sparrow, Mailbox?).
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