This article is about how Google Now and similar artificial intelligences could start playing a role we often attribute to God or "the universe." If you randomly bump into your friend on the street, would you say that this is just random coincidence or serendipity? I was just having a conversation with two friends about Facebook's Nearby Friends feature, which alerts you if a friend is close to you. The idea is that if you know that a friend is nearby, then you would walk a few blocks to meet up and say hi. Now what if you were both using Google Maps to get somewhere and Google Maps suggested routes that would make you bump into each other?

The experimental Smart Tissue Autonomous Robot (STAR) recently sewed a piglet's gut together using a computer program and camera-based guidance, overseen by a team of doctors and computer scientists from the Children's National Health System in Washington DC and Johns Hopkins University. The procedure took 50 minutes, as opposed to 8 minutes when performed by a surgeon, but (unfortunately for doctors) resulted in more evenly spaced sutures and less leakage from the gut. And with iterative improvements, it's likely that the time difference can be shrunk. Meanwhile, FDA-approved robotic surgery on humans is making strides as well, though it requires a surgeon to operate the mechanical arm. The potential treatment paradigm, highlighted by The Economist this month, raises questions about whether patients will trust robots with their lives, and who is liable if something goes wrong. Another question robots pose: Are doctors in line for a string of layoffs?

This week, New Orleans has played host to an enormous international gathering of cancer researchers at the American Association for Cancer Research Annual Meeting. At the meeting, FLG's own Katie Draper caught up with Niven Narain of Boston-Based biopharma company BERG to learn about cancer drug development, and explore how artificial intelligence can contribute to precision medicine. FLG: Tell us a bit about yourself and your role at BERG. NN: Sure, I'm Niven Narain, Founder and CEO of BERG, and as Founder much of my role involves bringing forth the vision of the technologies, and to put forward these products that are now in clinical trials for cancer, namely BPM31510. The vision is really to get these drugs to patients as quickly as possible, but importantly using a precision medicine approach so that we're not falling into a one-size-fits all.

This list of hand-picked leaders was compiled by Wojtek Aleksander, from GetResponse.com. Other bigger lists (sometimes created by robots) can be found here and are usually based on your Klout score, which in my opinion is not accurate. The list below is truly original and I would even add, somewhat unexpected, as you won't find Bernard Marr, Kirk Borne and other well known gurus. Just in case you're wondering, @FILWD stands for Fell In Love With Data, which happens to be the name of Enrico Bertini's blog. While the Assistant Professor at NYU doesn't talk much on Twitter himself, he uses the platform very effectively to share news and insights about data visualizations and adds his highly-valued opinions.

Regardless of the analysis of smartphone market share, Office and cloud revenues, quarterly profits, gaming consoles sales, Surface hardware, or search engine relevance, Microsoft remains a large company employing diversified and talented individuals. Often, the individuals under Microsoft's employ do double duty as the brilliant minds creating projects and industries for the company while also pioneering advancements, groundbreaking achievements, and technologies in fields outside of their immediate obligations. Recently, Yuval Peres and Robert Schapire joined the long list of Microsoft employees and researchers who have been recognized by their peers for their achievements in their respective fields. Peres and Schapire's are receiving perhaps the highest honor in science and research by being elected to the Nation Academy of Sciences. Peres and Schapire's recognition will see them become part of new 84 members and 21 foreign associate groups that will be joining the National Academy this year.

As you read this, some 100 billion neurons are transmitting information through electrical and chemical signals via synapses in your brain. Given the central role these cells play in neurological functioning, it's perhaps not surprising they typically hog the limelight -- after all, the signals they transmit lie at the heart of human behavior, from the simplest of movements to the most complex of thoughts. It's worth noting, however, that complimentary cells called astrocytes actually outnumber neurons in the brain. Unfortunately, these star-shaped cells have largely been ignored in neurological research because they don't fire electrical impulses in the same way that neurons do. Yukiko Goda of the Riken Brain Science Institute in Saitama is helping to correct this. Goda, who was born in Osaka, went to high school in Toronto after her father was transferred to Canada for work.

The astrophysicist and author Janna Levin has two main offices: One at Barnard College of Columbia University, where she is a professor, and a studio space at Pioneer Works, a "center for art and innovation" in Brooklyn where Levin works alongside artists and musicians in an ever-expanding role as director of sciences. Beneath the rafters on the third floor of the former ironworks factory that now houses Pioneer Works, her studio is decorated (with props from a film set) like a speakeasy. There's a bar lined with stools, a piano, a trumpet and, on the wall that serves as Levin's blackboard, a drink rail underlining a mathematical description of a black hole spinning in a magnetic field. Whether Levin is writing words or equations, she finds inspiration just outside her gallery window, where a giant cloth-and-paper tree trunk hangs from the ceiling almost to the factory floor three stories below. "Science is just an absolutely intrinsic part of culture," said Levin, who runs a residency program for scientists, holds informal "office hours" for the artists and other residents, and hosts Scientific Controversies--a discussion series with a disco vibe that attracts standing-room-only crowds. "We don't see it as different." She conducted research on the question of whether the universe is finite or infinite, then penned a book about her life and this work (written as letters to her mother) at the start of her physics career. She has also studied the limits of knowledge, ideas that found their way into her award-winning novel about the mathematicians Alan Turing and Kurt Gödel.

First, it is a brain dump: too long, epsilon-baked, and unpolished. Second, it is not obviously relevant to the topic of this site. Third, parts are more technical than most readers would want. However, a quick, bad post may be better than none. This post was prompted by discussions about Bayesianism and the LessWrong rationalist community, with Scott Alexander, Catharine G. Evans, muflax, and St. Rev. (among others). They are each brilliant, quirky, articulate, and fascinating; consider following them online! They might disagree with much of this post, though, and are not implicated in its defects.] This site concerns ways of thinking about some particularly important things: purpose, self, ethics, authority, and meaning, for instance. My aim is to point out common mistakes in thinking about those things, and how to do better. I enjoy thinking about thinking. That's one reason I spent a dozen years in artificial intelligence research. To make a computer think, you'd need to understand how you think. So AI research is a way of thinking about thinking that forces you to be specific. It calls your bluff if you think you understand thinking, but don't. I thought a lot about how to do AI. 1 In 1988, I put together "How to do research at the MIT AI Lab," a guide for graduate students. Although I edited it, it was a collaboration of many people. There are now many similar guides, some of them better, but this was the first.

Good afternoon, my name is --, and I'll be your conference coordinator today. I would like to welcome everyone to NVIDIA (NASDAQ: NVDA) Financial Results Conference Call. All lines have been placed on mute. After the speakers' remarks, there will be a question-and-answer period. Participants to register for question by pressing one followed by the four on your telephone. This is conference is being recorded Thursday, May 12, 2016. I would now like to turn the call over to Arnab Chanda Vice President of Investor Relations at NVIDIA. With me on the call today from NVIDIA are Jen-Hsun Huang, President and Chief Executive Officer; and Colette Kress, Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer. I'd like to remind you that today's call is being webcast live on NVIDIA's Investor Relations website. It is also being recorded. You can hear a replay by telephone until May 19, 2016. The webcast will be available for replay up until next quarter's conference call to discuss Q2 financial results. The content of today's call is NVIDIA's property. It cannot be reproduced or transcribed without our prior written consent. During the course of this call, we may make forward-looking statements based on current expectations.

I recently wrote about Google's efforts to "show" you how to rank. They held an online Q&A session where Google search quality senior strategist Andrey Lipattsev listed the three most important factors the search engine uses to rank websites and web pages. Content and links tied for number one, and RankBrain, the new artificial intelligence system that helps to sort and deliver a large number of the search engine's results, comes in at number three. The thought crossed my mind that many of you might not be aware of RankBrain and that we should maybe talk about that. At its core, RankBrain is a machine-learning artificial intelligence system that's used to help process Google search results.