This week on The Digital Life, our special guest is Noam Brown, a PhD student in Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University, who with his advisor, Professor Sandholm, created Libratus, an AI which decisively defeated four of the world’s best human poker professionals in a Man vs. Machine competition. The breakthrough was published in Science, received widespread mainstream news coverage, and continues to be cited as one of the milestone achievements of AI. Join us as we discuss poker, the application of AI to imperfect information games, and the possibilities for this kind of artificial intelligence to be used in negotiation and other real world scenarios.

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Noam Brown

Superhuman AI for heads-up no-limit poker: Libratus beats top professionals

How computers were finally able to best poker pros

Inside Libratus, the Poker AI That Out-Bluffed the Best Humans

This week on The Digital Life, we chat about design and creative professionals and what the future of work might look like for them. Our special guest on the show is Daniel Harvey, Head of Product Design and Brand at The Dots, a professional network for “no collar’” professionals.

Alongside with the immense power and flexibility that technology can bring, comes an evolution in, not only how we get creative work done, but also why we do it. Values and behaviors are changing among job seekers in creative industries. We see some of this, for example, in the growing emphasis on project work, rather than on continuous employment. Further, with such powerful emerging technologies as AI, will it be possible, eventually, to automate creativity? And if this is the case, will people be able to accept that technology driven output as creative? How will designers and other creative professionals survive and thrive in this environment? It’s critical that we design roles and organizations that make the most of people, while leveraging technology. And, that we properly educate the next generation of designers so they can thrive and compete in the future. Join us as we discuss.

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The Dots
The Dots iOS app

On this episode of The Digital Life, we wrap up the year with some emerging tech predictions for 2018. We discuss the expansion of AI services in significant ways, automated trucks on the road, Target’s online struggles, Amazon’s difficulties in exploiting niche businesses, and the streaming services war as Disney prepares to take on Netflix among other topics.

On the podcast this week, we discuss artificial intelligence and music with special guest Pierre Barreau, CEO of Aiva. Aiva (Artificial Intelligence Virtual Artist) is an AI composer. Aiva has created music used in the soundtracks for films, advertising, and games, and is the first virtual artist to be recognized by an author’s rights society. Join us as we explore how man and machine collaborate to create the future of music.

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Aiva
A New AI Can Write Music as Well as a Human Composer

On The Digital Life this week we take a look at designing trust in human-robot relationships. More so than with other technologies, robots require a certain level of trust. Our comfort level with robots will dictate whether we’re willing to ride in driverless cars, work on the assembly line with a collaborative robot, or have a health robot caregiver. Designing human robot relationships will be key to overcoming barriers in the transition to a robot filled world. But how do we manage the wide variety of human emotional reactions? And what does this mean for the future of robot services?

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Most westerners distrust robots – but what if they free us for a better life?