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Two AI Pioneers, Two Bizarre Suicides

Posted by Soulskill on from the unfortunate-losses dept.

BotnetZombie writes "Wired tells the quite sad but very interesting stories of Chris McKinstry and Pushpinder Singh. Initially self-educated, both had the idea to create huge fact databases from which AI agents could feed, hoping to eventually have something that could reason at a human level or better. McKinstry leveraged the dotcom era to grow his database. Singh had the backing of MIT, where he eventually got his PhD and had been offered a position as a professor alongside his mentor, Marvin Minsky. Sadly, personal life was more troublesome for them, and the story ends in a tragic way.

3 of 427 comments (clear)

  1. Re:They just wanted... by king-manic · · Score: 4, Funny

    You could easily just manually change emotions (erm. . state values) and the algorithms that define them, etc. Think of it as putting your robot on anti-depressants. People are like this as well. If you want to set the "batshit crazy" value in your GF just say "hey honey, I'm going for coffee with my Ex-GF."
    --
    "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."
  2. Re:They just wanted... by dotancohen · · Score: 4, Funny

    My thoughts exactly. I get turned on by fondling my own dick, but I'm not gay.

    --
    It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong.
  3. Re:They just wanted... by fractoid · · Score: 4, Funny

    I think it is more akin to what the mapping of the human gnome project is. Mapping human gnomes?
    ...first they came for the gnomes, but I did not cry out, because I was not a gnome. O.o
    --
    Rampant carbon sequestration destroyed the Dinosaurs' tropical paradise. I'm here to help repair the damage.