AI News
The latest news and reviews on artificial intelligence software, hardware and AI research.
Latest
AI developed a whole new sport
Many existing sports have their roots in hundreds (if not thousands) of years of human tradition. But what if you asked computers to create a sport? You now know how that can turn out. The design agency AKQA has introduced Speedgate, reportedly the first sport envisioned by an AI. The event has six-player teams competing on a field with three open-ended gates. Once you've kicked the ball through a center gate (which you can't step through), your team can score on one of the end gates -- complete with an extra point if you ricochet the ball through the gate. You can't stay still, either, as the ball has to move every three seconds.
AI defeated a top-tier 'Dota 2' esports team
So much for the best Dota 2 players having the skill to fend off cutting-edge AI. OpenAI Five has beaten five players from OG, the veteran team that won Valve's 2018 International, in a best-of-three exhibition match. The Verge noted that the deep learning system thrived by relying on aggressive and unconventional methods, including instant revivals for heroes in the early stages, and picking valuable heroes. While OG put up a fight (the first round lasted over 30 minutes), it couldn't hold out.
Every shot from the Masters will be posted online within five minutes
Golf fans who are planning to watch the Masters this weekend will have yet more ways to check out the action. For the first time at a golf tournament, practically every one of the more than 20,000 shots from the first major of the year will be available to view on the Masters website and app within five minutes of a player striking the ball.
Recycling robot can sort paper and plastic by touch
It can be a pain for workers to sort recycling, both because of the safety and the sheer monotony of it. But how do you get robots to do the job when they can't always tell the difference between a can and a cardboard tube? For MIT CSAIL, it's simple: give the robots a sense of touch. Its researchers have developed a recycling robot, RoCycle, that uses sensors in its hand to determine the nature of an item and sort it accordingly. A strain sensor gauges an object's size, while two pressure sensors determine how squishy that object may be, whether it's easily-crushed paper or more rigid plastic. It can even detect the presence of metal, since the sensors are conductive.
Sony's robot-themed art installation somehow felt like a cat cafe
With legitimate economic uncertainties for some of us, paired with predictions of a dystopian end of days at their hands, tech like robots, AI and automation have earned a bad rap. Sony has taken a soft-touch approach when it comes to robotics, perhaps best illustrated by its iconic electronic pet, Aibo. It's just one effort from a company that has seen a resurgence over the last few years, not just through a redesigned robot dog, but also its work on self-driving car sensors. Alongside CES and the other usual tech shows, Sony has been attending Milan Design Week for the past few years, and this time its lofty concepts touch on artificial intelligence, robotic empathy and how we're all going to feel about it. I wouldn't say I walked away with any answers, however.
Facebook creates an AI-based map of Africa to help with crisis relief
Facebook has created AI-based population maps before, but it's now generating them on a truly massive scale. The social site is releasing new, ultra-detailed population density maps that cover the "majority" of Africa, helping relief agencies know where to go when providing aid. The technique is similar to what Facebook has used before, but tweaks to the formula kept the accuracy high even across Africa's 16 million square miles.
Amazon Alexa provides more detailed news briefings in the US
Voice assistants usually only give you brief summaries of the news -- helpful if you're in a hurry, but that's about it. Amazon is betting that you'll want something deeper. It's rolling out an Alexa feature in the US that provides long-form news from Bloomberg, CNBC, CNN, Fox News, Newsy and NPR. Ask Alexa to "tell me the news" or to "play news" from a specific outlet and you'll get detailed audio from all providers, and video from CNBC and Newsy. You can skip stories if you'd rather not examine every story in vivid detail.
The EU releases guidelines to encourage ethical AI development
No technology raises ethical concerns (and outright fear) quite like artificial intelligence. And it's not just individual citizens who are worried. Facebook, Google and Stanford University have invested in AI ethics research centers. Late last year, Canada and France teamed up to create an international panel to discuss AI's "responsible adoption." Today, the European Commission released its own guidelines calling for "trustworthy AI."
Apple lures another of Google's top experts to its AI team
When Apple appointed former Googler John Giannandrea as the first senior vice president of Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence Strategy, the tech giant indicated that it's getting more serious about AI. Now, the company is showing its commitment to strengthen its AI efforts by hiring another expert in the field from its staunchest rival. Apple has named Ian Goodfellow as the Director of Machine Learning in the Special Projects Group last month.
Google dissolves newly formed AI ethics board
Google's Advanced Technology External Advisory Council was supposed to oversee its work on artificial intelligence and ensure it doesn't cross any lines. Now, the council wouldn't be able to do any of that, because the tech giant has officially cancelled it just a bit over a week after it was announced. According to Vox, the project was falling apart from the start due to Google's decision to name controversial figures as members of the board. The most problematic of them was perhaps Kay Coles James, the president of Heritage Foundation, which has long advocated against LGBT rights.
Watch a self-driving car navigate with just cameras and basic GPS
Self-driving cars currently need a lot of hand-holding to get around, with even Waymo's machines relying on lidar, custom rules and highly detailed maps to know exactly where to go. Wayve, however, wants driverless vehicles with more independence. It just showed a prototype autonomous vehicle (a modified Renault Twizy) driving around Cambridge, UK using only cameras and basic GPS directions from a phone. It had never seen the roads before, and was only running on 20 hours of training data -- it didn't even know to drive on the left side of the road or to slow down at intersections where it didn't have the right of way.
Google's Duplex AI can make reservations on non-Pixel devices
You no longer need to carry a Pixel phone to have Google's Duplex book reservations on your behalf. Google has quietly expanded support for Duplex to other Android devices (5.0 Lollipop and newer) and iPhones using Assistant. While it's not certain just which hardware will work at this stage, there are reports at XDA and 9to5Google that Duplex is working on the Galaxy S10 and iPhone.
Google Assistant gets its long-promised John Legend voice
It took the better part of a year to show up, but John Legend's Google Assistant cameo is finally available in the US. Ask the AI helper to "talk like a Legend" and the singer's dulcet tones will greet you when issuing certain commands, such as asking about the weather. Naturally, he'll have answers for questions about his own life, such as his wife Chrissy Teigen or his favorite type of music (take a wild guess). Some of those answers will be canned, but others will take advantage of WaveNet speech synthesis to deliver a customized response.
Google report details the ongoing fight against bad Android apps
Today, Google released its fifth annual security and privacy report. Despite an overall increase in potentially harmful application (PHA) downloads -- due to the fact that click fraud is now included in the PHA category -- Google is optimistic, saying the "overall health of the Android ecosystem improved."
Google Photos makes it easier to take clear pictures of receipts
Google is making it easier to capture clear photographs of receipts and other documents. Following on from the AI-powered suggested actions feature unveiled out last year, which automatically brightens and rotates images, the company is this week launching a new crop and adjust function for snaps of printed items and text-heavy pages.
eBay uses AI to help you shop for similar-looking items
When you're shopping, you probably have a general look in mind. But how do you describe that to a shopping site? eBay might have an answer: have AI figure it out. It's implementing a feature that uses computer vision to find items that resemble what you're looking at. Tap the three-dot menu next to a product and it'll give you both simple category buttons (such as "athletic shoes") as well as a "looks like this" option to find visually similar items. Eye a green set of sneakers, for instance, and you should see comparable footwear without having to construct an elaborate search.
Turing Award winners include AI giants from Facebook and Google
The Turing Award has recognized some of the biggest names in AI and computing over the years, and the latest winners are particularly heavy hitters. The three prize recipients for 2018 are Google VP Geoffrey Hinton, Facebook's Yann LeCun (above) and Yoshua Bengio, the Scientific Director of the giant AI research center Mila. All three helped "develop conceptual foundations" for deep neural networks, according to the Association for Computing Machinery, and created breakthroughs that showed he "practical advantages" of the technology.
Google forms an external council to foster 'responsible' AI
Google is joining Facebook, Stanford and other outfits setting up institutions to support ethical AI. The company has created an Advanced Technology External Advisory Council that will shape the "responsible development and use" of AI in its products. The organization will ponder facial recognition, fair machine learning algorithms and other ethical issues. The initial council is a diverse group that tackles a range of disciplines and experiences.
McDonald's will use AI to automatically tweak drive-thru menus
When you roll up to a McDonald's drive-thru in the near future, you might notice the menu changing while you're ordering to persuade you to buy a few more items. The fast food giant is buying machine learning startup Dynamic Yield for a reported $300 million, and the first stop for the company's AI is the drive-thru window.
MIT’s AI can train neural networks faster than ever before
In an effort "to democratize AI," researchers at MIT have found a way to use artificial intelligence to train machine-learning systems much more efficiently. Their hope is that the new time- and cost-saving algorithm will allow resource-strapped researchers and companies to automate neural network design. In other words, by bringing the time and cost down, they could make this AI technique more accessible.
