Awesome, not awesome.
#Awesome
“ A team at Facebook AI has created a reinforcement learning algorithm that lets a robot find its way in an unfamiliar environment without using a map. Using just a depth-sensing camera, GPS, and compass data, the algorithm gets a robot to its goal 99.9% of the time along a route that is very close to the shortest possible path, which means no wrong turns, no backtracking, and no exploration. This is a big improvement over previous best efforts…Mapless route-finding is essential for next-gen robots like autonomous delivery drones or robots that work inside homes and offices.” — Douglas Heaven, Writer Learn More from MIT Technology Review >
#Not Awesome
“Artificial intelligence routinely produces startling achievements, as computers learn to recognize images, converse, beat humans at sophisticated games, and drive vehicles. But all those advances require staggering amounts of computing power — and electricity — to devise and train algorithms. And as the damage caused by climate change becomes more apparent, AI experts are increasingly troubled by those energy demands.” — Will Knight, Writer Learn More from WIRED >
What we’re reading.
1/ London’s police department will start using facial recognition technology to identify people on a police watchlist in real-time with security cameras. Critics think the decision is an “expansion of the surveillance state and a serious threat to civil liberties.” Learn More from The New York Times >
2/ The facial recognition company Clearview AI won contracts with law enforcement agencies because of a claim that it had cracked a case of alleged terrorism in NYC. The New York Police Department said the company played no role in the case. Learn More from BuzzFeed News >
3/ The National Institute on Drug Abuse uses AI to recognize patterns in social media content to automatically detect illegal transactions (ranging from drugs to guns to wildlife). Learn More from Recode >
4/ In what is unlikely to be a case of altruism, Google’s CEO calls on governments to start regulating AI. Learn More from The Hill >
5/ Disclosing the use of AI in applications (from home insurance to sales calls and everything in between) will reduce fraud and potentially protect us from risks that we’re not yet aware of today. Learn More from Brookings >
6/ McKinsey predicts that white collar fields like office support personnel will “lose more than one in four positions.” as a result of automation. Learn More from TIME >
7/ As AI weaves itself more deeply into the fabric of our lives, we must remind ourselves that not all societal and ethical issues have technological solutions. Learn More from Scientific American >
What we’re building.
We’ve started writing a newsletter called Noteworthy in Tech.
Wake up every Sunday morning to the week’s most noteworthy stories in Tech waiting in your inbox. Read the Noteworthy in Tech newsletter >
Links from the community.
“Artificial Intelligence Toolkit Helps Companies Protect Society and Their Business” submitted by Simon Greenman. Learn More from World Economic Forum >
“Intro to Pytorch with NLP” by Adam Wearne. Learn More from Noteworthy >
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