This Week in Machine Learning, 9 December 2016

This week’s top Machine Learning stories: searching for aliens, writing music, predicting dementia, and more!

Machine Learning is one of the most exciting fields in the world. Every week we discover something new, something amazing, something revolutionary. It’s incredible, but it can also be overwhelming. That’s why we created This Week in Machine Learning! Each week we publish a curated list of Machine Learning stories as a resource to help you keep pace with all these exciting developments. New posts will be published here first, and previous posts are archived on the Udacity blog.

Whether you’re currently enrolled in our Machine Learning Nanodegree program, already working in the field, or just pursuing a burgeoning interest in the subject, there will always be something here to inspire you!

Science

University of Toronto Scarborough researchers turn recommendation algorithms developed by Google and Netflix to the sky to search for extraterrestrial life.

Arts

San Jose State University researcher Margareta Ackerman develops a machine learning system that can write melodies to fit supplied lyrics.

Industry

Uber purchases AI startup Geometric Intelligence, leveraging the company as the foundation of its new internal research lab focused on self-driving cars.

Technology

Unity hires Dr. Danny Lange, Uber’s former head of machine learning, to lead its efforts to apply AI techniques to new problems in augmented and virtual reality.

Healthcare

Using big data techniques, doctors in Sweden and Finland develop a risk index for dementia that can predict the onset of the disease ten years in the future.

Engineering

Machine learning allows researchers to predict the properties of as-yet uncreated 2D materials, helping accelerate the development of such materials.