DSTL will run Ministry of Defence’s AI research lab

UK Defence Secretary Gavin Williamson has announced the creation of an AI research lab based at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL) in Porton Down, as part of an initiative by the Ministry of Defence. The lab will focus on advancing the use of AI for defence purposes to ensure the UK remains able to counter evolving threats. Dstl currently delivers more than £20 million of AI research. Specific focuses of the new facility will include autonomous vehicles, countering fake...

29 May 2018 | Government

Russian startup is building a controversial ‘ethnicity-detecting’ AI

A startup from Russia is building an AI which uses facial recognition to determine ethnicity, prompting fears it could be used for automated racial profiling. NtechLab lists ‘ethnicity detection’ as an upcoming feature of its solution. The algorithm promises the ability to examine people and determine their ethnicity. An image, which has since been pulled as the result of backlash, showed classifications of people including ‘European’, ‘African’, and ‘Arabic’. The company is...

25 May 2018 | Privacy

Bill forcing AI bots to reveal themselves faces EFF opposition

A bill that would force AI bots to reveal themselves as not being human is facing opposition from the EFF over free speech concerns. Many were slightly disturbed by Google’s demo of its Duplex AI conducting a phone call and the other participant being unaware they weren’t speaking to a human. Less than a month later, Microsoft demonstrated it also had the same capabilities. There are clearly big changes ahead in how we interact, and not everyone is going to be happy speaking to a robot...

24 May 2018 | Bots

Why ‘augmented intelligence’ is a better way to describe AI

There’s a lot of talk about artificial intelligence, and to be honest, most of it is hype. In fact, a scary part of the AI startup ecosystem is that there’s no regulatory board that’s actually kicking the tires of different companies to verify that their technology is AI. To add insult to injury, the term artificial intelligence is a misleading label for the methods behind AI – machine learning, deep learning, and natural language processing. In their current state, these technologies...

24 May 2018 | Applications

Watch out Google Duplex, Microsoft also has a chatty AI

Not content with being outdone by Google’s impressive (yet creepy) Duplex demo, Microsoft has shown it also has an AI capable of making human-like phone calls. The company first launched its XiaoIce project back in August 2017. In April, Microsoft said it had achieved full duplexing — the ability to speak and listen at the same time, similar to humans. Microsoft’s announcement was made before Google’s demonstration earlier this month but, unlike Google, the company had nothing to show...

23 May 2018 | Bots

UK Businesses: AI will create jobs, not destroy

The majority of UK businesses are reporting that AI will create more jobs than it destroys, helping to quell one of critics’ biggest fears. While many are excited about the possibilities of artificial intelligence, just as many have concerns. Most agree that, whether it’s predominantly good or bad, AI will have a profound impact on society. “Business leaders need to arm the workforce for a new ‘machine age’ of increasing artificial intelligence and automation,” says Duncan...

22 May 2018 | Robotics

Theresa May: AI is a ‘new weapon’ against cancer

Prime Minister Theresa May will use a speech today in Cheshire to highlight the potential of AI to diagnose cancer earlier. Cancer has a higher successful treatment rate the earlier it’s diagnosed. The later the diagnosis, the greater the risk of death or long-term debilitating effects. In her speech, Mrs May will say:

"Late diagnosis of otherwise treatable illnesses is one of the biggest causes of avoidable deaths.

The...

21 May 2018 | Healthcare

Editorial: Stopping AI’s discrimination will be difficult, but vital

Several human rights organisations have signed a declaration calling for governments and companies to help ensure AI technologies are indiscriminate, but it's going to be difficult. Amnesty International and Access Now prepared the ‘Toronto Declaration’ (PDF) that’s also been signed by Human Rights Watch and the Wikimedia Foundation. As an open declaration; other companies, governments, and organisations are being called on to add their endorsement. In a post, Access Now wrote:

17 May 2018 | Ethics

Discover how AI plans to transform healthcare

Medical treatments generate a huge amount of data, but so far the healthcare sector has been slow to adopt AI for processing it. That's all set to change. According to Frost & Sullivan, the AI market in healthcare could grow at a compound annual growth rate of 40 percent by 2021, potentially halving the cost of treatment. AI can help healthcare professionals in several ways. It can help to assess the diagnosis and prognosis for disease, reducing human error rates and workload. It can...

17 May 2018 | Healthcare

Facebook’s AI continues to fight the worst of the web

Facebook has published its content filtering numbers for the first time and it’s provided an insight into how its AI is helping to remove the worst of the web. “In the report, you'll see that in the first three months of this year we took down 837 million pieces of spam and disabled 583 million fake accounts,” wrote Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg in a post. “Thanks to AI tools we've built, almost all of the spam was removed before anyone reported it, and most of the fake accounts were...

16 May 2018 | Surveillance