1 – A Google researcher said that we’ll become ‘highly dependent’ on artificial intelligence in the near future
Google is planning to incorporate more AI and machine learning into all its products, said CEO Sundar Pichai. At present, AI drives Google Translator, as well as image recognition and email spam filters. Geoffrey Hinton, an AI researcher at Google, believes the move is inevitable. He says,
“I think we will become highly dependent on very intelligent and knowledgeable assistants to help us with almost everything.”
Hinton is a handful of researchers at Google who called for more use of machine learning. He believes that technology powered by such algorithms, such as digital personal assistants, will soon learn about and adapt to us, rather than us adapting to the new technology.
(Read the full article on Tech Insider)
2 – Google invests in Chinese artificial intelligence start-up Mobvoi
Google has announced its decision to invest in a minority stake in Mobvoi, a Beijing-based, start-up AI firm that is completing a $75 million fundraising round. The entry by Google reflects a plan to rebuild its China presence. Mobvoi engineers AI voice-controlled software; the company has partnered with Google in the past to provide Chinese language voice search for its Android Wear smartwatch.
(Read the full article on VentureBeat)
3 – How We Can Overcome the Risks of AI
Director of the Center for Global Risk & Security Andrew Parasiliti, Associate Engineer Andrew Lohn, and Director of Engineering & Applied Services at the RAND Corporation join together to write a call-to-action for an “overdue conversation” between technology and policy leaders about the ethical and legal ramifications that are poised to disrupt reality over the next five years. They discuss leader near-term outlooks – Antoine Blondeau, CEO of Sentient Technologies Holdings, believes we’ll be giving our computers vocal commands – and also discuss precedents and rising concerns. They suggest that one way to begin addressing this elephant-in-the-room issue is to build and observe AI Behavior in simplified settings where humans still have the upper hand.
(Read the full article on TIME)
4 – Apple Hires An Artificial Intelligence Expert From Nvidia. Is He Going to Work On Self-Driving Cars?
A recent hiring move by Apple may show its increased commitment to producing self-driving cars. The company announced its hiring of Nvidia’s Director of Deep Learning Jonathan Cohen. Nvidia, which creates computer chips, has focused on game graphics but has made recent strides in autonomous vehicles. The company sells its graphic processing units (GPUs) to car manufacturers, which use the chips to power cameras and radar in self-driving autos. Apple currently uses deep-learning technology for the map and voice recognition capabilities in Siri.
(Read the full article on re/code)
5 – Artificial Intelligence and Hold’em, Part 1: Counter-Factual Regret Minimization
Researchers at the University of Alberta announced earlier this year that they used AI to master heads-up limit hold’em, and Carnegie Mellon University also tested a heads-up no limit hold’em system against the world’s best poker players (in which the humans won, but only by statistical hair). The AI algorithm responsible for these newfound strategies is called “counter-factual regret minimization” (CFR). During a game of poker, the algorithm considers all strategies that do not include the move that would yield the highest score, and counts how much “regret” there is from excluding such actions from play. This regret-minimizing strategy improves over the game cycle of the game until a “good average strategy” is reached.
(Read the full article on Poker News)
