Google Scientists Are Creating an Artificial Intelligence That Evolves on Its Own

The algorithms mimic principles of Darwinian evolution, namely "survival of the fittest."

One of the biggest global players in artificial intelligence (AI) is Google and their high-tech Brain division has been pushing the envelope for years.

Now scientists working for their AutoML project have a new paper in which they claim to be developing algorithms that can evolve on their own without human input. Even more stunning is their claim that they can induce “mutations” into new generations of algorithms, which mimics principles of Darwinian evolution, namely “survival of the fittest.”

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The team started with one of the most basic ideas in modern AI: machine learning. Machine learning tools allow us to use algorithms to search through massive troves of data and quickly identify patterns. But the traditional problem with this method is the element of human bias.

As the team paper states: “Human-designed components bias the search results in favor of human-designed algorithms, possibly reducing the innovation potential of AutoML. Innovation is also limited by having fewer options: you cannot discover what you cannot search for.”

https://www.newsweek.com/google-brain-artificial-intelligence-machine-learning-research-evolution-automl-zero-1497781

To bypass this problem, the team wanted to develop a system by which AI can grow on its own.

The team used simple math equations to develop machine learning algorithms that author 100 “candidate algorithms.” These candidates compete using basic machine learning tools like neural network image differentiation tests and the best-performing algorithms then mutated, or evolved, via random code alteration.

https://themindunleashed.com/2020/04/google-scientists-artificial-intelligence-evolves-on-its-own.html

Photos: US Sends Bomber on 30-Hour Surprise Mission Near Kim Jong Un’s Reported Recuperation Spot

The US Air Force (USAF) sent a supersonic B-1B Lancer bomber on a 30-hour trip from South Dakota to Japan earlier this week to drill just off the coast of the city where it’s believed North Korean leader Kim Jong Un is recovering from surgery.

The Long Haul

The US Air Force announced its 37th Bomb Squadron sent one of its B-1B Lancer supersonic bombers on a 30-hour trip across the Pacific Ocean to Japan, where the bomber met up with a slew of Japanese fighters to run combat drills.

According to the release, the Lancer met up with six USAF F-16 Fighting Falcons as well as seven F-2s and eight F-15s from the Japan Air Self Defense Force (JASDF) before returning to Ellsworth Air Force Base in South Dakota.

“This was a higher headquarters directed operational mission to assure our allies, and deter adversaries while demonstrating the dynamic force employment model,” Lt. Col. Lincoln Coleman, 37th Bomb Squadron commander, said in the release. “This was a total team effort involving every group on base that provided us with the opportunity to integrate with multiple Air Operations Centers in different areas of responsibility.”

The news release mentions practice runs at Draughon Range, which is at Misawa Air Base in northern Japan, but what the Air Force neglected to mention was that more exercises occurred just off the coast of a North Korean city where it’s believed that Kim is recuperating after surgery.

Sending a Message to North Korea?

The South Korean daily Dong-a Ilbo reported on Friday that the aircraft had drilled just 500 miles away from Wonsan, an eastern city in the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK), noting that is where it is rumored Kim is convalescing.

A source in the South Korean military, which did not participate in the drill, told Dong-a Ilbo, “Some of the intention behind the drill appears to preempt North Korea’s imminent military muscle-flexing that is designed to dispel the rumor surrounding the ill health of its young leader.”

The claim is seemingly confirmed by aircraft tracking page Aircraft Spots, which noted the Lancer continued from Misawa to Okinawa before returning home via the North Pole.

https://sputniknews.com/military/202004241079085747-photos-us-sends-bomber-on-30-hour-surprise-mission-near-kim-jong-uns-reported-recuperation-spot/

Coronavirus Crisis Makes Clear Pentagon Should Get No More Money This Year for Its 'Wasteful War Machine': 60+ Veterans Groups

"We cannot continue spending billions of dollars on weapons of war while people across the country struggle to buy food, pay rent, and survive a pandemic."

Not a dime of additional funding should be appropriated this year to the Pentagon's already bloated budget, which has enabled endless war while resources that could have helped the nation better respond to the coronavirus crisis have gone "chronically underfunded."

That's the message of a letter (pdf) to congressional leadership delivered Wednesday by over 60 organizations.

"The COVID-19 crisis has revealed that decades of funneling trillions of dollars into the Pentagon while gutting critical social services, including public health measures, has made us less safe, not more," said Stephen Miles, executive director of Win Without War, in a statement.

"Now of all times, it should be clear that the Pentagon does not need more money," he added.

Win Without War led the letter, which is signed by a broad array of organizations including CODEPINK, the Friends Committee on National legislation, Indivisible, Social Security Works, and Veterans For Peace.

"With the additional $10.4 billion provided to the Pentagon as part of the Phase III package, the Pentagon's Fiscal Year (FY) 2020 appropriated funding now totals over $756 billion and provides more than enough resources to respond to the pandemic," the letter states.

The groups go on to describe what they see as fundamentally flawed funding priorities:

Over half of all spending appropriated by Congress annually goes to the Pentagon, leaving other federal agencies to compete with one another for scarce resources. In this context, the United States has chronically underfunded human and environmental needs while, particularly in recent years, passing historically high Pentagon budgets that foster militarism, enable endless war, engender waste, and sow corruption. To give just one example of the spending mismatch: the combined annual budgets of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the National Institute of Health and the annual U.S. contributions to the World Health Organization together equal just seven percent of the annual Pentagon budget.

"The U.S. spends a grotesque and unacceptable amount on its wasteful war machine," said Savannah Wooten, campaign coordinator with People Over the Pentagon.

https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/04/22/coronavirus-crisis-makes-clear-pentagon-should-get-no-more-money-year-its-wasteful

US SNUBS launch of WHO-led initiative aimed at making Covid-19 vaccine globally & generally available

World leaders have taken part in the launch of a global initiative to ensure equal access to the future vaccine against the novel coronavirus. The event, hosted by the World Health Organization, was notably snubbed by the US.

The launch of the “ACT accelerator” was held on Friday at the UN health body’s HQ in Geneva. The WHO chief Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus had a pretty impressive guest list for the ceremony, which included French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Angela Merkel and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.

As expected in a Covid-19-gripped world, foreign dignitaries had to use video links to take part. However not a single suitably high-ranking official from the US showed up, and the absence had nothing to do with a technical malfunction. The nation that last week defunded the WHO over its alleged cover-up of Covid-19’s seriousness simply snubbed the event.

“We look forward to learning more about this initiative in support of international cooperation to develop a vaccine for Covid-19 as soon as possible,” a spokesman for the US mission in Geneva said in an email to Reuters ahead of the meeting, stressing that “no US official participation” had been planned.

The initiative is meant to ensure that access to testing kits, therapeutic drugs and, eventually, working vaccines is provided to all who need it.

The WHO’s Ghebreyesus, whose resignation has been demanded by a number of US politicians, opened the ceremony by praising the global scientific response to the unprecedented health crisis posed by the coronavirus. Researchers from all corners of the world banded together to identify the pathogen, develop tools to predict and curb its spread, and to find ways to treat it.

But “even when tools are available, they had not been equally available to all” in past outbreaks, the UN official stressed. “We cannot allow that to happen.”

US President Donald Trump last week froze the WHO’s funding, pending an investigation into what he termed a “China-centric” behavior of the organization. He claimed the WHO helped Beijing mislead the world in the early days of the crisis by underestimating Covid-19’s severity. Both have rejected the allegation.

https://www.rt.com/news/486802-us-snubs-who-initiative-vaccine/

New Jersey governor is open to paying illegal immigrants $600 a week despite state 'running out of money'

Gov. Phil Murphy acknowledges that New Jersey is broke.

New Jersey Democratic Gov. Phil Murphy said that he was open to the idea of the state providing illegal immigrants with $600 a week.

During Murphy's COVID-19 news briefing on Thursday, the governor was asked about cash assistance for illegal immigrants.

Immigrants rights group Make the Road NJ released a report titled, "Essential and Excluded," that documented the "experiences of low-wage immigrant workers and families in New Jersey during the first month of the COVID-19 crisis."

The 35-question survey was conducted over the phone April 12-18. The poll of 226 "respondents residing in New Jersey," included 96.4% who said their ethnicity was "Latinx." A little over half of the 226 participants in the survey, 52%, said their immigration status was "estimated undocumented."

The Make the Road NJ report was brought up during the New Jersey coronavirus press briefing. Murphy was asked if he would consider issuing $600 a week to illegal aliens "who have lost wages" during the coronavirus pandemic.

Murphy said that he did not see the Make the Road New Jersey report, but did say he is "open-minded to the $600-a-week" payment to illegal immigrants. Murphy also acknowledged that the state of New Jersey is "quite clearly running out of money."

"It's not just because I think we're good guys and gals, but because we're not going to break the back of this virus unless we bring us all along," Murphy said.

Judith Persichilli, commissioner of the New Jersey's Department of Health, urged illegal immigrants without access to health care to contact the state.

You can hear Murphy discuss the possibility of paying illegal immigrants around the 1:05-mark.

https://www.theblaze.com/news/new-jersey-pay-illegal-immigrants

Truck driver charged with bringing nearly $2 million in cocaine to south Texas

BROWNSVILLE, Texas — A Michigan man was charged in federal court Friday for money laundering and conspiracy to possess with intent to distribute cocaine.

This case is being conducted by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) McAllen Office with assistance from the U.S Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA).

Edgardo Serrano, 51, from New Boston, Michigan was charged April 24, 2020 by U.S. District Judge Ignacio Torteva III.

According to court documents, HSI filed the criminal complaint April 18, against Serrano. It alleges that on April 17, HSI and DEA had searched a mechanics shop in Hidalgo, Texas, which resulted in the discovery of $1.7 million hidden in a commercial tractor. The investigation revealed Serrano had been driving the vehicle, according to the charges. The complaint further alleges Serrano was in the Rio Grande Valley to pick up a load of carrots, but it appeared to be a cover for what was a shipment of cocaine destined for Florida. The hidden cash was allegedly the proceeds of the illegal narcotics sales in Florida.

If convicted, Serrano faces up to life in federal prison and a possible $10 million fine.

Assistant U.S. Attorney Karen Betancourt, Southern District of Texas is prosecuting the case.

A criminal complaint is a formal accusation of criminal conduct, not evidence and a defendant is presumed innocent unless convicted through due process of law.

https://www.ice.gov/news/releases/truck-driver-charged-bringing-nearly-2-million-cocaine-south-texas

Nancy Pelosi: Democrats Will Hold Hearing on Dismissal of Dr. Rick Bright — ‘This Is Explosive’

Appearing Friday on MSNBC, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) said Democrats will hold a hearing about the dismissal of Dr. Rick Bright, the government vaccine expert who alleges he was removed from his post due to his opposition to the promotion of hydroxychloroquine to treat the Chinese coronavirus.

A partial transcript is as follows:

ANDREA MITCHELL: Madame Speaker, when [President Donald Trump] suggested yesterday — he said, “We’ll have a cure soon,” but at the same time, according to an upcoming whistleblower complaint that we understand from Dr. [Rick] Bright, who was removed from his position in charge of the vaccination research effort, that he’s actually — according to this complaint and his version of it — he was removed from his job by pushing back against the recommendation from the president, the push to validate that malaria medication.

HOUSE SPEAKER NANCY PELOSI: My colleague Congresswoman Anna Eshoo of California is the chair of the health subcommittee of energy and commerce. It was her legislation that established part of that, that Dr. Bright was the head of. She and we all have respected and know his work and respected over time, and follow that work. She will be — I understand — will be having a hearing on the subject. And — and we have to get to the facts, as allegations are made. But this is — this is explosive. But again, we want to be hopeful for the American people and to kind of, along minimize the impact of what the president is saying. When he takes scientists out because they’re not quickly giving approvals to his preferred choice of medicines, that is a danger to our system.

https://www.breitbart.com/politics/2020/04/24/nancy-pelosi-democrats-will-hold-hearing-on-dismissal-of-dr-rick-bright-this-is-explosive/

Google has taken over one of email addresses not connected to google

Now I'm having trouble send emails……….