Tech & Society
AI Makes Headlines: Primer introduces an automated headline generator.
Which headline was written by a computer? A: FIFA to Decide on 2022 World Cup in March B: Decision in March on 48-team 2022 World Cup, Says Infantino
Tech & Society
Tech & Society
Monsters in Motion: Source of Madness is an AI-powered Lovecraftian nightmare.
How do you control a video game that generates a host of unique monsters for every match? With machine learning, naturally. The otherworldly creatures in Source of Madness learn how to target players through reinforcement learning.
Letters
A Victory for International Education
Last week, I wrote about the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) policy that would have forced international students to leave the country if their university went fully online to manage the risk of Covid-19.
Tech & Society
Tiny Images, Outsized Biases: Why MIT withdrew the Tiny Images dataset
MIT withdrew a popular computer vision dataset after researchers found that it was rife with social bias. Researchers found racist, misogynistic, and demeaning labels among the nearly 80 million pictures in Tiny Images, a collection of 32-by-32 pixel color photos.
Tech & Society
Photos From Before Photos Existed: How Artbreeder generates AI images of historical figures
An artist is using deep learning to create realistic portraits of historical figures like Napoleon Bonaparte, Vincent Van Gogh, and England’s first Queen Elizabeth.
Letters
Let International Students Study
I am appalled by the policy, announced on Monday by U.S. Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE), that international students in the country on an F-1 visa must leave if their school goes fully online to cope with Covid-19.
Tech & Society
Image Resolution in Black and White: Behind the Pulse controversy about bias in machine learning
A new model designed to sharpen images tends to turn some dark faces white, igniting fresh furor over bias in machine learning. Photo Upsampling via Latent Space Exploration (Pulse) generates high-resolution versions of low-resolution images.
Tech & Society
Bots Don’t Need Social Distancing: Covid-19 drove demand for Replika, an AI chatbot.
A chatbot is providing companionship for the locked-down and lonely. Downloads of Replika, a chatbot designed to be a virtual friend, have spiked during the coronavirus pandemic, reports the New York Times.
Letters
How “Unbiased” AI Can Lead to Biased Outcomes
We know that biased data leads to biased machine learning. But does the problem go beyond that? A few colleagues asked about this after a heated exchange on Twitter between Yann LeCun and Timnit Gebru (see “Image Resolution in Black and White” below).
Tech & Society
Baidu Leaves Partnership on AI: Chinese tech giant exits a consortium on AI bias and privacy.
Baidu backed out of a U.S.-led effort to promote ethics in AI, leaving the project without a Chinese presence. The Beijing-based search giant withdrew from the Partnership on AI, a consortium that promotes cooperation on issues like digital privacy and algorithmic bias.
Letters
Why We Need H1-B Visas
I was dismayed on Monday to read that the U.S. is suspending the H1-B visa program at least through the end of the year. This effort to discourage immigration can only bring distress to workers from other countries and harm to the U.S.
Tech & Society
Outing Hidden Hatred: How Facebook built a hate speech detector
Facebook uses automated systems to block hate speech, but hateful posts can slip through when seemingly benign words and pictures combine to create a nasty message. The social network is tackling this problem by enhancing AI’s ability to recognize context.