Topic: AI

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    Google Buys AIMatter, Which Makes Photo Manipulation Tools and Apps (Aug 17, 2017)

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    Google Adds 30 Language Varieties to Voice Dictation, Cloud Speech API (Aug 14, 2017)

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    Facebook Acquires Conversational AI Startup Ozlo to Beef Up Messenger (Aug 1, 2017)

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    Microsoft Adds AI-Powered Search and Automation to Photos App in Windows (Jul 28, 2017)

    Microsoft is adding some clever AI-powered image recognition, search, and automation features to the latest version of its Windows Photos app. It doesn’t sound like there’s anything here that will exceed the functionality of existing apps from Google or Apple, but just achieving parity would be a big step forward for Microsoft, which has always been bafflingly slow in addressing people’s needs to manage their photo libraries. Given how many people must store their photos on Windows computers, this is something Microsoft should have addressed long ago. Nokia was another company that always emphasized photography and yet never gave people a great way to manage the pictures they took on their phones, so the fact that Microsoft didn’t jump on the opportunity when it acquired the devices business from Nokia was another odd omission. At any rate, Microsoft now seems to be taking some of these advanced consumer features more seriously, as evidenced by the fantastic video creation tools in the forthcoming version of Windows, and these Photos changes are another positive move in this direction. This is low-hanging fruit as Microsoft looks to burnish its consumer and creativity credentials.

    via Engadget

    Xiaomi Announces $45 Smart Voice Speaker (Jul 26, 2017)

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    Microsoft Working on AI Chip for Next Version of HoloLens (Jul 24, 2017)

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    Apple Launches Machine Learning Journal (Jul 19, 2017)

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    Google Upgrades Feed, its Google Now Replacement (Jul 19, 2017)

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    Microsoft Announces AI Research Team, Launches AI Vision App for Blind on iOS (Jul 12, 2017)

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    Google Officially Launches Gradient Ventures, Engineer-Led AI Fund (Jul 11, 2017)

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    Amazon’s Alexa Now Has 15,000 “Skills” (Apps) (Jul 5, 2017)

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    Baidu Fleshes out its Open Platform for Autonomous Driving (Jul 5, 2017)

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    Samsung Reportedly Working on Bixby-Powered Home Speaker (Jul 5, 2017)

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    Microsoft’s Chatbots Still Seem to be Having Problems Staying out of Trouble (Jul 3, 2017)

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    Alphabet’s DeepMind Deal with UK Health Service Deemed Illegal by Regulator (Jul 3, 2017)

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    Instagram Uses AI to Filter Spam and Abusive Comments (Jun 29, 2017)

    Instagram is announcing today that it’s now using artificial intelligence to filter spam and abusive comments in the app. Wired has a feature (also linked below) which dives deeper into the background here and makes clear that what Instagram is doing here builds on Facebook’s DeepText AI technology, and that Instagram has been working on it for some time. The spam filter works in nine languages, while the comment moderation technology only works in English for now, but both should clean up the Instagram experience. Importantly, though both spam and harassment are issues on Instagram, neither are as bad there because so many people have private accounts – I haven’t seen an official statement from Instagram on this but some research and testing suggests it’s likely between 30 and 50% of the total number of accounts that are private. Those accounts, in turn, are far less likely to receive either spam or abusive comments, since they’ve explicitly chosen to allow those who might comment to follow them. However, for the rest, and especially for celebrities, brands, and so on, these are likely far bigger issues, so cleaning them up in a way that doesn’t require the same massive investment in manual human moderation as Facebook’s core product is a good thing all around.

    via Instagram Blog (see also Wired feature)

    Samsung Bixby Reviews Suggest Assistant Still Needs a Lot of Work (Jun 22, 2017)

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    Facebook Publishes Research on Bots that Have Been Trained to Negotiate (Jun 14, 2017)

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    New York Times Adopts Alphabet’s AI-Powered Content Moderation (Jun 13, 2017)

    Just a quick one here: I wrote about Alphabet company Jigsaw’s machine learning-based approach to online content moderation a while back. At the time, I said it was nice to see AI and machine learning being applied to humdrum every problems that actually needed solving, but back then this was merely a concept that Jigsaw was making available. So it’s great validation for the technology that the New York Times is actually adopting it in a modified, customized form it’s developed with Jigsaw. That should both improve comment moderation on the Times website while also giving the underlying technology a boost, presumably making other news organizations more likely to try it.

    via Poynter

    Amazon Adds Reminders and Named Timers to Alexa (Jun 2, 2017)

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