AI Biweekly: 10 Bits from May W4 — June W1
May 28th — Microsoft Developing Bias Detection Tool for AI
Microsoft is working on a bias-detecting tool which can alert people if an AI algorithm might be treating them unfairly based on their race or gender. As more and more decisions are being made by or based on AI, the detection of unfair biases has become an important public issue.
May 29th — Russia’s Yandex Releases “Station” Smart Speaker
Russian tech giant Yandex has produced its first smart speaker system. Yandex Station features a new skill platform called Yandex Dialogues, which can integrate with third-party voice interface applications and various platforms. The speaker sells for 9,990 rubles (US$160) and is only available in Russia.
May 31st — Waymo Plans to Buy 62,000 Minivans for Ride-Hailing Fleet
Waymo plans to purchase 62,000 Chrysler Minivans to expand its autonomous vehicle fleet. The vehicles will be equipped with radars, cameras and various other sensors. Waymo also ordered 20,000 compact cars from Jaguar in March, which are expected to ship in 2019.
May 31st — GM’s Cruise Gets $2.25 Billion Investment from Softbank
American automaker GM’s autonomous driving unit Cruise announces it has secured US$2.25 billion in funding from Japan’s Softbank Venture Fund. The company will get US$900 million when the transaction closes and the balance once the company begins commercializing autonomous driving.
June 4th — Microsoft Acquires Github for $7.5 Billion
Microsoft announces it has acquired GitHub for US$7.5 billion in Microsoft stock. GitHub is the world’s leading software development platform, with more than 28 million developers. The acquisition is expected to be finalized by the end of this year.
June 5th — AI in Social Media Market Will Hit $2.19 Billion by 2023
A new MarketsandMarkets report forecasts the AI in Social Media market will jump from US$633 million to US$2.19 billion by 2023, a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 28 percent. The report predicts NLP will be the fastest growing application area, small to medium enterprises will take the largest market share, and the Asia Pacific region will have the highest CAGR.
June 6th — NXP and Baidu Team Up to Develop IoT in China
Dutch global semiconductor manufacturer NXP and Baidu announce a strategic partnership agreement for Baidu Cloud related development. The collaboration will also leverage AI, big data, and IoT technologies research to build a leading IoT platform and ecosystem.
June 7th — TokenAI Unveils AI-Powered Crypto Investment Tool
Crypto market and portfolio analysis company TokenAI introduces Juliet, an AI-powered tool designed to advise both new and experienced crypto traders. Juliet provides users with a customizable personal investment token basket, in which each “coin” can be analyzed to produce actionable insights.
June 7th — MIT Creates an “AI Psychopath” Called Norman
Scientists at MIT announce they have trained an AI on captioning data from an “infamous Subreddit … dedicated to document and observe the disturbing reality of death,” to study issues resulting from biased training data. In psychological tests using inkblots, the AI described images of death and killing where a conventionally trained AI saw images of flowers. The team named their creation after the twisted lead character in the Alfred Hitchcock film Psycho.
June 8th — Google Releases Ethical Principles for AI Technology
Google CEO Sundar Pichai publicly announces that Google will not use AI technology for weapons, surveillance violating internationally accepted norms, or in other ways that would violate international law or human rights. The seven principles also stress that AI technology be applied in a manner that is socially beneficial, safe, and provides public accountability.
Analyst: Synced Industry Analyst Team | Editor: Michael Sarazen
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