Recommended Reads on the Robot and AI Beat This Week

Super-Literate Software Reads and Comprehends Better than Humans
An interesting story in New Scientist about an effort at Columbia University to teach computers how to extract deeper meaning from text.  

We Need a Pronoun for Artificial Intelligence
An odd article in the Atlantic considers the pitfalls of referring to artificial intelligence as “he,” “she,” or even “it,” and suggests we need an entirely new pronoun, like “ze.” It’s an interesting thought, but surely there are slightly more pressing problems, like the impact of AI on jobs and economic inequalities?

Is OpenAI Solving the Wrong Problem?
Harvard Business Review challenges the idea, central to a high-profile, billion-dollar new nonprofit called OpenAI, that financial obligations are incompatible with protecting humanity from the dangers of superintelligent AI.

Autonomous Weaponized Robots: Not Just Science Fiction
Writing in the Wall Street Journal, an academic warns that automated weapons are closer than you think, and calls for “a bill of human technological rights”  to check their progress.

A Starfish-Killing, Artificially Intelligent Robot Is Set to Patrol the Great Barrier Reef
An autonomous underwater robot that will protect the Great Barrier Reef by killing destructive starfish.

Chinese Researchers Unveil Brain-Powered Car
Here’s a slightly out-there project: a vehicle you can control with an off-the-shelf EEG device. It’s a neat trick, but given how unreliable EEG sensing is, not terribly sensible.