Robots & AI - the calm before the Singularity

Robots & AI - the calm before the Singularity?
Martin Hamilton
1Robots & AI - the calm before the Singularity? - BCS ELITE - May 201726/05/2017

Who am I?
» About Jisc
› edtech not-for-profit with ~18m users
› We run shared services, negotiate deals
with IT vendors, provide advice & guidance
– Janet, the UK’s research & education network,
Shibboleth Consortium, eduroam Wifi roaming
› Major initiatives right now in digital skills,
research data and learning analytics
› My role:
– Generating & channelling new ideas
– Building partnerships to bring them to fruition
2Robots and AI - towards the Singularity? - BCS ELITE - May 201726/05/2017
Pepper robot at Jisc Digifest 2017

Robots & AI - the calm before the Singularity?
1. Rise of the robots
2. Machine learning & artificial intelligence
3. Towards the Singularity?
26/05/2017 Robots & AI - the calm before the Singularity? - BCS ELITE - May 2017 3

Rise of the robots

Rise of the robots
Photo CC BY-NC Flickr user feuilllu
Photo CC BY-NC Flickr user nestle
› Pepper acts as greeter in 140+ SoftBank stores in Japan
› Nestlé planning to introduce in 1000+ sales outlets

Rise of the robots

Rise of the robots
Photo CC BY-NC Flickr user greenplasticamy
› Amazon uses over 45,000 robots already in its
warehouses and distribution centres

Rise of the robots
From http://futurism.com

Rise of the robots
Startups and scaleups
› Jisc Startups competition
– Six month accelerator programme
– Support package includes cash grant
and mentoring
› Winners: Omni Invent
– 4 nozzle 3D printer + CNC mill,
automatically embed circuits/sensors,
automated tool changer
– Selected for Hax hardware accelerator
programme, in top 3% of entrants
– Team moved to Shenzen to finish
commercialising
– www.omni-invent.co.uk

2. Machine learning & artificial intelligence

Machine learning & AI
Photo CC BY-ND Flickr user chijs
Photo CC BY-NC-SA Flickr user portalgda
› Tesla owners have already driven over 140m miles on Autopilot
› 90,000+Teslas with Autopilot are already on the road

Photo CC BY-ND Flickr user chijs
Photo CC BY-NC-SA Flickr user portalgda
› Tesla owners have already driven over 140m miles on Autopilot
› 90,000+Teslas with Autopilot are already on the road

Google DeepMindAI learns to play Breakout

Blind man takes solo ride in Google self-driving car

Startups and scaleups
› Jisc Startups competition
– Six month accelerator programme
– Support package includes cash grant
and mentoring
› Winners: Wildfire Learning
– World’s first AI content creation
service for learning
– Create learning objects from any text,
PowerPoint or video
– Generate a course’s worth of content
in an hour
– www.wildfirelearning.co.uk

3.Towards the Singularity?

What’s next?
18
Societal implications
› You might be surprised at just how much
more can be automated
› Further erosion of unskilled and semi-skilled
employment opportunities
– Watch out if your white collar job can be reduced to an
algorithm or “learned” from data
› “New Luddites” throwing stones at the
Google bus?
– Versus universal basic income?
– Versus psychological need for a greater purpose?
› Health implications of sedentary lifestyles,
musculoskeletal disorders
– Already 86% of Chinese high school students are
myopic – screen time & indoor play?
Robots & AI - the calm before the Singularity? - BCS ELITE - May 201726/05/2017
CC BY Flickr user boykoblagoev

What’s next?
19
Developing digital capability
› There will be whole new careers & existing ones will
change beyond recognition
– We should view this as an opportunity, e.g. smart homes need smart
plumbers & smart electricians
› We will need to embrace portfolio careers &
continuous/bite sized learning
– No longer enough to learn a trade or achieve professional
certification
› Impedance mismatch between digital tech and the
apparatus of the nation state
– Brexit vs. Estonian e-residency
› Reaching the next billion learners, workers, customers
– Last mile issues around digital technology
CC BY-ND Flickr user chijs

What’s next?
http://ji.sc/developing-digicap

What’s next?
Tri-modal model for innovation
CC-BY Simon Wardley – see
blog.gardeviance.org/2012/06/pione
ers-settlers-and-town-planners.html
Tackling the Innovator’s Dilemma
› What’s the right mix of Pioneers,
Settlers andTown Planners?

What’s next?

Continue the conversation…
24
Except where otherwise noted, this
work is licensed under CC-BY
Martin Hamilton
Futurist, Jisc, London
@martin_hamilton
martin.hamilton@jisc.ac.uk

Robots & AI - the calm before the Singularity

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