AI & Robotics

Google today released the second-generation version of Pixel Buds, earbuds with a dedicated chip for on-device machine learning that gets rid of the string that held the first generation earbuds together. The device is made to allow environmental ambient sound and uses adaptive sound to adjust volume based on your environment so it may go up on subway and down when walking home. The new Pixel Buds…

Square Off is moving connected board games further today with the launch of a Kickstarter campaign for its Square Off Neo chess board and the Square Off SwapBoard. The new products will offer machine learning and personalized coaching. “Our purpose as a brand is to revolutionize the way people play board games and to connect them offscreen,” said Square Off chief technology officer Atur Mehta…

Simplifying text’s grammar and structure is a useful skill most of us acquire in school, but AI typically has a tougher go of it owing to a lack of linguistic knowledge. That said, scientists at Facebook AI Research and Inria are progressing toward a simplification model dubbed ACCESS (AudienCe-CEntric Sentence Simplification), which they claim enables customization of text length, amount of…

Picture a world in which the baseline requirement for a new smartphone is a facial recognition test. You needn’t imagine it — in China, beginning December 1, that’s the scrutiny to which the country’s over 850 million internet users will be subject, without exception. The Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology said in a late September statement that the rule, which will also…