AI News
The latest news and reviews on artificial intelligence software, hardware and AI research.
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Microsoft will offer its AI smarts to benefit the environment
Microsoft just announced a new initiative called AI for Earth. Headed by Microsoft's chief environmental scientist Lucas Joppa, the program will help researchers and organizations use AI to solve the major environmental issues we face today. Leaders of projects focusing on water, agriculture, biodiversity and climate change can apply for access to Microsoft's cloud and AI computing resources and it's putting down $2 million towards the initiative this year.
Google's new AI acquisition aims to fix developing world problems
As part of its continued push into the AI sector, Google has just revealed that it has purchased a new deep learning startup. The Indian-based Halli Labs are the latest addition to Google's Next Billion Users team, joining the world-leading tech company less than two months after the startup's first public appearance. The young company has described its mission statement at Google as "to help get more technology and information into more people's hands around the world." Halli announced the news itself in a brief post on Medium, and Caesar Sengupta, a VP at Google, confirmed the purchase shortly afterwards on Twitter. Welcome @Pankaj and the team at @halli_labs to Google. Looking forward to building some cool stuff together. https://t.co/wiBP1aQxE9 — Caesar Sengupta (@caesars) July 12, 2017
Microsoft app helps blind people ‘see’ the world with AI
Microsoft has launched an iPhone app designed to help blind and partially-sighted people better navigate the world. The app, Seeing AI, uses 'computer vision' to narrate the user's surroundings, read text, describe scenes and even identify friends' facial cues. The project has been in the works since September 2016; in March this year, Microsoft demonstrated a prototype of the app for the first time. It uses neural networks, similar to the technology found in self-driving cars, to identify its environment and speak its observations out loud.
High-tech solutions top the list in the fight against eye disease
"The eyes are the window to the soul," the adage goes, but these days our eyes could be better compared to our ethernet connection to the world. According to a 2006 study conducted by the University of Pennsylvania, the human retina is capable of transmitting 10 million bits of information per second. But for as potent as our visual capabilities are, there's a whole lot that can go wrong with the human eye. Cataracts, glaucoma and age-related macular degeneration (AMD) are three of the leading causes of blindness the world over. Though we may not have robotic ocular prosthetics just yet, a number of recent ophthalmological advancements will help keep the blinds over those windows from being lowered.
Google's latest venture fund will back AI startups
There's no question that Google believes artificial intelligence is the future, but it doesn't feel like it needs to all the hard work by itself. It's willing to give others a helping hand. To that end, Google has launched a venture capital firm, Gradient Ventures, that will offer financial backing and "technical mentorship" to AI startups. They'll have access to experts from Google itself, including futurist Ray Kurzweil, design mastermind Matias Duarte and X lab leader Astro Teller.
Toyota's $100 million fund will back AI, robotics startups
Today, Toyota announced the launch of Toyota AI Ventures, a new venture capital subsidiary focused on startup tech companies working on artificial intelligence. The fund has received an initial $100 million from the Toyota Research Institute (TRI), an AI-, robotics- and autonomous car-focused initiative created in 2015.
Google’s ‘PAIR’ project wants AI and humans to get along
A new Google initiative was announced today that aims to improve how humans and AI interact. Called PAIR, or People + AI Research initiative, its goal is to make sure AI technology is beneficial and empowering to everyone and it will focus on aspects like tools for AI developers and how to make sure AI systems are inclusive. "PAIR is devoted to advancing the research and design of people-centric AI systems. We're interested in the full spectrum of human interaction with machine intelligence, from supporting engineers to understanding everyday experiences with AI," said PAIR's website.
Google DeepMind AI learns to creatively move around obstacles
Reinforcement learning (RL) is the practice of teaching and guiding behavior by using a reward system. Desirable behavior produces rewards; undesirable behavior does not. It's a common tool used in machine learning, and now the the Alphabet team has used it to teach the DeepMind AI to successfully navigate a parkour course.
After Math: Bigger and better
It was a bumper week for big ideas. Jay-Z's latest album went platinum in under a week, despite it only existing in the ethers of the internet. RED (of high-end camera fame) revealed that it's working on a "holographic" cellphone. And Tesla is going ahead and building the world's biggest battery array down in Australia. Numbers, because how else will we decide which is best?
AI vision can determine why neighborhoods thrive
It's relatively easy to figure out whether or not a neighborhood is doing well at one moment in time. More often than not, you just have to look around. But how do you measure the progress (or deterioration) a neighborhood makes? That's where AI might help. Researchers have built a computer vision system that can determine the rate of improvement or decay in a given urban area. The team taught a machine learning system to compare 1.6 million pairs of photos (each taken several years apart) from Google Street View to look for signs of change on a pixel-by-pixel, object-by-object basis. If there are more green spaces or key building types in the newer shot, for instance, that's a sign that an area is on the up-and-up.
US Army is building a versatile, flying squirrel-like drone
The military is constantly working on new drone technology. That includes new types of drones like autonomous boats and small swarming UAVs as well as ways to combat drones, like frying them with microwaves, guided bullets and hacking. Right now, the US Army is working on a small, lightweight drone that can take on a number of tasks depending on what's needed in a given situation.
Google DeepMind teams with Open AI to prevent a robot uprising
If you're worried that one day the robots will revolt and either exterminate or subjugate the entire human race, you're not alone. But instead of sitting back and waiting for the robot rebellion, two leaders in AI are teaming up to tackle the problem of creating smart computer programs that won't eventually try and take over.
Muse makes bizarre music video with AI and found footage
Artificial intelligence is all over the place these days, predicting our thoughts, protecting our crops, playing video games and even generating adorably weird pickup lines. British band Muse is getting in on the act now with a new AI-generated music video that pulls internet video footage of celebrities, politicians and artists to match the lyrics to the hit song, "Dig Down." The result feels like even more political than the original video, which explores the consequences of technology within a media-fueled cyberpunk dystopia.
Google's next DeepMind AI research lab opens in Canada
Google's DeepMind artificial intelligence team has been based in the UK ever since it was acquired in 2014. However, it's finally ready to branch out -- just not to the US. DeepMind has announced that its first international research lab is coming to the Canadian prairie city of Edmonton, Alberta later in July. A trio of University of Alberta computer science professors (Richard Sutton, Michael Bowling and Patrick Pilarski) will lead the group, which includes seven more AI veterans. But why not an American outpost?
NVIDIA will power self-driving cars in China
NVIDIA has already forged self-driving alliances with big car manufacturers like Audi, Toyota and Volvo, but its latest is a particularly big deal -- at least if you live in China. The chip designer has unveiled a partnership with Chinese internet giant Baidu that will see the two work together to boost the use of AI. Most notably, NVIDIA's Drive PX tech will find its way into Baidu's Apollo self-driving car platform and autonomous vehicles from "major" Chinese firms. The automotive pact is important enough that Baidu chief Robin Li traveled to the event in one of his company's driverless rides -- even though it was against the law.
Chinese tech giant Alibaba has a smart speaker, too
Just days after news emerged that Samsung is working on its own AI-equipped speaker, Chinese giant Alibaba is also entering the fray. The Tmall Genie, which does a similar job to Amazon's Alexa, lets you control your home and offers news, music playback and a raft other skills via voice assistant AliGenie. Unlike Samsung's as-yet ephemeral offering, however, the Tmall Genie will be available on July 17th for the equivalent of $73.
Samsung needs data before Bixby is ready for English speakers
Wondering why Samsung still hasn't enabled Bixby voice features in English despite promising a launch in the spring? Apparently, it's down to a lack of info. A spokesperson tells the Korea Herald that the company just doesn't have enough "big data" to make its AI-powered voice assistant available in languages besides Korean. It needs that extra knowledge to train Bixby's deep learning system, the Herald says. That's borne out by US beta testing: Samsung says there have been some 'unsatisfactory' responses so far.
GSK will use supercomputers to develop new drugs
Developing a new drug is a long, complicated and expensive process that takes years before you get to the human trial. There's a hope that computers will be able to simulate the majority of the process, greatly reducing the cost and time involved. That's why GlaxoSmithKline is throwing $43 million in the direction of Scottish AI company Exscientia, which promises to use deep learning to find new drugs.
Microsoft made its AI work on a $10 Raspberry Pi
When you're far from a cell tower and need to figure out if that bluebird is Sialia sialis or Sialia mexicana, no cloud server is going to help you. That's why companies are squeezing AI onto portable devices, and Microsoft has just taken that to a new extreme by putting deep learning algorithms onto a Raspberry Pi. The goals is to get AI onto "dumb" devices like sprinklers, medical implants and soil sensors to make them more useful, even if there's no supercomputer or internet connection in sight.
Ford realizes it should have an AI and robotics team
Ford is moving closer to vehicle autonomy by announcing its creation of a dedicated robotics and artificial intelligence research team. In a blog post by vice president and CTO Ken Washington, the company lays out its ambitious plans for exploring and innovating a whole range of vehicle tech with designs "to be at the forefront in the field."
