Facebook says it’s progressing toward assistants capable of interacting with and understanding the physical world as well as people do. In a blog post today, the company announced milestones implying its future AI will be able to learn how to plan routes, look around its physical environments, listen to what’s happening, and build memories of 3D spaces.
The concept of embodied AI draws on…
This week we featured how Duolingo uses AI in every part of its app, including Stories, Smart Tips, podcasts, reports, and even notifications. The story is based on interviews with CEO Luis von Ahn and research director Burr Settles, who joined as the company’s first AI…
Google Pixel Buds can now alert you to the sounds of a crying baby, barking dog, or the siren of an emergency vehicle when you’re listening to something and may not otherwise hear the sound. The feature reduces the volume of whatever music or podcast you’re listening to…
iFarm has raised $4 million to expand its automated system that uses AI and drones to grow fruits and vegetables in enclosed spaces. Gagarin Capital led the round of funding, which included investment from Matrix Capital, Impulse VC, IMI.VC, and some business angels.
The Finnish startup has developed a vertical agricultural system called iFarm Growtune. By growing food closer to consumers and in…
IBM uses AI to evaluate risk of developing genetic diseases
August 20, 2020
In a study published in the journal Nature Communications, scientists at IBM, the Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard, and health tech company Color find evidence that the presence of genetic mutations isn’t a reliable precursor to genetic diseases. They claim diseases can…
Xilinx shared today that its programmable AI chips are being used in Subaru’s EyeSight car safety system. Integrated into the Subaru Levorg, a mid-size car debuting soon in Japan, EyeSight will provide advanced features including adaptive cruise control, lane-keep assist…
Facebook gamifies data collection to boost conversational AI
August 19, 2020
Facebook once piloted a text-based fantasy role-playing game to improve the conversational models powering things like its chatbots and smart speakers. In a preprint paper, researchers at the company describe a game that iterates between collecting data and retraining models on the collected data, with a metric that evaluates and compares models using players’ continuation rates (i.e., how long…
Adobe today announced the beta launch of new features for Adobe Character Animator (version 3.4), its desktop software that combines live motion-capture with a recording system to control 2D puppets drawn in Photoshop or Illustrator. Several — including Speech-Aware…
How Duolingo uses AI in every part of its app
August 19, 2020
Language learning has surged during the pandemic. Duolingo, which is synonymous with gamified language learning, saw its fastest growth period this March with a 101% global increase in new users. From those who simply have more time on their hands to students trying to keep…
Researchers at Duke Kunshan University, Wuhan University, Lenovo, and Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou claim to have developed an AI system that detects whether a person is wearing a mask from the sound of their muffled speech. They say that in experiments, it achieves 78.8% accuracy on one metric, demonstrating that sound could be a useful means of enforcing mask-wearing during the…
