algorithms: ai, ar, vr, crypto
The Long Search for a Brain Computer Interface That Speaks Your Mind
The trick is to use data from the brain to synthesize speech in real time so users can practice and the machine can learn. New brain computer interface systems are getting there.
Source: The Long Search for a Brain Computer Interface That Speaks Your Mind
An 8-Year-Old Explains the Metaverse
“One minute you get scammed, another minute you’re having the best time of your life, making billions of dollars.”
Google’s Project Starline Wants to Turn You Into a Hologram
Video: Google Over the past several years, Google has been working hard to craft software experiences that make you feel like you’re present with another human being, even if they’re several time zones away. On one end of the spectrum is boring Google Meet , the company’s Zoom competitor.
But nothing within that gamut was cutting it for Clay Bavor, the high-energy Googler who heads up the company’s augmented- and virtual-reality efforts. He wanted full-on photo-realistic, volumetric video meetings that make it look, sound, and feel like the other person is sitting across the table from you—no headset required.
Source: Google’s Project Starline Wants to Turn You Into a Hologram
Facebook’s new Meta logo is a graphic trope that was trendy in 2008
The Facebook rebrand to Meta brings with it a new stock symbol , new social media handles , and heavy critiques of the company’s new logo. Graphic design critics were predictably abuzz as soon as CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed the wordmark for Meta, Facebook’s new corporate brand, at the tail end of his 80-minute keynote at the Connect conference on Oct 28. “The word ‘meta’ comes from the Greek word [μετά] meaning ‘beyond,’” he explained, revealing an animated symbol that resembles an infinity symbol. “For me, it symbolizes that there is always more to build.” The logo has already been compared to a pretzel, a Pringle chip, a thigh master , IBM’s design thinking loop , Microsoft Visual Studio’s old avatar , and inevitably, a phallus .
Source: Facebook’s new Meta logo is a graphic trope that was trendy in 2008
Is Your Exoskeleton Ready for Primetime?
While at the mention of exoskeletons—or wearable mobile apparatuses, as they are called in marketing brochures—scenes of Tony Stark in his Iron Man armor elegantly zipping and hovering start to flicker in our minds, we often forget the test scenes where he struggles to control his flight and shoots himself straight into a wall.
Zuckerberg Announces Fantasy World Where Facebook Is Not a Horrible Company
Moments before announcing Facebook is changing its name to “Meta” and detailing the company’s “metaverse” plans during a Facebook Connect presentation on Thursday, Mark Zuckerberg said “some people will say this isn’t a time to focus on the future,” referring to the massive, ongoing scandal plaguing his company relating to the myriad ways Facebook has made the world worse. “I believe technology can make our lives better.”
Source: Zuckerberg Announces Fantasy World Where Facebook Is Not a Horrible Company
Why Scientists Have Spent Years Mapping This Creature’s Brain
Flies are capable of sophisticated behaviors, including navigating diverse landscapes, tussling with rivals and serenading potential mates. And their speck-size brains are tremendously complex, containing some 100,000 neurons and tens of millions of connections, or synapses, between them.
Since 2014, a team of scientists at Janelia, in collaboration with researchers at Google, have been mapping these neurons and synapses in an effort to create a comprehensive wiring diagram, also known as a connectome, of the fruit fly brain.
Source: Why Scientists Have Spent Years Mapping This Creature’s Brain
US retail giants pull Chinese surveillance tech from shelves
U.S. retail giants Home Depot and Best Buy have pulled the Chinese video surveillance technology makers Lorex and Ezviz from their stores over links to human rights abuses.
Source: US retail giants pull Chinese surveillance tech from shelves – TechCrunch
Brazil’s embrace of facial recognition worries Black communities
On a crisp winter’s morning in June in Mata de São João, fourth graders hopped off the bus onto the dusty track in front of João Pereira Vasconcelos school. It had been a long two-year break from the classroom due to Covid-19, but as the students filed in through the school’s run-down entrance, they received an unexpected welcome.
Source: Brazil’s embrace of facial recognition worries Black communities
Tesla pulled its latest ‘Full Self Driving’ beta after testers complained about false crash warnings and other bugs
Tesla’s decision to test its “Full Self Driving” advanced driver assistance software with untrained vehicle owners on public roads has attracted scrutiny and criticism , and that was before this latest release. Version 10.3 began rolling out on Saturday night / Sunday morning with a long list of release notes .
This startup is creating personalized deepfakes for corporations
Deepfake tech, which allows a user to create highly realistic simulations of a real person, has been widely associated with pornography and fears of political misinformation. (Rephrase.ai distances itself from the term “deepfake,” and calls its technology “facial reenactment”). But it’s steadily gaining a toehold in the corporate world. Rather than going through the arduous process of finding a film crew, booking an actor, hiring expensive equipment, and spending time on postproduction, brands are trying out platforms where they can simply type in the script to create realistic AI-generated videos.
Source: This startup is creating personalized deepfakes for corporations
Why we place too much trust in machines
While many people might claim to be skeptical of autonomous technology, we may have a deep ingrained trust of machines that traces back to our evolutionary past.
The AI oracle of Delphi uses the problems of Reddit to offer dubious moral advice
Got a moral quandary you don’t know how to solve? Fancy making it worse? Why not turn to the wisdom of artificial intelligence, aka Ask Delphi : an intriguing research project from the Allen Institute for AI that offers answers to ethical dilemmas while demonstrating in wonderfully clear terms why we shouldn’t trust software with questions of morality.
Source: The AI oracle of Delphi uses the problems of Reddit to offer dubious moral advice
Governments are finding new ways to squash free expression online
Freedom House, a think-tank, reports that in the past year efforts to control speech online escalated in 30 of the 70 countries it monitors, and receded only in 18 (see map). Many autocrats and would-be autocrats look with envy at China, where the Communist Party has overseen the construction of a walled-off information sphere, within which criticism of those in power can barely be seen or heard. None can copy it exactly, but many are deploying digital tools to curate the information that reaches their citizens.
Source: Governments are finding new ways to squash free expression online
Desperate for Workers, Restaurants Turn to Robots
They can make French fries, mix drinks and even clean toilets, and they never ask for a raise. But they also break down.
She pulled herself from addiction by learning to code. Now she’s leading a worker uprising at Apple.
Cher Scarlett grew up poor and dropped out of high school. As a teenager, she struggled with addiction, danced as a stripper and tried to overdose on pills. Her ticket to a better life was learning to code. Last year, she became perhaps the least probable member of Apple’s elite software engineering corps.
Source: She pulled herself from addiction by learning to code. Now she’s leading a worker uprising at Apple.
Pentagon Wants AI to Predict Events Before They Occur
Haven’t we seen this film before?
Source: Pentagon Wants AI to Predict Events Before They Occur
Why improvisation is the future in an AI-dominated world
Machines have long excelled at activities involving consistent reproduction of a fixed object – think identical Toyotas being mass-produced in a factory. More improvised activities are less rule-based, more fluid, chaotic or reactive, and are more process-oriented. AI has been making significant strides in this area.
Source: Why improvisation is the future in an AI-dominated world
Ghost Kitchens is the future of fast food
I visited the first Ghost Kitchens restaurant in a New York Walmart. Ghost kitchen companies have exploded over the last year and a half as delivery grew. Virtual restaurants cut down on labor and real estate costs, making them appealing to owners.
Hey Siri, what happened?
Everyone who uses Siri has their own tales of frustration — times when they’ve been surprised not by the intelligence but the stupidity of Apple’s assistant, when it fails to carry out a simple command or mishears a clear instruction. And while voice interfaces have indeed become widespread, Apple, despite being first to market, no longer leads. Its “humble personal assistant” remains humble indeed: inferior to Google Assistant on mobile and outmaneuvered by Amazon’s Alexa in the home.
Source: Hey Siri, what happened?