don’t be evil

As Big Think reports, the fallout and criticism of Google’s role in the Pentagon’s Project Maven, an artificial intelligence application that could led to more automation and autonomy in combat drones, has prompted the company to publicise their code of ethics and principles to help ensure going forward that machines are held to human account, beneficial as opposed to parasitically addictive and culturally sensitive. It’s worth reading and reflecting on—especially considering we only have one shot at getting artificial intelligence right and our creation could easily pivot from boon to bane.

seven minus one

Though it is not often that something momentous comes out of such summits, world leaders seem poised to make the G7 conference in Québec a showcase on the fraying ties amongst the United States and its traditional allies. Not expecting a warm-reception, Trump apparently is grumbling about attending the meeting at all and will depart early on Saturday and head directly to Singapore for his on again one-on-one meeting with Kim Jung Un.

7x7

cnidaria: a fascinating look at the cultivation and care of coral

and someone left the cake out in the rain: interpreting the significance of that narrow, non-precedential US Supreme Court ruling

fleet-a-pita: US Environmental Protection Agency chief tried to secure a for his wife a faith-based chicken fast-food franchise through his position

dietetic: an interesting survey of vintage diabetic soft drinks

desertum africanum: a Roman coast highway that stretches from the Nile to the Atlantic

balopticon: the racy, kitschy illustrations (1940s and 1950s vintage but NSFW) of Norman Rockwell protégé George Quaintance

on this day: the monarchs of Spain and Portugal reached concord with the Treaty of Tordesillas (previously) that partitioned the world between the two in 1494

keitora

Kei class trucks (軽トラ) were first popularised in 1949 and have been since enlisted for all sorts of heavy-duty jobs including agriculture, construction and firefighting, and now thanks to Spoon & Tamago, that this tough little vehicles have of late also become a showcase for an annual landscaping contest sponsored by the Japanese federation of contractors.

The entries are really fantastically detailed and capture the elements of traditional Japanese gardening arts, called Nihon Teien (日本庭園) and incorporate plants, water elements and distressed materials to invoke the idea of far off lands and signal resistance to the march of time and entropy.