The arm of global inequality is long, rendering itself visible particularly in the development of AI and machine learning systems. In a recent paper, researchers at Cornell, the Universite de Montreal, the National Institute of Statistical Sciences (U.S.), and Princeton argue that this inequality in the AI industry involves a concentration of profits and raises the danger of ignoring the contexts…
Microsoft today unveiled Microsoft Viva, an employee experience platform that aims to deliver first- and third-party products across learning, wellness, insights, knowledge, and engagement. As a part of this, the company debuted Viva Topics, Viva Connections, Viva Insights…
Microsoft opens limited access to its neural text-to-speech AI
February 4, 2021
Microsoft is opening up limited access to a text-to-speech AI called Custom Neural Voice, which allows developers to create custom synthetic voices. The tech is part of an Azure AI service called Speech. Companies can use the tech for things like voice-powered smart…
Researchers claim that AI-translated text is less ‘lexically’ rich than human translations
February 4, 2021
Human interpreters make choices unique to them, consciously or unconsciously, when translating one language into another. They might explicate, normalize, or condense and summarize, creating fingerprints known informally as “translationese.” In machine learning, generating accurate translations has been the main objective thus far. But this might be coming at the expense of translation…
Community Health Network prescribes AI to combat COVID-19
February 3, 2021
AI is about to play a much larger role in identifying individuals who are at risk for contracting COVID-19 in Indiana. Community Health Network (CHN), an accountable care organization (ACO), revealed today that it is beginning to employ an AI platform from Jvion to analyze…
Granulate, a startup developing a platform that optimizes computing infrastructure, today announced it has raised $30 million, bringing its total raised to $45.6 million. The company claims the cash infusion will help it develop products that reduce the time engineers spend…
Reverie Labs, a startup using AI to develop new medicines, today announced the closure of its $25 million series A round. The company says the capital will be used to advance its internal and partnered drug discovery program, further develop its platform, and grow its team of scientists and engineers.
Fewer than 12% of all drugs entering clinical trials end up in pharmacies, and it takes at least…
Experimental AI framework Vx2Text generates video captions using inferences from audio and text
February 3, 2021
A grand challenge in AI is developing a conversational system that can reliably understand the world and respond using natural language. Ultimately, solving it will require a model capable of extracting salient information from images, text, audio, and video and answering…
Microsoft has unveiled a raft of new updates for its 365 mobile apps, with new AI and natural language features in Outlook, Teams, Office Lens (now Microsoft Lens) and Office mobile, the company announced. It also introduced a new feature called “micro tasks” that let…
Boston Dynamics trains Spot the robot dog to charge itself
February 3, 2021
Boston Dynamics is expanding its lineup of robotic dogs with a model that can self-charge. Spot Enterprise comes with a charging dock that allows the robot to replenish its batteries without the help of humans. As such, it can operate in remote or dangerous areas for longer.
Spot Enterprise has upgraded hardware that bolsters safety and communications, according to the company. The robot can carry…
