Esteemed consortium launch AI natural language processing benchmark

facebook google deepmind nlp consortium ai artificial intelligence natural language processing

A research consortium featuring some of the greatest minds in AI are launching a benchmark to measure natural language processing (NLP) abilities.

The consortium includes Google DeepMind, Facebook AI, New York University, and the University of Washington. Each of the consortium’s members believe a more comprehensive benchmark is needed for NLP than current solutions.

The result is a benchmarking platform called SuperGLUE which replaces an older platform called GLUE...

15 August 2019 | Facebook

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

UK government to invest £250m in NHS AI lab

The UK health secretary Matt Hancock has announced £250m to be put forward for a new National Artificial Intelligence Lab, aimed at improving the healthcare system in the country.

The lab would bring the industry’s finest academics, specialists, and tech firms to tackle some of the biggest challenges in healthcare, which includes cancer detection, dementia treatments, and more personalised care. The investment would back the NHS Long Term Plan under which AI will be used to...

12 August 2019 | Healthcare

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

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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

uk adults fear ai replace jobs artificial intelligence

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

Intel and Lenovo enter into multi-year partnership over AI and HPC

Intel and Lenovo have signed a multi-year partnership agreement where both companies will focus on converging high-performance computing (HPC) and artificial intelligence (AI) to build solutions for organisations of all sizes and solve the world’s most challenging problems.

As part of the collaboration, Lenovo will be enhancing Intel’s complete portfolio of HPC and AI hardware and software solutions. Both will help accelerate the convergence of the technologies to unravel new...

7 August 2019 | Applications

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

Don’t believe your eyes: Exploring the positives and negatives of deepfakes

In 2018 the Reddit community r/deepfakes gained international attention thanks to a piece of investigative journalism by Samantha Cole, deputy editor at VICE.

Members of the forum had been using a burgeoning technology to superimpose celebrities’ faces onto pornographic videos. For the general public – and no doubt the unwitting stars – it was a shock. Most were unaware this technology existed. Very few believed it was possible to produce such realistic footage....

5 August 2019 | Deepfakes

AI should be recognised as inventor, team insists

An artificial intelligence system should be credited as the inventor of two ideas, according to the team which filed patents on its behalf – but it would mean patent law would need to be changed in the process.

DABUS, a machine architecture, has been given credit for designing a ‘fractal container’ (pdf) which is easy for robots to grasp, as well as a ‘neural flame’ (pdf) which attracts enhanced attention.

The Artificial Inventor Project has been put together...

2 August 2019 | Ethics