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Spotlight: Artificial intelligence fuels visions of how smart future can be
Xinhua| 2017-05-29 16:09:32

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It might arouse complicated and mixed feelings among human beings, when AlphaGo on Saturday grabbed the laurels from the world's top-ranked Go player Ke Jie with the artificial intelligence (AI) program's three-winning streak in the ancient Chinese board game.

AlphaGo's victory has been hailed as a landmark for the development of AI, as Go (Encirclement Chess), dating back to thousands of years ago, has been claimed as the most complex board game in the human world.

Now, the world-class computer program has been thrust into global limelight, as technologies behind AlphaGo push visions of how creative future can be. AI would not only be utilized for more general purposes in human life, but will also shake up the landscapes of a range of industries from e-commerce to healthcare.

WHAT'S BEHIND ALPHAGO

Professionals and spectators described as "unorthodox" many of the moves made by AlphaGo in its first of the three games against Ke Jie on May 23.

"There was a 'cut' that stunned me, because human players would never use the move (under that circumstance)," said Ke Jie in a press conference after the contest. "But after analyzing the game, I think it's a smart move that killed two birds with one stone."

AI basically relies on algorithms and big data, according to Luo Jiebo, professor of computer science at the University of Rochester. AlphaGo uses a type of search algorithm to find its moves based on the knowledge it previously "learned" by a type of AI called deep learning, or neural networks that mimic human learning, through playing a large number of games with both humans and machines.

This time, Ke Jie confronted with a newly upgraded version of AlphaGo bettered by reinforcement learning, which enables AlphaGo to sort out the best solution on its own.

"AlphaGo has played numerous games. With vast quantities of data, it would quickly learn effective moves," said Luo, "Besides, the machine doesn't have the intuition to defend like a human does. All it wants is to get the maximum rewards... Its calculation is based on an assessment of the interests of the whole situation."

Luo held that owing to deep learning, AI has improved remarkably in its capability to identify visuals and recognize voices after gobbling up a huge mass of data.

He added that so far in China, face detection and recognition has been applied successfully in practical terms, which relies largely on the combination of deep learning and big data.

"Currently many Chinese companies, big or small, are making face recognition programs. Because of the fierce competition, they have to constantly update their technologies and allow them to appear in our daily life, for example applications used for online banks and for company employees to check in," the professor said.

AI TO ENTER TRADITIONAL INDUSTRIES

AI has also been widely applied in various fields from e-commerce to finance.

At present, AI researchers are committed to efforts to allow more enterprises and ordinary users to participate in the field of AI by providing practical products and services, Li Feifei, director of the Stanford Artificial Intelligence Lab and the Stanford Vision, told Xinhua in a recent interview.

E-commerce giants, such as Amazon and Alibaba, have used a form of machine learning in their online recommender systems to boost sales, which is based on data collected from customers' browsing and purchasing preferences.

Alibaba will roll out facial recognition payment software in the near future. According to a video demonstrating the payment system, shoppers can complete payment by scanning their faces and im

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g the last four digits of their mobile phone numbers.

Meanwhile, it has been widely acknowledged that global tech giants at the front end of AI exploration have ramped up research and development in AI applications designed to make human life smarter in a variety of fields including health care, autonomous driving and smart robotics.

One of the most anticipated sectors is health care. Researchers have claimed that AI software would be likely to serve as an experienced assistant by helping doctors sift through loads of patient information and accumulate clinical data and experience for better disease diagnosis, such as cancer diagnosis and the recognition of magnetic resonance imaging.

"In the medical field, AI can learn from cases from around the world, at which it excels. However, a doctor can only gain experience from the cases he has seen, which has limits," said Luo.

Elaborating on his blueprint, Li Yanhong, CEO of Chinese Internet giant Baidu, predicted that AI would be the "main course" for the future, calling the Internet "the appetizer," in a speech during the 2017 Baidu Union Summit held in southwest China's Chongqing City on May 23.

"In the age of AI, machines will be able to understand humans and their intentions, and thus allow humans to communicate all kinds of subjects," Li explained during the speech.

JOBS ON EDGE OR BETTER FUTURE

However, it has sparked huge concerns that AI would shake up traditional industries by slashing hordes of jobs.

At present, some lenders and financial institutions in the

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have used AI underwriting and loan-distributing machines in replace of humans.

"The machines can decide whether and how much to lend, as well as how long the lending would be with a wealth of data," said Luo Jiebo, "The decision made by machines are more accurate and without human bias."

Kai-Fu Lee, computer scientist and founder of Sinovation Ventures, had echoed the status quo and made a bold prediction in a commencement speech to Columbia University's engineering department on May 15.

"In the next 10 years, all financial companies will be turned upside-down, with AI replacing traders, bankers, accountants, research analysts, and insurance companies," he said, "Last year, my AI investment algorithm returned 8 times more than my private banker."

In Luo's opinion, although unemployment caused by AI would be inevitable, it should not be viewed negatively because machines are not on the opposite side of humans. "There must be new jobs turning up. For example, machines need (people) to maintain," he said.

He gave the example of the use of AI in healthcare. "AI will make doctors' work easier, as machines process preliminary information. But it is humans who make critical and final decisions," he said, "That's because machines would only consider things that humans order them to."

"I think the ultimate purpose of AI is not to replace humans, but rather to co-exist with humans and achieve common prosperity, which is the right direction (for the development of AI)," Luo stressed.

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Chinese Go player Ke Jie analyses the game after the second match against artificial intelligence program AlphaGo in Wuzhen, east China's Zhejiang province, May 25, 2017.(Xinhua/Xu Yu)

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China's nuclear power - Chinese Academy of Sciences: will launch the world's first mini "nuclear power treasure"

Hendrik_2000 said:

China's nuclear power - Chinese Academy of Sciences: will launch the world's first mini "nuclear power treasure"

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I don't exactly understand what you mean by "Nuclear Power Treasure" BUT if you are talking about a nuclear reactor instead of a nuclear battery then I hope you people are willing the to pay the price of cleaning it up through out the world if something goes wrong because nuclear reactors requires a lot of highly radioactive material compared to a nuclear battery.
This has been hotly debated by various scientist, environmentalists and politicians through out the space age.

SamuraiBlue said:

I don't exactly understand what you mean by "Nuclear Power Treasure" BUT if you are talking about a nuclear reactor instead of a nuclear battery then I hope you people are willing the to pay the price of cleaning it up through out the world if something goes wrong because nuclear reactors requires a lot of highly radioactive material compared to a nuclear battery.
This has been hotly debated by various scientist, environmentalists and politicians through out the space age.

Click to expand...

This is an old news actually I already post it in SCS base non strategy thread Here is more detail description of the system it will be safe since it use molten lead as coolant
I am pretty sure they take all the necessary precaution in designing this mini reactor. They do have extensive experience in designing military grade mini reactor for their nuclear submarine . It has been operating for decades with no leak sofar. So this is just a case of migrating from military application to civilian usage

A top mainland research institute is developing the world's smallest nuclear power plant, which could fit inside a shipping container and might be installed on an island in the disputed South China Sea within five years.

Researchers are carrying out intensive work on the unit – dubbed the hedianbao, or "portable nuclear battery pack".

Although the small, lead-cooled reactor could be placed inside a shipping container measuring about 6.1 metres long and 2.6 metres high, it would be able to generate 10 megawatts of heat, which, if converted into electricity, would be enough to power some 50,000 households.

It is also capable of running for years or even decades without refuelling, and scientists say that because it produces neither dust nor smoke, even on a small island a resident would hardly notice its existence.

The research is partially funded by the People's Liberation Army.

Researchers at the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Nuclear Energy Safety Technology, a national research institute in Hefei, Anhui province, say they hope to be able to ship the first unit within five years.


"Part of our funding came from the military, but we hope – and it's our ultimate goal – that the technology will eventually benefit civilian users," Professor Huang Qunying,a nuclear scientist involved in the research, said.

The Chinese researchers admit their technology is similar to a compact lead-cooled thermal reactor that was used by the navy of the former Soviet Union in its nuclear submarines in the 1970s.

However, China would probably be the first nation to use such military technology on land.

While these "baby" reactors would able to generate large quantities of electricity and desalinate huge supplies of seawater for use as fresh water, they have also attracted serious environmental concerns.

If any one of them were to suffer a catastrophic problem, the radioactive waste would affect not only the countries nearby, but also spread around the world via the region's strong sea currents.

This type of reactor is often known as a fast reactor, as it uses high-speed neutrons to split the fuel atoms. A fast reactor has some significant advantages over normal reactors. The fast neurons can split the atoms of nearly all fissile materials, including the waste left over by traditional thermal power plants, thus dramatically increasing fuel efficiency.

Also, the lead-based liquid metal the reactor uses as a cooling system does not boil until it reaches a temperature of 1,400 degrees Celsius, which makes the reactor safer than any existing thermal one in commercial operation today.

However, Huang said it would still be a challenge to convince people that the technology was safe to use. A lack of public awareness about the new technology could hinder its widespread application, he added.

The lead-cooled reactor is part of China's efforts to develop new-generation reactors for its rapidly expanding nuclear energy sector. Other technological approaches, such as molten salt reactors and high-temperature gas-cooled reactors, are also under rapid development thanks to generous government funding.

China also has been considering building small floating power plants using conventional technology to generate electricity for the South China Sea islands.

A marine environment researcher at the Ocean University of China, in Qingdao, Shandong province, has warned that the inevitable discharge of hot, radioactive water from a nuclear plant into the ocean might alter the ecological system of an entire region around an island.

"Many fish and marine creatures will not be able to deal with the dramatic change of environment caused by massive desalination and the rise of sea temperatures caused by a nuclear reactor," said the researcher, who declined to be named.

"If a nuclear disaster happened in the South China Sea, it would not have an immediate effect on people living on the mainland owing to it being a great distance away," the researcher said.

"But the radioactive waste would enter the bodies of fish and other marine creatures and likely end up on our dining tables. Sea currents could also carry the waste to distant shores," she said.

Before putting any nuclear power plant on a remote South China Sea island, the Chinese government should consider not only its political, military or economic benefits, but also carry out comprehensive scientific evaluations on its potential environmental impact, the researcher said.

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.
Chinese Academy of Sciences: will launch the world's first mini nuclear power treasure"
2016-10-07 05:46:53 94 ℃

CCTV news:Before the day, China's lead based fast reactor research and development work has made a major breakthrough, lead based reactor core technology to achieve autonomy, and among the world's leading level. Continue to use this technology, the future, China will take the lead in the introduction of only the size of the container Mini nuclear power plant".

Identified by the expert group, designed by the Research Institute of research and development of nuclear safety technology of the world's largest and most versatile "lead based integrated experimental reactor coolant loop technology" and "lead based reactor coolant oxygen measurement and control technology, and the ability of operating parameters has reached the international advanced level, the core technology of autonomy.

The coolant is equivalent to the nuclear reactor of "blood", alloy based metal lead as coolant, instead of the traditional water coolant in nuclear power station, it is currently considered one of the safest nuclear facilities cooling material, it can not only avoid serious disasters like the Fukushima nuclear power plant, but also can be used for nuclear the rate of fuel resources is extended to the Millennium level. Therefore, the lead based reactor can be used in the fourth generation nuclear power, the future of fusion power plants, etc., and can play a role in the field of desalination and other industrial production, thus promoting the development of clean energy.

According to reports, the Chinese Academy of Sciences Research on nuclear safety technology and engineering experiment system is verified on the lead based reactor, and plans to take the lead in the world to develop nuclear power plant "mini sized nuclear power container only treasure, to meet the ocean platform, remote areas of distributed power supply demand.

I was about to post, until you have the full translation. The reason it is called Nuclear Power Treasure, is because they are drawing from the term "充电I宝“ or charge battery treasure (external battery pack use for cellphone charging on the go). Like the article, it is meant for offshore rigs or island power generation. Think of it like a nuclear reactor for air craft carrier. It is mobile and used for powering a lot of things, including turning salt water into drinkable water, except it isn't used to power a ship

SamuraiBlue said:

I don't exactly understand what you mean by "Nuclear Power Treasure" BUT if you are talking about a nuclear reactor instead of a nuclear battery then I hope you people are willing the to pay the price of cleaning it up through out the world if something goes wrong because nuclear reactors requires a lot of highly radioactive material compared to a nuclear battery.
This has been hotly debated by various scientist, environmentalists and politicians through out the space age.

Click to expand...

Tsk tsk tsk.. so negative when evaluating other countries' advancements... Built a train that goes 700mph? Hope you're ready to deal with a 700mph wreck! Invent a cure for cancer? Guys, terrorists are gonna mutate its DNA with viral vectors creating lethal bio-weapons in their kitchens! Quantum satellite? You idiots are gonna break the time-space continuum and unleash Cthulu!! LOL

Here's an idea: before you complain to other people about how they'll handle hypothetical nuclear accidents, clean up the real one in Fukushima. It's been 6 years and it's still spouting nuclear waste into the ocean. You have some real responsibility there staring you in the face; show the world how Japan handles its responsibilities. (Honestly, it's too late now. Everybody already saw for 6 years and counting.)