Google wants to put your device to work even when it’s charging or resting on a living room table or kitchen counter. Today at IFA, the company announced Ambient Mode for Google Assistant. The new feature will turn the latest Android devices into smart displays.
Ambient Mode will make it easier to see notifications, start a playlist and control smart home devices from the lock screen. And…
NTSB says Tesla Autopilot was partly to blame for 2018 crash
September 5, 2019
The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) cited both driver error and Tesla’s Autopilot design as the probable causes of a January 2018 crash, in which a Model S slammed into a parked fire truck at about 31 mph. According to the report, the driver was distracted…
Emulator uses AI to offer the translations your games never had
September 2, 2019
Many classic video games are only available in one language, making it difficult to enjoy them as a non-speaker unless you have a fan translation. Now, though, you might just need the right software. Version 1.7.8 of the RetroArch emulator front end has introduced an AI…
Welcome to Hitting the Books. With less than one in five Americans reading just for fun these days, we’ve done the hard work for you by scouring the internet for the most interesting, thought provoking books on science and technology we can find and delivering an easily digestible nugget of their stories.
We have no chance of escaping the coming robot revolution, nor should we want to. Our…
Facebook is training an AI assistant inside ‘Minecraft’
August 29, 2019
The most advanced AIs today can perform select tasks with superhuman-like efficiency, beating the best humans have to offer at intricate games like Starcraft II and Go. But ask those same AIs to perform something outside of their area of expertise, and they’ll…
Earlier this year during its CES press conference, LG made the case for using AI-linked devices to change our lives. While not everyone was sold on the vision, it has continued with the ThinQ-branded push to connect and control everything, and ahead of the IFA 2019 event, LG…
US book publishers sue Audible over AI-powered transcription
August 23, 2019
Several of the biggest book publishers in the US have launched a new lawsuit against Audible over a feature they say infringes on their copyright. Leading the suit are the so-called “Big Five” of US publishing: Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin Random House and Simon & Schuster.
At the center of the case is the Captions feature the Amazon-owned company announced last…
Bose is expanding its smart speaker offerings with the aptly named Bose Portable Home Speaker, which includes Bluetooth connectivity, voice control and virtual assistant integration into a 7.5-inch by 4-inch package. The 2.3-pound speaker is made for on-the-go activities…
Gmail AI will automatically correct your spelling slip-ups
August 21, 2019
Google Docs’ AI corrections are spreading to Gmail. Google is rolling out a feature in G Suite that will autocorrect “common” spelling errors while you write Gmail messages. It won’t catch every mistake, but it should save you the embarrassment of…
YouTube AI thought robot fighting was animal cruelty
August 21, 2019
In the latest example of the need for further human moderation, YouTube’s automated system took down several videos after mistaking robot fighting matches as animal cruelty. Those affected, including some BattleBots contestants, received a message stating, “Content that displays the deliberate infliction of animal suffering or the forcing of animals to fight is not allowed on…
