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Amazon plans to retrain one-third of US employees as automation grows
Amazon announced today that is is planning on retraining one-third of its workforce to help ease the effects of automation. The e-commerce giant is pledging $700 million that will go to providing "upskill" training designed to move people in positions vulnerable to automation into new jobs across the company. As many as 100,000 employees are expected to undergo the retraining process by 2025.
US Army shows how it will use HoloLens in the field
When Microsoft employees balked at the company's $479 million HoloLens contract with the US Army, it raised a question: just what would this system look like? You now have a better idea. The Army has given CNBC an early demo of its Integrated Visual Augmentation System, which uses a modified HoloLens 2 to provide both combat assistance and training. It reportedly feels like a "real-life game of Call of Duty" -- you can see your squad's positions on a map, a compass, and even your weapon's reticle. Thermal imaging would help you see in the dark without as much of a telltale glow as existing night vision headsets.
FightCamp is a home boxing gym for the fitness tracking generation
The first rule of FightCamp? According to the enthusiastic trainers on hand here at CES: always talk about FightCamp. And, for good reason, because it looks like a pretty intense, personalized and ever-evolving way to burn off that holiday 15 (or more).
US Army to use Microsoft’s Hololens for combat missions
Microsoft's Hololens has already been used by a number of armies for training, but it's about to go to another level. The US Army has awarded Microsoft a $480 million contract to supply the headset for live combat missions as well as training, according to Bloomberg. The aim, according to a government description, is to "increase lethality by enhancing the ability to detect, decide and engage before the enemy."
Amazon opens up its internal machine learning training to everyone
Amazon announced today that it's making the machine learning courses it uses to train its engineers available to everybody for free. The coursework is tailored to four major groups -- developers, data scientists, data platform engineers and business professionals -- and it offers both foundational level lessons as well as more advanced instruction. "Each course starts with the fundamentals, and builds on those through real-world examples and labs, allowing developers to explore machine learning through some fun problems we have had to solve at Amazon," Amazon said in the announcement. "Coursework helps consolidate best practices, and demonstrates how to get started on a range of AWS machine learning services, including Amazon SageMaker, AWS DeepLens, Amazon Rekognition, Amazon Lex, Amazon Polly and Amazon Comprehend."
Facebook donates £4.5 million to help train UK newspaper reporters
Facebook is extending another olive branch to the news industry in the form of a £4.5 million ($5.8 million) donation to subsidize 80 trainee journalists at local newspapers in the UK. It's the first time Facebook has offered such a pledge, which it's making as part of its new Community News Project.
Apple teaches photo editing with over-the-phone classes
Many device makers give you the tools to capture and edit great photos, but they seldom teach you how to make the most of those tools. Apple thinks it can -- and unlike in the past, you don't need to show up in person to develop your skills. The company has launched an over-the-phone training program that teaches you how to edit with Photos (both iOS and macOS) in a 30-minute one-on-one session with a specialist. It'll both show how to use simple adjustments like Auto Enhance as well as deeper edits like color balance and exposure. If you have Live Photos or Portrait mode pictures from your mobile devices, you'll learn how to edit those as well.
Under Armour’s Sport Wireless Train headphones are ready for the gym
Last month, Under Armour launched its Project Rock on-ear headphones, which are built for intense workouts and were designed in collaboration with Dwayne Johnson (aka The Rock). But not every fitness buff is going to be a fan of him (even though they should be, because gains), so it only made sense for the company to introduce a model without all his Rock branding. Enter the Sport Wireless Train, Under Armour's latest on-ear headphones, created alongside audio firm JBL. The new set was first revealed in 2017 and looks nearly identical to the Project Rocks, with the only difference being the UA and JBL logos on the earcups and headband, respectively.
DeepMind AI’s new trick is playing ‘Quake III Arena’ like a human
Research in AI continues to make video games better. The technology informs NPCs that can move and fight more convincingly, orcs with personalities and ever-more realistic visuals. Now researchers at DeepMind have taught an AI to play a customized version of Quake III Arena like a human.
The Rock's Under Armour headphones are built for intense workouts
Wireless headphones are dime a dozen, unless you want a pair that's on- or over-ear and designed to handle intense workouts. There are plenty of solid options for fitness buffs, including the JLab Epic2 and Jaybird X3, but those are earbuds. Bose's QuietComfort 35 IIs, meanwhile, are great over-ears, but they're not made from water-resistant materials -- and you want that if you're using them at the gym. That's a gap Under Armour hopes to fill with its new Project Rock wireless, on-ear headphones, which are specifically designed for workouts and were created with input from training junkie Dwayne Johnson, aka The Rock.
VR helps US Olympic ski and snowboard teams prep for South Korea
When skiers and snowboarders prepare for a competition, they often have incredibly limited access to their race routes ahead of time. But the US ski and snowboard team is doing things a little differently than it has in the past, using VR to review routes multiple times before competing. It's working with a company called STRIVR, which has developed VR training programs for professional sports teams, college sports teams and even companies like Walmart, Visa and Lowe's. Now, STRIVR is helping US Ski & Snowboard prepare for competitions like the World Cup and the upcoming Olympic Games by letting the team relive particular routes in VR.
DHS to release an active shooter training simulator for teachers
Last June, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released a virtual training program for first responders aimed at preparing them for an active shooter incident. Now, there's a program specifically for teachers. "With teachers, they did not self-select into a role where they expect to have bullets flying near them. Unfortunately, it's becoming a reality," Tamara Griffith, one of the chief engineers of the program, told Gizmodo. "And so we want to give them that chance to understand what options are available to them and what might work well for them."
Researchers develop a way to train robots with just a gentle nudge
Researchers at Rice University have developed a way to train robots with just a little push. Their method uses algorithms that allow robots to not only respond to a human's touch in the moment, but alter their trajectory based on that physical input. "Here the robot has a plan, or desired trajectory, which describes how the robot thinks it should perform the task," said graduate student Dylan Losey about the project. "We introduced a real-time algorithm that modified, or deformed, the robot's future desired trajectory."
Facebook's latest community push is on-site small business training
Facebook has been quietly supporting small businesses around the globe to the tune of $1 billion. The company says that it has trained more than 60,000 small businesses with Boost Your Business, and that over one million small businesses have used its free online learning hub Blueprint. 70 million small businesses use Facebook Pages, too, according to the company. Now Facebook is launching Community Boost, a new program to help small businesses in the US become more digitally savvy.
KFC's bizarre VR game isn't ready to revolutionize work training
Fast-food franchise KFC is known for its oddball stunts, including special smartphone editions (and wacky chicken-themed accessories). But its latest, a VR escape room cum work-training experience, is one of its oddest yet. I took the bait and accepted KFC's invitation to don a VR headset and run through its little game, which promises to teach anyone the chicken-frying basics. I walked in a skeptic and walked out with a better idea how the heartland franchise makes its bones, so to speak. But as for turning this into a proper, franchise-scalable work-training tool, there are a slew of logistical roadblocks.
Adidas' All Day fitness app hits iOS and Android devices
Exactly three months after announcing its All Day fitness app, Adidas is finally launching it in the US. The application, which is available for iOS and Android, focuses on serving up insights about different health aspects, such as mindset, movement, nutrition rest. Adidas says that All Day is designed for "versatile" athletes, meaning that the app's goal isn't just to help you with tough workouts, but also showing you anything from quick meditation moves to how to cook healthy recipes. While All Day is only available for those of you in the States right now, the sportswear giant tells Engadget that the app will be coming to other markets later this fall.
DHS has a video game-like trainer for active shooter incidents
Today, the Department of Homeland Security's Science and Technology Directorate announced the release of a virtual training platform for active shooter incidents. The Enhanced Dynamic Geo-Social Environment, or EDGE, is a program that creates a virtual active shooter scenario through which first responders can train themselves. EDGE launches today and is free for all first responders.
This neural network generates weird and adorable pickup lines
Training a neural network involves feeding it enough raw data to start recognizing and replicating patterns. It can be a long, tedious process to just approximate complex things -- like writing articles for Engadget, for example. Research scientist Janelle Shane has experimented with her own neural network to create recipes, lists of new Pokemon and weird superhero names with varying results. Now, however, she's turned her training attention to pickup lines. Surprisingly, her neural network has generated some pretty adorable ones.
NASA trains astronauts with zero-G virtual reality
To train ISS astronauts, NASA uses physical mockups, zero-G "vomit comet" airplane rides, neutral buoyancy (underwater) and other pricey and complex schemes. However, virtual reality has become a new option, allowing astronauts to do realistic training for things like maintenance in an accurate, simulated zero-G environment. The company that helped them build the sim, Epic Games' Unreal Engine, recently unveiled a video showing exactly how that works.
Amazon will help train veterans for tech jobs
Last week, Amazon said it would bring 100,000 full-time jobs to the US by 2018. This week, the online retailer announced a registered apprenticeship program with the US Department of Labor that will offer training to veterans. The initiative follows CEO Jeff Bezos' pledge to hire 25,000 veterans and their spouses over the course of five years. That goal was announced back in May.