Japan passes bill to build AI-powered ‘super cities’ addressing societal issues

Japan has passed a bill to build “super cities” which address societal issues using emerging technologies such as AI.

The bill, passed on Wednesday, aims to accelerate the sweeping change of regulations across various fields to support the creation of such futuristic cities.

Addressing issues such as depopulation and an aging society will be the focus of the super cities. Technologies including big data and AI will be key to successfully tackling the challenging...

28 May 2020 | Adoption

Jack Dorsey tells Andrew Yang that AI is ‘coming for programming jobs’

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey recently told former 2020 US presidential candidate Andrew Yang that AI "is coming for programming jobs".

There is still fierce debate about the impact that artificial intelligence will have on jobs. Some believe that AI will replace many jobs and lead to the requirement of a Universal Basic Income (UBI), while others claim it will primarily offer assistance to help workers be more productive.

Dorsey is a respected technologist with a deep...

26 May 2020 | Adoption

Beware the AI winter – but can Covid-19 alter this process?

We have had a blockchain winter as the hype around the technology moves towards a reality - and the same will happen with artificial intelligence (AI).

That's according to Dr Karol Przystalski, CTO at IT consulting and software development provider Codete. Przystalski founded Codete having had a significant research background in AI, with previous employers including Sabre and IBM and a PhD exploring skin cancer pattern recognition using neural networks.

Yet what effect...

26 May 2020 | Deep Learning

Dorian Selz, CEO, Squirro: Why the AI revolution will take time

Imagine you are riding in a fully driverless car - with no human controls - down a narrow countryside road, with no lights or road markings. Upon emerging from a twisting bend a flock of sheep confront you. What happens next?

These types of situations are what programs such as the MIT-developed Moral Machine have been looking to unlock. The site has for the past four years canvassed public opinion by presenting a series of ethical dilemmas: should an autonomous car...

26 May 2020 | Adoption

Google pledges to no longer build AIs for the fossil fuel industry

Google has pledged to no longer build AIs for the fossil fuel industry as it further distances itself from controversial developments.

A report from Greenpeace earlier this month exposed Google as being one of the top three developers of AI tools for the fossil fuel industry. Greenpeace found AI technologies boost production levels by as much as five percent.

In an interview with CUBE’s John Furrier, the leader of Google’s CTO office, Will Grannis, said that Google...

22 May 2020 | Energy

Microsoft partners with OpenAI to build Azure supercomputer

Microsoft has partnered with OpenAI to build an Azure-hosted supercomputer for testing large-scale models.

The supercomputer will deliver eye-watering amounts of power from its 285,000 CPU cores and 10,000 GPUs (yes, it can probably even run Crysis.)

OpenAI is a non-profit that was founded by one Elon Musk to promote the ethical development of artificial intelligence technologies. Musk, however, departed OpenAI following disagreements over the company’s...

20 May 2020 | AGI

AI bot had to unlearn English grammar to decipher Trump speeches

A developer had to recalibrate his artificial intelligence bot to account for the unconventional grammar and syntax found in President Trump's speeches.

As originally reported by the Los Angeles Times, Bill Frischling noticed in 2017 that his AI bot, Margaret, was struggling to transcribe part of the President's speech from May 4 that year commemorating the 75th anniversary of the Battle of the Coral Sea. In particular, Margaret crashed after this 127-word section, featuring a...

13 May 2020 | Deep Learning

Intel and UPenn utilising federated learning to identify brain tumours

Intel and the University of Pennsylvania (UPenn) are training artificial intelligence models to identify brain tumours - with a focus on maintaining privacy.

The Perelman School of Medicine at UPenn is working with Intel Labs to co-develop technology based on federated learning, a machine learning technique which trains an algorithm across various devices without exchanging data samples.

The goal is therefore to preserve privacy. Penn Medicine and Intel Labs have claimed...

11 May 2020 | Healthcare

Microsoft releases two Python video courses which help aspiring AI developers

Microsoft has released two Python video courses to help AI developers get started in what could be a very lucrative career.

The new video courses assume the developer already has a basic standard of Python skills. If you don't, I'm afraid you'll need to brush up on those first. Fortunately, Microsoft released a 44-part "Python for Beginners" series last autumn (or "fall" for our American friends.)

For those with the Python skills, or if you've just consumed all 44-parts...

5 May 2020 | Developers

US Patent Office: AIs cannot be credited as inventors

The US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) has ruled that an AI cannot be legally credited as an inventor.

AI will assist us mere humans in coming up with new innovations in the years to come. However, the USPTO will not let them take the credit.

The USPTO has rejected two early filings of inventions credited to an AI system called DABUS which was created by Stephen Thaler.

DABUS invented two devices; a shape-shifting food container, and a new type of emergency...

30 April 2020 | Policy