AI and machine learning are powerful tools for the synthesis of speech. As countless studies have demonstrated, only a few minutes — and in the case of state-of-the-art models, a few seconds — are required to imitate a subject’s prosody and intonation with precision. Baidu’s latest Deep Voice service can clone a voice with just 3.7 seconds of audio samples, for example, and a recently…
(Reuters) – SoftBank Chief Executive Masayoshi Son said on Tuesday Japan should make artificial intelligence (AI) a mandatory subject for college entrance exams, to counter the yawning gap with the United States and China in the nascent field.
Japanese students “don’t…
What's on TV this week: 'Joker,' 'Mr. Robot' and 'The Witcher'
December 17, 2019
This week the billion-dollar villain movie Joker is becoming available digitally, while Netflix is preparing to release season one of its The Witcher adaptation. If neither of those are for you then there’s still a lot to pay attention to when it comes to…
Gecko Robotics raises $40 million for industrial inspection robots
December 16, 2019
Industrial robotics startup Gecko Robotics has raised $40 million in a series B round of funding led by Drive Capital, with participation from Peter Thiel’s Founders Fund, Y Combinator, and Next47. Notable angel investors in this round include Mark Cuban, SoftBank senior managing partner Deep Nishar, and Gusto CEO Josh Reeves.
Founded out of Pittsburgh in 2016, Gecko Robotics develops several…
Intel's latest acquisition is a $2 billion push into AI
December 16, 2019
Intel just spent approximately $2 billion to acquire Israel-based AI firm Habana Labs. The partnership will “turbo-charge” Intel’s AI offerings for data centers, Intel said in a press release.
Habana Labs makes programmable deep learning accelerators. Its…
At the Tackling Climate Change workshop at this year’s NeurIPS conference, some of the top minds in machine learning came together to discuss the effects of climate change on life on Earth, how AI can tackle the urgent problem, and why and how the machine learning…
3 keys to moving toward white-box, explainable AI (VB Live)
December 16, 2019
Presented by Dataiku
White-box AI boosts transparency, creates more collaborative data science, and improves trust within businesses and with customers — and it’s getting a lot of attention. Join this VB Live event to learn how, and why, businesses need to move away from black-box systems to more explainable AI.
Register here for free.
Black box AI went viral recently, when David Heinmeier…
Despite people of a certain generation’s preference for texting, phone calls haven’t gone the way of the dodo. A recent survey of over 30 million calls conducted by Invoca found a 40% increase in calls across industries, and 75% of consumers say a phone call is the…
Instagram is using AI to alert bullies to offensive captions
December 16, 2019
Instagram’s anti-bullying efforts now extend to discouraging abusive behavior in posts, not just comments. It’s introducing a feature that warns people when their post captions might be offensive, using AI to detect language similar to posts that have previously…
Intel acquires AI chip startup Habana Labs for $2 billion
December 16, 2019
In a clear signal of its ambitions for the $91.18 billion AI chip market, Intel this morning announced that it has acquired Habana Labs, an Israel-based developer of programmable deep learning accelerators for data centers. The deal is worth approximately $2 billion, and Intel says it’ll strengthen its AI strategy as Habana begins to sample its proprietary silicon to customers.
Habana will…
