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 has announced that the Proactive Customer Care service mentioned during CES will be available across several European…
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…
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 leaving a glaring typo in a company-wide email. You’ll also see grammar suggestions, too, helping you avoid common…
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…
Hitting the Books: How big tech might monopolize AI
August 17, 2019
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…
Robotic devices have been used to help people walk or run in rehabilitation settings, but until now, they’ve been tethered and limited to a single action, like walking or running. In a paper published in Science today, a team of researchers explain how they’re going to change that. The researchers — from Harvard University and the University of Nebraska Omaha — have…
Setting reminders for yourself is easy, but not so much when you want to remind someone else of their responsibilities. You often have to resort to old-fashioned techniques like text messages and Post-it notes, which are easily lost and forgotten. Google, however, has come…
AI avatars of Chinese authors could soon narrate audiobooks
August 13, 2019
The Chinese search engine Sogou isn’t stopping at AI news anchors. The company has created “lifelike” avatars of two Chinese authors, and it plans to have them narrate audiobooks in video recordings. According to the BBC, Sogou used AI, text-to-speech…
Can an open-source AI take on Amazon and Google?
August 9, 2019
It’s only been a few years since Amazon unveiled the Alexa-powered Echo, but since then, smart speakers have become a major consumer-electronics category. Key to its success is the notion of the always-on virtual assistant, which other companies like Apple and Google have adopted as well. In fact, not only has Google made Assistant the driving force behind its Android smartphones, it has…
