The news cycle this week seemed to grab people by the collar and shake them violently. On Wednesday, Palantir went public. The secretive company with ties to the military, spy agencies, and ICE is reliant on government contracts and intent on racking up more sensitive data and contracts in the U.S. and overseas.
Following a surveillance-as-a-service blitz last week, Amazon introduced Amazon One…
YouTube now does AI noise cancellation for Stories on iOS
October 2, 2020
You may notice a marked improvement in the audio quality of some YouTube Stories going forward, thanks to a new speech enhancement feature Google rolled out. A couple of years ago, the tech giant debuted the “Looking to Listen” AI technology that can pick out voices in a…
Facebook says it has deployed a feature in its Community Help hub to make it easier for users to assist each other during the pandemic. As of this week, AI will detect when a public post on News Feed is about needing or offering help and will surface a suggestion to share it…
Air Street Capital: AI industry remains strong despite academic brain drain, tech nationalization
October 2, 2020
London-based venture capital firm Air Street Capital today published the State of AI Report 2020, its third annual survey canvassing research, talent, industrial, and political trends in the field of AI. Coauthored by University College London visiting professor Ian Hogarth and AI investor Nathan Benaich, the report aims to highlight technological breakthroughs and areas of commercial application…
An MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Lab (CSAIL) team claims to have developed an AI system that can analyze X-rays to anticipate certain kinds of heart failure. By detecting signs of excess fluid in the lungs, a condition known as pulmonary edema, the…
In a move to expand its business into the logistics and delivery segment, ride-hailing startup Via today announced that it acquired Fleetonomy for an undisclosed sum. Via, which says it plans to apply Fleetonomy’s expertise in demand prediction and fleet utilization to…
YouTube Stories on iOS gains AI-powered speech enhancement
October 1, 2020
Google today launched Looking-to-Listen, a new audiovisual speech enhancement feature in YouTube Stories captured with iOS devices. Leveraging AI and machine learning, the company says it allows creators to take better selfie videos by automatically boosting their voices and reducing background noise.
While smartphone video quality continues to improve with every generation, audio quality remains…
IBM open-sources AI for optimizing satellite communications and predicting space debris trajectories
October 1, 2020
IBM today announced two new open source projects that aim to solve the technical challenges around cube satellites, a type of miniaturized satellite for space research, and space situational awareness. Both were built by the company’s Space Tech Hub team and are available…
Pixel 5 fails to live up to Google’s AI showcase device
October 1, 2020
As widely predicted, Google announced two smartphones during its Launch Night In today: The Pixel 5 and Pixel 4a (5G). The Pixel 5 is the follow-up to last year’s Pixel 4, while the Pixel 4a (5G) is a 5G-compatible version of the Pixel 4a that launched in August.
Neither…
Once in a while, a young company will claim it has more experience than would be logical — a just-opened law firm might tout 60 years of legal experience, but actually consist of three people who have each practiced law for 20 years. The number “60” catches your eye and summarizes something, yet might leave you wondering whether to prefer one lawyer with 60 years of experience. There’s…
