Taking superintelligence seriously: Superintelligence: Paths,dangers, strategies by Nick Bostrom (Oxford University Press, 2014)

A new book by Nick Bostrom, Superintelligence: Paths, Dangers, Strategies, is reviewed. Superintelligence explores the future of artificial intelligence and related technologies and the risks they may pose to human civilization. The book ably demonstrates the potential for serious thinking aimed at the long-term future. Bostrom succeeds in arguing that the development of superintelligent machines will, if not properly managed, create catastrophic risks to humanity. The book falls short in some respects, and some sections are more compelling and novel than others. Overall, however, Bostrom’s book succeeds in demolishing the “null hypothesis” according to which the possibility and risks of superintelligence can continue to be ignored, and is a must-read for those interested in the long-term future of humanity.     

Does hospitality diversity education make a difference in undergraduate students’ emotional intelligence

Soft skills are typically referred to as the attributes exhibited or contained by an individual that display his/her ability to interact with others. Two types of soft skills that are often discussed within the hospitality industry are diversity awareness and emotional intelligence. Diversity may be explained or defined as a state of unlikeness, the conditions of being different, and all things that make us different. Areas where differences may exist include race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socio-economic status, age, physical abilities, religious beliefs, political affiliation and emotional reaction. Emotional intelligence (EI) has been defined as the ability to perceive, understand, regulate, and harness emotions in the self and others. How one deals with emotion is one characteristic that varies from culture to culture. Research has shown that EI may be a contributing factor in a moment of truth being considered a failure or success. The purpose of this study was to examine if undergraduate student EI scores change after completing a diversity issues course. Students completed the Assessing Emotions Scale on the first class day. At the conclusion of the 15-week course covering approximately 20 diversity issues concepts students completed the same EI assessment. Paired sampled t-testing was conducted to determine whether mean differences existed when comparing post and pre-course scores. Results of this study suggest that certain components of EI are significantly changed after taking the diversity issues course.     

从多元智力理论看如何提高高职教育的教学质量

随着职业教育的蓬勃发展,如何提高高职教育的教学质量是各级教育行政部门和高职院校必须解决的问题,作为高职院校的一名普通教师,笔者主要从多元智力理论这个角度来谈一谈自己的一些粗浅的看法。     

Economic corollaries of personalized recommendations

The impact of recommendation systems (RSs) on the diversity of consumption is not transparent or well understood. Available studies, whether experimental or theoretical, show inconsistent and even opposite results, which manifests as debate in the literature. In this paper, we investigate the impact of two main recommender systems, neural collaborative filtering and deep content filtering, on sales diversity via a randomized field experiment. Our results confirm the capability of recommender engines in increasing or decreasing aggregate sales diversity. Nonetheless, they amplify homogenization and reduce individual-level consumption diversity. In conclusion, our research reconciles seemingly contradict previous findings and illustrates that the design of the RS is the decisive factor in homogenizing or diversifying product sales.     

Search reduction in hierarchical distributed problem solving

Knoblock and Korf have determined that abstraction can reduce search at a single agent from exponential to linear complexity (Knoblock 1991; Korf 1987). We extend their results by showing how concurrent problem solving among multiple agents using abstraction can further reduce search to logarithmic complexity. We empirically validate our formal analysis by showing that it correctly predicts performance for the Towers of Hanoi problem (which meets all of the assumptions of the analysis). Furthermore, a powerful form of abstraction for large multiagent systems is to group agents into teams, and teams of agents into larger teams, to form an organizational pyramid. We apply our analysis to such an organization of agents and demonstrate the results in a delivery task domain. Our predictions about abstraction's benefits can also be met in this more realistic domain, even though assumptions made in our analysis are violated. Our analytical results thus hold the promise for explaining in general terms many experimental observations made in specific distributed AI systems, and we demonstrate this ability with examples from prior research.This research has been sponsored, in part, by the National Science Foundation under grants IRI-9015423 and IRI-9010645, by the University of Michigan Rackham Graduate School, and by a Bell Northern Research Postgraduate Award.     

碳排放约束视角下产业智能化对区域经济差距的影响研究

本文利用2003~2019年中国省级面板数据,从碳排放约束视角出发,实证考察了产业智能化对区域经济差距影响的差异性和产业智能化影响区域经济差距的机制。研究表明,产业智能化对缩小全国、东、中和西部地区省域间经济差距具有显著的正向效应;进一步考虑碳排放约束,发现碳排放约束正向调节了产业智能化对区域经济差距的正向效应,西部地区由于自身产业结构和区位因素,抑制了产业智能化对区域经济差距的正向效应;最后,对产业结构升级的两个子维度在产业智能化和区域经济差距间的中介效应检验,发现产业结构升级的中介效应存在,且主要是通过产业结构高级化实现,产业结构合理化发挥的作用较小。     

智能化如何提高地区能源效率?——基于中国省级面板数据的实证检验

“十四五”规划指出,要深入实施智能制造和绿色制造工程,推动制造业高端化、智能化、绿色化,使能源资源配置更加合理、利用效率大幅提高。目前,中国制造业存在能耗高、污染严重等问题,在智能化发展迅猛的时代背景下,深入探究其对能源效率的影响机制,实现智能能源、智慧能源的目标,有着重要意义。本文采用2004-2016年中国省级平衡面板数据,使用静态和动态面板模型分析智能化对能源效率的影响,并研究技术创新、环境规制和外商直接投资的调节作用。得到的结论如下:(1)智能化促进能源效率,即增加绿色全要素能源效率、降低能源消耗;(2)随着技术创新水平提高,智能化对能源效率的提升作用加强;(3)环境规制加速智能化对能源效率的正向作用;(4)随着外商直接投资增加,智能化更加促进能源效率;(5)不同地区智能化对能源效率的作用不同,西部地区智能化的作用最弱,但调节作用最大。政府和企业要通过提高技术创新、完善环境规制和合理使用外商直接投资等方式来应用智能化技术,提高能源效率。     

中国企业竞争情报人员信息素质研究

市场竞争越来越激烈,信息竞争成为企业的竞争的主要方式。因此,中国企业竞争情报人员所具有的信息素质的高低很大程度决定了企业的成败。立足于中国企业竞争情报人力资源信息素质建设现状,指t~-g,当前不足,提出加强人员培训、深化专业人才培养体制和方式改革等措施,提高中国企业竞争情报人员的信息素质和能力。     

大学生课外体育锻炼意识与行为的调查分析

采用问卷调查法、文献资料法和数据统计法,对地方院校大学生参与课外体育活动现状进行调查,探讨大学生课外体育锻炼活动的特点和规律。为培养大学生体育兴趣和终身体育意识,提高课外活动效果,促进高校体育教育的发展提供对策。     

基于网络的现代体育图书情报信息特征与供给、利用

随着计算机网络技术的发展与应用普及,现代网络体育图书情报信息与传统的体育图书情报信息相比具有非常鲜明的特征,网络环境下体育图书情报信息的供给与利用具有广阔的拓展和发展空间。