Why AI can’t move forward without diversity, equity, and inclusion
Evolve, presented by VentureBeat on December 8th, is a 90-minute event exploring bias, racism, and the lack of diversity across AI product development and management, and why these issues can’t be ignored.
“A lot has been happening in 2020, from working remotely to the Black Lives Matter movement, and that has made everybody realize that diversity, equity, and inclusion is much more important than ever,” says Huma Abidi, senior director of AI software products and engineering at Intel – and one of the speakers at Evolve. “Organizations are engaging in discussions around flexible working, social justice, equity, privilege, and the importance of DEI.”
An algorithm used by hospitals was shown to prioritize the care of healthier white patients over sicker Black patients who needed more attention. In Oakland, an AI-powered software piloted to predict areas of high crime turned out to be actually tracking areas with high minority populations, regardless of the crime rate.
This can be addressed with regulation, and the inclusion of AI ethics principles in research and development, around responsible AI, fairness, accountability, transparency, and explainability, she says.
See the full story here: https://venturebeat.com/2020/11/12/why-ai-cant-move-forward-without-diversity-equity-and-inclusion/
To own an AR future, Niantic wants to build a smarter map of the world
Niantic is continuing to bet heavily on the idea that it knows where consumer computing is headed, namely toward augmented reality.
A report from the firm suggests that the title has pulled in more than $1 billion in revenue since the start of the year, a marked increase since 2019 that might be surprising, given the social effects of a pandemic. Those revenues have allowed Niantic to be one of the more active acquirers in the AR infrastructure space, buying up small buzzy AR startups like Escher Reality, Matrix Mill and, most recently, 6D.ai.
Since the acquisition, Niantic has been integrating the tech into their developer platform and has been aiming to juice the technology with their own advances in semantic understanding so they can not only quickly gather what the geometry of a space looks like, but also peer into the context of what the objects are that make up that 3D mesh.
The ultimate goal of this data collection, the startup says, is to build an ever-updating 3D map of the world
As users gain access to more advanced tech like the lidar sensor inside the new iPhone 12 Pro, it’s likely that Niantic will gain access to more quality data themselves.
See the full story https://techcrunch.com/2020/11/11/to-own-an-ar-future-niantic-wants-to-build-a-smarter-map-of-the-world/
Don Carson discusses virtual reality in themed entertainment
“One of the great things about using VR is that no matter where you are in the process, you can visit your model,” Carson said. He showed a video of virtually “walking through” his attraction, demonstrating how you can look at your project from different angles and see every detail, just like walking through it in real life.
This project was completed in June 2020, two months after it began. It took the hard and dedicated work of a very small team to complete. “We did it as a passion project,” Carson said. “I wasn’t paying anyone.”
Although, it may not be as prestigious as some of Carson’s other projects, like Splash Mountain, this project is both helpful to those new to theme park design. Now they can learn more about the project and utilize a new tool from the industry: virtual reality.
“We as storytellers have a new medium [with virtual reality],” Carson said. “Doing an entire dark ride with 4 people in 2 months couldn’t be fathomed before, but now it can.”
See the full story here: https://scaddistrict.com/2020/11/10/don-carson-discusses-virtual-reality-in-themed-entertainment/
Meet the Cat Who Turned Four Seasons Total Landscaping into a Virtual Reality Hangout for Furries
Two nights ago, one of his friends tipsily tweeted, “Four Seasons Total Landscaping needs to be a VRChat world. Okay I'm going to bed.”
It seemed like a tossed-off joke, but inspiration had struck. After working through the night, Coopertom was ready to unveil his gift to the world: A fully realized virtual reality version of the parking lot where Rudy Giuliani held the world’s stupidest press conference. And because it was built by furries, for furries, in a year when every furry con in the world had to go online, furries flocked to it for an instantly-viral video of unbridled purity. Four Seasons Total Landscaping is now a furry.
See the full story here: https://www.thestranger.com/slog/2020/11/10/50717625/meet-the-cat-who-turned-four-seasons-total-landscaping-into-a-virtual-reality-hangout-for-furries
Virtual reality takes users back to a 15th-century community of religious women
USC Dornsife’s Sabina Zonno and Lynn Dodd receive a National Endowment for the Humanities grant to develop an immersive experience around a Renaissance-era manuscript. [4¾ min read]
To create a virtual reality for the manuscript and its context, Zonno and Dodd, along with Eric Hanson, associate professor of cinematic practice at the USC School of Cinematic Arts, will first take thousands of still photography images of the manuscript and beguinage, the latter of which still exists. Those photos will be used to build three-dimensional models, which are then brought to a game engine unit (a framework used by developers to construct video games), which renders them so they are ready to use in a virtual reality headset, Hanson said. He added that virtual reality gives an experience far deeper than that of film.
Dodd said that in addition to connecting people with the past, virtual reality can help bring them together in the present. A virtual recreation of a prayer session at a mosque, for example, could show translations of the prayers and songs involved, and let users watch adults and children in their everyday interactions within the building. Such an experience might help “demystify” Islam and counter Islamophobia, she added.
See the full story here: https://dornsife.usc.edu/news/stories/3348/virtual-reality-manuscript/
Why 5G May Not Need a Killer App—for Now
The big increase in speed and network capacity may be enough to attract customers
“If I put 5G everywhere in the urban area that there’s 4G cells—without adding any extra real estate—I now can double, or triple or quadruple the amount of data that I can put down those pipes,” says Mr. Thode. “So do you actually need a killer app? No.”
See the full story here: https://www.wsj.com/articles/why-5g-may-not-need-a-killer-appfor-now-11604952000
Chinese AI Unicorn Giants SenseTime and Megvii Survive US Ban and Makes It Washington’s Entity List!
Chinese AI Unicorn giants SenseTime and Megvii recently escaped the US Ban on Foreign Technology Companies from operating in the country without regulations or US Ownership. The two companies from China are even included in Washington's Entity List in October but are now planning to move away from the surveillance business that services the government.
What Megvii did is to directly purchase from third-party suppliers of the same technology they were prohibited from accessing. Several Chinese startups are using this method to go around the US Entity Ban and even sell their products to American clients and soil.
The surveillance startup companies survived the US' Entity List ban and are still fairing satisfactorily on the global market and even in several of the country's business ventures.
See the full story here: https://www.techtimes.com/articles/253979/20201108/chinese-ai-unicorn-giants-sensetime-megvii-survives-ban-makes-washingtons.htm