Would you take orders from a ROBOT? An artificial intelligence becomes the world's first company director

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Would you take orders from a ROBOT? An artificial intelligence becomes the world's first company director

Posted by sciencetech-blog on Monday, May 19, 2014 Label:

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Robots have been creeping into our homes, streets and cities – and soon they could be dominating our boardrooms.

In a world first, Japanese venture capital firm Deep Knowledge recently named an artificial intelligence (AI) to its board of directors.

The robot, named Vital, was chosen for its ability to pick up on market trends 'not immediately obvious to humans'.

In a world first, Japanese venture capital firm, Deep Knowledge, recently named an artificial intelligence (AI) to its board of directors. The robot, named Vital, was chosen for its ability to pick up on market trends that are 'not immediately obvious to humans' (pictured is a stock image of a boardroom)

Vital is an 'equal member' of the Hong Kong-based group and the first ever software program to be appointed as a board member.

The robot was developed by Aging Analytics UK who have licensed it out to Deep Knowledge to help make business decisions on therapies for age-related diseases.

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Vital (Validating Investment Tool for Advancing Life Sciences) will analyse trends in databases of life science companies in an effort to predict successful investments.

The bot has already helped make two major investment decisions in life science companies, Pathway Pharmaceuticals and InSilico Medicine.

Vital (Validating Investment Tool for Advancing Life Sciences) will analyse trends in databases of life science companies in an effort to predict successful investments. Eventually, the software is expected to get an equal vote on all financial decisions made by the company

The long-term goal is to get Vital's intelligence to the stage where it can operate autonomously when making investment decisions.

Eventually, the software is expected to get an equal vote on all financial decisions made by the company.

'The variables involved in the long-term success of a biotechnology company are many and complex,' said Deep Knowledge in a statement.

'We were attracted to a software tool that could in large part automate due diligence and use historical data-sets to uncover trends that are not immediately obvious to humans surveying top-line data.

'We plan to incorporate new information from prospective investments into the databases to compare the outcomes against our selected investments.'

ROBOTS WILL NEVER HAVE FEELINGS, SUGGESTS EXPERT

The prospect of robot overlords, friends and lovers has been the topic of science fiction novels for years.

But according to one mathematical model of how our brains create consciousness, emotional machines will never exist.

This is because computers can't handle any process that completely integrates information, so they cannot be conscious and capable of feeling, one expert claims.

A mathematical framework for consciousness, developed over the last decade by Giulio Tononi at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, says that the ability to integrate information is a key feature of consciousness.

He believes that integrated information can't be broken down into smaller components in conscious minds, because the brain contextualises information.

For example, when we see a red triangle our brains don't register the shape as a colourless triangle plus a shapeless coloured area, New Scientist reported. Instead we see it as a whole - a red triangle, we understand the 'wider picture'.

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