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AI stuntpeople could lead to more realistic video games
Video game developers often turn to motion capture when they want realistic character animations. Mocap isn't very flexible, though, as it's hard to adapt a canned animation to different body shapes, unusual terrain or an interruption from another character. Researchers might have a better solution: teach the characters to fend for themselves. They've developed a deep learning engine (DeepMimic) that has characters learning to imitate reference mocap animations or even hand-animated keyframes, effectively training them to become virtual stunt actors. The AI promises realistic motion with the kind of flexibility that's difficult even with methods that blend scripted animations together.
Alexa now recaps NBA and NHL game stats
Voice assistants aren't great for sports buffs. They can provide the latest scores or tell you when your favorite team will play, but they rarely dive headlong into stats. Amazon, however, thinks it can dig a little deeper. It just gave Alexa the ability to recap NBA and NHL games, including the stats for individual players. You can find out how many points LeBron James scored in his last game (as of this article, 26), or have Alexa summarize the latest Maple Leafs match (they won).
LG's flagship G7 will launch in May
LG's artificial intelligence technology, ThinQ, first made its way to the Korean company's phones as part of the V30S. Now, the brand has confirmed that ThinQ is also coming to LG's flagship G-series, specifically the G7 that's debuting in New York on May 2nd and Seoul on May 3rd. According to the company's announcement, the G7 ThinQ's 'Empathic AI' -- that's how LG describes its artificial intelligence, which it says is capable of human-like thinking to a certain extent -- is better than its predecessor's. We'll have to wait for the device's official launch to know how exactly it's better than the V30's, though.
Microsoft AI knows when to (politely) interrupt conversations
Most AI assistants can't really hold a conversation. They're fine with I-go-you-go dialogue, but most humans aren't quite so timid -- they know when to interrupt, and when to restart chat when there's an awkward pause. Microsoft wants to fix that. It just upgraded its Xiaolce chatbot AI with "full duplex" conversation that lets it start speaking when it's listening to what you're saying. As it can predict what you're likely to say next, it knows when to interrupt you with important info or say something more when both sides suddenly go quiet. Think of it as that friend who knows when to speak up without being overly rude.
Google employees petition CEO to drop out of Pentagon AI project
Over 3,100 Google employees have signed a petition opposing the company's part in a Pentagon AI program. The letter asked CEO Sundar Pichai to pull Google out of the project, which harnesses artificial intelligence to analyze video and could improve drone targeting. Further, it urged him to establish and enforce a policy that kept the company or its subsidiaries from ever building "warfare technology."
Apple hires Google's former AI leader
Apple has regularly been accused of lagging behind Google in AI development, but it just scored a major victory that could help it turn things around. The iPhone maker has hired Google's just-departed AI and search chief, John Giannandrea, to head up its "machine learning and AI strategy." He'll report directly to Tim Cook. It's not certain if Apple has specific plans for the new exec, but Cook observed in a message to staff (obtained by the New York Times) that Giannandrea shared "our commitment to privacy and our thoughtful approach." In other words, don't expect him to widen Apple's data collection just because of his Google history.
Google AI and search chief steps down as part of overhaul
Google's quest to conquer AI is leading to a major change in leadership. The Information has learned that AI and search leader John Giannandrea is leaving his role, which will be split into two: Google Brain leader Jeff Dean will run a dedicated AI wing in addition to his Brain position, while search engineering boss Ben Gomes will lead search as the division's Vice President. Giannandrea is staying around, but reportedly wants to be "more hands on with technology" than he was before.
Apple goes on hiring spree to improve Siri's smarts
It won't shock you to hear that Siri is lagging behind rivals like Amazon's Alexa or Google Assistant -- the HomePod struggles to handle non-music tasks as well as competing smart speakers, for instance. And Apple appears to be aware of this shortfall. Thinknum has noticed that Apple has been on a Siri-related hiring spree in recent months, with 161 positions listed as of the end of March. There's been an uptick ever since summer 2016, but there was a distinct surge in February of this year.
Facebook is hosting an online abuse summit with other tech leaders
Facebook is trying to bring all the wars it's fighting under one roof. At the "Fighting Abuse @Scale" conference later next month, the social network will host talks on combating fake news, online fraud, spam and abuse in general. There's a special focus on how the different companies in attendance are using AI and machine learning to achieve their goals.
NVIDIA teams with Adobe to ensure AI editing runs smoothly
Adobe and NVIDIA are partnering up to power up the former's cloud-based AI endeavors with the latter's GPUs. Each new update for software in Adobe's suite leans more on its artificial intelligence toolkit Sensei to improve editing features, and it makes sense to tap NVIDIA's chips to ensure those run smoothly.
Alphabet's X lab explores using AI to improve food production
Add Alphabet to the growing number of companies hoping that AI will solve food production problems. The Google parent brand's X lab has revealed that it's exploring ways machine learning could improve farming. While X hasn't focused on any specific solutions, lab leader Astro Teller told MIT Technology Review that AI could be combined with drones and other robotics. It could help determine when to harvest crops, or adapt farms in areas where climate change makes forecasting difficult.
Google's Clips camera now takes high-res photos on demand
Google Clips' manual 7-second video bursts are fine if you're not a stickler for high resolution, but there are times when you just want to snap a quality still photo to share with friends. Why can't you capture both? Well, now you can: Google is delivering an update to Clips' Android app that lets you take a high-resolution photo alongside the video when you press the shutter button either on the camera itself or in the live preview on your phone. That could be more than a little helpful if you want to capture a sharp picture the moment something interesting occurs, rather than hoping you have time to take a separate shot.
China's hospitals turn to AI to make up for doctor shortage
We already use AI in medicine to examine medical scans and spot signs of diabetes, among other applications. In China, though, artificial intelligence can do more than just assist medical professionals: it can help alleviate the country's doctor shortage. A hospital in Beijing, for instance, will start running all its lung scans through an algorithm that can expedite the screening process starting next month. The software was developed by a Beijing-based startup called PereDoc, and it can quickly spot nodules and other early signs of lung diseases.
Think tank's new task force will forecast AI's challenges
Alexa's creepy laugh will probably be the least of our artificial intelligence worries. To properly understand the challenges that AI will bring, defense and foreign policy think tank Center for a New American Security (CNAS) has established a task force headed by former Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert O. Work and Dr. Andrew Moore, dean of the School of Computer Science at Carnegie Mellon University.
Google's Pixel 2 portrait photo code is now open source (update: not quite)
Of all the AI-related features inside the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL, the portrait mode is arguably the most impressive -- Google manages to produce dramatic-looking depth-of-field effects without relying on dual cameras or other exotic hardware. And now, it's sharing some of those secrets with the rest of the world. The company has opened up the source code for DeepLab-v3+, an AI-based image segmentation technology similar to that which helps Pixel 2 phones separate the foreground and background. It uses a neural network to detect the outlines of foreground objects, helping to classify the objects you care about in a scene while ignoring those you don't.
A new test could tell us whether an AI has common sense
Virtual assistants and chatbots don't have a lot of common sense. It's because these types of machine learning rely on specific situations they have encountered before, rather than using broader knowledge to answer a question. However, researchers at the Allen Institute for AI (Ai2) have devised a new test, the Arc Reasoning Challenge (ARC) that can test an artificial intelligence on its understanding of the way our world operates.
Microsoft says its AI can translate Chinese as well as a human
Run Chinese text through a translation website and the results tend to be messy, to put it mildly. You might get the gist of what's being said, but the sheer differences between languages usually lead to mangled sentences without any trace of fluency or subtlety. Microsoft might have just conquered that problem, however: it has developed an AI said to translate Chinese to English with the same quality as a human. You can even try it yourself. The trick, Microsoft said, was to change how it trained AI.
Google Assistant gets a proper home on the iPad
This is the year every voice assistant adds native iPad support, it seems. Hot on the heels of Microsoft's Cortana update, Google has released an iPad-friendly version of Assistant. The updated app takes full advantage of the tablet's larger screen, of course, but that also includes multitasking support in iOS 11 -- you can send commands to the AI companion while you're chatting with a friend or planning your day. The app is available now in English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Brazilian Portugese and Spanish.
Surviving Westworld at SXSW
HBO is making the dreams of Westworld fans come true at SXSW 2018. The company built a replica of the show's Sweetwater town in an undisclosed location in Austin, Texas, and we were there to experience it firsthand. Before I tell you how it went, though, it's worth noting that this wasn't a run-of-the-mill installation. HBO says production for the project started in November of last year, and it took a 40-person crew five weeks to build the sci-fi park. In addition to that, the cast playing Westworld robotic Hosts, had a script that was 444 pages long.
Google Assistant now gives you more control over connected devices
Google Assistant has already had control over appliances and other not-so-typical connected devices for a while, but it's been clunky and limited. You could turn your oven on with a simple command, but setting the temperature required that you launch an app first. That won't be a problem from now on: Google has enabled Custom Device Actions, or commands that let you perform hardware-specific tasks. LG's appliances, for example, no longer require that you start with "talk to LG" -- you can set your fridge temperature with a single, simple phrase like "set the refrigerator temperature to 35 degrees."
