Eleven Twitter accounts you must follow for the latest news on artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence has political, social, economic, military and even philosophical implications. And Twitter provides some good insight on them. Here are eleven key accounts that must be followed in order to understand how machines are learning to think in an increasingly complex way.
Demis Hassabis: @demishassabis, 88,000 followers
Londoner Hassabis, a former chess prodigy, is one of the people in charge of DeepMind, Google's artificial intelligence platform. He is also behind AlphaZero, the software that managed to defeat the best computer chess-playing programs, after just four hours of self-learning. He holds a degree in computer science, has a PhD in cognitive neuroscience and his research on the neural mechanisms that control imagination and planning was included among the top scientific discoveries of 2007 in the journal Science. Do you need any more reasons to follow him?
Martin Ford, @MFordFuture, 40,500 followers
To understand the phenomenon of automation in work environments and its possible effect on the future of employment, make sure to follow Martin Ford's account. This computer engineer is the author of 'Rise of the Robots: Technology and the Threat of a Jobless Future', a multi-award-winning essay, published in 2015, which reviews the social and labor risks that artificial intelligence and robotics present, practically the only topic that Ford tweets about.
Fei-Fei Li @drfeifei, 132,000 followers
Li is probably the world's greatest expert on teaching machines to process images and 'understand' what they see, a branch of AI called artificial vision. As director of the Stanford Vision Lab , she has led pioneering studies in this field and now combines her work with the position of Chief Scientist in artificial intelligence and 'machine learning' at Google Cloud. On Twitter, Li shares her latest works, news and opinions about how this discipline will change the world to make it more secure.
Adelyn Zhou, @adelynzhou, 24,700 followers
Adelyn Zhou is a technologist and lecturer specialized in the benefits of artificial intelligence and bots, as well as an executive manager in the consultancy company Topbots. Her Twitter account is focused on these topics, about which she shares not only articles, but also presentations, images and panels, both her own and those of other experts.
Max Tegmark, @tegmark, 23,500 followers
Born in Sweden, but a longtime resident of the United States - where he currently teaches at MIT - Tegmark is a cosmologist by profession with a wide range of scientific interests, among which artificial intelligence holds a prominent place. He recently published a book entitled 'Life 3.0: Being human in the age of artificial intelligence’. Tegmark also chairs the Future of Life Institute (see below).
Future of Humanity Institute, @FHIOxford, 13,600 followers
The Future of Humanity Institute is part of the University of Oxford. Its mission is to try to clarify, from top-tier academic research, the great unknowns about the future of the human race, by combining social sciences, philosophy and math. The Institute's Twitter account, full of retweets, is an excellent place to find all kinds of contributions in this field, with a special focus on everything related to artificial intelligence.
Future of Life, @FLIxrisk, 12,500 followers
The Future of Life Institute is a discussion organization located in the Boston area that reflects on the impact of technology on the future of Western societies. It deals with topics ranging from the nuclear threat to climate change and especially artificial intelligence. Top-tier university professors and company executives who are at the forefront of digital transformation are among its most active members, . The Future of Life Institute has an advisory board which includes entrepreneur Elon Musk and scientist Stephen Hawking.
Oren Etzioni, @etzioni, 11,900 followers
Etzioni is the CEO of AIlen Institute for AI, another institution that tries to influence the debate about the risks and social benefits of the widespread implementation of artificial intelligence. That is his main interest in Twitter, where he also shares his concern about the political situation in the United States.
Angelica Lim, @petitegeek, 6,350 followers
Just 31 years old, this Canadian computer scientist is one of the most recognized voices in research on the humanization of artificial intelligence - that is, the progressive introduction of more or less human emotions in robots. She currently works as a researcher. Previously, in the company SoftBank Robotics, she was one of the developers of Pepper, a humanoid robot capable of acting as an assistant and who can also interpret some emotions of the person interacting with her, and react accordingly.
Cynthia Breazeal, @cynthiabreazeal, 5,335 followers
Breazeal is one of the greatest experts on the planet in the design of social robots. In 2002, when there was almost no talk of artificial intelligence. she published a book entitled 'Designing Sociable Robots.' Born in New Mexico, Breazeal has been a lecturer at the MIT Media Lab since 2001 and is also an entrepreneur. She founded the company Jibo, creator of the first robot designed to interact with a family, and which was named after the company itself.
Roman Yampolskiy, @romanyam, 5,250 followers
Author of ‘Artificial Superintelligence: A Futuristic Approach’ and founder and director of the Cybersecurity Lab at the University of Louisville, Yampolskiy is a tweeter who combines intellectual knowledge about artificial intelligence with a certain tongue-in-cheek tone. Apart from tweeting about his speciality, he also shares and comments on cryptocurrency news.