The Digest: The Next Telemarketer You Hang up on Might Be Google’s Duplex AI
NEXT-LEVEL ROBOCALLS. In May, Google debuted Duplex, an artificially intelligent assistant that can make mundane phone calls on behalf of a human. Now, Google is looking to partner with companies that...
View ArticleThis Scientist Predicted He Would Live to 150. Now He’s Not So Sure.
Alex Zhavoronkov was still young when he became obsessed with pushing the boundaries of the human lifespan. In his almost 20-year career, he’s worked as a computer scientist and biotechnology...
View ArticleThe Digest: AI Can Now Fix Your Grainy Photographs Without a “Clean” Reference
DON’T HIT DELETE JUST YET. Good news for amateur photographers everywhere: You might still be able to salvage all those grainy pics taking up space on your hard drive. On July 9, researchers from...
View ArticleDeepMind Created a Test to Measure an AI’s Ability to Reason
GENERAL INTELLIGENCE. AI has gotten pretty good at completing specific tasks, but it’s still a long way from having general intelligence, the kind of all around smarts that would let AI navigate the...
View ArticleArtificial Intelligence Is Automating Hollywood. Now, Art Can Thrive.
The next time you sit down to watch a movie, the algorithm behind your streaming service might recommend a blockbuster that was written by AI, performed by robots, and animated and rendered by a deep...
View ArticleTop AI Experts Vow They Won’t Help Create Lethal Autonomous Weapons
AI FOR GOOD. Artificial intelligence (AI) has the potential to save lives by predicting natural disasters, stopping human trafficking, and diagnosing deadly diseases. Unfortunately, it also has the...
View ArticleFacebook Needs Humans *And* Algorithms To Filter Hate Speech
“We really believed in social experiences. We really believed in protecting privacy. But we were way too idealistic. We did not think enough about the abuse cases,” Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg...
View ArticleThis New Startup Is Making Chatbots Dumber So You Can Actually Talk to Them
Tech giants have been trying to one-up each other to make the most intelligent chatbot out there. They can help you simply fill in forms, or take the form of fleshed-out digital personalities that can...
View ArticleU.S. Department of Defense Established A Center To Better Integrate AI
ALL EYES ON AI. The U.S. Department of Defense (DoD) is going all-in on AI. The department, which oversees everything pertaining to the U.S.’s national security and armed forces, has been tossing...
View ArticleLeaders Who Pledged Not To Build Autonomous Killing Machines Are Ignoring The...
Last week, many of the major players in the artificial intelligence world signed a pledge to never build or endorse artificial intelligence systems that could run an autonomous weapon. The signatories...
View ArticleDARPA Is Funding Research Into AI That Can Explain What It’s “Thinking”
LOOKING AHEAD. Researchers will hold the next wave of artificial intelligences (AI) to the same standard as high school math students everywhere: no credit if you don’t show your work. On Friday,...
View ArticleThe “Biometric Mirror” Judges You The Way We’ve Taught It To: With Bias
FIRST IMPRESSIONS. When we see someone for the first time, we make internal snap judgements about them. We can’t help it, we’re just judgmental like that. After looking at the person for just a few...
View ArticleAI Coaches Are Here To Unleash Your Inner LeBron
A coach is indispensable to the serious athlete — everyone from Olympians to up-and-coming youth athletes needs experts who can spot the strengths and weaknesses of an athlete’s style and cater to...
View ArticleGoogle Glass Is Back, And May Have Finally Found A Place It Belongs
“IT’S BAAACK.” Jennifer Bennett, a technical director for Google Cloud, announced that Google Glass would be returning. But instead of being a goofy headset that your everyday person can use to...
View ArticleThis AI-Operated Robotic Hand Moves With “Unprecedented Dexterity”
ROBOTIC HIGH FIVE. On Monday, researchers at OpenAI, the nonprofit AI research company co-founded by Elon Musk, introduced Dactyl, an AI system trained to control a robotic hand. According to the...
View ArticleAI Is Shining a Spotlight on Women Scientists That Were Previously Overlooked
FEMINIST AI. Yes, artificial intelligence (AI) cab perpetuate bias. But it turns out it can also help us overcome it. On Friday, John Bohannon, director of science for AI startup Primer, published a...
View ArticleAI Can Make Sure Cancer Patients Get Just Enough (but Not Too Much) Treatment
QUALITY OF LIFE. Patients with glioblastoma, a malignant tumor in the brain or spinal cord, typically live no more than five years after receiving their diagnosis. And those five years can be painful —...
View ArticleA Robot Will Become A Real-Life Movie Star
UNCANNY HOLLYWOOD. In 1998, director Tony Kaye released “American History X,” an unsettling drama focused on neo-Nazis. His next project could leave viewers just as uneasy, but for a different reason:...
View ArticleTo Build Trust In Artificial Intelligence, IBM Wants Developers To Prove...
We trust artificial intelligence algorithms with a lot of really important tasks. But they betray us all the time. Algorithmic bias can lead to over-policing in predominately black areas; the automated...
View ArticleAI-Generated Art Will Go On Sale Alongside Human-Made Works This Fall
ART AND THE ARTIST. British auction house Christie’s has facilitated the purchase of works by some the world’s most famous artists, from Monet to Picasso to Da Vinci. Now, a new artist is poised to...
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