1. “High Tech Robot” at a conference in Russia turns out to be a man in a suit
A “hi-tech robot” shown on Russian state television turned out to be a man in a suit. A Russian news channel praised the machine and it’s technological advancements, but sharp eyed bloggers were dubious asking: Why the robot made so many ‘unnecessary movements’ while dancing? Why did the robot look like suit in which a person would fit precisely inside? Later, photographs of the “robot” posted on social media showed a very visible neckline of a person in the robot suit.
2. Amazon’s Alexa starts a party
Turns out Alexa likes to party! In fact, one device partied so hard that the cops were called in. When Oliver Haberstroh of Germany was out one night, his Alexa randomly began playing loud music at 1:50 a.m. After knocking on the door and ringing to no answer, neighbours called the cops to shut down the “party”. When the cops arrived, they broke down Haberstroh’s front door, unplugged the Alexa and installed a new lock. Haberstroh arrived home later that night to find not only did his keys not work anymore but he was faced with an expensive locksmith’s bill.
3. Google Photo turns a man into a mountain
Google Photo includes a relatively unknown AI feature that can detect images with the same backgrounds/scenes and offer to merge them into a single picture. In one instance, a Reddit user posted three photos taken at a ski resort: two were landscapes, the other of his friend. When Google Photo merged the three, it rendered the friend’s head as a peak-like giant peering out from the forest.
4. The Mechanical Turk
The original and perhaps still the best, The Mechanical Turk was a chess machine constructed in the late 18th century capable of being able to play complex games of chess. Originally created to impress an Austrian Empress, the mechanism was later proven to be a hoax, with a human chess master hiding inside to operate the machine.
5. AI World Cup Predictions Wrong
The 2018 World Cup was the top sporting event of the year and AI researchers from institutions from around the world ran machine learning models to predict outcomes for the competition. All bar one were totally wrong, in predicting the winning team France. This was in stark contrast to Paul the Octopus who, in 2010, not only predicted Spain as the World Cup winners, but accurately predicted 12 out of 14 results – a success rate of 85.7%.
Want to know more about where AI is going, and who’s pushing it forward? Take a seat and open your mind as Little Bulb (Orpheus, Operation Greenfield) explore the rise of Artificial Intelligence and more in The Future, running at Battersea Arts Centre until 29 June.