philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

What’s New In Gartner’s Hype Cycle For AI, 2020

Gartner sees potential for Composite AI helping its enterprise clients and has included it as the third new category in this year's Hype Cycle. 

Concentrating on the ethical and social aspects of AI, Gartner recently defined the category Responsible AI as an umbrella term that's included as the fourth category in the Hype Cycle for AI.

The exponential gains in accuracy, price/performance, low power consumption and Internet of Things sensors that collect AI model data have to lead to a new category called Things as Customers, as the fifth new category this year.

Thirteen technologies have either been removed, re-classified, or moved to other Hype Cycles compared to last year.  Gartner has chosen to remove VPA-enabled wireless speakers from all Hype Cycles this year. AI developer toolkits are now part of the AI developer and teaching kits category. AI PaaS is now part of AI cloud services. Gartner chose to move AI-related C&SI services, AutoML, Explainable AI (also now part of the Responsible AI category in 2020), graph analytics and Reinforcement Learning to the Hype Cycle for Data Science and Machine Learning, 2020. Conversational User Interfaces, Speech Recognition and Virtual Assistants are now part of the Hype Cycle for Natural Language Technologies, 2020. Gartner has also chosen to move Quantum computing to the Hype Cycle for Compute Infrastructure, 2020. Robotic process automation software is now removed from the Hype Cycle for AI, as Gartner mentions the technology in several other Hype Cycles.

See the full story here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/louiscolumbus/2020/10/04/whats-new-in-gartners-hype-cycle-for-ai-2020/?ss=ai#29e0548d335c

Parkland parents create AI video of slain son to spur voters

From the grave, the teen is now begging his peers to cast the vote that he will never cast. “I've been gone for two years and nothing's changed, bro. People are still getting killed by guns,” he implores in the video created by his parents' charity to end gun violence.

“You've got to replace my vote.” 

See the full story here: https://www.devdiscourse.com/article/entertainment/1237637-parkland-parents-create-ai-video-of-slain-son-to-spur-voters

Juba receives CAREER award for artificial intelligence research

Brendan Juba, assistant professor of computer science and engineering at Washington University in St. Louis’ McKelvey School of Engineering, will take a closer look at these relationships and generalization in artificial intelligence and develop new algorithms with a five-year $543,000 CAREER Award from the National Science Foundation.

CAREER awards support junior faculty who model the role of teacher-scholar through outstanding research, excellence in education and the integration of education and research within the context of the mission of their organization. One-third of current McKelvey engineering faculty have received the award.

Juba, who studies algorithms for integrated learning and reasoning in artificial intelligence, said researchers have recognized for a long time that relational generalization is necessary for artificial intelligence, but it has been difficult to solve. So far, there have been two types of approaches.

In addition to developing new algorithms, Juba plans to redesign a core undergraduate algorithms course to strengthen students’ grasp of algorithms by making the course more interactive.

“Algorithms have been kind of a stumbling block and very challenging for students, so I’m trying to increase participation in some sense because we understand that passive methods of instruction are not as effective,” Juba said. 

See the full story here; https://source.wustl.edu/2020/10/juba-receives-career-award-for-artificial-intelligence-research/https://source.wustl.edu/2020/10/juba-receives-career-award-for-artificial-intelligence-research/\

AUGMENTED REALITY OFFERS A PROMISE OF INCISION-FREE AUTOPSIES

This is one vision of the virtual future of autopsies, based on interviews with forensic and digital health-care experts: Using digital reconstructions and machine-learning algorithms to diagnose the cause of death, identify a victim, and even triage battlefield or motor-vehicle injuries in live patients by analyzing images of victims who died in similar incidents. It would mark a step change for the field of forensic science, where the standard methods of autopsy have remained nearly unchanged for a century.

None of this would be possible without computed tomography, or CT scans that use rotating X-ray machines to create cross-sectional images of the body. CT scans are common in clinical practice, but still relatively rare in forensic pathology, especially in the U.S. where the medical examiner system is fragmented and some states have coroners who aren’t medically trained.

One global reference point for forensic imaging is the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine in southeastern Australia, which has built up a database of some 80,000 CT scans representing deaths ranging from traumatic injuries to homicide and suicide. Experts there are turning to machine learning to put millions of images to future use, from providing airtight evidence in criminal cases to quicker identification of victims of mass disasters.

See the full story here: https://www.wsj.com/articles/augmented-reality-offers-a-promise-of-incision-free-autopsies-11601485158

Language-Generating A.I. Is a Free Speech Nightmare

Mitigating the harmful effects of sophisticated language models will require addressing information campaigns more generally. This means approaches that span the technical (textfake/bot detection and new social media), social (model release norms and digital literacy), and political (antitrust and regulatory changes). GPT-3 doesn’t change the problem; it just further entrenches it. As we have seen, our institutions have largely failed in the face of the challenges posed by the internet. GPT-3 and language models like it will only make safeguarding healthy public discourse online more difficult—and more important.

Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society.

See the full story here: https://slate.com/technology/2020/09/language-ai-gpt-3-free-speech-harassment.htmlhttps://slate.com/technology/2020/09/language-ai-gpt-3-free-speech-harassment.html

SingularityNET Goes Multi-Chain with Cardano Collaboration

SingularityNET recently announced that the company has started collaborating with IOHK, which is run by the founder of Cardano, Charles Hoskinson. The big undertaking of the collaboration, as of right now, is to port a portion of SingularityNET’s AI platform onto the Cardano blockchain. 

SingularityNET is a full-stack AI solution, with a major focus on decentralization. According to the company, “SingularityNET lets anyone create, share, and monetize AI services at scale,” and it is considered the first decentralized AI network. 

This decentralized AI network is currently on the Ethereum blockchain, and according to the company, the move is largely driven by issues surrounding speed and cost. There are also concerns regarding the rollout of Ethereum 2.0, which has yet to be laid out clearly. 

See the full story here: https://www.unite.ai/singularitynet-goes-multi-chain-with-cardano-collaboration/https://www.unite.ai/singularitynet-goes-multi-chain-with-cardano-collaboration/

Rendever announces EnvisionHome platform offering Virtual Reality tours of senior care communities during COVID-19

Staff are equipped with a touchscreen tablet and a set of VR headsets – all of which are networked together so the staff member is in full control of the tour. Rendever’s platform also allows staff to see where family members or patients are looking in real time in order to tailor discussions toward features they find most interesting, according to the company.

“When a hospice patient has uncontrolled pain and symptoms, they can often benefit from a stay in one of our care centers. But without knowing what the environment looks like or feels like, it can be a difficult decision for loved ones. Coronavirus has added a layer of complexity and stress because families are not currently able to visit these centers themselves,” said Empath Health CEO Rafael Sciullo.

He continued, “To proactively combat this, we’ve adopted the EnvisionHome platform and are already hearing feedback that the personalized, immersive tour experience provides increased confidence and credibility. Trust and comfort are so important in choosing hospice care, so there’s no question that this technology is a smart investment for our team.”

See the full story here: https://www.auganix.org/rendever-announces-envisionhome-platform-offering-virtual-reality-tours-of-senior-care-communities-during-covid-19/

D-Wave launches its 5,000+ qubit Advantage system

D-Wave today announced the launch of its new Advantage quantum computers. These new systems, with over 5,000 qubits and 15-way qubit connectivity, are now available in the company’s Leap cloud computing platform.

See the full story here: https://techcrunch.com/2020/09/29/d-wave-launches-its-5000-qubit-advantage-system/

International AI Art Competition Enters Final Round

Ten finalists have been announced for AI Artathon, the first ever international AI Art competition held in Saudi Arabia.

The three winning teams will be announced at the Global AI Summit on 22 nd October, where they will share a prize of US$133,000.

The AI Artathon is an initiative of the Global AI Summit, to highlight the creative potential of humans and machines working together to create innovative artworks.

Twenty teams made up of artists, graphic designers, AI experts and programmers, competed in this stage of the competition, after qualifying during a hackathon held in Riyadh in January.

Over 2,000 people from over 50 countries applied to participate in the hackathon, with 300 selected for the three-day event, where teams were formed to develop initial AI art concepts.

See the full story here: https://www.oaoa.com/news/business/international-ai-art-competition-enters-final-round/article_dd25cd7c-fee4-5e08-89b4-e003acfa3d1e.html

Seattle startup HaptX lands grant to build full-body ‘robotic exoskeleton’ for virtual reality

HaptX just landed funding from the National Science Foundation to create a full-body haptic system.

The 8-year-old Seattle startup received a $1.5 million grant and will work with Virginia Tech and the University of Florida on a 4-year project called ForceBot. The system combines HaptX’s microfluidic touch feedback technology with a “robotic exoskeleton.” The idea is to let people feel and touch in a virtual environment, or manipulate objects from afar with a robotic avatar.

“We have always had a larger vision to create a full-body haptic system, something akin to the Holodeck, an environment simulator that can deliver realistic feedback to your arms and legs as well as your eyes, ears and hands,” said Joe Michaels, chief revenue officer at HaptX.

See the full story here: https://www.geekwire.com/2020/seattle-startup-haptx-lands-grant-build-full-body-robotic-exoskeleton-virtual-reality/