AI & RoboticsNews

Researchers claim their AI can hear if a speaker is wearing a mask

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…
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AI & RoboticsNews

Machine learning groups form Consortium for Python Data API Standards to reduce fragmentation

Deep learning framework Apache MXNet and Open Neural Network Exchange (ONNX) today launched the Consortium for Python Data API Standards, a group that wants to make it easier for machine learning practitioners and data scientists no matter which framework, library, or tool from the Python ecosystem it came from. ONNX is a group initially formed by Facebook and Microsoft in 2017 to power…
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AI & RoboticsNews

The meatpacking industry is an incubator for AI, automation, and COVID-19

This article is part of a VB special issue. Read the full series: Automation and jobs in the new normal. In early spring 2020, Smithfield, Tyson, and other industrial food suppliers warned that upwards of millions of pounds of meat could disappear from the U.S. supply chain as a result of the coronavirus. Although it now appears these fears were overblown or possibly a ploy to bolster exports…
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AI & RoboticsNews

Problematic study on Indiana parolees seeks to predict recidivism with AI

Using AI to uncover “risky” behaviors among parolees is problematic on many levels. Nevertheless, researchers will soon embark on an ill-conceived effort to do so at Tippecanoe County Community Corrections in Indiana. Funded by a grant from the Justice Department and in partnership with the Tippecanoe County Sheriff’s Department, Florida State University, and the University of…
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