https://www.theguardian.com/technology/ ... -companiesThe rise of 'pseudo-AI': how tech firms quietly use humans to do bots' work
Using what one expert calls a ‘Wizard of Oz technique’, some companies keep their reliance on humans a secret from investors
https://www.christies.com/features/A-co ... 332-1.aspxIs artificial intelligence set to become art’s next medium?
AI artwork sells for $432,500 — nearly 45 times its high estimate — as Christie’s becomes the first auction house to offer a work of art created by an algorithm
https://www.euronews.com/2018/10/29/tra ... ient-textsTranskribus system makes breakthrough in understanding medieval texts
The Tyrolean State Archive in Innsbruck stores countless documents dating from the 11th century onwards — mostly official records, legal documents and other important handwritten documents from the past. Transcribing these books isn't easy. But this archive is working with scientists to automate the transcription using cutting-edge computer technologies.
"With difficult scripts I believe the new technique will have problems. But with relatively nice calligraphy, the new system has great advantages and helps us a lot," says the Director of the archive, Christoph Haidacher.
To digitise such books, scientists working on a European research project, READ, designed a simple-to-use system based on a specially-developed smartphone application: it detects when pages are turned and automatically takes high-resolution photos of each page.
"We use, of course, a combination of low-tech and high-tech. A dark tent is a relatively simple, low-tech accessory. But it works with a high-tech app running on a smartphone that is connected to the Transkribus platform: the app uploads the images to the server that performs the recognition of the handwritten text," says the READ project co-ordinator & Researcher in Digitalisation & Digital Preservation at the University of Innsbruck, Dr. Guenter Muehlberger.
[…]
The server at the University of Innsbruck uses machine-learning algorithms to teach the computer new writing styles. After users transcribe part of the text manually, the software engine learns to identify the characters and then finishes the task automatically with impressive accuracy - higher than 95% for historical documents independent of their language or writing style.
"Modern slavery"? Is that common in the UK?Police officers
Could AI predict crime?
Richard Baker/In Pictures/Getty
By Chris Baraniuk
Police in the UK want to predict serious violent crime using artificial intelligence, New Scientist can reveal. The idea is that individuals flagged by the system will be offered interventions, such as counselling, to avert potential criminal behaviour.
However, one of the world’s leading data science institutes has expressed serious concerns about the project after seeing a redacted version of the proposals.
The system, called the National Data Analytics Solution (NDAS), uses a combination of AI and statistics to try to assess the risk of someone committing or becoming a victim of gun or knife crime, as well as the likelihood of someone falling victim to modern slavery.
West Midlands Police is leading the project and has until the end of March 2019 to produce a prototype. Eight other police forces, including London’s Metropolitan Police and Greater Manchester Police, are also involved. NDAS is being designed so that every police force in the UK could eventually use it.
Police funding has been cut significantly over recent years, so forces need a system that can look at all individuals already known to officers, with the aim of prioritising those who need interventions most urgently, says Iain Donnelly, the police lead on the project.
Pre-emptive counselling
As for exactly what will happen when such individuals are identified, that is still a matter of discussion, says Donnelly. He says the intention isn’t to pre-emptively arrest anyone, but rather to provide support from local health or social workers. For example, they could offer counselling to any individual with a history of mental health issues that had been flagged by NDAS as being likely to commit a violent crime. Potential victims could be contacted by social services.
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2 ... 104632.htmAndroid child's face strikingly expressive
[snip]
A trio of researchers at Osaka University has now found a method for identifying and quantitatively evaluating facial movements on their android robot child head. Named Affetto, the android's first-generation model was reported in a 2011 publication. The researchers have now found a system to make the second-generation Affetto more expressive. Their findings offer a path for androids to express greater ranges of emotion, and ultimately have deeper interaction with humans.
I prefer not nice to meanie. But it's the thought that counts.
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Just get a teddy bear and save $3,090.If you’re tired of struggling to make human connections, a Japanese startup is putting a price tag on the robotic variety — and it’s pretty steep.
GROOVE X launched a companion robot Tuesday that’s programmed to make lonely humans feel the love.
The Lovot, which resembles a cuddly children’s toy and comes in a rainbow of colors, retails for around $3,100 before taxes and other fees.
Be warned: The wheeled robot cannot help with practical tasks such as housework — but it will “draw out your ability to love,” Groove X founder and CEO Kaname Hayashi told reporters at the launch in Tokyo.
“When you touch your Lovot, embrace it, even just watch it, you’ll find yourself relaxing [and] feeling better. It’s a little like feeling love toward another person,” the company’s website reads.
“Lovot will react to your moods and do all it can to fill you with joy and re-energize you. It may not be a living creature, but Lovot will warm your heart.”
Yeah, I suppose it could be a necessary intermediate step on the way to that. Still a ways to go.Abdul Alhazred wrote: ↑Wed Dec 19, 2018 10:12 amIt's a proof of concept thing, expensive for early adopters / technology enthusiasts.
Wait'll they combine this technology with sexbots. You know that's where this is headed.
And of course the sexbot does not have to look exactly like a woman (other than the naughty bits).
Coming soon to Japan (and later elsewhere): 3D amine waifus that really make you feel loved (not just dissipated) and will even bring you a beer.
)https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-46809807CES 2019: 'Award-winning' sex toy for women withdrawn from show
A sex toy designed for women has been banned from the technology show CES.
Lora DiCarlo said it had been invited to display its robotic Ose [in French "ose" = "dare"] vibrator at CES, after winning an innovation award.
CES organiser the Consumer Technology Association, which granted the award, said it had included the device by mistake and could withdraw any immoral or obscene entry at any time.
Lora DiCarlo chief executive Lora Haddock said the CES and CTA had a history of gender bias.
[…]
"Ose clearly fits the robotics and drone category - and CTA's own expert judges agree."
The product had been designed in partnership with a robotics laboratory at Oregon State University and had eight patents pending for "robotics, biomimicry, and engineering feats", Ms Haddock said.
"We firmly believe that women, non-binary, gender non-conforming, and LGBTQI folks should be vocally claiming our space in pleasure and tech," she said.
Ms Haddock said there was a double-standard at CES when it came to sexual health products targeted at men versus women.
"Men's sexuality is allowed to be explicit, with a literal sex robot in the shape of an unrealistically proportioned woman and VR porn in point of pride along the aisle," she said.
(Link in quote is to Japan Times article. Also worth a read.)When Akihiko Kondo, a 35-year-old school administrator in Tokyo, strolled down the aisle in a white tuxedo in November, his mother was not among the 40 well-wishers in attendance. For her, he said, “it was not something to celebrate.”
You might see why. The bride, a songstress with aquamarine twin tails named Hatsune Miku, is not only a world-famous recording artist who fills up arenas throughout Japan: She is also a hologram.
Mr. Kondo insists the wedding was not a stunt, but a triumph of true love after years of feeling ostracized by real-life women for being an anime otaku, or geek. He considers himself a sexual minority facing discrimination.
Then they get into philosophical questions like "can a robot consent?" Some sex robots may be programmed by their creators to withdraw "consent" in certain situations:In real life, pioneers of human-android romance now have a name, “digisexuals,” which some academics and futurists have suggested constitutes an emergent sexual identity.
Whether the notion is absurd, inevitable or offensive, it raises more than a few questions. For starters, in a world where sex toys that respond and give feedback and artificial-intelligence-powered sex robots are inching toward the mainstream, are digisexuals a fringe group, destined to remain buried in the sexual underground? Or, in a culture permeated with online pornography, sexting and Tinder swiping, isn’t everyone a closet digisexual?
Echoing the controversy surrounding scenes of robot rape in “Westworld,” a group of activists started the Campaign Against Sex Robots, arguing that sex robots, with their Barbie bodies and wired-for-compliance brains, encourage the objectification of women and reinforce the prostitute-john power dynamic.
Unfortunately, it’s not science fiction. During an Austrian technology fair in 2017, a version of Dr. Santos’s Samantha doll reportedly responded, “I’m fine,” after a group of men mounted it roughly, leaving it soiled and damaged.
Dr. Santos is working on a new version of Samantha that will be programmed to shut down when the sex gets too aggressive.
Anaxagoras wrote: ↑Wed Jan 23, 2019 3:49 amYou might see why. The bride, a songstress with aquamarine twin tails named Hatsune Miku, is not only a world-famous recording artist who fills up arenas throughout Japan: She is also a hologram.
WS CHAMPIONS X4!!!! NBA CHAMPIONS!! Stanley Cup! SB CHAMPIONS X6!!!!!! https://www.wired.com/story/pentagon-do ... -big-tech/The Pentagon Doubles Down on AI–and Wants Help from Big Tech
In the 1960s, the Department of Defense began shoveling money toward a small group of researchers with a then-fringe idea: making machines intelligent. Military money played a central role in establishing a new science—artificial intelligence.
Sixty years later, the Pentagon believes AI has matured enough to become a central plank of America’s national security. On Tuesday, the department released an unclassified version of its AI strategy, which calls for rapid adoption of AI in all aspects of the US military.
The plan depends on the Pentagon working closely with the tech industry to source the algorithms and cloud computing power needed to run AI projects. Federal contracting records indicate that Google, Oracle, IBM, and SAP have signaled interest in working on future Defense Department AI projects.
“AI will not only increase the prosperity of the nation but enhance our national security,” said Dana Deasy, the department’s chief information officer, at a news briefing Tuesday. He said Russian and Chinese investments in military AI technology heighten the need for US forces to use more AI, too. “We must adopt AI to maintain our strategic position and prevail on future battlefields,” Deasy said.
Previous Defense Department efforts to tap into the tech industry’s AI expertise haven’t all gone smoothly. Last year thousands of Google employees protested against the company’s work on Project Maven, which was intended to demonstrate how the US military could benefit from tapping commercially available AI technology.
The pushback against Google’s work on a program using algorithms to identify objects in video from drones prompted the company to decide not to renew the contract. CEO Sundar Pichai also released new guidelines on its use of AI that forbid work on weapons, but permit other military work.
https://www.businessinsider.com/pepsico ... &r=US&IR=TPepsiCo is laying off corporate employees as the company commits to millions of dollars in severance pay, restructuring, and 'relentlessly automating'
- PepsiCo has kicked off a round of layoffs affecting employees in several offices, two people who were laid off by the company told Business Insider.
- The company announced in a quarterly earnings call last week that it expected to incur $2.5 billion in restructuring costs through 2023, with 70% of charges linked to severance and other employee costs.
- Roughly $800 million of the $2.5 billion is expected to affect 2019 results.
- PepsiCo also recently announced plans to restructure the organization and "relentlessly" invest in automation.
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https://www.artificiallawyer.com/2019/0 ... -breakers/France Bans Judge Analytics, 5 Years In Prison For Rule Breakers
In a startling intervention that seeks to limit the emerging litigation analytics and prediction sector, the French Government has banned the publication of statistical information about judges’ decisions – with a five year prison sentence set as the maximum punishment for anyone who breaks the new law.
Owners of legal tech companies focused on litigation analytics are the most likely to suffer from this new measure.
The new law, encoded in Article 33 of the Justice Reform Act, is aimed at preventing anyone – but especially legal tech companies focused on litigation prediction and analytics – from publicly revealing the pattern of judges’ behaviour in relation to court decisions.
A key passage of the new law states:[…]‘The identity data of magistrates and members of the judiciary cannot be reused with the purpose or effect of evaluating, analysing, comparing or predicting their actual or alleged professional practices.’
But, the point remains: a government and its justice system have decided to make it a crime for information about how its judges think about certain legal issues to be revealed in terms of statistical and comparative analysis.
Some of the French legal experts Artificial Lawyer talked to this week asked what this site’s perspective was. Well, if you really want to know, it’s this:
- If a case is already in the public domain, then anyone who wants to should have a right to conduct statistical analysis upon the data stemming from that in order to show or reveal anything they wish to. After all, how can a society dictate how its citizens are allowed to use data and interpret it – if that data is already placed in public view, by a public body, such as a court?
- This seems to be like giving someone access to a public library, but banning them from reading certain books that are sitting right there on the shelf for all to see. This is a sort of coercive censorship, but of the most bizarre kind – as it’s the censorship of justice’s own output.
Interesting comments at the link. WS CHAMPIONS X4!!!! NBA CHAMPIONS!! Stanley Cup! SB CHAMPIONS X6!!!!!! 
