An AI Makes Some Sense of the World by Watching Videos Alone

• Updated on: 2017-08-12
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An AI Makes Some Sense of the World by Watching Videos Alone
DeepMind has developed software that forms links between activities and sounds in video through unsupervised learning . New Scientist reports that the firm's new AI uses three neural nets: one for image recognition, another identifying sounds, and a third that ties results from the two together. But unlike many machine learning algorithms, which are provided with labelled data sets to help them associate words with what they see or hear, this system was given a pile of raw data and left to fend for itself.
It was left alone with 60 million video stills, each of which came paired with a one-second audio clip taken from the same point in a video from where the frame was captured. Without human assisiatance, the system then slowly learned how sounds and image features were related—ultimately finding itself able to link, say, crowds with a cheer and typing hands with familiar clickety-clack. It can’t yet put a word to any of its observations, but it is another step towards AIs being able to make sense of the world without constantly being told about what they see. 
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5 minutes ago
Amazon Is Reportedly Testing Military Tech For TV Dinners That Don’t Need Refrigerating
Want to stockpile vaguely fresh food but don't have space in the freezer? Well,  Reuters reports that Amazon is currently assessing whether it can make use of a food preservation technique first developed for the U.S. military in order to sell you home-delivered… Read more
Want to stockpile vaguely fresh food but don't have space in the freezer? Well,  Reuters reports that Amazon is currently assessing whether it can make use of a food preservation technique first developed for the U.S. military in order to sell you home-delivered food that doesn’t need to be kept cold. The appetizingly named “microwave assisted thermal sterilization” process (or MATS, to aficionados) plunges sealed packets of food into a water bath, zaps them with microwaves for a few minutes and—voila!—the food can be left on a shelf for up to a year. It’s claimed that the burst of heat lasts just a couple of minutes (whereas standard processing  can last up to an hour), leaving food with a taste and texture more akin to fresh food.
The technology was first developed over a decade ago out of Washington State University, and it's now being commercialized by a startup called 915 Labs. In fact, on its website  you can take a look at some of the meals it's managed to preserve using the approach. The results certainly look far more appealing than conventional military rations. But are they the kinds of things that you want to shovel into your face while you sit on the couch on a Friday night? Guess that’s what Amazon is trying to work out.
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Yesterday
Most Americans Think Editing the Human Genome Is Okay
In a survey published today in Science, two-thirds of people polled believe that using gene-editing technology to modify human cells was "acceptable." The survey  ( PDF , sub required), which was carried out by researchers at the University of Wisonsin… Read more
In a survey published today in Science, two-thirds of people polled believe that using gene-editing technology to modify human cells was "acceptable." The survey  ( PDF , sub required), which was carried out by researchers at the University of Wisonsin in Madison and Temple University, presented 1,600 people with various hypothetical use cases for genome editing technology. For example, it asked how people felt about modifying DNA in human germ-line cells, which can be passed down to future generations, versus genes in somatic cells, which aren't.
In general, most respondents frowned on germ-line editing, with just 26 percent of people in support of it, versus 39 percent endorsing editing of somatic cells. That fits with the results of previous surveys, which have shown that people don't generally like the idea of creating "designer babies" or genetically enhanced humans that pass down their artificial advantages to their offspring.
Opinions were much more favorable toward people editing their own bodies—59 percent of survey participants said that would be fine, whether it meant altering DNA to cure a disease, or even for some kind of enhancement.
For now, such a scenario remains largely academic, but it won't be for long. As we reported last week, U.S. researchers are already testing gene-editing techniques on human embryos as a way to fix serious disease. And in extreme cases, some cancer patients have their immune cells genetically modified  to fight tumors. As such technologies continue to develop, it will be important to keep an eye on how the public receives them. 
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14 hours ago
Lyft and Uber are Already Changing Traditional Car Ownership
Ride-hailing and sharing services are often billed as potential replacements for owning a car—and as it turns out, there may be something to that.
That's the upshot of an analysis that looked at what happened when the city of Austin, Texas temporarily… Read more
Ride-hailing and sharing services are often billed as potential replacements for owning a car—and as it turns out, there may be something to that.
That's the upshot of an analysis that looked at what happened when the city of Austin, Texas temporarily stopped Uber and Lyft from operating within its limits from mid 2016 until earlier this year.
The effect was pretty stark. Of the 1,840 former Lyft and Uber customers in Austin who were surveyed for the work, some 41 percent said they went back to using their own vehicles to get around town. And when they did, they reported driving more often than when they had been using the ride-hailing services.
Amazingly, about nine percent of survey respondents actually went out and bought their own car.
A large chunk of the rest switched to smaller companies, including the dozen or so app-based services that sprung up at the time. Just three percent of people surveyed said they started using public transportation.
The authors of the study (you can check out the  paper here ) are careful to point out that their findings don't necessarily mean that people who are denied access to ride-hailing services will start using their cars more, or go out and buy new ones. That's just what happened to a small slice of users in Austin. But it's an interesting indication that Uber, Lyft, and others do have a meaningful impact on people's behavior when it comes to getting from point A to point B. 
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E-Sports Are Being Considered for the 2024 Olympics
Hold on to your joysticks: e-sports might soon be an Olympic sport. In an interview with the Associated Press , Tony Estanguet, co-president of the Paris Olympic bid committee, said that he will consider the idea of including video gaming in the 2024… Read more
Hold on to your joysticks: e-sports might soon be an Olympic sport. In an interview with the Associated Press , Tony Estanguet, co-president of the Paris Olympic bid committee, said that he will consider the idea of including video gaming in the 2024 Olympic games. "The youth, yes they are interested in e-sport and this kind of thing,” he said. “Let's look at it. Let's meet them. I think it's interesting to interact with ... the e-sports family, to better understand ... why it is such a success." Paris will next month be named the official Olympic hosts for 2024 (its only rival, Los Angeles, agreed to hold the games in 2028).
E-sports have surged in popularity in recent years, and its leagues are beginning to look more and more like  something organized by the likes of the NFL. E-sports tournaments are supported by big media deals, merchandising, and sponsorships. Huge cash prizes are on offer for winners. Professional football and soccer teams have even signed up top e-sports players. And Estanguet is correct: the youth do appear to love e-sports, as millions of them regularly tune in to watch professionals play at the gaming tournaments . Sounds like a medal contender to us.
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a day ago
Octocopter Drones, Now with Added Guns
Say hello to TIKAD, or, as its maker Duke Robotics likes to call it, the Future Soldier. For TIKAD is no regular octocopter drone: it can carry weapons, like semi-automatic guns and 40mm grenades. From a technical perspective, it’s rather impressive.… Read more
Say hello to TIKAD, or, as its maker Duke Robotics likes to call it, the Future Soldier. For TIKAD is no regular octocopter drone: it can carry weapons, like semi-automatic guns and 40mm grenades. From a technical perspective, it’s rather impressive. Duke says that it has “developed stabilization technology that enables TIKAD to absorb the recoil” of the powerful weapons. That’s no mean feat on a relatively lightweight aircraft that appears to share more in common with consumer quadcopters than the large, winged drones that the U.S. military has used to devastating effect in recent years .
Still, make no mistake, this isn’t just an exploration in engineering—it's a machine that’s designed to kill. “TIKAD allows governments to utilize completely new capabilities against terrorist groups,” explains Duke. And it will likely find itself deployed against the sorts of extremists, like ISIS, that are already using quadcopters and octocopters in the battlefields themselves . As for concerns about how these kinds of weaponized unmanned vehicles could go rogue ? TIKAD is remote-controlled, not autonomous—so for now, at least, the shots are called by the operator.
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a day ago
Are Semi-Autonomous Cars Making Us Worse Drivers?
Cars that drive for us some of the time could be lulling us into dangerous distraction, according to several auto industry experts. Researchers at the Transportation Research Institute at the University of Michigan have told MIT Technology Review in… Read more
Cars that drive for us some of the time could be lulling us into dangerous distraction, according to several auto industry experts. Researchers at the Transportation Research Institute at the University of Michigan have told MIT Technology Review in the past that semi-autonomous features, like adaptive cruise control or  Tesla’s Autopilot , could increase the incidence of distracted driving. In fact, it's something researchers have been warning about for years .
Now, a Bloomberg report features a bunch of auto experts from across the industry all worrying about the fact that such systems are already having an impact on drivers' abilities. Semi-autonomous systems are making the task of driving easier, they say, which breeds complacency and erodes attention.
The most striking example yet of that phenomenon was a fatal Tesla crash that occurred last year . A driver was using the car’s Autopilot system and failed to take control of the vehicle despite numerous warnings, touching the steering wheel for just 25 seconds during 37 minutes of driving . The car hit a truck that its sensors failed to spot.
In the wake of that incident, companies have tightened up systems to make drivers concentrate a little more. Tesla's cars now  offer up stronger warnings when hands are removed from the wheel. GM, meanwhile, is tracking a driver's eyes to make sure they’re on the road, and Audi’s new A8 sedan beeps, buzzes, and even brings the car to a halt if the driver is persistently distracted.
But such measures aren’t enough for some people in the auto industry. "The idea that you can take your hands off the wheel for 15 seconds and the driver is still in control, that’s not realistic," said Adrian Lund, president of the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, to Bloomberg. "If they’re taking their hands off for 15 seconds, then they’re doing some other things."
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August 9, 2017
Tesla Is Looking to Test Self-Driving, Electric Trucks With No Driver On Board
Tesla has its eyes on autonomous trucking. According to a report by Reuters , the electric vehicle maker has been in discussions with the California and Nevada departments of motor vehicles about getting permission to test a pair of self-driving, electric… Read more
Tesla has its eyes on autonomous trucking. According to a report by Reuters , the electric vehicle maker has been in discussions with the California and Nevada departments of motor vehicles about getting permission to test a pair of self-driving, electric trucks "in a platooning and/or Autonomous mode without having a person in the vehicle."
Elon Musk, Tesla's CEO, has been candid about his company's plans to build an electric truck for hauling freight. Earlier this year he tweeted that the truck would be unveiled in September, but left out any mention of autonomy, let alone a comprehensive autonomous system that would be safe to deploy without safety drivers on board. 
Even as Tesla and others have developed self-driving technology for cars, many companies—most prominently, the Uber-owned Otto—believe that trucks, rather than passenger cars, are where autonomy is likely to have the biggest impact in the near term. Trucking routes often come with long stretches of predictable highway driving, with fewer edge cases than, say driving around city streets  (which is, in part, why self-driving trucks made our list of the 10 Breakthrough Technologies of 2017 ).
That doesn't mean Tesla necessarily has an easy road ahead of it, of course. Apart from still needing to prove its autonomous system is up to the task of making trucking a truly driverless endeavor, the company will also have to show that a battery-powered truck can compete with diesel engines in terms of range and hauling ability.
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2 days ago
The FCC Is Hinting it Might Change its Rules to Hide America’s Digital Divide
FCC chairman Ajit Pai has a theory. He believes that accessing the Internet through a smartphone is just as good as having high-speed Internet access in your house. In fact, he appears to believe this so strongly that he is looking into changing his… Read more
FCC chairman Ajit Pai has a theory. He believes that accessing the Internet through a smartphone is just as good as having high-speed Internet access in your house. In fact, he appears to believe this so strongly that he is looking into changing his agency's guidelines so that any place in the U.S. that has sufficient mobile coverage will be considered "connected," even if people living there have no option to receive broadband access in their homes.
That theory forms the essence of a new Notice of Inquiry that the FCC has just put out. As Ars Technica notes in a detailed rundown of the issue, the notice is a first step toward a potential policy change with respect to how the agency measures broadband deployment in the U.S. 
If Pai's idea somehow becomes the new official credo for the FCC, it would be a disaster for efforts to improve access to connectivity in America—a country that has, as we have noted several times in just the last year, a persistent , embarrassing digital divide .
Mobile broadband access isn't the same as connectivity at home. The screens are smaller, data caps on mobile bandwidth are much tighter (and overages far more expensive), and speeds are slower—something the agency seems to acknowledge in the notice, when it suggests that "mobile broadband" be defined at 10Mbps of download speed and 1Mbps upstream. For the record, that's less than half the 25Mbps/3Mbps threshold necessary for a home connection to qualify as "broadband."
In case there's any doubt about the impact such a policy would have, one need only to turn to our long read from late last year on how the digital divide is impacting millions of Americans . Hemmed in by a lack of affordable broadband at home, kids growing up in low-income parts of Cleveland, Ohio, for example, simply can't do as much homework or get as much extra help as those in more well-off neighborhoods. For adults the problem can be just as acute, preventing them from, say, hunting for jobs (and removing the possibility of picking up remote work).
If the proposed policy goes through, such problems figure to only get worse.
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2 days ago
Softbank Is Investing $1.1 Billion to Help a Biotech Firm’s Tech Drive
The enormous technology conglomerate Softbank is continuing its spending spree, this time investing $1.1 billion into biotech firm Roivant Sciences. The drugmaker is currently developing seven neurological therapies and several treatments for rare diseases,… Read more
The enormous technology conglomerate Softbank is continuing its spending spree, this time investing $1.1 billion into biotech firm Roivant Sciences. The drugmaker is currently developing seven neurological therapies and several treatments for rare diseases, among others. It’s the first time that Softbank has dipped into its $93 billion Vision Fund , which includes cash from Saudi Arabia, to support a drugmaker. Roivant’s CEO, Vivek Ramaswamy, tells Endpoints that the funding injection won’t all be used for regular biotech ideas: instead, some of it will be funnelled into what he calls “new technologies that can improve a biotech’s efficiency.”