The robot overlords’ rule may have gotten closer today with the injection of $40 million from Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA) founder Elon Musk, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) creator Mark Zuckerberg, and pretty boy actor and tech investor Ashton Kutcher
Vicarious FPC doesn’t believe it should need to disclose its full address. There is a culture of secrecy that surrounds Vicarious which makes speculation and writing about them fun. Hell, the co-founder of the company sounds like a Bond villain or Olympic skier…..Scott Phoenix.
From a recent TED talk conference with Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) co-founder Larry Page, and Google’s $400 acquisition of artificial intelligence concern Deep Mind last month, it’s clear that artificial intelligence is popping and tech companies are fighting over them just as last month saw the battle for messaging apps which culminated with the Facebook splash of $19 billion for WhatsApp.
At the risk of understatement, Vicarious is thinking outside of the box/brain. The company’s goal is to map the neocortex, not map so much as code it. But yes, the part of the brain that does math, “sees”, controls movement and understands what people are saying to you. In the words of the Bond villain with skis, the goal is to “have a computer that thinks like a person,” “Except it doesn’t have to eat or sleep.”
Facebook: Pocket change
While that may be the realm of a new FOX show starring Scotty and the cute boy from “Barbershop” and decades away, Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB), Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) and others need artificial intelligence now. Facebook would love to turn the ridiculous amount of information that its users voluntarily share into a database of knowledge where users are given the answer to everything. That said, a Facebook spokesperson was quick to note that this is a Zuckerberg (personal) investment, not one made by the company he founded.
This company won’t make money for a long time, if ever, but the possibility of being there when they do cost Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB)’s Zuckerberg and Tesla Motors Inc (NASDAQ:TSLA)’s Musk nothing more than metaphorical change in the couch.
via: WSJ
