UK police are concerned AI will lead to bias and over-reliance on automation

British police have expressed concern that using AI in their operations may lead to increased bias and an over-reliance on automation.

A study commissioned by UK government advisory body the Centre for Data Ethics and Innovation warned that police felt AI may "amplify" prejudices.

50 experts were interviewed by the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) for the research, including senior police officers.

Racial profiling continues to be a huge problem. More...

17 September 2019 | Face Recognition

Messe Berlin CEO: If you woke up in five years, you’d struggle to recognise devices due to emerging tech like AI

During a keynote session at this year's IFA in Berlin, Messe Berlin CEO Dr Christian Goke shared his view of emerging technologies like AI and 5G and their impact.

Goke believes technologies such as AI will be so transformative in the next five years, if you fell asleep today – and woke up in 2025 – you'd struggle to recognise electronic devices.

"The Americans among us, you all know the fairytale story of a man in the 18th century who falls asleep under a tree and...

5 September 2019 | Hardware

You’ll never believe what this AI does! (Spoiler: it detects clickbait)

clickbait ai artificial intelligence detect fake news

Researchers have developed an AI to detect clickbait along with headlines written by machines.

There are many problems facing reporting today including fake news, alt-truths, general lack of factual accuracy, state manipulation, deepfake content, imprisonment of journalists, and those pesky misleading headlines we call clickbait.

Many of us claim we don’t fall for clickbait, but most of us will have clicked on one at some point. The headline is normally something along...

30 August 2019 | Society

Two grads recreate OpenAI’s text generator it deemed too dangerous to release

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Two graduates have recreated and released a fake text generator similar to OpenAI's which the Elon Musk-founded startup deemed too dangerous to make public.

Unless you've been living under a rock, you'll know the world already has a fake news problem. In the past, at least fake news had to be written by a real person to make it convincing.

OpenAI created an AI which could automatically generate fake stories. Combine fake news, with Cambridge Analytica-like targeting, and...

27 August 2019 | Ethics

Report: Companies like Amazon and Microsoft are ‘putting world at risk’ of killer AI

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A survey of major players within the industry concludes that leading tech companies like Amazon and Microsoft are putting the world ‘at risk’ of killer AI.

PAX, a Dutch NGO, ranked 50 firms based on three criteria:

If technology they’re developing could be used for killer AI.Their involvement with military projects.If they’ve committed to not being involved with military applications in the future.

Microsoft and Amazon are named among the world's ‘highest...

22 August 2019 | Amazon

Google details Project Euphonia work to improve voice recognition inclusivity

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Google has provided details of its Project Euphonia work designed to improve the inclusivity of voice recognition for people with disabilities that impair their speech.

Degenerative diseases like amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) are known for causing speech impairments. Today's voice recognition systems often cannot recognise the speech of individuals suffering from such diseases, despite those individuals arguably set to benefit the most from the automation offered by the...

14 August 2019 | Google

CBI: UK tech dominance is ‘at risk’ due to public mistrust of AI

cbi uk ai distrust artificial intelligence report

Business industry group the CBI has warned that UK tech dominance is 'at risk' due to public mistrust of AI.

In a report today, the CBI warns artificial intelligence companies of the need to ensure they're approaching the technology in an ethical manner to help build trust.

Among the measures suggested to achieve trust include ensuring customers know how their data is being used by AI, what decisions are being taken, and challenging unfair biases.

Overall, the...

9 August 2019 | Ethics

Most UK adults fear that AI will replace their jobs, and it might

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Research from an AI think tank and development company has found the vast majority of UK adults fear their jobs will be replaced by AI, and they might.

Fountech.ai surveyed more than 2,000 people and found over two-thirds (67%) are concerned about the impact of artificial intelligence on their careers. Just one in three (31%) believe AI will not be able to replicate the cognitive abilities of humans.

In a recent interview on the Pocket-lint podcast, Dr Alex Allan, CTO...

7 August 2019 | Society

Gartner: AI will drive business value by supporting human decisions

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Gartner estimates that AI won't replace the workforce but instead will help to drive business value by supporting human decisions.

The use of AI to increase productivity rather than replace human workers will help to quell some fears around the adoption of artificial intelligence.

Svetlana Sicular, Research Vice President at Gartner, said:

“Augmented intelligence is all about people taking advantage of AI.

As AI technology evolves, the combined human...

6 August 2019 | Society

Police in China will use AI face recognition to identify ‘lost’ elderly

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Chinese police hope to use AI-powered facial recognition, in combination with the nation's mass surveillance network, to identify lost elderly people.

The country's surveillance network is often scrutinised for being invasive, but the ability to detect potentially vulnerable people helps to shift the perception that it primarily benefits the government.

Public data suggests around 500,000 elderly people get lost each year, the equivalent of around 1,370 per day. About 72...

5 August 2019 | China