Tech & Society
AI Goes Rogue
Could humanity be destroyed by its own creation? If binary code running on a computer awakens into sentience, it will be able to think better than humans. It may even be able to improve its own software and hardware.
Latest
Letters
Why AI Projects Fail, Part 2: Uncommon Pitfalls
Welcome to the Halloween edition of The Batch! I promised last week to share some common reasons for AI project failures. But first, let’s start with some of the least common reasons.
The Batch Newsletter
The Batch: Daemon Spawn, AGI Takeover, Deepfake Deluge, Bias Crisis - How Scared Should You Be?
Welcome to the Halloween edition of The Batch! I promised last week to share some common reasons for AI project failures. But first, let’s start with some of the least common reasons.
Machine Learning Research
How Neural Networks Generalize
Humans understand the world by abstraction: If you grasp the concept of grabbing a stick, then you’ll also comprehend grabbing a ball. New work explores deep learning agents’ ability to do the same thing — an important aspect of their ability to generalize.
Science
New Materials Courtesy of Bayes
Would you like an umbrella that fits in your pocket? Researchers used machine learning to invent sturdy but collapsible materials that might lead to such a fantastical object.
Tech & Society
Robot Tanks on the March
A new generation of battlebots is gaining momentum.What’s new: The Army is at least two years ahead of schedule in its plan to deploy self-driving (and self-aiming) transports, jeeps, and tanks.
Machine Learning Research
Cracking Open Doctors’ Notes
Weak supervision is the practice of assigning likely labels to unlabeled data using a variety of simple labeling functions. Then supervised methods can be used on top of the now-labeled data.
Tech & Society
Public Access, Private Faces
One of the largest open datasets for training face recognition systems has its roots in a popular photo-sharing service. Companies that have used this data could find themselves liable for millions in legal recompense.
Tech & Society
Cube Controversy
OpenAI trained a five-fingered robotic hand to unscramble the Rubik’s Cube puzzle, bringing both acclaim and criticism. The AI research lab OpenAI trained a mechanical hand to balance, twist, and turn the cube.
Letters
Why AI Projects Fail
I’ve heard this conversation in multiple companies: Machine learning engineer: Look how well I did on the test set! Business owner: But your ML system doesn’t work. This sucks! Machine learning engineer: But look how well I did on the test set!
The Batch Newsletter
The Batch: Robot Hand Works Rubik’s Cube, Self-Driving Tanks Roll Toward Battle, Face Rec Dataset Sparks Lawsuit, Bayes Finds
I’ve heard this conversation in multiple companies: Machine learning engineer: Look how well I did on the test set! Business owner: But your ML system doesn’t work. This sucks! Machine learning engineer: But look how well I did on the test set!
Tech & Society
Autonomous Drones Ready to Race
Pilots in drone races fly souped-up quadcopters around an obstacle course at 120 miles per hour. But soon they may be out of a job, as race organizers try to spice things up with drones controlled by AI.