Google returns to using human YouTube moderators after AI errors

Google is returning to using humans for YouTube moderation after repeated errors with its AI system.

Moderating a large network like YouTube is no easy task. Aside from the sheer volume of content uploaded every day, moderators are subjected to the worst of humanity and often end up requiring therapy. They're the unsung heroes.

AI has been hailed as helping to deal with some of the aforementioned issues. Either by automating the moderation process entirely or by offering...

21 September 2020 | Adoption

A(I)hoy, mateys: IBM’s crewless ocean research ship to launch ‘very soon’

IBM’s crewless AI-powered ship is due to begin roaming the oceans this month, collecting vital data about something we still know incredibly little about.

Humans have travelled the sea in some form for tens of thousands of years—with the earliest crossings occurring around 53,000 to 65,000 years ago (when Australo-Melanesian populations migrated into the Sahul landmass – known today as Australia and New Guinea – from what used to be the Sundaland...

15 September 2020 | IBM

Expert calls out ‘misleading’ claim that OpenAI’s GPT-3 wrote a full article

AI expert Jarno Duursma has called out a misleading article in The Guardian which claims to have been written entirely by OpenAI’s GPT-3.

GPT-3 has made plenty of headlines in recent months. The coverage is warranted, GPT-3 is certainly impressive—but many of the claims of its current capabilities are greatly exaggerated.

The headline of the article which Duursma questions is: "A robot wrote this entire article. Are you scared yet, human?"

It's a headline...

10 September 2020 | OpenAI

How can AI-powered humanitarian engineering tackle the biggest threats facing our planet?

Humanitarian engineering programs bring together engineers, policy makers, non-profit organisations, and local communities to leverage technology for the greater good of humanity.

The intersection of technology, community, and sustainability offers a plethora of opportunities to innovate. We still live in an era where millions of people are under extreme poverty, lacking access to clean water, basic sanitation, electricity, internet, quality education, and...

28 August 2020 | Agriculture

The White House is set to boost AI funding by 30 percent

A budget proposal from the White House would boost funding for AI by around 30 percent as the US aims to retain its technological supremacy.

Countries around the world are vastly increasing their budgets for AI, and with good reason. Just look at Gartner’s Hype Cycle released yesterday to see how important the technology is expected to be over the next decade.

Russian president Vladimir Putin famously said back in 2017 that the nation which leads in AI “will become...

19 August 2020 | Adoption

Microsoft: The UK must increase its AI skills, or risk falling behind

A report from Microsoft warns that the UK faces an AI skills gap which may harm its global competitiveness.

The research, titled AI Skills in the UK, shines a spotlight on some concerning issues.

For its UK report, Microsoft used data from a global AI skills study featuring more than 12,000 people in 20 countries to see how the UK is doing in comparison to the rest of the world.

Most notably, compared to the rest of the world, the UK is seeing a higher failure...

12 August 2020 | Adoption

University College London: Deepfakes are the ‘most serious’ AI crime threat

Researchers from University College London have released a ranking of what experts believe to be the most serious AI crime threats.

The researchers first created a list of 20 expected ways AI will be used by criminals within the next 15 years. 31 experts were then asked to rank them by potential severity.

Deepfakes – AI-generated images, videos, and articles – ranked top of the list as the most serious threat.

New and dangerous territory

It’s of little...

6 August 2020 | Deepfakes

AI tool detects child abuse images with 99% accuracy

A new AI-powered tool claims to detect child abuse images with around 99 percent accuracy.

The tool, called Safer, is developed by non-profit Thorn to assist businesses which do not have in-house filtering systems to detect and remove such images.

According to the Internet Watch Foundation in the UK, reports of child abuse images surged 50 percent during the COVID-19 lockdown. In the 11 weeks starting on 23rd March, its hotline logged 44,809 reports of images compared...

31 July 2020 | Applications

Researchers create AI bot to protect the identities of BLM protesters

Researchers from Stanford have created an AI-powered bot to automatically cover up the faces of Black Lives Matter protesters in photos.

Everyone should have the right to protest. And, if done legally, to do so without fear of having things like their future job prospects ruined because they've been snapped at a demonstration – from which a select few may have gone on to do criminal acts such as arson and looting.

With images from the protests being widely shared on...

29 July 2020 | Bots

Musk predicts AI will be superior to humans within five years

Elon Musk has made another of his trademark predictions – this time, it’s that AI will be superior to humans within five years.

Musk has been among the most vocal prominent figures in warning about the dangers of artificial intelligence. In 2018, for example, Musk famously warned that AI could become “an immortal dictator from which we would never escape” and that the technology is more dangerous than nuclear weapons.

Speaking in a New York Times interview, Musk...

28 July 2020 | Adoption