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Potřebujete navýšit hypotéku? Možná vám to vytrhne trn z paty kvůli vysoké sazbě

Lupa.cz - články - 19 Červen, 2024 - 00:00
Jak to udělat, když potřebujete navýšit hypotéku? Nabízí se dva způsoby, každý je vhodný v jiné situaci. S jedním z nich si ale můžete snížit stávající sazbu.
Kategorie: IT News

Prodejci: Mobilní Zen 5 dostane přednost před desktopovým

CD-R server - 19 Červen, 2024 - 00:00
Vysvětluje se, jak je možné, že AMD chystá vydání desktopových procesorů Ryzen 9000 na 31. července a přitom má v červenci vydat i mobilní Ryzen AI 300 (Strix Point). Tím totiž začne v půlce měsíce…
Kategorie: IT News

Jak ptáci unikli vyhynutí na konci křídy

OSEL.cz - 19 Červen, 2024 - 00:00
…aneb Pohled na jediné přeživší dinosaury
Kategorie: Věda a technika

Neandertálská DNA má prsty v autismu

OSEL.cz - 19 Červen, 2024 - 00:00
Naši předci měli pletky s neandertálci a mělo to následky. Evropské a asijské populace mají v genomu asi 2 procenta neandertálské DNA, včetně úseků, které ovlivňují expresi genů v mozkových buňkách. Některé úseky souvisejí se zvýšeným rizikem autismu, a také epilepsie, která bývá s autismem těsně spjtatá.
Kategorie: Věda a technika

Softwarová sklizeň (19. 6. 2024): automatické klikání myší pro Wayland i X11

ROOT.cz - 19 Červen, 2024 - 00:00
Sonda do světa otevřeného softwaru. Dnes si otestujeme sítě, vyzkoušíme aplikaci pro automatické klikání, dáme si dohromady svoje úkoly pomocí Kanbanu a podíváme se na prohlížeč 3D modelů.
Kategorie: GNU/Linux & BSD

AR/VR headset sales decline is temporary: IDC

Computerworld.com [Hacking News] - 18 Červen, 2024 - 23:18

Shipments of augmented reality and virtual reality (AR/VR) headsets dropped 67.4% year over year in the first quarter of 2024 as a result of an evolution in the market, new data from International Data Corp. (IDC) reveals.

“The decline in shipments was expected as the market transitions to include new categories such as Mixed Reality (MR) and Extended Reality (ER),” IDC noted Tuesday. “Despite the decline, the average selling price (ASP) rose to over $1,000 as Apple entered the market and incumbents such as Meta focused on premium headsets such as the Quest 3.”

The future of such products in the enterprise is in flux, with Microsoft pulling back and laying off workers from its HoloLens division last year, while Apple is clearly targeting the enterprise market with its Apple Vision Pro.

However, IDC’s projections for shipments and selling prices may be thrown off by news that broke later the same day: Apple is reportedly abandoning plans to build a Vision Pro 2, concentrating instead on developing a lower-specced, lower-cost model for release in late 2025.

The research firm said that it recently revised its taxonomy of headsets to incorporate two new categories: “Mixed Reality which occludes the user’s vision but provides a view of the real world with outward facing cameras, and Extended Reality, which employs a see-though display but mirrors content from another device or offers a simplistic heads-up display.”

Headset market in flux

Meta again led the market in the first quarter in terms of share, while Apple’s recent entry into the market enabled it to capture the second position. ByteDance, Xreal, and HTC rounded out the top five, IDC said.

When online pre-sales of Apple’s Vision Pro AR/VR headsets began on Jan. 19 they sold out quickly, but as Computerworldnoted soon after, stable delivery dates could indicate limited demand for the $3,500 device.

Fast forward to April, and Apple said that it had cut Vision Pro production due to low demand, according to Ming-Chi Kuo, an Apple analyst at TF International Securities.

Jitesh Ubrani, research manager for worldwide mobile device trackers at IDC, said that with mixed reality on the rise, “expect strictly virtual reality headsets to fade in the coming years as brands and developers devise new hardware and experiences to help users eventually transition to augmented reality further down the line. Meanwhile, extended reality displays are set to garner consumer attention as they offer a big screen experience today while incorporating AI and heads-up displays in the near future.”

Meanwhile, Ramon T. Llamas, research director with IDC’s augmented and virtual reality team, said that although ASPs for the overall market crested above the $1,000 mark, this is not representative of all products.

“ASPs for augmented reality (AR) headsets have almost always been above this price point, but ASPs for VR, MR, and ER headsets have typically been lower,” he said. “Apple’s Vision Pro drove ASPs higher for MR headsets, but the addition of lower-cost devices from Meta and HTC have kept those ASPs from going much higher. Meanwhile, there were many devices for VR and ER priced below $500.”

Return to growth

Looking ahead, Llamas said that IDC is anticipating ASP erosion across all products: “Because the overall market is still in its early stages with more expensive first- and second-generation devices, prices will be high even as early adopters buy them. In order to reach scale in the mass market, vendors will need to reduce prices on later and upcoming devices.”

IDC is forecasting that “headset shipments will return to growth later this year with volume growing 7.5% over 2023. Newer headsets and lower price points will help with the turnaround expected later this year. Beyond that, headset shipment volume is expected to see a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 43.9% from 2024–2028.”

Updated on June 19, 2024, to add report that Apple is abandoning development of the Vision Pro 2.

Kategorie: Hacking & Security

Embracing Anonymity and Privacy: Tails 6.4 Release Insights

LinuxSecurity.com - 18 Červen, 2024 - 22:59
As digital privacy and security evolves, anonymity cannot be overemphasized. Tails is a live operating system designed to keep its focus on privacy and anonymity. Its unique focus allows you to boot it on almost any computer using a USB stick or DVD drive and use state-of-the-art cryptographic tools for protecting files, emails, and instant messaging conversations without leaving a trace behind on your machine. With its focus on anonymity and its use of state-of-the-art cryptographic tools to encrypt files and instant messaging conversations from being kept under lock and key.TAILS (an acronym for The Amnesic Incognito Live System) leverages the Tor network to protect online privacy and evade censorship. Each Tails session acts like a clean slate when shutting down; no data remains from session to session unless saved into an encrypted Persistent Storage space.New Features in Tails 6.4Tails version 6.4 brings many notable updates that will appeal to Linux administrators and privacy-minded users alike. Cryptography Strength Reinforced with Random SeedOne of the key enhancements for Tails is including a random seed on USB flash drives as part of our cryptographic strength enhancement. This feature is invaluable in strengthening cryptography across our system''such as Tor, HTTPS connections, and the Persistent Storage feature''by strengthening cryptography across them. By keeping this random seed outside Persistent Storage itself, all users benefit from increased cryptographic protections regardless of configuration differences.Tails 6.4 Switches to HTTPS over Onion Services for APT RepositoriesIn an unconventional move from past versions, Tails 6.4 has transitioned away from using onion services for Debian and Tails APT repositories in favor of HTTPS addresses to improve reliability for the Additional Software feature and streamline software management for users.Software Updates and Bug FixesOne compelling factor in adopting Tails 6.4 is its current software stack and array of fixed problems. Tails 6.4 offers an updated Tor Browser (13.0.16) and Tor client (0.4.8.12) to give users access to the latest developments in secure browsing; email communication has also been improved thanks to an upgraded Thunderbird (115.12.0).Numerous bugs have been addressed to enhance user experience significantly. Problem resolution includes fixing and unlocking Persistent Storage issues, connecting to mobile broadband networks on particular hardware, and reenabling Thunderbird's previously disabled PDF reader due to security. Furthermore, user experience refinements such as more informative error messages in Tails Cloner and smooth interactions when using the Unlock VeraCrypt Volumes utility demonstrate developers' attentiveness towards user feedback.Upgrading and New InstallationsFor existing users, upgrading to Tails 6.4 should be straightforward, with automatic upgrades from as early as version 6.0 being available for automatic upgrading. Newcomers or those wishing for manual upgrades can follow detailed installation instructions provided by the Tails project, which are explicitly tailored for various platforms.Why Linux Administrators Should Take NoteLinux administrators who prioritize security and seek to safeguard their systems against surveillance and censorship will find Tails 6.4 indispensable. With its enhanced cryptographic measures, commitment to updating core components like the Tor Browser and client, and quick bug resolution, Tails exudes an environment designed specifically to secure its systems.Administrators will appreciate Tor's operational transparency--all network traffic is automatically routed through it, eliminating risks related to network surveillance. Furthermore, its persistent storage feature enables safekeeping of essential files, configurations and software across sessions without jeopardizing its security posture.Alternatives to Tails for Privacy and SecurityTails stands out for its anonymity and security features, but it isn't alone in this respect. Linux distributions such as Whonix and Qubes OS also provide similar functionality; Whonix operates by isolating user internet connections within an isolated virtual machine that routes all traffic via Tor. Meanwhile, Qubes takes an alternative approach by compartmentalizing various aspects of its OS into isolated VMs to prevent malware from crossing boundaries. Open Source choices ftw!Learn More about Tails and PrivacyTails 6.4 is evidence of this project's ongoing dedication to privacy, security, and user experience. With every update, Tails equips the global community with toolsets designed to increase online anonymity while guarding against surveillance intrusions. Linux administrators who place great value in security measures will find this release compelling enough to upgrade existing systems or implement this OS into their operations in an increasingly monitored digital world.Best distro for privacy and security in 2024Which distros are most focused on privacy ?How to Encrypt Files on LinuxEnhanced Privacy with Predator-OS
Kategorie: Hacking & Security

htmx 2.0

AbcLinuxu [zprávičky] - 18 Červen, 2024 - 22:30
Knihovna htmx (Wikipedie, GitHub), tj. knihovna rozšiřující HTML o nové atributy a umožňující vývoj dynamických webových aplikací, byla vydána ve verzi 2.0 (𝕏).
Kategorie: GNU/Linux & BSD

Vybrali jsme 15 nejlepších tabletů. Od extrému pro profíky až po povedený základ pro děti

Živě.cz - 18 Červen, 2024 - 22:14
V našem článku si vybere dítě, nenáročný uživatel i náruživý kreativec • Tomu odpovídá i cenový rozptyl začínající pod 2000 Kč a končící u vyšších desítek tisíc • Všechny modely ale své cílové skupině poslouží na výbornou
Kategorie: IT News

Apple’s cautious AI strategy is absolutely right

Computerworld.com [Hacking News] - 18 Červen, 2024 - 20:45

(Editor’s note: This column originally appeared on Computerworld Sweden on June 14, 2024.)

Just as everyone expected, and almost demanded, Apple finally started talking about artificial intelligence — in its own way, of course. The big keynote at WWDC on Monday might not have been the AI ​​event many had thought was coming. For example, the deal with Open AI, where Chat GPT will be used as an extension of Apple devices’ own AI capabilities, was negotiated in a matter of minutes.

Apple appears to be approaching AI with caution. Cautious, you might call it, but I actually think this strategy is the right one, and it aligns with what I called for earlier: AI that integrates seamlessly and easily into solutions we already know and use.

Apple Intelligence (of course Apple’s AI has been trademarked) is not a special app, or a special assistant or a “Copilot.” These are small, clever features, built on small, specialized models, sprinkled throughout the software. In Siri, in the photo app, as a writing aid, and so on, all in a seemingly non-intrusive way — an extra function, or help, that is there, if you want it.

The latter is important because it bothers me enormously is when AI is shoved down one’s throat. Just because an AI feature exists, maybe I don’t want to use it? No one but I knows what tasks I’m better at than AI, and it obviously varies from person to person.

For example, I am very good at writing and processing text. I definitely don’t want any AI getting in there (I even turn off the spell check in Word). On the other hand, sitting with transcriptions and translations is boring as hell, so I’m happy to take help there.

I’m a decent hobby photographer and don’t need an AI to make my photos “better” unsolicited. However, it can be fun or effective to take AI help to remove some ugly detail, play with the depth of field, or expose subjects.

I’m also a frequent user of chat, both privately and at work, but I think it feels a bit dirty to click on the suggested answers in Microsoft Teams chat (“Great”, “That sounds good.”) because it feels quite disrespectful to the person I’m communicating with.

BAbove all, I am seriously uninterested in Google’s new “AI Overviews,” which have now been rolled out, starting in the US. The AI ​​function in Google’s search engine takes the liberty of using AI to try to guess what you are looking for — and answer it.

I’m extremely good at Googling; it’s a skill I’ve developed over many years. And when I do research with the help of Google, it’s not one answer I’m looking for, but a balanced assessment that I make based on the information I google, thank you very much. Even if Google’s AI in the future gives “correct” answers instead of suggesting to glue the cheese on pizza, that’s just not what I want to use a search engine for.

So that’s why I think Apple is right here. It is through these kinds of simple, friendly and optional functions that do not require advanced “prompt engineering” that the masses will be introduced to and actually use AI tools. Because even though it might sound like it sometimes, most people don’t use Chat GPT at all.

Now Apple has the luxury, if you call it that, of not having to position itself as an “AI company” as a number of other tech giants want to do, although there has been pressure from investors to start delivering in this area. Apple sells mobile phones (and other hardware, but mainly phones). Therefore, it can be worthwhile to focus more on data protection and privacy, and on introducing features at a pace and in a way that makes mobile phone buyers see value in their presence.

Moreover, Apple isn’t charging extra for it, as most others do. Of course, Apple Intelligence is so far only available on the iPhone 15 Pro and Pro Max (and Mac computers with M-chip). And, presumably, that sprinkling of AI isn’t so sparkling yet as to warrant an immediate upgrade for most people.

But even if this particular iteration of Apple Intelligence will not become everyone’s everyday AI — anymore than the first iPhone became everyone’s smartphone — I believe, this is the way development will go. AI is fundamentally a commodity, a general-purpose technology.

It’s a feature, not a product.

This column is taken from CS Veckobrev, a personal newsletter with reading tips, link tips and analysis sent directly from Computerworld Sweden‘s editor-in-chief, Marcus Jerräng. Do you also want the newsletter on Fridays? Sign up for a free subscription here.

Kategorie: Hacking & Security

Město ukradených iPhonů. V čínském Šen-čenu končí telefony s logem nakousnutého jablka z celého světa

Živě.cz - 18 Červen, 2024 - 20:15
Gangy ve velkém exportují ukradené telefony do Číny • Pod výhružkou chtějí, abyste vymazali iPhone ze svého Apple ID • Jinak telefon nemůžou prodat, ale musí jej rozebrat na díly
Kategorie: IT News

Signal Foundation Warns Against EU's Plan to Scan Private Messages for CSAM

The Hacker News - 18 Červen, 2024 - 18:22
A controversial proposal put forth by the European Union to scan users' private messages for detection of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) poses severe risks to end-to-end encryption (E2EE), warned Meredith Whittaker, president of the Signal Foundation, which maintains the privacy-focused messaging service of the same name. "Mandating mass scanning of private communications fundamentally
Kategorie: Hacking & Security

Signal Foundation Warns Against EU's Plan to Scan Private Messages for CSAM

The Hacker News - 18 Červen, 2024 - 18:22
A controversial proposal put forth by the European Union to scan users' private messages for detection of child sexual abuse material (CSAM) poses severe risks to end-to-end encryption (E2EE), warned Meredith Whittaker, president of the Signal Foundation, which maintains the privacy-focused messaging service of the same name. "Mandating mass scanning of private communications fundamentally Newsroomhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/[email protected]
Kategorie: Hacking & Security

Varjo wants you to create photorealistic VR ‘scenes’ with your phone

Computerworld.com [Hacking News] - 18 Červen, 2024 - 17:25

Varjo has unveiled an app that lets users scan physical spaces with their smartphone to create photorealistic 3D “scenes” for virtual reality (VR) devices. 

The VR headset maker on Tuesday announced the preview of its Teleport app, which it said will lower the barrier for 3D content creation — a time-consuming and costly process that typically involves high-endequipment and know-how. “One thing holding back VR and 3D applications is just how hard is to create content,” said Patrick Wyatt, chief product officer at Varjo. 

He described the Teleport app as “a self-serve way that anyone with a smartphone can start creating their own 3D scenes,” allowing them to share their surroundings with others. 

To create a 3D scene, users scan a physical space with their smartphone camera (an iPhone Pro 12 is the minimum requirement for Teleport) — a process that takes several minutes. It’s possible to film indoor or outdoor scenes  (anything up to the size of a small town square will work), though more dynamic environments with crowds of people or lots cars could result in blurred footage. 

The footage is uploaded to Varjo’s cloud servers to build a high-resolution 3D scene.  When accessed via a VR headset, users can then move around the virtual space and view a reproduction of the environment that was recorded. 

Given Varjo’s focus on enterprise mixed reality and VR, Wyatt said Teleport can be used for training, planning, and remote assistance. But he sees Teleport as “foundational tech” that could have broad applications. “We’re not too prescriptive on use cases,” he said. “We want to see all the cool things people will do with it.”

While VR environments are often created with computer graphics, photorealism is preferred for certain enterprise purposes. “Much of what businesses want and need has to be as close to the real thing as possible to use those assets for engineering, sales and marketing purposes,” said Anshel Sag, principal analyst at Moor Insights and Strategy. “Without photorealism, it becomes a lot less valuable and powerful.”

Until recently, photorealistic 3D content has been produced either with expensive Lidar scanners that can cost several thousand dollars, or photogrammetry techniques that are more accessible, but still require specialist skills. In both cases, there are limitations on quality, too, said Wyatt.

A key advantage of Teleport is the use of a machine learning technique called Gaussian splatting. This enables full 3D scenes to be produced from a set of photos, with more realistic lighting, textures, and reflections – ideal for immersive applications such as Teleport, said Wyatt.

Gaussian splatting simplifies the creation of photorealistic 3D environments, though the technology has its own limitations, said Sag. “The biggest challenge for creating 3D content has primarily been the cost and time it takes to generate the assets,” said Sag. “Gaussian splatting is a way to take some shortcuts in the creation of content to make it cheaper and faster with minimal tradeoffs in terms of quality.

“That said, it isn’t without its problems, as the Gaussian splats don’t always come out right or need very specific capture techniques to work right.”

Varjo isn’t the only company to use Gaussian splatting for 3D content creation. Others include Luma and Polycam. Wyatt said Teleport differs in its focus on the creation of 3D environments rather than smaller objects, as well as a need for a higher image resolution so that content can be viewed effectively on a VR headsets. 

Varjo plans to make Teleport commercially available towards the end of 2024. A waitlist for early access is available here.

Kategorie: Hacking & Security

RISC-V základní deska pro Framework Laptop 13

AbcLinuxu [zprávičky] - 18 Červen, 2024 - 17:11
Společnosti DeepComputing a Framework Computer společně představily RISC-V základní desku pro modulární Framework Laptop 13.
Kategorie: GNU/Linux & BSD

When it comes to AI, Apple is opening up for intelligence

Computerworld.com [Hacking News] - 18 Červen, 2024 - 17:10

Apple’s artificial/machine/generative AI research team seems to be opening up as it explores new frontiers in this research, publishing more than 20 new Core ML models for on-device AI through the popular AI community site Hugging Face.

It’s a real change in the company’s customary rectitude in being open about what it’s doing, and it seems likely the move comes in response to demands from its research teams to be a bit more transparent. 

Cutting-edge AI capabilities

As first reported by VentureBeat, Apple has released dozens of Core ML models, complementing them with extensive datasets. The company seems to be posting new collections at a rapid clip — the latest item appeared in the collection within the last 24 hours. The collection is extensive and highlights two of the main aims of Apple’s teams: to build models that will eventually run on the device, and to ensure these also preserve user privacy.

Some of the AI functions promised by all this code includs tools for image classification, depth segmentation, text analysis, translation, and more. 

What, who, why?

They cover a wide range of applications, including FastViT for image classification, DepthAnything for monocular depth estimation, and DETR for semantic segmentation. 

The models are not intended for mass market use and are aimed at developers, who can download them, convert them to CoreML format, and then deploy them in their own code. The process for this was explained at WWDC 2024 in a presentation that details how the models can be deployed once converted. It is also worth noting CoreML is much, much faster in iOS 18, as Apple said.

The models available on Hugging Face are also ready to run at the edge. In addition to better privacy and security, on-device LLM models should also run far more swiftly than cloud-based code.

Apple is also working with Hugging Face on other AI-related tasks, including via the MLX Community. All in all, the company seems to have become more visibly open to open-source contributions as it seeks to build Apple Intelligence.

Not the first time Apple’s been open

Except, that’s not exactly the case. Apple is an active player in open-source development, and while this isn’t always fully understood, a cursory glance through company history shows support for the FreeBSD project, a GitHub repository that offers up source code for operating systems, developer tools and more. It also plays an active part across multiple standards bodies, such as Bluetooth SIG.

In other words, some degree of openness already does exist, though it seems to have opened up more for AI.

There’s a reason for this, of course. AI researchers like to collaborate as they explore these new frontiers, and it’s thought Apple’s customary corporate secrecy might have frustrated attempts to put its own work in artificial intelligence on the fast track. This certainly seems to have changed in the last year, as multiple research notes and AI tools have emerged from the company. This latest batch then is completely in keeping with Apple’s new approach, at least, its new tactics related to this part of tech.

Apple is, therefore, learning from the wider industry. 

And the industry is learning from it

Apple’s stance on privacy leads the industry, and as the potential pitfalls of AI systems become more widely understood it seems probable that more companies will follow its lead. 

That means an eventual multitude of small models capable of being run on edge devices to perform a variety of tasks. While the capabilities of such models will be limited by a ceiling comprised of processor speed, computational power, and on-device memory bandwidth, Apple’s approach also includes strategic use of highly secured private cloud services, itself a signal to others in the space to follow its example – particularly as increasingly authoritarian and ill-conceived legislation threatens to undermine the security of networked intelligence itself.

Please follow me on Mastodon, or join me in the AppleHolic’s bar & grill and Apple Discussions groups on MeWe.

Kategorie: Hacking & Security

CHERI Alliance formed to promote memory security tech ... but where's Arm?

The Register - Anti-Virus - 18 Červen, 2024 - 17:04
Academic-industry project takes next step as key promoter chip designer licks its wounds

Updated  A group of technology organizations has formed the CHERI Alliance CIC (Community Interest Company) to promote industry adoption of the security technology focused on memory access.…

Kategorie: Viry a Červi

Recenze rozšíření hry Elden Ring: Shadow of the Erdtree. Úchvatný přírůstek k jedné z nejlepších soulsovek

Živě.cz - 18 Červen, 2024 - 16:15
Dlouho a netrpělivě očekávané DLC Shadow of the Erdtree k jedné z nejlepších her posledních let vychází 21. června. Měl možnost si toto rozšíření zahrát v předstihu a přicházím ze Země stínu, abych vám vyprávěl, co jsem viděl. Byla to nebezpečná a krutá cesta, ale zároveň krásna a plná ...
Kategorie: IT News

What 70 Years of AI on Film Can Tell Us About the Human Relationship With Artificial Intelligence

Singularity HUB - 18 Červen, 2024 - 16:00

In 2024, AI is making headlines daily. We may be aware of the science, but how do we imagine AI and our relationship to it both now and in the future? Fortunately, film may provide us with some insights.

Probably the best-known AI in film is HAL 9000 from Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968). HAL is an artificially intelligent computer housed on board a spacecraft capable of interstellar travel. The film was released less than a year before humans landed on the moon. And yet, even in this optimism about a new era of space travel, HAL’s portrayal sounded a note of caution about artificial intelligence. His motivations are ambiguous, and he shows himself capable of turning against his human crew.

This 1960s classic demonstrates fears that are common throughout AI film history—that AIs cannot be trusted, that they will rebel against their human creators, and seek to overpower or overthrow us.

These fears are contextualized in different ways during different historical eras—in the 1950s they are associated with the Cold War followed by the space race in the 1960s and 1970s. Then in the 1980s it was video games, and in the 1990s the internet. Despite these differing preoccupations, fear of AI remains remarkably consistent.

My latest research, which forms the backbone of my new book AI in the Movies, explores how “strong” or “human-level” AI is depicted in film. I examined more than 50 films to see how they shed light on human attitudes to AI—how we interpret it and understand it through characters and stories, and how attitudes have changed since AI’s beginnings.

Types of AIs

The idea of AI was born in 1956 at an American summer research project workshop at Dartmouth College in Hanover, New Hampshire, where a group of academics gathered to brainstorm ideas around “thinking machines.”

A mathematician called John McCarthy coined the term “artificial intelligence” and just as soon as the new scientific field had a name, filmmakers were already imagining a human-like AI and what our relationship with it might be. In the same year an AI, Robby the Robot, appeared in the film Forbidden Planet and returned the following year, 1957, in the film The Invisible Boy to defeat another type of AI, this time an evil supercomputer.

The AI-as-malevolent-computer appeared again in 1965 as Alpha 60, in the chilling dystopia of Jean-Luc Godard’s Alphaville, and then in 1968 with Kubrick’s memorable HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey.

These early AI films set the template for what was to follow. There were AIs that had robot bodies and later robot bodies that looked human—the first of these appearing in Westworld in 1973, where a robot malfunction at a futuristic amusement park for adults creates chaos and terror. Then there were AIs that were digital like the evil Joshua in the 1977 horror film Demon Seed, where a woman is impregnated by a supercomputer.

In the 1980s, digital AIs started to become connected to network computing—where computers “talked” to one another in an early incarnation of what would become the internet—like the one stumbled upon by Matthew Broderick’s high-school student in War Games (1983), who almost accidentally starts a nuclear conflict.

From the 1990s, an AI could move between digital and material realms. In Japanese animation Ghost in the Shell (1995), the Puppet Master exists in the ebb and flow of the internet, but can inhabit “shell” bodies. Agent Smith in The Matrix Revolutions (2003), takes over a human body and materializes in the real world. In Her (2013), the AI operating system Samantha eventually moves beyond matter, beyond the “stuff” of human existence, becoming a post-material being.

Mirrors, Doubles, and Hybrids

In the first few decades of AI film, AI characters mirrored the human characters. In Collosus: The Forbin Project (1970), the AI supercomputer reflects and amplifies the inventor’s own arrogant overreaching ambition. In Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991), Sarah Connor has become like the AI Skynet’s Terminators herself: Her strength is her armor, and she hunts to kill.

By the 2000s, human-AI doubles began to overlap and merge into each other. In Spielberg’s AI: Artificial Intelligence (2001), the AI “son” David looks just like a real boy, whereas the real son Martin comes home from hospital connected to tubes and wires that make him look like a cyborg.

In Ex Machina (2014), the human Caleb tests the AI robot Ava, but ends up questioning his own humanness, examining his eyeball for digital traces and cutting his skin to ensure that he bleeds.

In the past 25 years of AI film, the borders between human and AI, digital and material have become porous, emphasizing the fluid and hybrid nature of AI creations. And in the films In The Machine (2013), Transcendence (2014), and Chappie (2015), the boundary between human and AI is eroded almost to the point of non-existence. These films present scenarios of transhumanism—in which humans can evolve beyond their current physical and mental constraints by harnessing the power of artificial intelligence to upload the human mind.

Although these stories are imaginary and their characters fictional, they vividly depict our fascinations and fears. We are afraid of artificial intelligence and that fear never goes away in film, although it has been questioned more in recent decades, and more positive portrayals can be observed, such as the little trash-collecting robot in WALL-E. But mostly we are afraid that they will become too powerful and will seek to become our masters. Or we fear they may hiding among us, and that we might not recognize them.

But at times, too, we feel sympathy towards them: AI characters in films can be pitiful figures who wish to be accepted by humans but never will be. We are also jealous of them—of their intellectual capacity, their physical robustness, and the fact that they do not experience human death.

Surrounding this fear and envy is a fascination with AIs that is present throughout film history—we see ourselves in AI creations and project our emotions onto them. At times enemies of humans, at times uncanny mirrors, and sometimes even human-AI hybrids, the past 70 years of films about AI demonstrate the inextricably intertwined nature of human-AI relationships.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

Image Credit: Tom Cowap via Wikimedia Commons

Kategorie: Transhumanismus
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