In a blog post titled Getting better at helping people feel better, the social media platform says it’s using machine learning techniques to identify content which displays, encourages, or rationalises self-harm.

Anxiety and depression are at all-time highs while many countries are failing to properly fund mental health services. In the UK, someone commits suicide every 90 minutes.

Experts believe social media plays a large part in the record levels of anxiety and depression. Aside from issues like online bullying, it’s believed that – because people generally upload just the best parts of their lives as part of societal pressure to almost build their own ‘brand’ online – others unfairly compare themselves.

Writing from a rainy England right now, I bet if I opened Facebook right now I’d find multiple posts of people on a sunny beach with a cold drink within a few minutes. The unreasonable part of my brain could easily convince myself that everyone else is having a good time when, in reality, that’s far from the case.

While two-thirds of global suicides affect males, there’s a worrying increase in mental health issues affecting women. A study by the National Centre for Social Research found that over the past 14 years, the number of girls and young women self-harming has tripled. Social media and its pressures likely play a large role in that increase.

Aside from its AI smarts, Pinterest is also removing over 4,600 terms and phrases related to self-harm. If someone searches for one of the terms then links to free support from experts will be prominently displayed. Pinterest received guidance from expert groups like the Samaritans, National Suicide Prevention Lifeline, and Vibrant Emotional Health, on the approach it should take.

In the US, Pinterest added some wellbeing activities to its iOS app earlier this year. Previously, they would only be offered when someone searched for something that indicates they are feeling down. Now, all users have to search for is #pinterestwellbeing to help find exercises to improve their mood before they get too down.

It’s great to see social media platforms like Pinterest exploring the use of technologies such as AI to help solve the world’s mental health crisis. There’s a long way to go, but it’s a welcome start nonetheless.

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The algorithm claims to have a 90 percent accuracy. LogitBoost was trained on data from 950 chest pain patients –  from the data, 85 variables are calculated.

Each of the patients have known outcomes after six years. Combined, this algorithm was able to identify patterns which indicates a higher chance of a heart attack or cardiac-related death.

Study author Dr Luis Eduardo Juarez-Orozco, said these advances go beyond medicine.

He said: “These advances are far beyond what has been done in medicine, where we need to be cautious about how we evaluate risk and outcomes.

“We have the data but we are not using it to its full potential yet.”

The findings were presented yesterday at the International Conference on Nuclear Cardiology and Cardiac CT (ICNC) in Lisbon, Portugal.

Dr Juarez-Orozco said: “Humans have a very hard time thinking further than three dimensions or four dimensions.

“The moment we jump into the fifth dimension we’re lost.

“Our study shows that very high dimensional patterns are more useful than single dimensional patterns to predict outcomes in individuals and for that we need machine learning.”

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Google’s Assistant has always been among the most impressive, but it’s not exactly been known for its speed. Often it felt quicker to just do the task manually rather than wait for Assistant to respond.

The main reason for Assistant’s sluggishness, it transpires, is that it required around 100GB of storage in addition to an internet connection.

With some form of wizardry, Google’s engineers have condensed the models down to just 0.5GB which also means it can all run on-device. Naturally, this has sped things up considerably.

“Think of it as putting the power of a Google data center in your pocket,” said CEO Sundar Pichai.

Pichai went on to quip that Assistant is now so fast that even tapping your device feels slow. At this point, more users will find that using Assistant actually saves them time as intended.

The so-called “next generation” Assistant is so fast that it operates in real-time, according to Google VP of Engineering, Scott Huffman.

A demo by a Google employee showed the AI looking up information and multitasking between apps without having to go back and forth between screens.

Furthermore, the assistant will become more personal. Huffman demonstrated that if it’s helped you look for Italian and BBQ recipes in the past, that’s what it might suggest for you to make tonight. “What I love is that different people get completely different results,” Huffman exclaimed.

The recipes will only be available on smart displays like the Nest Home Hub (Google is unifying its smart home branding under Nest going forward).

As for the speedy new Assistant that will, predictably, launch first on Pixel smartphones later this year.

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The company is using the data for a new feature called ‘Profile Recommendations’ whereby the app will recommend switching to a correct profile for your journey.

Many people will have two Uber profile – one for personal use, and the other for business.

Ronnie Gurion, GM and Global Head of Uber for Business, says:

“Using machine learning, Uber can predict which profile and corresponding payment method an employee should be using, and make the appropriate recommendation.”

When quickly booking a ride, it can be easy to forget to switch. Accidentally booking a ride home from a night out using a business account set up with a workplace’s payment details is an unwanted conversation with an employer.

Uber believes its success rate for determining the correct profile is around 80 percent.

To help reduce the 20 percent it gets wrong, businesses can assign ‘trip reviewers’ who know whether an employee’s use is supposed to be personal.

Any questionable rides can be flagged by the reviewer and the employee can decide in the app if it was supposed to be a personal ride or not. The whole process is designed to be much quicker than starting email threads about the issue and similar bureaucratic processes.

What are your thoughts on Uber’s use of AI for its latest feature?

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