The BBC’s virtual assistant is now available for testing in the UK

A virtual assistant from the BBC which aims to cater for Britain’s many dialects is now available for testing.

Even as a Brit, it can often feel like a translation app is needed between Bristolian, Geordie, Mancunian, Brummie, Scottish, Irish, or any of the other regional dialects in the country. For a geographically small country, we’re a diverse bunch – and US-made voice assistants often struggle with even the slightest accent.

The BBC thinks it can do a better...

3 June 2020 | UK

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

LG ThinQ: Our experience with AI so far and what’s next for the industry

lg thinq ai expo artificial intelligence

AI News spoke with LG corporate vice president Samuel Chang about ThinQ, the company’s brand for products and services incorporating AI.

Chang played a major role in this year’s AI & Big Data Expo in Santa Clara last week, taking part in both a solo presentation on “Process Automation from IoT Data” and a panel discussion on “Data and the Customer”.

Following the event, AI News decided to catch up with Chang to discuss LG’s current experience in...

18 November 2019 | Adoption

Apple reportedly wants to ‘acqui-hire’ self-driving car startup Drive.ai

Apple is reportedly mulling a purchase of self-driving car startup Drive.ai in an ‘acqui-hire’ deal to grab its talent.

Drive.ai is full of skilled personnel after being founded in 2016 by a pioneering team of graduates from Stanford’s AI lab. With AI talent in short supply, it seems Apple is considering purchasing a whole company to get the skills on its side.

Apple would not get any of Drive.ai’s intellectual property as part of the deal, only the minds behind...

10 June 2019 | Apple

Avast: AI, IoT, and fake apps top 2019 cybersecurity threats

According to Avast’s annual Threat Landscape Report, the biggest cybersecurity threats in 2019 will be AI, IoT, and fake apps.

Those who follow cybersecurity will likely be unsurprised at the list, but Avast goes into the specifics of each threat.

“This year, we celebrated the 30th anniversary of the World Wide Web. Fast forward thirty years and the threat landscape is exponentially more complex, and the available attack surface is growing faster than it has at any...

4 January 2019 | Security

UNICRI AI and Robotics Centre: AI will transform our world

Irakli Beridze un unicri ai expo

Speaking at AI Expo in Amsterdam, Irakli Beridze from the AI and Robotics Centre at UNICRI provided his thoughts on how AI will transform our world. Irakli started with a positive note that’s easily forgotten: never has the world been more safe, connected, and prosperous. “We have developed technologies which have the potential to solve problems we never thought were possible,” says Beridze. “Most of them are related to the UN’s sustainable development goals.” World-Changing...

2 July 2018 | Ethics

AI Expo: ‘The answer to AI in sport is prediction’

During a panel at the AI Tech Expo in London, we heard from several figures from professional football clubs who are using AI to get the edge over their competition both on and off the field. The panelists included Newcastle FC Sports Scientist John Fitzpatrick, Sport Lisboa e Benfica CIO Joao Copeto, and Sport Lisboa e Benfica Head of Analysis Nuno Maurício. Fitzpatrick has been with Newcastle United for around five years and has witnessed the increasing demand for IoT and AI technologies....

19 April 2018 | Healthcare

Morality algorithm proves AI can also be friendly

We’re used to seeing headlines of AI beating us at our own games in adversarial roles, but a new study has proven they can also excel when it comes to cooperation and compromise. The study, from an international team of computer scientists, found AI can be programmed with a higher degree of morality than humans. The researchers set out to build a new type of algorithm for playing games which requires working together rather than simply winning at all cost. Jacob Crandall, BYU Computer...

22 January 2018 | Ethics

AI legend Andrew Ng wants to revolutionise manufacturing with Landing.ai

Andrew Ng co-founded Google Brain and led Baidu’s AI group, and now he’s launching a startup initially focused on using AI to revolutionise manufacturing. The new startup, Landing.ai, chose this industry to begin with as “it is through manufacturing that human creativity goes beyond pixels on a display to become physical objects. By bringing AI to manufacturing, we will deliver a digital transformation to the physical world.” Ng believes AI technology is well suited to addressing...

14 December 2017 | Manufacturing

Budget: UK to boost ‘industries of the future’ funding – including AI, IoT, and driverless cars

The latest budget from the UK government increases financial support for the ‘industries of the future’ which includes AI, IoT, and driverless cars. As the UK prepares to depart the EU, the Chancellor of the Exchequer is boosting funding of industries where the UK is already emerging a leader to help solidify its position on the world stage. £75 million will be set aside for artificial intelligence to build on the existing success stories from the likes of Cambridge-based DeepMind...

20 November 2017 | Funding