Charlie Rose

FellaGood  11/22/2012 01:16 PM Report

Sorry to rain on this parade. Thrun claims to be a great innovator. But in fact he is only taking credit for work done by other true pioneers. This is easy to verify. Take the online courses of Udacity. In Germany, Thrun's native country, prof. Loviscach started online university lectures back in 2009, and got millions of clicks long before Thrun jumped on the train 3 years later. The award-winning prof. Vornberger published his popular videos already in 2002, even before the Khan Academy, currently the most visible mass education outfit. (Germany has a long tradition of distance teaching - Univ. Hagen with over 80,000 remote students has specialized on this for decades.) Even at Stanford, Thrun was not the first. His colleague prof. Andrew Ng, co-founder of Coursera, got hundreds of thousands of viewers for his youtube machine learning course, long before Thrun followed suit and put his own lecture online. Or take self-driving cars. When talking to non-experts and unsuspecting journalists, Thrun encourages the impression that he "pioneered" the field. Which is ridiculous. In his native country, prof. Dickmanns already had fully autonomous, fast, self-driving cars (160km/h) in traffic in 1995, long before anybody else, and 10 years before Thrun's team joined the fray by participating in the 2005 DARPA Grand Challenge for self-driving cars. And the DARPA objectives were not that hard to achieve, as quite a few teams were able to reach the goal. One of them was a financial services company that had never dabbled in robotics before. Or take Google Glass. No wonder that prof. Babak Parviz, its creator, got miffed when Thrun started taking credit for that as well. More examples from Academia could be listed. If there is one recurring theme in Thrun's carreer, it's his (more or less subtle) attempts at festooning himself with achievements of others.

SharkswithfrikingLazers  06/30/2012 04:30 PM Report

Cats are big time.

Google has a secret lab (as mentioned in this interview) and built a neural network from 1,000 computers.

The task X Lab gave this network was to find cat videos.

The 16,000-processor-strong neural network performed very well; it taught itself to recognize cats from some 10 million digital images found in YouTube videos.

http://mashable.com/2012/06/26/google-simulates-human-brain/

(And you thought cat videos were just cute! Let "The Matrix" begin.)

SharkswithfrikingLazers  06/29/2012 02:18 AM Report

From "Fresh Air":

DAVIES: Right. Now let's talk about this. There was the case of the Stanford course, which was in, I forget what subject...

CAREY: Artificial intelligence.

DAVIES: OK. And it was available to anybody for free. And how many people followed the course or participated?

CAREY: Well over 100,000.

DAVIES: OK.

CAREY: I think getting up to 200,000, perhaps.

DAVIES: Now, no doubt they learned a lot, but they don't end up with a college credit, do they?

CAREY: No. It's...

DAVIES: How does this get translated into something that society recognizes as, you know, an - you know, a real education, a real credential?

CAREY: Well, that is the question that everybody is thinking about now. There is, I think, now no doubt that certain kinds of students - not everybody, but certain kinds of students can learn a lot, as you say, online. But people don't just go to college to learn. They go to college to get a credential that could help them get a job. That's the difference between a library and a college, or one of the differences.

And I think recognizing this, the professors that taught this class at Stanford - and it should be said that they - the Stanford professors kind of just did this on their own. They didn't even ask for permission ahead of time. They just opened their class up to the Internet. And as it turns out, while Stanford, the university was very enthusiastic about this kind of innovative, broadly reaching class being taught by one of their professors, they were also very, very concerned that there be no confusion about the fact that students who were not paying Stanford to take this class, those students were not going to receive Stanford credits.

Stanford credits are very expensive. Only a small number of students are allowed to get them. So what happened was the professors who taught the class for the students who satisfactorily passed the class based on tests that they took online got a letter from the professors saying: Dear such and such, this letter officially certifies that you took this class and - or something along those lines, and in some cases perhaps graduated or scored in the top 10 percent of the class. Sincerely, such and such person who is a professor at Stanford.

So we're really getting into the realm of semantic distinctions now, because in the end all a college degree is is a piece of paper saying that: Dear such and such, you took these classes and here's how you did in them - nothing more, nothing less. It is the piece of paper that has the seal of approval from an institution that has been itself approved through a process of government endorsement and accreditation, but the essential act of communication is the same.

The above is from this link where you will find a GREAT transcript:

http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=155766786

finalfantasytown  05/14/2012 08:07 AM Report

One of Asia minor, Romania. There is a song 'Dragostea Din Tei' originated from Romania, and then translated into a Chinese song 'not afraid'(very bad translation I think). In Romanian, dragostea means 'love', which I think is from Aphrodite because drago in Italian means dragon. The Trojan War in mythology was never completely besieged until the very end, thus it maintained communications with the interior of Asia Minor and allies in Europe. I must worship Gods for their power, wisdom, thoughtful, and their will of final fantasy. For the great war of Gods, salute! Salute! salute!

pattes  05/08/2012 02:12 PM Report

Hi ! I'm very interested about this project, I'm visually impaired and I'm interested to test if visually impaired persons can use it too... I think we need a mobile phone too ?

Angelle  04/29/2012 09:12 PM Report

The most awesome class I ever took. Enjoyed every single minute of it. Adored that I could rewind and rewatch each portion. Thanks Sebastian. Great job!

topazgirl  04/28/2012 07:09 PM Report

Is PeterCao for real? Someone should seriously check this out (or HIM!!!...) ...Scarey posts!

SharkswithfrikingLazers  04/28/2012 03:10 AM Report

Jon Stewart on the glasses:

http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-april-10-2012/the-social-networth---google-unveils-smart-glasse s---facebook-buys-instagram

Don't get hit by the cars in New York City!

Picopros  04/27/2012 10:37 AM Report

I would love to evaluate Google Glass for Picopros.com. We are big proponents of AR technology

YNHow  04/27/2012 03:32 AM Report

i have to say this is something i would never buy, sorry... and for the ed part, in my opinion, if you think a lecture is boring, why going to the class after all, you signed for it!,

ihavedna  04/27/2012 02:58 AM Report

As for Google Glass, I'm female and I'd wear it. I've always wanted to rock the visor a la Geordi Laforge.

finalfantasytown  04/27/2012 02:54 AM Report

Golden apples born in the branches of a tree; why different individuals and human races have different long-term memories through same experiences?; Dragon, an extinct ancient complex creature; Hera-kleos and extinction of dragon in Heracles' 12th mission; the fantasy design in part of human family by Gods; dragon spirit flows among the descend of dragon; design of next generation and we can have our own myth as human being. So excited.

There is an ancient Chinese poet a wife wrote to her husband to express her promise that 'I dare not divorce away from you until heaven falls down to the earth.' No one cannot be moved emotionally when hearing this poet. I think God blessed this couple.

Dragon in the tale of ancient China can manipulate weather which make people nervous, anxious, or even fear. I still don't understand why in ancient China, people used boar as a metaphor of dragon.

Dragon spirit is ancient and complex, which is very helpful to target it in Chinese physical bodies.

finalfantasytown  04/27/2012 02:52 AM Report

Exciting. Mongol empire was the greatest empire in human history. But it is unsure that finally which one will be favored by Gods, God-made one or artificial one?

Saultxyca  04/27/2012 12:48 AM Report

... Speaking of psychotic, what's with the cyberstalker below my last comment? Charlie's site crashed badly and I was unable to post. I think it had something to do with the comments below mine — and that apparently legendary cyberstalker of Drs. Thrun and Schmidt. ... How very creepy. (I had no idea.)

Saultxyca  04/27/2012 12:40 AM Report

Dr. Thrun brims with an infectious delight for discovery and invention. A "boring" professor, he? Surely not. But the tech contagion stops short, alas, on those unsightly Google goggles. I simply don't know a girl who would be caught in them: Behold the tech-centric blind spot. Vanity and comfort always trump extreme Geekistan. My point: notice many Bluetooth headsets and ear-pieces around lately? Too many of those wearers were wrongly taken for psychotic in the grocery store; you know, talking to, and gesticulating at, the eggs.

If you'd like to know what grunts think of those geeky goggles, go to YouTube and tap it into the search field: parodies of Google's promotional clip abound. One, by a pithy Brit., scored over 2 million hits — it's a hilarious must-see.

Meanwhile, as I make my way around "Silly Valley," I intend to give anyone wearing those things, forget driving with them on, extra-wide berth. ;-)

*

PeterCao  04/26/2012 09:32 PM Report

Stanford student May Zhou's (http://www.mayzhou.com) death and later an unsuccessful plotted murder on me was because of hostilities against Asian people originated in Gabriele Scheler’s false accusations, Sebastian Thrun and Eric Schmidt together with powers behind them had expanded such hostilities into Stanford, Google, legal system, etc.,

Brief of real names, dates, photos along with a police case number are listed in my blog link [ http://tysurl.com/BsEnQ4 ]

I brought the case to the public because as a human being, anyone has the responsibility to crack down such a murder case which includes killing the innocent, conspire life of the victim, terrorize/extort authorities, corruption, miscarriage of justice, discrimination against Asian, etc.

Any media interested in helping to clarify this case to the public please contact: peter_vista@yahoo.com or caomingpeter@163.com

PeterCao  04/26/2012 09:28 PM Report

For Charlie Rose's reference:

For Sebastian Thrun’s side, you don't want to threaten another person's life with the death of student from your own school. You don't want to terrorize your school boss with the killing of student from your own school. That's absolutely unforgivable. You never feel regret of what your side had done, and that make it even more unforgivable of you.

PeterCao  04/26/2012 09:28 PM Report

Here is a serious question regarding to Sebastian Thrun

On 2012/02/21 StanfordDaily article "virtual-learning" [http://www.stanforddaily.com/2012/02/21/virtual-learning/] in Comments part regarding to a murder case about a Stanford student May Zhou with which Eric Schmidt had threatened my life for sake of a stanford professor Sebastian Thrun and a criminal suspect named Gabriele Scheler during their fight with Stanford:

=========================================

@concernedNetCitizen,

About your ARROGANT question "If you think you have evidence (and i mean physical evidence) to the contrary why do you not take it to the police, or at least post what evidence you have (and I mean PHYSICAL evidence like fibres, DNA, fingerprints and the like)."

-----------

I am not physically in America, so I'd rather communicate with the police officer who's respnosible for May Zhou's case via email to tell serious stuff, my contact [peter_vista@yahoo.com] , or we could discuss it right here on this board. Before the officer who's responsible would contact me for a serious discussion, how could you know there is no such PHYSICAL evidence to say May Zhou's death is definitely a murder but not a suicide? As a matter of fact, such PHYSICAL evidence already exists and that's what I am going to tell.

The point at this time is, who is this officer who's respnosible for May Zhou's case, whom I should talk to? Could you have me connect with this officer? I have serious stuff to report

Meanwhile, why don't you help us to figure out what's the motivation behind May Zhou's death

PeterCao  04/26/2012 09:27 PM Report

Protecting human lives supersedes doing business. I wish Charlie Rose would have mentioned the following issues:

Sebastian Thrun left Stanford because he is in debt to Stanford people with his involvment into Stanford student May Zhou's death, he is not innocent in an unsuccessful plotted murder on me either and I have been cursed by powers from Sebastian Thrun's side for many years. Sebastian Thrun dare not deny to the public his involvment into such fascism crimes till today and I am still waiting to see why he dare not

SharkswithfrikingLazers  04/26/2012 04:58 PM Report

Great! Great! GREAT!

Charlie, I am glad you have finally opened it up to Cyborgs.

It has been too long in coming my friend.

tabs  04/26/2012 03:47 PM Report

Mr Thun has a child like excitement and happiness with the toys that he is creating. Technology has come a long way in the last century, with the last 50 years being exponential. However it is still in a rudimentary stage of evolution with regards to problem solving and being truly intelligent. AI will never be wise as that sometimes must run counter to logic and rational thought. At those time wisdom requires that one is mortal.

JFed  04/26/2012 01:22 PM Report

This is the most exciting and fun interviews I have seen on here in awhile! I liked the addition of the video.

REMant  04/26/2012 11:45 AM Report

All these inventions tho are incremental technical applications, and not really transformational. And, if some of neurologists are right, we will never be able to make machines really smart since they find no point to reflection.

Udacity will work only if it can prove it offers high quality education and students can prove they deserve a diploma. That's entirely possible, but it will require independent examining bodies, which, tho they exist, are tied up with the bricks and mortar regime. And open universities are completely opposed to the way that establishment maintains itself through selective admissions and grading. But free markets or no, enterprise operates by creating and defending rivalrous goods and services and the most that can be hoped for is cheaper and better, not free. At the moment firms like Google are getting away with it by taking the money from speculators and advertisers, but hopefully not forever, because no matter how un-evil these things may seem, in the absence of markets to honestly value and fund them, they are no better than home or student loans. And, as long as graduates must confront predatory monetary and foreign policies they will find it hard to compete no matter how great the promise of technological improvement.