AI & RoboticsNews

Microsoft's Seeing AI app helps the blind in five more languages

December 3, 2019
Microsoft’s Seeing AI has been helpful for describing objects and text to the blind, but there’s been a key problem: it has only been available in English, making it a non-starter if you don’t speak the language. That won’t be a problem for some people from now on. Microsoft has updated the iOS-only app with support for Dutch, French, German, Japanese and Spanish, letting…
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AI & RoboticsNews

Amazon debuts AWS Inf1, an AI inference instance

December 3, 2019
Amazon Web Services today debuted Inf1, an instance that powers AI inference in the cloud that CEO Andy Jassy calls the lowest cost inference offering available in the cloud. “…it will have lower latency, it will have 3 times higher throughput, and up to 40% lower cost…
AI & RoboticsNews

Amazon created a musical keyboard to help developers learn about AI

December 2, 2019
Amazon has just announced AWS DeepComposer, what the company claims is the world’s first machine-learning enabled musical keyboard. In practice, the actual device is a lot simpler than Amazon’s grand statement might make it seem. The company envisions developers using the 32-key, two-octave keyboard as a tool for experimenting with machine learning. You can use the instrument to lay…
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AI & RoboticsNews

Amazon unveils DeepComposer, an AI-enabled piano keyboard

December 2, 2019
Amazon’s re:Invent 2019 conference kicked off with a bang — or rather, with product announcements made during a midnight keynote at The Venetian. The Seattle company’s Amazon Web Services (AWS) division unveiled Amazon Transcribe Medical, a new edition of its automatic…
AI & RoboticsNews

Australia rolls out AI cameras to spot drivers using their phones

December 1, 2019
Phone use while driving remains a problem in many parts of the world, in no small part due to the difficulty of enforcing laws. How do you catch someone in the act? Australian police might not have that problem. The New South Wales government has started using the first cameras that can automatically detect when drivers are using their phones. The system uses AI to review photos for telltale…
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AI & RoboticsNews

Engadget readers can save on iRobot Roomba i7 vacuums

November 30, 2019
If the price of vacuum robots has kept you away from the tech, we may be able to help. We’ve partnered with Wellbots to provide Engadget readers with an exclusive discount on iRobot’s high-end Roomba i7+ and i7 series vacuums. You can get the i7+ for $699…
AI & RoboticsNews

AI Weekly: With AI-empowered devices, consider what you’re buying

November 29, 2019
It’s Black Friday, and throngs of people are shopping for deals on virtual assistant-powered smart home devices from the likes of Amazon and Google. The initial appeal of smart speakers, smart displays, voice-controlled lights is obvious, and according to Strategy Analytics, growth in the smart speaker segment alone is expected to grow 57% by the end of 2019. But as we consider whether these…
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