FDA approves AI-powered software to detect diabetic retinopathy

30.3 million Americans have diabetes according to a 2015 CDC study. An additional 84.1 million have prediabetes, which often leads to the full disease within five years. It’s important to detect diabetes early to avoid health complications like heart disease, stroke, amputation of extremities and vision loss. Technology increasingly plays an important role in early Read more about FDA approves AI-powered software to detect diabetic retinopathy[…]

After Millions of Trials, These Simulated Humans Learned to Do Perfect Backflips and Cartwheels

Using well-established machine learning techniques, researchers from University of California, Berkeley have taught simulated humanoids to perform over 25 natural motions, from somersaults and cartwheels through to high leg kicks and breakdancing. The technique could lead to more realistic video gameplay and more agile robots. […] UC Berkeley graduate student Xue Bin “Jason” Peng, along Read more about After Millions of Trials, These Simulated Humans Learned to Do Perfect Backflips and Cartwheels[…]

Jaywalkers under surveillance in Shenzhen soon to be punished via text messages

Intellifusion, a Shenzhen-based AI firm that provides technology to the city’s police to display the faces of jaywalkers on large LED screens at intersections, is now talking with local mobile phone carriers and social media platforms such as WeChat and Sina Weibo to develop a system where offenders will receive personal text messages as soon Read more about Jaywalkers under surveillance in Shenzhen soon to be punished via text messages[…]

AI Imagines Nude Paintings as Terrifying Pools of Melting Flesh

When Robbie Barrat trained an AI to study and reproduce classical nude paintings, he expected something at least recognizable. What the AI produced instead was unfamiliar and unsettling, but still intriguing. The “paintings” look like flesh-like ice cream, spilling into pools that only vaguely recall a woman’s body. Barrat told Gizmodo these meaty blobs, disturbing Read more about AI Imagines Nude Paintings as Terrifying Pools of Melting Flesh[…]

AI predicts your lifespan using activity tracking apps

Researchers can estimate your expected lifespan based on physiological traits like your genes or your circulating blood factor, but that’s not very practical on a grand scale. There may be a shortcut, however: the devices you already have on your body. Russian scientists have crafted an AI-based algorithm that uses the activity tracking from smartphones Read more about AI predicts your lifespan using activity tracking apps[…]

Emmanuel Macron Q&A: France’s President Discusses Artificial Intelligence Strategy

On Thursday, Emmanuel Macron, the president of France, gave a speech laying out a new national strategy for artificial intelligence in his country. The French government will spend €1.5 billion ($1.85 billion) over five years to support research in the field, encourage startups, and collect data that can be used, and shared, by engineers. The Read more about Emmanuel Macron Q&A: France’s President Discusses Artificial Intelligence Strategy[…]

Is there alien life out there? Let’s turn to AI, problem solver du jour

A team of astroboffins have built artificial neural networks that estimate the probability of exoplanets harboring alien life. The research was presented during a talk on Wednesday at the European Week of Astronomy and Space Science in Liverpool, United Kingdom. The neural network works by classifying planets into five different conditions: the present-day Earth, the Read more about Is there alien life out there? Let’s turn to AI, problem solver du jour[…]

Researchers develop device that can ‘hear’ your internal voice

Researchers have created a wearable device that can read people’s minds when they use an internal voice, allowing them to control devices and ask queries without speaking. The device, called AlterEgo, can transcribe words that wearers verbalise internally but do not say out loud, using electrodes attached to the skin. “Our idea was: could we Read more about Researchers develop device that can ‘hear’ your internal voice[…]

IBM claims its machine learning library is 46x faster than TensorFlow • The Register

Analysis IBM boasts that machine learning is not just quicker on its POWER servers than on TensorFlow in the Google Cloud, it’s 46 times quicker. Back in February Google software engineer Andreas Sterbenz wrote about using Google Cloud Machine Learning and TensorFlow on click prediction for large-scale advertising and recommendation scenarios. He trained a model Read more about IBM claims its machine learning library is 46x faster than TensorFlow • The Register[…]

The Hilarious (and Terrifying?) Ways Algorithms Have Outsmarted Their Creators

. As research into AI grows ever more ambitious and complex, these robot brains will challenge the fundamental assumptions of how we humans do things. And, as ever, the only true law of robotics is that computers will always do literally, exactly what you tell them to. A paper recently published to ArXiv highlights just Read more about The Hilarious (and Terrifying?) Ways Algorithms Have Outsmarted Their Creators[…]

AI software that can reproduce like a living thing? Yup, boffins have only gone and done it • The Register

A pair of computer scientists have created a neural network that can self-replicate. “Self-replication is a key aspect of biological life that has been largely overlooked in Artificial Intelligence systems,” they argue in a paper popped onto arXiv this month. It’s an important process in reproduction for living things, and is an important step for Read more about AI software that can reproduce like a living thing? Yup, boffins have only gone and done it • The Register[…]

MIT builds Neural network chip with 95% reduction in power consumption, allowing it to be used in a mobile

Most recent advances in artificial-intelligence systems such as speech- or face-recognition programs have come courtesy of neural networks, densely interconnected meshes of simple information processors that learn to perform tasks by analyzing huge sets of training data. But neural nets are large, and their computations are energy intensive, so they’re not very practical for handheld Read more about MIT builds Neural network chip with 95% reduction in power consumption, allowing it to be used in a mobile[…]

A video game-playing AI beat Q*bert in a way no one’s ever seen before

paper published this week by a trio of machine learning researchers from the University of Freiburg in Germany. They were exploring a particular method of teaching AI agents to navigate video games (in this case, desktop ports of old Atari titles from the 1980s) when they discovered something odd. The software they were testing discovered Read more about A video game-playing AI beat Q*bert in a way no one’s ever seen before[…]

AI models leak secret data too easily

A paper released on arXiv last week by a team of researchers from the University of California, Berkeley, National University of Singapore, and Google Brain reveals just how vulnerable deep learning is to information leakage. The researchers labelled the problem “unintended memorization” and explained it happens if miscreants can access to the model’s code and Read more about AI models leak secret data too easily[…]

Amadeus invests in CrowdVision to help airports manage growing passenger volumes using AI camera tech

CrowdVision is an early stage company that uses computer vision software and artificial intelligence to help airports monitor the flow of passengers in real time to minimise queues and more efficiently manage resources. The software is designed to comply fully with data privacy and security legislation. CrowdVision data improves plans and can help airports react Read more about Amadeus invests in CrowdVision to help airports manage growing passenger volumes using AI camera tech[…]

Google: 60.3% of potentially harmful Android apps in 2017 were detected via machine learning

When Google shared earlier this year that more than 700,000 apps were removed from Google Play in 2017 for violating the app store’s policies (a 70 percent year-over-year increase), the company credited its implementation of machine learning models and techniques to detect abusive app content and behaviors such as impersonation, inappropriate content, or malware. But Read more about Google: 60.3% of potentially harmful Android apps in 2017 were detected via machine learning[…]

Artificial intelligence: Commission kicks off work on marrying cutting-edge technology and ethical standards

The Commission is setting up a group on artificial intelligence to gather expert input and rally a broad alliance of diverse stakeholders. The expert group will also draw up a proposal for guidelines on AI ethics, building on today’s statement by the European Group on Ethics in Science and New Technologies. From better healthcare to Read more about Artificial intelligence: Commission kicks off work on marrying cutting-edge technology and ethical standards[…]

The “Black Mirror” scenarios that are leading some experts to call for more secrecy on AI – MIT Technology Review

a new report by more than 20 researchers from the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, OpenAI, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation warns that the same technology creates new opportunities for criminals, political operatives, and oppressive governments—so much so that some AI research may need to be kept secret. Included in the report, The Malicious Use Read more about The “Black Mirror” scenarios that are leading some experts to call for more secrecy on AI – MIT Technology Review[…]

IBM Watson to generate sales solutions

“We’ve trained Watson on our standard solutions and offerings, plus all the prior solutions IBM has designed for large enterprises,” the corporate files state. “This means we can review a client’s RFP [request for proposal] and come up with a new proposed architecture and technical solution design for a state of the art system that Read more about IBM Watson to generate sales solutions[…]

Missing data hinder replication of artificial intelligence studies

Last year, computer scientists at the University of Montreal (U of M) in Canada were eager to show off a new speech recognition algorithm, and they wanted to compare it to a benchmark, an algorithm from a well-known scientist. The only problem: The benchmark’s source code wasn’t published. The researchers had to recreate it from Read more about Missing data hinder replication of artificial intelligence studies[…]

New AI model fills in blank spots in photos

The technology was developed by a team led by Hiroshi Ishikawa, a professor at Japan’s Waseda University. It uses convolutional neural networks, a type of deep learning, to predict missing parts of images. The technology could be used in photo-editing apps. It can also be used to generate 3-D images from real 2-D images. The Read more about New AI model fills in blank spots in photos[…]

Moth brain uploaded to computer, taught to recognise numbers

MothNet’s computer code, according to the boffins, contains layers of artificial neurons to simulate the bug’s antenna lobe and mushroom body, which are common parts of insect brains. Crucially, instead of recognizing smells, the duo taught MothNet to identify handwritten digits in the MNIST dataset. This database is often used to train and test pattern Read more about Moth brain uploaded to computer, taught to recognise numbers[…]

Look out, Wiki-geeks. Now Google trains AI to write Wikipedia articles

A paper, out last month and just accepted for this year’s International Conference on Learning Representations (ICLR) in April, describes just how difficult text summarization really is. A few companies have had a crack at it. Salesforce trained a recurrent neural network with reinforcement learning to take information and retell it in a nutshell, and Read more about Look out, Wiki-geeks. Now Google trains AI to write Wikipedia articles[…]