Let’s compile some reading in preparation for next week’s lectures on AI! First up, a thorough and well researched overview on the origins of AI and artistic approaches to it (in German) by Pit Noack (@maschinennah) for heise.de:

Ein künstliches neuronales Netz, so die Mathematikerin Hannah Fry in ihrem Buch “Hello World“, kann man sich “als eine riesige mathematische Struktur vorstellen, mit jeder Menge Schaltern und Reglern. Man speist ein Bild an einem Ende ein, es fließt durch eine Struktur, und am anderen Ende kommt eine Vermutung heraus, was dieses Bild enthält. Eine Wahrscheinlichkeit für jede Kategorie: Hund oder nicht Hund.”

Next up, the always awesome @AINowInstitute has published an extensive report on New York’s Automated Decision System Task Force (link to PDF):

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A new report about the New York City Automated Decision System Task Force just dropped! If you're at all interested in the role and governance of algorithms in cities, you're going to want to read this. @AINowInstitute https://t.co/Evea8J3rI2 pic.twitter.com/RxMCBeXoQG

— Ben Green (@benzevgreen) December 4, 2019

The wonderful people from MOTIF Institute are well worth following on twitter for their insights on AI and digital culture. Much love for their speculative approach to envisioning possible future scenarios (at Das ist Netzpolitik conference. in German):

If you are interested in the design aspects of AI, Chip Huyen (@chipro) wrote an extensive document on Machine Learning Systems Design:

In academic settings, people care more about training whereas in production, people care more about serving. Candidates who have only learned about machine learning but haven’t deployed a system in the real world often make the mistake of focusing entirely on training: getting the model to do well on some benchmark task without thinking of how it would be used.

And finally, here’s a fun thing to play if you have a couple of minutes: AI Dungeon 2 by Nick Walton and the BYU PCCL Lab:

at last i can play AI dungeon 2 pic.twitter.com/5SBLojlM97

— Knives out (chives out) (@vqnerdballs) December 8, 2019

Enjoy!