Elon Musk tweets ‘Facebook sucks’ as public spat over AI escalates

Elon Musk has tweeted "Facebook sucks" following a public spat with the social network's VP of artificial intelligence.

Facebook's Jerome Pesenti criticised Elon Musk's knowledge of AI and his warnings about its safety.

"I believe a lot of people in the AI community would be okay saying it publicly," Pesenti said. "[Musk] has no idea what he is talking about when he talks about AI. There is no such thing as AGI and we are nowhere near matching human...

15 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

AI firm used by Vote Leave awarded seven contracts over 18 months

Controversial AI startup Faculty has been awarded seven contracts by the British government over the last 18 months.

Faculty gained notoriety for assisting the Vote Leave campaign during the UK's referendum on whether to leave the EU. While the Remain campaigns vastly outspent their Leave counterparts and had the backing of the former government; the use of innovative AI tools by the leave side helped to reduce those advantages of their opponents.

Reducing costs and...

4 May 2020 | Adoption

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

World’s oldest defence think tank concludes British spies need AI

The Royal United Services Institute (RUSI) says in an intelligence report that British spies will need to use AI to counter threats.

Based in Westminster, the RUSI is the world’s oldest think tank on international defence and security. Founded in 1831 by the first Duke of Wellington, Sir Arthur Wellesley, the RUSI remains a highly respected institution that’s as relevant today as ever.

AI is rapidly advancing the capabilities of adversaries. In its report, the RUSI...

28 April 2020 | Adoption

Q&A: Anton Fedotov, Airband Technologies: On how AI is tackling air pollution

The ongoing Covid-19 pandemic has been described, in the words of one executive in the air pollution space, as 'the biggest single global intervention you will ever see.' Cars almost entirely remain in their garages; commercial aeroplanes lay dormant.

When the crisis ends, it will in some ways be a statistician's dream. The amount of data which will be able to be extrapolated will be huge, for both scientists and businesses working in this field.

One such business is...

23 April 2020 | Adoption

Leading AI researchers propose ‘toolbox’ for verifying ethics claims

Researchers from OpenAI, Google Brain, Intel, and 28 other leading organisations have published a paper which proposes a ‘toolbox’ for verifying AI ethics claims.

With concerns around AI spanning from dangerous indifference to innovation-halting scaremongering; it’s clear there’s a need for a system to achieve a healthy balance.

“AI systems have been developed in ways that are inconsistent with the stated values of those developing them,” the researchers...

20 April 2020 | Ethics

MIT’s AI paints a dire picture if social distancing is relaxed too soon

According to an AI system built by MIT to predict the spread of COVID-19, relaxing social distancing rules too early would be catastrophic.

Social distancing measures around the world appear to be having the desired effect. In many countries, the "curve" appears to be flattening with fewer deaths and hospital admissions per day.

No healthcare system in the world is prepared to handle a vast number of its population hospitalised at once. Even once relatively trivial...

17 April 2020 | Government