Tuesday, March 19, 2024
Contact    |    RSS icon Twitter icon Facebook icon  
Unexplained Mysteries
You are viewing: Home > News > Science & Technology > News story
Welcome Guest ( Login or Register )  
All ▾
Search Submit

Science & Technology

AI predicts the future by watching videos

By T.K. Randall
December 5, 2016 · Comment icon 8 comments

Can a computer be taught how to predict what will happen next ? Image Credit: sxc.hu
An artificial intelligence is learning how to anticipate what is going to happen in the next few seconds.
When you see a person sitting down at a table with a plate of food it stands to reason that the next thing they are going to do is begin eating. For a human this is a no-brainer, but for a computer the ability to predict what is going to happen next represents a major technological challenge.

In a new bid to get around this problem, researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology have developed a sophisticated deep learning algorithm that can look at a still image and generate a short movie based on what it anticipates is going to happen next.

Show it an image of the shoreline for example and it will produce a short video of moving waves.

To learn how to make such predictions, the AI was trained using more than two million Internet videos of everything from train stations and golf courses to shopping malls and hospitals.
"Any robot that operates in our world needs to have some basic ability to predict the future," said Carl Vondrick, one of the researchers who worked on the system. "For example, if you're about to sit down, you don't want a robot to pull the chair out from underneath you."

While it's still early days yet, teaching a computer how to anticipate what is going to happen next is an important step towards building an AI that can operate effectively in the real world.

"The laws of physics and the nature of objects mean that not just anything can happen," said John Daugman at the University of Cambridge Computer Laboratory.

"The authors have demonstrated that those constraints can be learned."

Source: New Scientist | Comments (8)




Other news and articles
Recent comments on this story
Comment icon #1 Posted by jarjarbinks 7 years ago
Omg, it has begun.
Comment icon #2 Posted by Parsec 7 years ago
Yeah, they predict the future changing the past.    On a more serious note, while it's true that this is a paramount ability to possess if you want to roam effectively in the real world, the main difference between biological intelligence and artificial intelligence is that the first learnt (and keeps learning) the concept of cause and effect at its own expenses, by reward or pain.  The latter on the other hand will probably miss this aspect, that to me is not secondary. 
Comment icon #3 Posted by highdesert50 7 years ago
This is rather an interesting experiment in that it does not carry the burden of an anthropomorphic, or human-weighted, perspective. That is, it does not initially weigh the interpretation on the basis of self preservation. The interpretation of outcomes would be interesting perhaps akin to an alien viewing humanity on Earth for the first time.
Comment icon #4 Posted by AcousticAsylum 7 years ago
Queue the music, and send in the T-1000s. Hopefully they cannot shape shift yet. Lol
Comment icon #5 Posted by grimsituation6 7 years ago
Minority report....hello
Comment icon #6 Posted by paperdyer 7 years ago
If the AIs can do this they will accomplish something many people can't do.  It's called cause and effect.  There go the Darwin awards!
Comment icon #7 Posted by OverSword 7 years ago
 
Comment icon #8 Posted by HauntedDreams80 7 years ago
Skynet


Please Login or Register to post a comment.


Our new book is out now!
Book cover

The Unexplained Mysteries
Book of Weird News

 AVAILABLE NOW 

Take a walk on the weird side with this compilation of some of the weirdest stories ever to grace the pages of a newspaper.

Click here to learn more

We need your help!
Patreon logo

Support us on Patreon

 BONUS CONTENT 

For less than the cost of a cup of coffee, you can gain access to a wide range of exclusive perks including our popular 'Lost Ghost Stories' series.

Click here to learn more

Recent news and articles