Chinese AI darling SenseTime wants facial recognition standards

The CEO of Chinese AI darling SenseTime wants to see facial recognition standards established for a ‘healthier’ industry. SenseTime is among China’s most renowned AI companies. Back in April, we reported it had become the world’s most funded AI startup. Part of the company’s monumental success is the popularity of facial recognition in China where it’s used in many aspects of citizens’ lives. Just yesterday, game developer Tencent announced it’s testing facial recognition to...

2 October 2018 | China

Facebook is planning on doubling its AI unit by 2020

Facebook’s plans to double its artificial intelligence unit by 2020 indicates just how important the firm considers it to be. The so-called FAIR (Facebook Artificial Intelligence Research) division at the company has approximately 180-200 staff. Speaking to Forbes, Facebook Chief AI Scientist Yann LeCun said he expects the division to double by 2020. Already, he admits, "I don't know everybody's name anymore and I don't recognise everybody either”. The innovative AI division at...

1 October 2018 | Facebook

DARPA introduces ‘third wave’ of artificial intelligence

The Pentagon is launching a new artificial intelligence push it calls ‘AI Next’ which aims to improve the relationship between machines and humans. As part of the multi-year initiative, the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is set to invest more than $2bn in the programme. In promo material for the programme, DARPA says AI Next will accelerate “the Third Wave” which enables machines to adapt to changing situations. For instance, adaptive reasoning will enable...

28 September 2018 | Government

Britain successfully trials AI in battlefield scanning experiment

Britain has successfully trialled using AI to scan for hidden attackers in a mock urban battlefield environment in Montreal, Canada. The AI, called SAPIENT, was developed in the UK with the aim of using sensors to detect potential unseen dangers to soldiers. SAPIENT is more efficient than manually scanning live feeds and frees up more soldiers to be used for operational means elsewhere. Canada and the UK maintain a close security partnership as part of the so-called ‘Five Eyes’...

24 September 2018 | Government

IBM releases tool for tackling scourge of bias in AI algorithms

Bias and prejudice remains a serious issue across many societies, take away human input and the result could be disastrous. IBM is stepping in with a tool it calls ‘Fairness 360’ which scans for signs of bias in algorithms to recommend adjustments on how to correct them. AIs already have a documented bias problem. It’s rarely intentional, but typically a result of their developers coming from the predominant part of each society. Take facial recognition software, for example. A 2010...

19 September 2018 | Ethics

Experts warn of AI disasters leading to research lockdown

Experts from around the world have warned of potential AI disasters that could lead to a subsequent lockdown of research. Andrew Moore, the new head of AI at Google Cloud, is one such expert who has warned of scenarios that would lead to public backlash and restrictions that would prevent AI from reaching its full potential. Back in November, Moore spoke at the Artificial Intelligence and Global Security Initiative. In his keynote, he said:

"If an AI disaster...

13 September 2018 | Government

Samsung continues global AI centre rollout with NY opening

The Big Apple is the latest city to be graced with a Samsung AI centre as part of the South Korean giant's international push. Samsung's New York AI centre will be led by Sebastian Seung, Executive Vice President of Samsung Research. Each of Samsung's AI centres focuses on different areas of research. The New York branch will be researching the important field of AI in robotics. Hyun-suk Kim, President and Head of Samsung Research, said:

“What we need now is...

10 September 2018 | Research

Study claims AI will spur growth on par with the steam engine

A study predicts AI will spur growth similar to groundbreaking technologies such as the steam engine, for at least the next decade. The simulation run by the McKinsey Global Institute shows artificial intelligence has the possibility to add 1.2 percent to annual gross domestic product growth until at least 2030. For perspective, that represents $13 trillion of additional global economic activity. Such growth is equivalent to other landmark developments such as that of the steam engine. AI is...

6 September 2018 | Government

Box will launch ‘Skills Kit’ for building custom AI integrations

California-based cloud content management and file sharing service provider Box recently announced that its Skills Kit platform, which allows organisations and developers to build AI integrations for interacting with stored content on their own, will be available to all customers in December 2018. The Box Skills framework was first announced in 2017 and was developing an additional layer called ‘Box Skills Kit’ since inception. The latter is a toolkit that allows companies to develop their...

31 August 2018 | Cloud

Harvard and Google partner on earthquake aftershock-predicting AI

Harvard University has partnered with Google to create a potentially life-saving AI that can predict where aftershocks will hit following an earthquake. The AI uses data from 199 earthquakes and the more than 130,000 aftershocks. Manual predictions are possible but they consume time and have proven to be less accurate than those of the AI. Many believe aftershocks occur within a short timeframe of an earthquake. The AI, however, can predict aftershocks up to a year after the initial...

30 August 2018 | Google